 At three points tonight, the first point is about loving people in general. Just loving people in general. And if you would, look down at 1 Thessalonians chapter 3 verse 11. Now God Himself and our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ direct our way unto you and the Lord make you to increase in a bound in love one toward another. And this is the part we want to focus on. And toward all men, even as we do toward you. Of course there's a lot in the Bible about loving each other, loving the brotherhood, loving our brothers and sisters in Christ. But the Bible also just wants us to love people in general. And so the Bible just says that we should increase in a bound in love one toward another. And toward all men, just people out there, just random people. Our default mode should be to just love people. And we should be loving people. What does that mean? It means that we have positive feelings towards people. It means that we do good unto other people. It means that we bless people and we wish them well and we mean it and we really want to help people and see what's best for them. Now for a moment, we're going to Matthew chapter 24. Matthew chapter 24. So in 1 Thessalonians 3 we see that God wants us to love people in general. Yes, love the Christians and the church people. Everybody says also that our love is just a bound toward all men in general. Just that we would love mankind in general. We just love people. When we're out and about, when we're going through our lives, whether you're at work or at school or wherever you are, love people. Look at Matthew 24 verse 10. The Bible reads, And then shall many be offended and shall betray one another and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise and shall deceive many and watch this because iniquity shall abound the love of many shall wax cold. Now we see that iniquity abounding is an enemy of love, right? It causes love to grow cold when iniquity bounce and I can think of two different reasons why that would be. Reason number one is that if I have a lot of sin and iniquity in my life, I'm not going to be very loving toward other people because I'm obviously focused on myself, right? Because sin is when we're being selfish, we're doing things for ourselves, we're not thinking about other people. Love would fulfill God's law and take care of other people. And so number one, obviously if sin abounds, well then the people who are doing the sins aren't very loving because it's not loving to commit sin. But then not only that, I think part of the reason why the love of many wax cold is because there's so much sin in our world, sometimes it can be easy for us as Christians to not love the people of this world because we just think, oh, they're too sinful. And we can start getting this prideful, arrogant attitude where we're better than everyone else and where we just don't love people or we just constantly despise and look down on other people. Now if you would go to Titus chapter 3 where we started, Titus chapter 3, and you gotta think of the story of the publican and the Pharisee and they go to the temple to pray and you remember the Pharisee was someone who despised other people and so he's praying with himself. He's not even praying to God, but he's just going through the motions of praying and he prays us with himself and he says, Lord, I thank thee that I'm not as other men. And the Bible says that he despised that publican. He says, oh thank you, God, that I'm not like this publican. I fast twice in the week. I get tides of all the time. So he's looking down on this guy who's a publican who actually was a sincere man who actually in his heart at that very moment, the Pharisee had no way of knowing this, but in his heart what was he saying? God be merciful to me as sinner. And he was humble and he was seeking the Lord and he actually got saved, the Bible says. He went home to his house justified. He prayed to the Lord for salvation. He called upon the Lord for salvation and he got saved and that Pharisee's in hell right now. Even though he's looking down on this guy who is a poor publican. Now, here's the thing. We don't want to be like that Pharisee where we despise sinful people. Obviously a publican is a sinful guy but we don't want to just go around despising sinful people. We need to understand that God wants us to love people. Now if you would look at Titus chapter 3 we'll start in verse number one. It says, put their mind to be subject to principalities and powers to obey magistrates to be ready to every good work. To speak evil of no man to be no brawlers but gentle showing all meekness of no man. And here's the part I want to focus on in verse 3. For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceit, serving divers less than pleasures living in malice and envy hateful and hateful one another. But after that, the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to His mercy, He saved us and we'll come back to that in a moment but the point here is when you look down on the people of this world and think that they're trashy or wicked or sinful or all these different things you should realize either A, you were that way in the past we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, or if you were fortunate enough to have grown up in a Christian home you should realize that that would have been you if you hadn't grown up in a Christian home you probably would be going down that same path right there see you don't want to just despise and have disgust for other people because of the fact that those people are walking the road that maybe you either walked in the past or you could have walked in the past if God had not blessed you with a Christian home you know the apostle Paul looked inside and said I know that within me that is within my flesh well no good thing so he looked inside of his heart and he saw a lot of baptism and so I think all of us could look inside of our art and see that dark side and see that rotten side within us that sinful flesh that we have and realize that if we had not been taught the word of God we would be out living in ungodly life too I know I would be if I had been blessed with Christian parents that brought me up in the nurtured ammunition of the Lord and gone to just week after week after week of preaching and more preaching and Christian summer camps and Bible studies and sermons and reading the Bible hearing the Bible singing it I mean I grew up with so much good preaching and Bible reading and singing and Christian parents Christian home, Christian family Christian relatives all these Christian influences hey it's not because I'm just inherently a good God no and neither are you we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God there is none that do it good no not one and without Christ all of our mouths would be an open sepulcher and we would all be living a rotten life that's right it's just that simple and so before he despised other people realized that we ourselves also were sometimes foolish stupid disobedient deceived serving divers lusts and pleasures living in malice and envy hateful and hating one another but after the kindness and love of God our Savior and looking for a sport it says the love of God our Savior don't miss this toward man so notice God's love is toward man notice just that singular word man that's talking about mankind that's talking about humanity in general God has love toward man not just a certain elect and everybody else is just doomed no matter what you know he only died for certain people like the confidence of a teacher that he didn't die for everybody no God's love is toward man God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believed in him should not perish but have everlasting life yes only those who believe are the chosen people of God they are the elect but he loved everybody he extended that offer to everybody he died for all he died for everybody he's the Savior of all men especially those that believe and so if God has a love in general toward man a love toward man a love toward humanity if God so loved the world let me ask this do you think that we should also love man should we also have benevolence and goodwill toward man if God had goodwill toward man shouldn't we also have goodwill toward men and again because iniquity abounds the love of many whacks cold that can mean two things it can mean either we're abounding in iniquity so we don't love like we should because we're so focused on self or how about this when our world abounds in iniquity we start just getting cynical and we start getting disillusioned and we start getting jaded and just thinking everybody's so rotten everybody's so bad and every you know hey yeah I know but guess what we're supposed to love them anyway we're supposed to love people because guess what we have those same rotten proclivities even in our own heart go to Hebrews chapter 5 if you would Hebrews chapter 5 should be close by there in your Bible so if you pay just the right Hebrews chapter number 5 love people love people I mean that's the default mode I mean you know when you just run into somebody when you just meet someone I'm just talking about anywhere in the store just in business whatever you go through in your life what's your default mode are you just automatically just bitter closed off malevolent or do you actually care about people I just have a general goodwill and love in your heart for people because you know that's the attitude we should go through life like you know I go through life trying to like people and people have to talk me out of that but I start out now there are people that I don't like and I mean there are some super evil people in this world that I hate but they have to talk me out of that because my default mode is to love people you know I'm going to start out loving people and I'm going to give people the benefit of the doubt and you know sometimes I've been accused of giving people the benefit of the doubt too much but I'm going to keep doing that because of the fact that even if I'm you know 99% that's not 100% about somebody being a wrong person I try to see the good in people I try to like people love people that should be our attitude as we go through this life not just being negative and just acting like everybody's an idiot everybody's so bad just you know there's too much of that and the Bible predicted in the last days and we like that that you know people be hateful and hating one another and because iniquity would have bound the love of many would wax cold and that's pretty much where we're at today where people have a really bad attitude I mean think about all these dudes out there in the mannisphere and they're just so hateful for women they're just they can call it whatever you want they can lie and say oh we don't hate women you know what your actions speak louder than your words and we can pick up when you're putting down we can read between the lines these guys hate women and it comes through loud and clear and it's wicked and then you've got women out there that hate men and it's wicked don't be a person who just hates humanity okay love people love people in general look at Hebrews chapter 5 verse 1 for every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men and things pertain to God that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins and then look at this next phrase who can have compassion on the ignorance so God's plan in the Old Testament with the high priest because we're not talking about Jesus now we're talking about the Old Testament high priest was that he would have compassion on the ignorant right and now he's got oh you idiot you're pathetic right no have compassion on the ignorant bear with people condescend to men of low estate people that aren't smart don't be like oh you're dumb what an idiot you know why not be nice to those people and help them understand or just realize that everybody's not an intellectual and that's okay because God made all kinds of people and everybody's not cut out to be an intellectual everybody's different God has chosen the foolish things that this world can found wise by the way and a lot of intellectuals and toughed up minds that are not being greatly used by God at all and then you've got all kinds of simple folks out doing the Lord's work right and who's going to be more greatly exalted in heaven it's pretty obvious the high priest was to have compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way you know those that go astray those that get away from the Lord why for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity you know he gets it because he's human too that's the idea behind the high priest and by reason here of God as for the people so also for himself to offer for sense of you know the high priest he had to also make atonement for his own sense he's helping atonement for other people's sense of the whole testament sacrificial system but then he also had to deal with his own sense because he's human too now of course in the New Testament our high priest is Jesus he has no sense but yet he is able to be moved with the feeling of our infirmities because he was tempted at all points like as we are yet without sin Jesus Christ is of course superior to the Old Testament high priest but the Old Testament high priest was a human being and he was supposed to have compassion on the ignorant guess what so were we supposed to have compassion on the ignorant because we ourselves also are compassed with iniquity and sure we want to help other people get the sin out of their life but we also have to get the sin out of our own life because all of us are human and none of us is perfect so number one love toward people in general number two specifically we need to have love for the lost when we're around soul-winning love for the lost that soul-winning turn if you would to Mark chapter 10 while you're turning to Mark chapter 10 I'm going to read for you a famous passage from Jude hopefully you have a King James Bible because this verse is butchered beyond recognition in the modern versions the modern versions aren't going to say anything even close to this okay but of course the King James Bible is the word God that error and so we know which one is right Jude verse 22 says and of some have compassion making a difference and others save with fear pulling them out of the fire hating even the garment spotted by the flesh notice that there is compassion for the lost in the same breath with hating even the garment spotted by the flesh you see real love isn't just an absence of any hate for anyone or anything in our lives okay every single person on this planet has love of some kind and has hate of some kind these are just part of the human experience these are just natural normal emotions and of course the Lord himself is recorded as loving and hating right this is just what it means for us humans we have love and we have hate we need to love the right things and hate the right things and the Bible says here that we should have compassion on people and pull them out of the fire hating even the garment spotted by the flesh in order to love the flowers you have to hate the wheat okay obviously there's a reason why I hate predators child molester human traffickers right and people say like oh you know preach our love pastors you're such a hateful guy well of course I hate predators who hurt innocent people because I love people alright you know I love people and so evil people who hate God and hate everyone else and want to harm and defile then obviously those people are anathomized but look at Mark chapter 10 because we saw that we're to have compassion when we're out witnessing and so wanting to lost look at Mark chapter 10 and then we'll just kind of jump into the story for sake of time but this man comes to Christ and he wants to be saved this guy's all mixed up and this guy thinks that he's super righteous because Christ just finished listing a bunch of commandments to him and telling him to keep the law and he comes back with this answer in verse 20 all these have I observed from my youth so this guy thinks that he has kept all God's commandments and that he's followed the law and that he is apparently without sin and of course that's not true because nobody has followed God's law to a T and if you kept the whole law and you had offended one point you're guilty of all the Bible sins and so Jesus went to this arrogant false stupid wicked statement just from some ignorant lost guy who just doesn't really know what he's talking about he says Jesus beholding and loved him right? I mean look even the foolish the disobedient the seen the ignorant the one who you knocked back the door and asked them how do you know you're going to heaven oh because I'm a good person I mean I was just soul-winning on Wednesday and the first thing this guy said and asked them how do you know who's going to heaven oh we're we're great people and it's like what do you talk to me you know you're almost embarrassed for them because it's so embarrassing it's like that's so embarrassing to just say that about yourself because it's so braggadocious or boastful it's just it's kind of like wow really did you just say that that's a pretty ridiculous answer but you know what we go out there and we get answers like that every time you know I'm a really good person I rescue animals you know whatever and they give you these answers but do you react like Christ reacted do you love them anyway I mean look when I'm not soul-winning I want those people to get saved because I love those people and specifically each door that I'm at right I get to that door and I'm at that door with that person and I love that person that's part of soul-winning that is part of if you're not feeling that way you're not doing it right okay and I'm not just saying in general yeah I am love the laws like it no no no I'm talking about you're face to face with a real person flesh and blood person and you love that person that's going to make you a better soul winner right there and you say well how do I do that well you can't fake it it's got to be real love people Jesus looked at him and he loved him not because he was so smart or so spiritual or so righteous or you know I mean hopefully this guy eventually got saved but he definitely didn't get saved on this day he goes away sorrowing and he doesn't give it he still thinks that salvation is by works he's confused and whatever but the point is that we need to love the lost we need to love people and not to just have disgust for people or just look down on people or we should actually care about and love people you know that's what that's what I question about people who have this kind of slam bam one two three repeat after me someone where they're not really doing a good job of being thorough you know are you really caring about that person right there or are you just trying to just you know get to that food place or are you just trying to just wrap it up or just trying to just mark off another salvation get to the next one get to the next one because you're in some kind of a context or something right you have each person as a real person and you should love and have compassion or you care about that person as you're talking to them be holding them love them that's a big part of souling care about people now look I've seen people be too thorough out of souling where they're just beating a dead horse and it's like look when somebody gets it move on if somebody gets point one boom let's go to point two let's go to point two I'm not saying to just run it into the ground beat a dead horse but you know what we need to just be as thorough as necessary and that's going to be different for everybody I've won a lot of people lured in ten minutes and people say how can you do that ten minutes well I don't watch my Bible in heaven video it's like seven and a half minutes long and then tell me what I left out and so if people are receptive I can go through that with somebody in like ten minutes the basic souling demonstration video that we uploaded like 15 years ago to YouTube is nine minutes and 59 seconds long because that was YouTube's limit back then they only allowed ten minutes you know so we're like you got to do this in ten minutes tell me what I left out and you leave anything out and I've had a lot of conversations that went just like that conversation so it can be done in ten minutes but you know sometimes it's going to be 15 sometimes it's going to be 20 sometimes it could be 30 right because everybody's different and people are going to have different issues people are going to get it at different speeds and so forth so I'm not saying to beat a dead horse but I'm saying witness to that person like you actually care about that person because you do actually care about that person love them beholding him he loved him if you would flip over to Matthew chapter nine Matthew chapter nine boy you're turning to Matthew nine in Mark chapter one a leper comes to Jesus and said unto him if thou wilt thou canst make it clean and Jesus moved with compassion so this leper comes falls at Jesus' feet and says Lord if you want to you can make me clean I don't want to be a leper you have power to heal me right now please do this right what does Jesus react to this well if you're reading the NIV Jesus got angry which makes absolutely no sense and he got he was moved with indignation and said I will be that clean it doesn't make sense if you're reading the King James he's moved with compassion he put forth his hand and touched him and said I do want to because that's what I will means I want to if you want to you can make me clean I do want to be that clean or gradient IV is clean love people Jesus had compassion he cared about this guy he's not a leper he cared about this guy he's not going through the motions he had a human real feeling of love and compassion for this leper look at Matthew chapter 9 verse 36 very famous verses when he saw the multitudes he was moved with compassion on them because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd then said he unto his disciples the harvest truly is plentious but the laborers are few before the Lord of the harvest then he will send forth laborers into his harvest Christ wanted laborers out there in the harvest winning souls getting people saved because when he saw the people he was moved with compassion he was moved he felt something right in his heart and in his vowels he had love and compassion for the lost and he wanted more people out there knocking doors preaching the gospel every creature and we should feel the same way and we should want to fulfill that wish of Christ himself then more laborers will be sent into the harvest flip over to John chapter 13 while you're turning there 2nd Corinthians 4 verse 3 says this but if our gospel be hid it's hid but then they're lost what's he saying? he's saying these are the stakes if we don't reach the gospel if we hide it under a bushel it's hid to them that are lost they're the ones who lose the ones who get hurt if our gospel be hid what about these lost people? what's going to happen to them? it's hid to them that are lost in the God of this world that blinded the minds of them which believed not lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ who is the image of God should shine under them so the Bible is saying that we should care about the fact that we don't preach the gospel on saved people aren't going to hear a message they're doomed we got to help them we got to save these people we got to have a baptism and pull them out of the fire we should love the lost so number one we need to just be a loving person when we meet someone they should automatically start out like you and talk us out but go into it with love for humanity in general loving people and not just loving people that are just like you and I'm saying loving people whether they're red, yellow, black and white loving people whether they're rich or smart or dumb you know we should just oh this person's not that smart spies them no you know not everybody is super smart not everybody's super athletic right somebody's a total spaz love them anyway somebody's not athletic love them not just like oh this guy doesn't even lift you know what what a joking guy alright people look but there's people out there that maybe are awkward not smart maybe they're not athletic maybe they're just a total idiot or whatever but here's the thing you know we should love people that are doing that someone that we normally in our flesh would tend to look down upon that's a wicked attitude because you know what the Bible says we should just seem others better than ourselves now look I've heard people say this well you know you know if I think I'm better or I'm just true you know I've had people say that and here's the thing you know number one that's not even necessarily true but number two even if that were true the Bible commands you to esteem others better than yourself even if you are better than someone to think that you're better you should never think that way you're supposed to think of other people as better than you whether that's reality or not esteem others better than yourself that's what the Bible says so don't go around thinking well you know I'm just going to objectively rate everyone and if I'm better I'm better is that what the Bible says to do measure yourself against other people and see who's better and then look down on the people below you no the Bible says just go ahead and esteem others better than yourself you should just have an attitude that's humble and putting other people in a higher place have esteem than you put yourself not bragging about yourself you know we laughed at that guy who says oh we're great people here that's where we're going to heaven you know we're I'm a great person you know and you say wow are you listening to yourself right now but then it's easy for all of us as Christians to someone to get an attitude that were better than other people in some area or other and we shouldn't have this attitude that thinks that we're better than other people you know I am better so it's okay you know this idiot I saw somebody he posted something on Facebook the other day about Andrew Tate's inflated ego or something and somebody said well you know whether you like Andrew Tate or not his ego is not inflated because you know he he is an MMA champion and he is you know a multi-million he has all these achievements or whatever now let me say a few things about this you know first of all number one is that you know no one is allowed to have a big ego no matter what their achievements are right it doesn't matter what I don't care if you you know climb Mount Everest on your hands and you're a self-made man and you're a multi-millionaire and you've won the Olympics and you've done all these things so what be humble be mean nobody gets and number two Andrew Tate is a human piece of crap okay that should be taken out like a dog and shot okay there's that and you know what's funny about that is that you know this guy is so prideful and arrogant and wicked he's a god-hating reprobate he's a literal who destroys people's lives for a living he's a millionaire because he destroyed people's lives become a millionaire because he is a literal pimp because he is a pornographer because he's a human trafficker and you know what I hate human traffickers because I love people because I love people I love people I don't want to see a bunch of teenagers abused and hooked on drugs and raped and pimped out and prostituted it's so super evil yet we got Christians today defending Andrew Tate right and you know what any Christian who defends Andrew Tate needs to give rise to God okay need to give rise to God because you're wicked if you defend Andrew Tate matter I don't care why you're defending him I don't care what context you're defending him if you defend him in any way, shape, or form you're wicked and if you listen to him you're wicked okay you are wicked are we? any Andrew Tate fans out here? alright you guys just making sure but I'm telling you you got bible college students today with Andrew Tate is their home screen Andrew Tate on the screensaver right like he's some kind of a human he doesn't love people he's arrogant he's prideful he cares about himself and you know what he's so much better because he's athletic or he's rich or whatever but you know what in God's eyes he's literal trash and he's heading for a trash can that's right and I want to do that great trash can and I know this hell and here's the thing no one no matter what their achievement has the right to have that attitude that he has hateful toward women abusing women abducting women destroying women's lives proving this is proven shut your stupid Andrew Tate loving mouth okay because his own mouth this can damn do and I hope and I know he's been arrested and that he's going to be you know facing trial I hope he faces the fate of Ceausescu you know that when it comes to Romania I hope that they give him the Ceausescu treatment okay because that guy should be taken out of shock he's evil he's wicked he's perverted and so well you know nobody has the right to brag nobody has the right to brag nobody should be bragging and when you see somebody being really prideful like him or like Donald Trump he's super prideful that's a sign of a super wicked person when you have people just brag about themselves and praising themselves and so this attitude can infect Christians today this attitude of we're better than ever and you know what I've also seen of late infecting besides this Andrew Tate garbage and this Manasphere garbage Migtal garbage Woman-hating garbage you know another thing that I've seen infecting too is basically this white supremacist attitude that I've seen creeping into Christian circles because of course you've got the woke crowd and the critical race theory crowd you know going the other direction so now you have a lot of Christians swing in the other way and start you know becoming all proud of being white or something and you know what you ask me am I proud to be white no I'm not because God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ Amen Amen it shouldn't be proud that you're black proud that you're white proud to be a Latino proud Asian no I'm a proud Christian because God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ the only thing that I want to be proud of or glory in or glorify is Christ Amen it's no glory being white or any other race you know don't buy into this stupidity and just because the world goes all crazy with the critical race theory you know don't go the other way and start being racist and acting like you know there's something to that because there isn't and you know and you say well you know if you look at these test scores you know somebody posted something the other day you know showing the IQ of people in Japan and China they're showing like Asians have a really high IQ or something and then other you know they're showing like these Asians are really smart and then this other race over here isn't this smart blah blah blah and they're like ranking all these people but you know the Asians are in love with this part but here's the thing about that though here's the thing about that you know God made us all different right so let's say there's certain people even if we just Asian even within a race even within an ethnicity even within a nation you know what they're gonna be people that are smarter than other people they're gonna be people that are more athletic than other people you know we've all got our God given gifts and talents right I mean some people are gonna be more musical than other people right some people are gonna be better communicators than other people some people are better artists than other people and obviously a lot of that stuff is gonna be just inborn right with their strengths and weaknesses but sit there and say oh look you know I'm part of this race or I'm part of this group of people or whatever or I'm in the men's club because I have this you know big giant IQ or whatever it's like well lie down who cares nothing compared to God and you know I'm glad God's not looking down at my IQ and just thinking that I'm a total idiot and treating me like I'm an idiot you know I wonder what I think they happen if God's gonna act like I'm stupid oh you're such a stupid human you're pathetic I know everything you think that that's how God is gonna treat us you think that that's how Christ walked around on this earth just like I'm the son of God everybody else is stupid I'm sure Christ is way smarter than everybody else but just sit there and say well you know the facts are that you know I'm more athletic I'm smarter I'm more successful I make more money whatever you know you know what you're a fool to think that way because we're all nothing compared to the Lord and it's our identity in Christ that matters and that's what we should glory in and having this attitude of well I'm better because I make more money numbers don't lie I make more money I'm better because I have this high IQ or something I'm better because I'm athletic you know I'm better because I'm musically talented you know what that's all meaningless and it's the enemy of being a loving person when you're spicing looking down on other people thinking that you're better than other people you know that's the opposite of loving people right loving people is seeing the good in people and thinking about their good qualities instead of focusing on their bad attributes or weaknesses that they have right and we're supposed to love people in spite of their flaws because guess what God loved us in spite of our flaws while we were yet sinners Christ died for us and you know scarcely for a righteous man who might die yet per-adventure for a good man some would even dare to die but God commended his love toward us while we were yet sinners Christ died for us I mean Christ accepted us just as we are as we sing the song just as I am without one click and you know what the Bible says Christ received us Romans chapter 15 we ought to receive one another the way that Christ received us and so we gotta receive people in spite of their flaws and weaknesses so number one love toward people in general love people don't love yourself and you know what now I'm hearing all this thing about self-love as if it's a positive thing but you know the Bible said in the last days it was a bad thing that men would be lovers of their own selves but now that's like a buzzword like oh self love and everything you know what how about Jesus than others than you that's how you spell joy that's how you love Jesus you love others you come once okay we need to love other people think about other people and to esteem others better than ourselves to love our neighbor as our self so number one love people in general number two love people out of soul winning because I'm telling you if you go out of soul winning and you don't love people people can sense that even if it's on a subconscious level because they're all kinds of things that science doesn't understand about just the different pheromones and signals and vibes that we're putting out if you knock on somebody's door and you truly love that person when you talk to them you know what they're gonna be able to sense that whereas if you don't love them they're gonna be able to sense that too and if you despise them or have a discuss with them and you know sometimes we can be so judgmental of people yeah without knowing all the facts you know I've been out of soul winning before and you know just had my soul winning partner just swearing oh this is a lesbian this is a sodomite and you know you end up talking to a person and they're not you know we don't want to just jump to these kind of conclusions about people without knowing all the facts and I've said it over and over again you know if I'm 99% sure somebody's a sodomite I'll give the gospel anyway for the 1% chance if they're not because 99 is not 100% yeah you know and I've been out of soul winning before knocked on the door rainbow sticker on the car in the driveway knocked on the door lady comes to the door you know based on her parents look like a lesbian right but you know I'm not just going to jump to that conclusion and she ended up not being a lesbian she's married to a man just a normal person you know a lot of people just have those stickers because they're just liberals they're brainwashed and hey we need to support this and whatever and she ended up getting saved I wonder in Christ right just the other day also another situation just like that 99% that it was a lesbian ended up not being a lesbian gave the gospel didn't get saved by day we don't want to just automatically just leap to conclusions jumping to conclusions about people when we're out souling we give people the benefit of the doubt love people have compassion realize that people out there are affected by our culture in a bad way and they're victims in many ways of our culture meaning pull them out of the fire they matter Satan's grip right and not just get so disillusioned and jaded where we go out souling with this adversarial attitude like it's us against them now actually we're their best friend and the devil's the enemy and that lost person we're the best friend that they have just don't know it yet that's right you know it's like and even if they're rude to us it's sort of like when you are trying to rescue a drowning person the drowning person will sometimes attack you right isn't that the classic where somebody's trying to pull the drowning man out of the water and he's punching them and hitting them and drowning them that's what's happening when you go to some door and somebody slams the door in your face you know that's the drowning man punching you in the face but you know you're still the lifeguard and you're still there and if you can save him save him do what you can love the loss have compassion for the loss you know I witnessed to a guy recently and this is what he said to me I witnessed to a guy and this was not out of order gory this was just my personal life it's just a guy that I know and so I gave this guy the gospel and this is what he said to me he said you know he said no one has ever talked to me about this before he's an adult young man and he said you know I've never had someone share their faith with me personally I've never had someone actually talk to me about this and actually explain this to me what a tragedy yeah man that's right but you know I wonder how many other people are out there that are the same way where nobody has ever taken a visit and he said obviously I've heard about Jesus I've heard about him but I've never had someone make it personal to me and talk and he thanked me he didn't get saved right then and there you know he's interested about it but he said that he enjoyed listening to the gospel and he was thinking about it and it made an impact on him but that just really moved me when he said you know nobody's ever explained this to me before you know I've never had someone talk to me about this you know I wonder how many people in our lives have never been approached with the gospel because here's the thing yeah growing up in America you're going to hear about Christ you're going to hear the gospel you're going to hear Bible verses nobody's without excuse you know everybody's hearing about it it's out there but how much more powerful is it when it's one on one and it's coming from someone who really cares yeah man right it's coming from someone who actually cares about you and they're talking to you personally that's more powerful than just seeing something on TV hearing something on the radio seeing something on the internet you know how about this when we go out in the outdoors you know what every time we go soloing let's try to bring that personal vibe even though we just met that person let's try to bring the love bring the compassion because that's going to make a difference man but number three the third point is love for the brother this is the one that's the most obvious so we said love for people in general loving humanity Jesus loves the little children all the children of the world and so should we love people number one number two specifically love the people that you're witnessing to when you're out soloing love that lost person that you're witnessing to and then number three is love for the brother look at John chapter 13 verse 34 a new commandment I give unto you that you love one another as I love you that he also love one another by this show all men know that you're my disciples if you have love one another you know the church should be a place where we love each other should be a loving group of people it should be like family and in many ways it even transcends family sometimes there's even a friend that sticks closer than a brother and I know we apply that verse to Christ and of course it does apply to Christ but in its primary context in the book of Proverbs it's just saying in general there's a friend that sticks closer than a brother like we could have a friend in our lives that will stick closer than our brother that's the way life works obviously it's also prophetic in Christ he is the ultimate friend that's sticking closer than a brother but whenever we see the Christological application we don't want to lose the original meaning as well we want to believe both and so there are friends that stick closer than brothers as well and sometimes our church family can be just as important as our flesh and blood family and sometimes it can be even more important depending on people's situation hopefully your family is also part of your Christian brotherhood as well hopefully if they're saved but sometimes when you have an unsafe family people at church are a closer relationship than an unsafe family and so church needs to be a loving place a place where we love one another and that should manifest in how we act how we care about other people how we treat other people how we feel about going to church it's like pulling teeth to get you to go to church you know what that makes me wonder do you love the people at church because if we love people at church we want to see them I mean we want to go to church and see our friends we want to go to church and see our brothers and sisters in Christ and it's like wow you know there's just not a lot of cool people at church but you know that kind of that's the exact attitude I've been preaching against this whole circuit oh these people aren't smart enough these people aren't athletic enough these people aren't good looking enough and then here's another one we haven't covered these people aren't cool enough have not gone chosen the uncool of this world cool and faith right I mean you know the bottle says of course it's not got chosen the poor of this world rich in faith but you know God has chosen the uncool to confound the cool that no coolness would glory in His presence you know being cool is overrated it's something that only young people care about because they're immature as you get older as you grow up you start realizing that coolness doesn't matter character matters who you are on the inside your actual qualities for what matter not just being cool and you know oh there's no cool people at church well you know what then love the uncool love the dweeb love the nerd love people love the brotherhood you don't want to go to church I question whether you love the people at church because if you love the people at church you want to go see the people that you love and look I want to go to church to worship the Lord I want to go to church because I love God but I also want to go to church because I love the people at church so I want to see my people you know when I'm on the road trip I miss my people and when I'm not on the road trip and I'm preaching at these other churches and one of my church members has actually like flown out to hear me preach in Sacramento or you know Texas or wherever I'm always just so repressed to see one of my people one of my friends one of my church members it's great to see people that I love right going to church is because you get to be around people that you love you get to be around your brothers and sisters in Christ and instead of having this attitude of what's wrong you know yeah we can find something wrong with everybody at church right we can just if we just want to start crossing them off the list we can find something wrong with everybody you know and I'm going to get across to the police you're going to get across to the police you know we've all got problems but you know I don't want to cross people off the list I want to go to church I want to love everybody at church I want to love every single person that makes word about the church I want to walk in and just I love this guy I love him I love her I love these people I love all these people but what if someone turned out to be Judas Iscariot so what that doesn't affect me they're the ones going to hell if they're Judas Iscariot that's not my problem ignorance is bliss because everybody's innocent until proven guilty and I'm just going to love people you know and give people the benefit of the doubt you know if they turn out to be bad later well whatever that's their problem I'm not going to be like let me you know oh I wish I ended up love them it's really no harm no foul if I loved somebody who turned out to be a wicked person you know I accidentally love a wicked person who turned out to be some horrible Judas Iscariot then to end up not loving the true people of God big deal right because I love them and the integrity of my heart I didn't know that they were an enemy of the gospel or an enemy crept in unawares or something so we need to love one another meaning love our fellow church members love our resident system in Christ look at chapter 15 you're there in chapter 13 go to chapter 15 it says in verse 12 this is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you look at verse 17 these things I command you that you love one another this doesn't seem optional we're supposed to love one another it's important go to Romans with Romans chapter 12 Romans 12 the Bible says in 1 John chapter 3 this is the message that you heard from the beginning that we should love one another 1 John 4 11 beloved if God so loved us we are also to love one another no man has seen God at any time if we love one another God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us because he had given us love his spirit look at Romans 12 9 let love be without dissimulation what does dissimulation mean? it's when you're being fake it's when you are conniving and you don't have real true love but you have a tear in your motives or you're fake about your love there's a lot of fake love out there in this world isn't there? you know there's just a lot of just people who claim to be so loving there are a lot of churches that talk a lot about love they talk great talk they love you but their actions show that they are hateful you know it's funny I get labeled by this world as a hate preacher right? and of course they call Christ Beelzebub and they're going to call us as his preachers they're going to call us all kinds of names like that see them I'm a hate preacher whatever and then they'll label some united Methodist guy or some Roman Catholic or Anglican guy you know he's so loving but I guarantee that that guy is hateful right? right and these guys most of the time false teachers are reprobates which means they even hate God they hate the truth they hate the gospel that's why they preach lies why they preach damnable heresy because they hate the truth pastors who don't preach on sin they don't preach doctrine they don't preach the Bible it's because they don't love their people and they can get all gooey and draw little smiley faces and hearts on little notes that they send people and text all kinds of wonderful little loving emojis but you know at the end of the day that's not really the proof that they really have love and so we need to have love that's without dissimulation and you know what this has to be from the heart and it's only something that you know about yourself right? because you maybe hopefully you could look at my life and look at my actions and hopefully you would see that I love my church that I love Christ that I love my family you know hopefully you'd be able to see those things probably you'd be able to see that I love my wife that I love my parents you know hopefully you'd know me you'd get around me you'd know those things about me right? that I hey this guy loves his children this guy loves lots of people I've been soul-winning with him and it really seemed like he loved us but at the end of the day you gotta look inside and see whether you really love people and if not you say well what do I do how do I fix it well you know love's a fruit of the spirit you gotta walk in the spirit you gotta put on the new man if you be filled with the spirit you should be abounding in love I mean let me put it this way if you're not a loving person you're not filled with the spirit because that's a fruit of the spirit number one is love and so the Bible says here let love be without the simulation right? not a fake love a real heart-felt love abhor that which is evil because again part of true real love is hating that which is harmful hating that which is destructive hating that which is wicked right? hating the pimps of this world because you love the human trafficking victims it says let love be without the simulation abhor that which is evil leave to that which is good and watch this be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love right? let it be like family kindness affection what does affection mean? think about the word affect right? I mean you're affected it means people create an emotional response in you you have affection for them you're moved by them be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love and I love the sign of heart in honor preferring one another preferring one another right? what does this mean? preferring one another again this has to do with putting other people first preferring them over you preferring them over other people even and saying you know God's people are my people church people you know what bothers me is when people have to say oh church people you know how church people are and I'm thinking like yeah I know that church people aren't always what they're supposed to be but you wanna know what's even worse? non-church people like do you really think that non-church people are just so much better than church people? the problem is just people you know we're all sinners nobody's perfect right? love people anyway but this adds to oh church people oh non-church people guess what? it's not like we just go to DMV and we just go to Walmart and we just go to the grocery store and everybody's just so wonderful you know it's just people my friend God's people should be our favorite people we should love everybody we should love the world we should love and I mean the people not obviously the things that are in the world the lust of the flesh the pride of life but we should love man right? and we should love the lost out of somebody but man we should really love God's people for instance in Christ I mean that's our closest circle circle and so it says be kindly affectioned one another with brotherly love in honor preferring one another and so I'll just I've got another scripture here but I'm just going to wrap up with that and just close by saying you know love is going to keep us humble right? so we don't get prideful we need to love people of other races we need to love people of a lower economic status we need to love people regardless of athletic ability intelligence good looks coolness artistic ability musical talent you know let's love people let's stay humble and realize we're not that great you know I saw a sticker and you've probably seen this sticker before it said people suck you know that's not the right attitude for us to go through as Christians to go through life don't go through life like that and you know what let's face it if your life's been anything like mine this life is going to kind of chew you up and spit you out life's going to do a number on you kids I mean look those of us that have been around for a while we've been through some stuff right? amen we've been through some gnarly things in your life right? yeah you don't have to raise your head because I know hey life is going to do a number on you but you know what I don't care what life does to me I don't care how many people stand me back I don't care how many bad experiences I have with people I don't care how many times I get burned I don't care how many times I get ripped off I don't care how many times I get robbed how many times people mistreat me I'm never going to be a people suck kind of guy you know I want to go through life loving people and I hope that when I'm 80, 90, 100 if God would bless me allow me to live that long I hope that if God bless me I live to be 100 I know that between now and 100 I'm probably going to get jerked around by so many more people you know what I mean I'm probably going to get mistreated by so many more people I'm probably going to have so many more bad things happen to me and go through so many more nightmarish episodes of my life but you know I hope I still get to the end and say you know what I love people yeah man I love people I love the lost and realize you know yeah yeah people you know maybe people suck I suck you know we're all we're all unrighteous we've all got problems love will keep us out of soul with it we actually care about getting people's aid love will help keep the church united and we need unity in our local churches man and while we're talking about loving the brethren loving your pastor your pastor is human he's your friend he loves you love him back love one another love will help us keep the sin out of our lives because love works no ill to his neighbor therefore love is a fulfilling of the law and love will help us to be patient with other people and to realize that everybody's got problems we've got problems but you know what let's just love people if God in heaven who is so much greater than all of us so far beyond us all in every area can love me and love you with all the bad things about us we should be able to love one another like think about how many steps down he's going to condescend to us for God to relate to me I believe that when I get to heaven and when I'm face to face with Jesus Christ I believe that he is going to treat me actually kindly and affectionately and with respect you know in fact I read in the Bible that Christ is going to gird himself and serve us when we get to heaven you know Christ is going to be saying well done now good and faithful servant to some people that are a lot lamer than he is because if I get to heaven and God says to me well done now good and faithful servant it's like wow that's kind of a joke in a sense because man I'm nothing you know coming from you Christ you know you're saying that to me you tell me that I did a good job what? right but guess what if God can treat us that way do you think maybe you can treat the person that you think is not as smart or not as wealthy or not as cool or whatever you think you can treat that well you know you think you Asians could you know could you treat the rest of us you remember how smart as you hey walk in the spirit and be a loving person love people as far as I work for it