The Agape Love of God

Good morning! Still good morning. Still morning. Had to think of what time it was. Nice to see everybody this week. I hope you had a lovely week. I'll jump right in since I do have to go to Vero Beach or Thasmere this afternoon. Soon as services. I have took me two hours and two minutes to get there last time, so I'm leaving me two hours to get there. So I have to make up two minutes somewhere along the line. Walk right in. So hopefully the traffic will be in good shape. I don't have many announcements. We have an announcement, though, about the feast registered tomorrow morning, 10 o'clock, whatever time zone that your feast that you're attending is. So I'd like you to remember that. If you have any questions, see one. He can answer everything. Yes. So other than that, I guess I'd better try it in. Welcome any guests that we might have today. But I will start with the title. Oh, I have a request of you. I'd like you to receive something, and you will have to hold that until about the middle of the message today. Stephen, if you will do your duty here, I'd like you to receive something and hold it in your hand, or set it on your... just one. Yes, one per. So with that, we will launch into the sermon. And the sermon is titled, The Agape of God. The Agape of God. A few months ago, I actually left CDs here on the floor, if you wanted to pick those up, on a series done on Agape Love by Gary Petty. I know that those who listen to those, if you do not have one, ask around, and someone may give you their copies or see Maurice, who might be able to make you one. Because I think this is very important, because we need to look at our lives and how we act. And that entails agape. I'd like you to turn to a scripture, in Ephesians 3, if you will. Ephesians 3, verse 17.

We have been criticized in the last year or two, as a church for speaking about love too much. We're getting to be known as the Church of Love. Matter of fact, I even kidded with the President of United, Mr. DeLuca, on a flight we were making, because I'd read somewhere on the Internet, he was called Dr. Love. He said, well, I don't think that's too bad a thing. I think we need to understand how important it is that we have agape in us, and that it comes out from us. In Ephesians 3, verse 17, he says, Hopefully we are.

It's interesting here how important it is for us to understand that, yes, there is love mentioned in the Bible, that if you will take a concordance, you can look at the original Greek, you will see that from Christ on the majority, and I'm saying 90% of all those times that the word love is used, it is referring to agape. There is also phyllo, which is brotherly love, that talks about in the Scriptures. There is also eres, which is erotic love, which is referenced a few times in the Scriptures. And then there is phyllo storge, which is actually a brotherly family type love. That what we will talk about and what you are learning from the Scriptures, the New Testament, 90% of all the times that love is mentioned, the word agape has been translated into love. Agape, God love. And it is interesting because you studied this in the Greek language, you see that agape in the Greek, they didn't understand it.

It is a new word put in by the translators. Because the word before the Scriptures basically didn't exist, because no one had an understanding or comprehension of the love of God. Agape is the love of God. And it is so important that we understand that, because you can just read through these Scriptures and the word throws out love like, it is chewing gum. That we may know the width, the length, the depth, and the height of God's love. Very important. Now, isn't it interesting that if you go to John 3, 16, which all of you know you shouldn't have to turn there, right? For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, whoever believes in him. Yeah, we all know it. No reason to turn to it. But did you understand when you read that, for God so loved the world, what? The width. He loved the entire world so much. It shows God's width.

It shows how he's wanting to extend his arms. He's wanting to extend his love to the entire world for God so loved the world. Agape is so big that he gave his only begotten Son to what length would God go? To show his love and to have his love is not a wealth. He gave his Son. It's great length. He went that far. That whoever believes in him, the death, no matter who you are, that whoever, whoever believes in him, that's death. And he's willing to extend his love to everyone, no matter what your background, no matter how bad of a person you may think you are, or the world may think you are. He should not perish but have everlasting life, the height. He's willing through his love to take us, to take anyone that far up to give them eternal life. That is a height we all hope to achieve someday. And he's willing, he so loves us, that he not only wants us to give it to us, to give it to the entire world. That is agape. That is agape. So strong is this agape. I'd like you to turn to Romans 8, if you will. Romans 8, verse 35. Romans 8 and verse 35. How strong is agape? How strong is the love of God? Romans 8, verse 35 says, Who shall separate us from the love? What? Who shall separate us from the agape of Christ? Shall tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril serve? Verse 37. Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through him, through agape, us. That's how strong it is. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth nor any other thing shall be able to separate us from the agape of God. That is how strong his love is for us. That agape is so strong that nothing, he loves us so much that even when we have our problems, when we have our sins, when we are confronted with all kinds of trials, when we feel like no one could love us, nothing can separate us from the agape of God. We need to have that agape in our lives. Can you see how precious that is? We talk about family love. We talk about a mother's love being the closest thing we can think to agape. A mother, his child there, will throw themselves in front of a car to protect and to give their life and their love for the child. But agape is more than that because agape, with some mothers, would and some women would. But agape is saying that a woman would throw herself in front of a car, would throw herself in front of that for a child she never even knew, or even someone that she hated and despised.

That is agape. That is what God wants us to put inside here. Mmm, that's tough. That is tough. It's easy to care about somebody who cares about you. It's easy to care about a little child. Look back there at Hannah, at least. Beautiful. Beautiful children. And you could see that. They're out of there. Somebody terrible.

It's sometimes hard for us to understand.

No height, no depth, nor any other thing shall be able to separate us from the agape of God. Agape, love, is what God has planned for each and every one of us. 1 John 3, verse 11. It says, for this is the message, this is the message you have heard from the beginning, that we should agape one another. God has given that mandate to us that we need to practice or try to put in this agape so that we can love other people. We can love each other the way God loves us. And that's not human. That's supernatural. Whoo! That is supernatural.

Can we do it? Can we share the agape of God in our lives? Is it seen daily and then seen by whom?

Maybe people who live it? Maybe friends?

Interesting. This was a big problem for the scribes and the Pharisees.

Back then, it still is a problem for people today. That's why there's prejudice.

God, there's no prejudice. There's no color line. There's no education line. There's no any line.

He wants us to have that same outlook.

I could turn to Luke 10. I won't have a Bible study on this later on this year, so I won't break it all down. But here is a story in Luke 10 of the group Samaritan. We all know it. I've heard this story many times.

But in Luke 10, verse 24, So then behold a certain warrior, Steered up and tested him. So I'd like you to, somewhere between the next month or so, Study this story. I'm going to read it to you. So behold a certain warrior, Steered up and tested him. So I'd like you to, somewhere between the next month or so, Study this good Samaritan, Because I want to have a very interactive Bible study about this. I want you to read it and be able to see what the Word is teaching you.

So behold a certain warrior, Steered up and tested him, Saying, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? What is the name of the Lord? What is your reading of it? Interesting. That already tells him because you could say the same thing today. If you were looking at a different perspective, Somebody asked you, What's it take for me to get to heaven? Okay?

That's what somebody would say. What did he say? He picked my own words. Pimple!

Pimple! He's talking about the kingdom of heaven. That people today, when you ask them, What does it take to get to heaven? Nothing. Calling on Jesus Christ as your Savior.

That's not what Christ said. He was asked this question, How can I live forever? He said, What? Keep the commandments.

And in verse 20-10, He said to him, You have answered rightly, do this and you will live. But He, wanting to justify Himself, said to Jesus, And said, Who is my neighbor? And we have to ask that question ourselves. Because that's where this is going. Are we willing to show agape to our neighbors?

That's hard to do.

And then, this man wanted to know who is our neighbor. Well, who were the neighbors? He was going to tell him about the Samaritans. And who were the Samaritans? They were half-weeds. From Israelites who intermarried with the Gentiles brought in by the Assyrians after the fall of Samaria in 722. These people were just brought in from all nations of the world and then they intermarried. And so they were considered the lowlights of their time. We have them today. You know, everybody looks down on somebody.

In verse 29, But he wanting to justify himself said to Jesus, Who is my neighbor? Then Jesus answered and said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. How far?

Just a question I'd like you to think about.

From Jerusalem, Jericho, and far among thieves who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him and departed, leaving him half dead. Why half dead? Just things we're going to talk about in the Bible study.

And now by what chance? A certain? There's a lot of words in here that Christ put in there for us to really examine. Look at this thing. It's an amazing, amazing story here. And there's so much. Why did it say a certain? Why did it say by chance? Study these. Meditate on these things. He said Jesus has words of life. Gives us a chance not just to read over them. But I'm going to today so we can examine this better so you can see how it relates to you.

We may have dead. Now by chance a certain priest came down that road and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Like Waze the Levite, when he arrived at the same place, came and looked and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, a disgusting group of people, whoever they may be in your life, came by.

As he journeyed came where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion on him and went to him and bandaged his wounds, which actually the Greek word there is trauma, where we get the word trauma center. Pouring on oil and wine, and he set him on his own animal, brought him to her inn and took care of him. On the next day when he departed, he took out two denarii.

He gave them to the innkeeper and said to him, take care of him. And whatever... Whew! Is that a big word? Whatever...

Mmm! The more you spend when I come, I will repay you. So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among thieves? And he said... He didn't say the Samaritan, did he? Ah, he who showed mercy on him. Do this guy, sir, then go and do likewise. Telling us this. This Samaritan was... This was somebody, chances are, who despised him. Because the Samaritans were despised by almost everybody else.

And yet he showed that love. That other love. Glad for others. So important. Mmm! Is that where I am? 1 John 4 says that... God is agape. God is agape. Let's turn to 1 John 4. I'm going to skip that one. I have to fly through this thing today. I'm sorry for the translators if I have to pick it up back there, because I need to get out of a certain time. So I'm sorry. I will...

1 John 4. 1 John 4 and verse 7.

So beloved, let us agape one another. For agape is of God. And everyone who agape is born of God and knows God. But he who does not agape does not know God. For God is agape. That is what he is. It is what he is made of. It is his character. And it is that character that he wants us to be that light, to be like him, to be that Samaritan. Do we want to be the good Samaritan? Do we want to be known as the good Samaritan? Does this church want to be known as the church of agape? I hope so.

John 13, 34 said, You shall agape one another. That's what Jesus Christ says. You shall agape. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you agape one another.

All who live and live can see. They should be able to see it. Do you think that innkeeper didn't know it? Do you think the people that he put on his animal and carried around it and came into Jericho and put him up? They didn't see it?

Did they see the priest doing that?

There is no agape there. In case you didn't know it, when we get into the Bible study, we're going to look at just who he was talking to. Guess what? He's talking about us. He's talking about members of the church. He's talking about the ministry.

You know, I see homeless people, poor pitiful people all the time. You see them. And you have to wonder, what should I do? Should I help? Some places you can't.

What do you do? You see somebody broken down on the side of the road. Do you pull over? Well, it's hard on 95 without getting killed. You see people who are struggling. What do you do? How do you make that right decision? You see somebody comes up because I'm asked all the time where I live if I walk up and down the streets, which I do. They want money. Or can you give me this? Can you give me that?

Well, how do you make that decision? I realized a long time ago I can't make that decision. I have to let God in me make that decision.

God has to make that decision. I have to be led by Him. Because it's up to me. I wish I had all my money in the bank at all. I'd be broke because I feel sorry for me. I want to help them. But what did Christ say? The poor you sure have with you always. But it still didn't mean He didn't give. You can see that in John 13, verse 29, where at the last meal that He had with them at Passover, when He said something to Judas, they all thought, and it's down in the Scripture, that He was either buying supplies for the Passover or He was giving money to the poor, which obviously means Christ did it before.

Can we understand the gape? Can we really understand it? Because it's not of this world. That's why the Word never existed before Christ came along, because nobody knew what it was like. Nobody taught that. The things that Jesus Christ teaches, go back and find somebody before Christ. They taught these things. Go back and find someone that said, Love your enemies. Boy, deep teaching.

So can we understand a gape? And can I try to help you understand, because I'm still understanding it myself, because it's a process, because it's so deep, so rich, so beautiful, that it takes a very long time. But it's something I need to work at. And that's why I think it's so important for the church to grow, because I feel like Christ can't... How can He bring people here? Unless they're going to feel and know there's a gape.

Remember? Is our love fully developed, I guess I could say. Is my gape fully developed? Absolutely not. I've met some people that didn't even know God's truth. They had a gape. They practiced it. They were shown it. Their parents taught it to them. Did they understand some of the other things? No. But you can look around, because a gape is so powerful. The law of God is so powerful, and it's so abundant, and it's so out there that people can see it and go, you know, I think I want to do that. But most people don't. Very rare.

How many people knew a few people? That could just love other people. I had a grandmother. They did. You see nurses. I've seen nurses just when my nephew was dying. They gave it all. They stayed there. They were, I hate to say, they were as vested as we were. Wow. That's something. And you can see it. So it's like, it's out there. God wants us, His body, to have it, too. Because you study the Scriptures, you can see where Christ ran into it.

Christ ran into it. He ran into the centurion, didn't He? Centurion didn't come there to hear me. He didn't hear my servant. It's there. We have to make sure that the real knows who we are by. And seeing that in us. Because nothing good is in us.

It's what God does in us. You remember when you first fell in love? Now you may have fallen in love. I fell in love when I was 12 years old with some 13-year-old girl. That wasn't real love. Okay? Remember when you first fell in love? I do. As I was going through this and putting it together, I really only had three big loves of my life. I thought they were. The last one I married, of course. She didn't leave me this week, but thankfully only for about two weeks. But remember when you first fell in love and my wife, one of her, the only people I really had relationships with, that was going to tip me down the road to getting married.

We were long-distance. My wife was 200 miles away. Another girl that I dated one time was almost three hours away. But I remember because it was different when you just dated someone, and then all of a sudden there's this feeling inside you. It's love. And all of a sudden, you stay up all night and you can talk to them on the phone. And it's just a feeling. And then they can do no wrong. And even when you're dating, you're kind of up on this cloud. And it's like, it's not really real.

But you love that feeling. And no matter what they do, they never had that breath. It doesn't bother you if they pick their nose. It's like this amazing cloud nine feeling. It's this euphoric feeling. But what? It doesn't really last that long. You remember your first love towards God? You remember when you first had this understanding and you could say, Oh, I have to know! Reading the scriptures and they just jumped at you. And you're like, I want to get more and more. And you realize you've got to get up in the morning and go to work. And you have to go, ah! It was this dramatic feeling.

And you could talk to people about it. You were just, ah, so great. A pad in your hand. A piece of chalk. You can open it up. I'd like you to. If you can't eat chocolate, it's bad for you. Please don't. Don't want you getting sick. It's interesting, Dan. It's good. It tastes good, I hope. You open it up. Yeah, it's interesting that when you fall in love, they've done this study and they can actually tell that when you fall in love, romantic love, that a chemical is released in your brain called phenylethalamine.

You knew that. Phenylethalamine. It's a chemical that's releasing. It gives you that euphoric high. It's like, ah! Well, it's interesting that it actually takes place in something else and it's in chocolate. It's a chemical that's in chocolate called phenylethalamine. Okay? That's why sometimes you would, if you were in a relationship, and all of a sudden, you're long-distance like I was. So here, Mary was down in Alabama. I was here. I'd go down there about every two or three weekends and see her.

And then you just, like, stay up all, you know, half the night and do this. He's just like, I never got tired or anything. And he's like, and I drive home and it's kind of like, oh, you get kind of depressed. And, you know, man, I'm not going to see her again for a while. I remember, you know. But then I found out about phenylethalamine. So I'd send her chocolate.

Yeah, and here she is. She's down there with always at University of Alabama. And she's, you know, she's at college students. She's in all these football jocks and stuff. I'm going, I like that connection. So I'd send her that, send her that thing and she, you know, she'd eat that chocolate. And then, of course, she got on to me later because she said, I'm putting on the weight.

Well, that's okay, but you're staying close to me. And I thought, well, what? But I've done that with all of me. I was in there. And what happens? And then I would be depressed. And then I would start eating chocolate. And the long grass stayed away from her. More chocolate. I mean, you can only want that feeling because you're like, no, I want to have that feeling again. It's like the Barry Manner or something. Give me that feeling again.

Because it's like chemical. Oh, that's enough. See, we have to understand. God's Spirit is a spiritual finilith of me. You see, it is a thing that can get us to understand, to comprehend, to take in more of agape. It will help us. Boy, I'm glad that you left water up here. I'm not eating chocolate that much now.

Now I'm going to get to missing my wife now because of this.

But the Scriptures say, to stir up the Spirit, do we do it? Do we stir up the spiritual finilith of me? Do we want to fall in love again? Do we want to have that euphoric spiritual feeling again? Do we want to increase it to where we love? I mean, haven't we all experienced a piece of tabernacle where we went? And there's been such a spiritual high that we didn't want to go home. We shared the Scriptures. We've got a vision of the future. We've had all this stuff, and it's just like, ah!

First fruit of God's Spirit. Galatians 5, 22 is what?

No! Agape!

It's not ewes. It's not the ewes. It's not the ewes, so good. The first fruit, and there's a reason they listed that one.

Faith hoping. Agape who's greatest? Agape! Just so many people get it awesome, they just say that agape, and they write it out like it's nothing.

So I am 1 Corinthians 13, called the Agape chapter. That's the word, Agape chapter.

Agape suffers wrong. Right? Agape is kind. Agape is kind to people who are not kind to you. Your enemies. That's why this is so powerful, so strong. Can you imagine if we did that? Because most people are like, I can't stand my enemies.

I don't even want to talk to my enemies. Let me stay over here. But you actually knew what your enemies were, and you tried to do good for them?

That is what Agape is all about.

That's why he says, Agape never fails.

God is Agape, and God's church must be Agape. How loving is this church? How Agape ain't is this church? In my view, very loving church. Been here almost six months? Do you have a run me out yet?

But is this church where it needs to be? No. Is there areas we can improve in? Yes. Do we want to? I hope so. I hope so. Because it's very important, because I don't want to be known as a pastor of a loveless church.

Of a gopilous church. And you know what? I've spoken in probably 25 or 30 churches across the southeast of North, besides Caribbean. And they're out there.

Those churches are out there.

I can feel it when I walk in.

It's so interesting, because sometimes I won't even tell anybody who I am. It's interesting. If there's a speaker, they're like, ahh! But if you just walk in and you're just like, you know, it's like, hmm, I'm going to be this church.

That's our churches! I've been there! I've seen them. I've talked to them.

That's why I want a man. Who's known as Dr. Love. Be our representative. I want a gopé in the churches. Because by this shall all must. If we don't, we're not going to be known. And I want to be known as that.

When we leave this earth, we're all going to know that we were His disciples. Haven't we all been to a funeral?

And you've been to a funeral, and they're kind of talking about the man or woman or whatever, and you realize that they weren't so great? And there's guys up there saying all this stuff. Remember my grandfather asked me to do his funeral. Before he died, he was 93, 94. And when he asked me, I said, well, I will. But I'm not preaching in the heaven. And I'm not going to lie about you. Because he was not a very nice man.

He said, okay.

And I've gone to funerals. I did one. The very first funeral I ever did. The family asked me to do it for a 90-year-old man that I had been seeing. For quite a long time, he'd been sick. He was one of the most loving and caring men I have ever met in my life. I want to be of human form. He's the greatest shōanagape I've ever met in my life. It was easy doing his funeral. I'd turn anywhere in there and talk about him. And it's so interesting because his grandson was there, too. His grandson was from Colorado. Never met him before. But he got up telling the same things that I had told him. Because he saw them as a kid. He would just be able to come and spend time with his grandfather in the summers. And he so remembered how caring and loving and why he'd never met a man like that. And then one morning, he never knew. In all those years he went to visit him. And then he said, but one morning his door was cracked open. And he said, I saw him in on his knees praying. And he said, I never prayed before. But I started praying at that time because I realized I wanted to be like my grandpa. And that's how he was. And he showed a gape.

You know that person? Maybe as your mother, grandmother, father, uncle, aunt, or maybe as somebody else. How do you want to be known when you pass on?

Why do we need to help? Why is there such a need for this love? Why mention it time and time and time again in the Scriptures as Christ did, as Paul did, as Peter did, as John did? Why? Because in case you haven't turned around and looked, which most of you have here, this world is pretty messed up.

This world can be pretty darn cruel. Not only schools, work, life, Army, Interstate, it's cruel.

Not a lot of a gape out there, is it?

There's a lot of people in this whole world who are lost. They don't know where they are. They don't know why they are. They don't know why they're here. And they don't know what they're going to do.

Does God want you to be a good Samaritan?

He is a good Samaritan in your little corner of the world. In your life, there's people that you will infect and affect.

There's people who have never been loved, really loved.

There's people who have never known Eros. There's people who have never known Silio. People who never knew Silio Storge, a family love. A family never loved them.

And there's a whole lot of people who have never seen a gape personified. Remember Christ? Christ, people would come up, little kids came up, they'd even want to just get out of here. He's too important to spend time with you.

Prostitutes, all the people who ever... Yes, He healed. Yes. Thousands and thousands came there, but thousands and thousands came to hear this man speak also and to realize that there's something different about Him, that He didn't look down on them. Tax collectors, prostitutes, the worse the worse. Why they could feel it, they felt a gape. A lot of people would not have a relationship with their maker.

Maybe God needs a good Samaritan that lives on your street.

A good Samaritan who will show a gape, not only to their families, but also to others. Maybe they just needed an example. Maybe they just needed a light.

You may be the only person of God that person will ever encounter.

You very well may be. Is that a burden? Yes. Do you need help? Yes. Do you need a gape? Yes. That's been my point today, is to let us see that we need to be His good Samaritan of a gape. Can you be the example of true agape love? Can you make your mark? The old 1960s or 70s song, What the World Needs Now, is Love, Sweet Love, Love, Sweet Love. It's the only thing that they're just too little of. The one thing there's too little of in this world is a gape. We love each other. We care for each other. So there's a gape, as I've said before. A gape is about God, others, and then me. I'm third.

Can we have that attitude towards others? I'll finish with a story of love, one of the greatest love stories I was ever told. There's a story by a minister that used to be in the church named Harold Jackson. I don't know if any of you ever remember Harold Jackson. A wonderful man.

He worked in Africa. He traveled, and he would go and set up churches and baptize new people. He gave us an incredible example of a gape, because he was going over to hold Passover service in a very remote area there in Africa, where they met kind of under a little hut with just three walls. That's where they had church.

He was interested because some ministers had come through a year or so before and had baptized this young man who lived hundreds of miles away.

This would be this young man's first Passover. He didn't know totally about it that much, since he had never encountered it. He didn't know that much about church, but God was opening his mind and was working with him. He had a good heart.

He wanted to be a part of that first Passover, so he came there. He traveled as he was able to actually take a boat that he had to take that took him a day to go down a river. And then he caught a bus, and he rode for two days on a bus, to which point he then got off and walked two and a half days to get to this little hut to partake of Passover. And when he got there, Mr. Jackson said, when he got there to set up Passover service, this young man, he had his Bible. It was the only thing he had. And he sat there, and he was reading the Bible. And so here the people started coming in for Passover service, and he helped Mr. Jackson. And as he looked out and he brought those implements of Passover silver cups that they actually had, the little cups and the nice stuff and everything, he looked, and Mr. Jackson wanted him to help him, and he said, I can't do it. I might drop something that nice. I can't do it. I might. I might. I'm not worthy to even touch those things. He said, well, yes, you are. And he worked with them and helped them. And Passover came, and they, they, they, they, I took part of Passover there, and he was just, as he was listening to Passover, Jackson said he couldn't help but hear big tears rolling down his face as he realized the sacrifices that had been for him by Jesus Christ.

So everybody got to meet him, and then the next day, then he came, and this was the first day of Unleavened Bread, and everybody came in, and the young man was there. Had setters stood around and talked and asked all these questions, and everybody kind of brought food in and had his meal, and he was just like, oh, he was there. And then everybody was headed home after eight, nine hours, and he stayed right there. He didn't have any place to live. So they said, well, you, you come with, no, I'll just stay right here under this, our little hut there. This is where I'll stay. I've got a Bible, and there's some fruit over there, and I can, and I brought a little food with me, and I'll just stay here. Well, he wouldn't leave. Mr. Jackson said, well, we don't have service, and they'd say, yeah, but somebody might come by that'll talk to me about the Bible. So Mr. Jackson said, yeah, we have to go every day there and talk to him, and just, just, just, eating it up. And then he was looking forward to the last day of Unleavened Bread.

And they had two services and had a meal in between. And so here everybody got to meet him, and he was just like, he was such a wonderful person. And he was, he was so passionate about the truth. And so at the end, everybody just wanted to help him. They were not rich in Africa, but they realized how long had taken him to get there. He didn't ask anything. He stayed right there, slept out on the ground, and just wanted to talk Bible.

So they actually put money together. Enough so he could actually take the bus the long way around, which was going to take quite a bit, but he wasn't going to have to walk for two and a half days, and then take the bus, and then take a boat and wait on these things. Put enough money so he could go home.

And as he took that, big tears were on down his face because he didn't want to leave all these people, who they were able to share the same heart, as he said, had my same heart. Everybody here has the same heart. And they said, well, you can make it home. And he said, no, I'm not going to do that. He said, I'm going to save this money. He said, because there's another boy in my village, my same age, that he hasn't been. And he said, I want to take that money back to him because he said, I know that in the fall, a priest's tabernacle, nothing like this has been, but at least if it could be just half as good, I want him to have a part of it. I want him to have a part of such a big heart. I want him to come here. That way he can go.

Others. It was about others.

How are we, brother? About others. Can we have that love, that agape?

The agape of God. It's what we hope to be. It's what we should want to be. Brother and most of all, it's what we need to be, what we must be. Because that is what his kingdom will be all about. So remember, it's about agape. It is the love of God.