Amen. So much lately I’ve been just really thinking of how God so loves the church - He loves His people, He loves His church - and we are to love the Lord our God as He has loved us. And it's just so special. We can come here, and not just, you know, when we’re together in service, but every day be looking to something new with God. Not remaining the same, but really having faith that every time we come into His presence every time we begin to seek Him, something different’s gonna happen. And I truly believe that, for each one of us today that are calling out to His Name.

And so today, you know I would love to talk about the power of God's love. The power of God's love which is something so incredible and as I was thinking about this and really preparing and praying, the Lord began to remind me of how all of us are really good shoppers, right? We shop everywhere, we know how to shop online, and we know how to go into the stores and look for that thing that we want. But when we go shopping, there’s certain things that we’re really attentive to make sure they’re genuine. And it may be some type of food, you know some people like a certain brand or label, and they won’t go for kinda like the secondary version or the imitation, right? They’ll spend the extra dollar. And maybe for some type of clothes, or for those of you who work on cars, you know that you want the right part, you want the part that works. And really we know how to make sure the things that we want that we’re gonna purchase - they’re real. They’re genuine, right? We train ourselves to especially recognize something that's counterfeit, something that's not really, you know what it's supposed to be or function the way that it's supposed to function. We don't want to waste our time and our money, right?

"By His powerful love we’re able to come out of just being dormant - just being asleep and kinda stagnant in our spiritual life, and come into something new with God."

And as we talk about the power of God's love today the reason I'm saying this is that, you know we have God's love before us - the love that is demonstrated in the Scriptures, the love that is truly demonstrated through the Lord Jesus Christ. But there's also a love today that we find, you know from many different preachers or many different people - a love that they describe to be God's love, but it's a counterfeit love, alright? And some are preaching and maybe talking about God's love today to just be this passive soft kinda thing that's just there. And the idea of God's love is just that it's there to kinda let us get away with however we want to live, however you want to do things - just soft and cuddly and just lets you be. Others take God's love to be all about me. ‘The Lord loves me!’ - and that’s kinda where it stops - ‘He loves me, this is what I know. He doesn't really want me to change. He doesn't require me to be different, but just be me, do what I want to do,’ - and no change, no difference.

But I’m praying, hallelujah church of God today, that we see and we truly fan the flame of God's true love - the love in the Scriptures, the love of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God that is powerful. A love of God that is not a counterfeit love that lets you just kinda be on the sidelines, but a love that moves you. A love that changes you. A love that transforms, and a love that exalts the Lord Jesus.

See the real love of God is powerful. Yes it's comforting, but it also would not allow me to remain comfortable in my sin. It's a love that causes a transformation where maybe somebody was only interested in doing their own thing and loving themselves? Well all of a sudden they’re finding they’ve gotta just love the Lord. They’re finding that they're starting to love the church, they’re starting to love others, and putting interests of others before themselves because that's what the love of God does. By His powerful love we’re able to come out of just being dormant - just being asleep and kinda stagnant in our spiritual life, and come into something new with God. See God's love and the power of His love is something so powerful to move the Christian into being and doing all that God has intended for us to do and to be, amen!

And so I want to go further today. I want to go deeper in understanding of what the power of God's love truly does in our lives. Now for most of us - many of us know that this week, right we’ve been looking to fan into flame of the Spirit of God. And we know that part of that is to fan into flame the Spirit of God's love, right? And today as we’re going through the Word of the Lord, I'm hoping that we can take a look at that flame that we've been fanning, that flame of God's love. And we can make sure that it’s truly the flame of God’s love, and really make sure that it's burning bright. To come into the fullness of the power of God's love. Church are you ready today? Are you ready to take a journey, are you ready to dig into what God is about to speak?

And so my question is: What does the power of God's love actually do? This is important for us and as we go through the Scriptures - we’re gonna have some different places that we go through for those of you who are new. If you don’t have your Bibles the Scriptures will be up there for us to follow. But we’re gonna begin with Ephesians chapter 3. And we’re gonna look at verses 17 through 19. I didn't tell Pastor Jerry about this verse at all. He completely read the entire thing. Amen, right?

"...the true love of God compels us to know the Lord Jesus Christ. "

And I rejoice in that today, right? That's the power of God's love! It’s the power of God's love and so the first thing - you know this’ll be in different orders you can take it as but the first thing I want to talk about that the power of God's love does in our life is that it compels us to know Him. It causes us to move, it brings a compelling where I just need to know the Lord. So let's read verse 17. “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and [how] long and [how] high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”.

And I love this because here we find that the true love of God compels us to know the Lord Jesus Christ. See Paul's praying for power here, but it's not a power for me to kinda get further in my life for myself. It's not a power for me to, you know, fulfill my own desires and get what I want. Church, this is a power to grasp something big. It's to grasp how wide, how long, how deep and how high is the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is exactly what God's love does in our lives. It causes our eyes to be open, to see maybe what we didn’t see before about the Lord. It causes us to see how great He is - how great His love is, and how He is truly worthy to be worshiped.

It causes us to see that the Lord Jesus Christ has gone the distance. He has given everything that it takes to save His people. He suffered He persevered - He went as far as it took to do the will of His Father and to lay down His life. How high, today? How long, how deep, amen?

This love should compel us to get to know Him more. This love should so touch our hearts that we’re just thinkin’, ‘Lord, I’ve gotta go deeper today. I mean I've spoken about You, I’ve heard about You, but I truly need to come to know You. God, there is more! Don’t let me sit still, God! Something needs to move!’

"Are you compelled to know the Lord?"

See when we really grasp this love you can't remain satisfied with the prayer that you said maybe five-ten years ago. When we truly grasp and are touched by the power of God's love, we can't be satisfied today with where we were yesterday. It’s where His love touches you and you start wanting to get as close as you can get. Maybe for you you're thinkin’, ‘I’ve gotta find somebody that really knows the Lord in the church. I’ve gotta get to know them, I gotta get closer so it can maybe rub off.’ Where you’re thinking, ‘God I’ll fast, I’ll pray, but something needs to shake - something needs to change. God, I want to come close to You.’

Today, many teach about the love of God from a standpoint of just making everybody comfortable. You know, ‘God just loves ‘em. Don't expect too much more, don't really push anything else just let them be. No need to seek Him deeper, just be you.’ All the while people - many by the thousands upon thousands just remain stagnant and empty and dead, and in their wickedness, settling for a counterfeit. A counterfeit to the love of God - never truly coming to know the Lord! And I know some of us think, ‘Wow, how terrible it is,’ but I want to ask you today: Are you compelled to know the Lord? Or have you settled for something less, to be happy with never going deeper with Him? Have you chosen rather than to grasp the full width, and depth and greatness of His love, rather than grasp everything else in this world - to grasp everything else in our life to grasp those things that are pleasing of the flesh? If so, if we look at our lives and see that, I'm praying today that the Lord would truly touch you. That we would turn and repent this day! That the love of God would come in and truly touch us to cause a compelling to know the Lord.

You see His love compels us to surpass knowledge. This Scripture says that Paul wants us to know this love that surpasses knowledge. Now listen: It's great that we learn all of our Bible verses and we begin to fill ourselves with the Scriptures and study. It’s great that we learn worship songs and we get to know all the lyrics and we kinda keep our studies before us but listen: God never intends for us to just have it up here. God never intended for it to just come in and go out another way - He surpasses that His love causes us to go to something deeper. He causes us to bring us into truly knowing Him. Where the verses that you’ve been remembering, not only are they here but you begin to know that God that has spoken those verses. Where yeah you're learning the worship song, but you truly come to know the God that we sing about every week - the great God that we serve and that we speak!

See we live in an era, right - in a time where it's just so easy to get so much information. And we were laughing the other day - I was talking to some of the worshipers as we were practicing, and we were laughing and talking about how everybody's an Internet genius now. Right? Even my nephew - it's so funny because he knows how to kinda maneuver with Google, and the boy’s an excellent expert genius at the sounds of the horse. I mean he could tell you how the sound that he makes, where he trot,s where they live, you know the colors and everything - I mean he’s a genius, right? And, you know, it's not that all these things aren't helpful, but what I can say is that nothing can ever replace experience.

You know, when you think about electricity - we can read about electricity, but you really don't know it until you touch it. You don't really know electricity, right, ‘til you’re changing an outlet all of a sudden you get that shock and you’re like, ‘Wait a minute, I don’t really know as much as I thought.’ See you’ve gotta experience it before it really makes a difference in your life.

Christianity isn't just about filling our heads with verses - it's about experiencing the Lord as we’re drawn in by those Scriptures that He brings alive in our lives. It's about personally coming to know God - surpassing knowledge! It isn't just about learning songs, but it's about also coming to know the voice of God that speaks in the middle of the night. It's about learning to know God, and to know His heart - to know what causes His heart to beat. It's coming to know what also makes the heart of God even saddened.

God wants us to surpass knowledge today. See we should be so compelled to go deeper with the Lord - to surpass religion! To surpass going through the motions! To surpass being okay with coming and going and never changing, and to go deep with God and come close to the Savior!

Have we come close to God? Have we come to know how high, how deep, how long and how wide is the love of the Lord Jesus? For me myself you know, I've gone to Bible college. I’ve studied the Scriptures. I've learned all sorts of methods and things. I’ve come to know all sorts of Christian songs and listen - I'm not implying that those things are bad I’m not implying that they're not necessary in our walk with God, they are necessary things. But what I am saying is that at some point I had to come in and be touched by the love of God, that the Scriptures would come alive. That the song would become real for me. That I wouldn’t just talk about ‘The Lord my Shepherd,’ but I would know the Shepherd! I would know Him in the night, I would know Him in the valley - I would know the Good Shepherd, that He would lead me through to Himself!

There comes a point when we have to begin to cry out to God being compelled to say, ‘Father, I want to know Your presence, Lord. As Moses cried out, Father, I don't want to go any further unless You’re with me. We don’t want to pursue any deeper - anything else in our lives - unless You are with me.’ Is that you today, church? Are you okay with staying exactly how we may have been before? Are you okay with not going deeper?

See, the true touch of the power of His love will cause you to go deep. It’ll cause you to want to know Him - to surpass knowledge, and to come into true life. The power of the love of God compels us to know Him on the inside.

The last part of this Scripture - and again you can go back there - it says that we would be filled to the full measure of God. Are we filled today? Are we filled with the Spirit of God? You see nothing else matters. What good is it if we come to church and we come and we do the many things that we do? We come week after week but there's no touch there's no filling of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives? See the love of God, when it's truly active in us, it should compel us to be filled and to settle for nothing less. Not to be filled with a little bit of this or that, not to be filled with ourselves but to be filled with His goodness.

"To be filled to the measure of God is to no longer be filled with lies...but to be filled with the Lord Jesus Christ."

Now I'm not talking about the things that some of us can do on our own, where maybe we’re not as bad as we used to be. Maybe we don’t do the bad things that we used to do or go to the bad places. Maybe we don't speak the way we did, we don’t cuss or say bad words. You can do a lot of these things, and not necessarily be filled. You know we may look at our lives and think, ‘I'm behaving a lot better than I used to, or making a lot of, you know better decisions because I've matured somewhat in my mind.’ Listen, you could do all those things, but it doesn't mean that you’re filled. It doesn't mean that I’m filled.

But the love of God - see what it does is it compels you to want to know the power of the living God on the inside. To be filled with the Lord Jesus. To go past just some behavior modification, but to no longer be filled with ourselves. See to be filled with God - to be compelled to go after Him - it means I'm no longer filled with self. And if self is there - hallelujah, the eviction notice has just been stamped. Something’s about to give - something’s about to go, and God is about to come in.

To be filled to the measure of God is to no longer be filled with lies, to no longer be filled with arrogance, to no longer be filled with stubbornness, but to be filled with the Lord Jesus Christ. To be filled with power to break the slavery of that thing that has held us down, that has been a snare, that has just kept us enslaved - and to now live a godly life. But I ask again: Have you come to know the Lord on the inside? Is there anyone compelled to go deeper? Can we call upon His Name today? Can we take hold and grasp the fullness of the power of God? Can we grasp how high, how wide, how deep is the love of God that went so deep for us - that went so deep to do God's will - that we too can be a people of depth, no longer shallow but truly coming to know Him?

And so, the love of God when it touches us it compels us to want to know Him more. Secondly, it compels us to want to reflect Him. Let's look at 1 John chapter 4, verses 9 through 10. It says, “This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that God loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

See His love compels us to something special: To reflect the Lord. It compels us to reflect His sacrifice. When I read this verse - when I was reading this Scripture this week, you know what? I was really just so taken back by it. I was meditating on it and just kinda taking it in, and just really remembering how Jesus gave everything. I mean God sacrificed His Son, and it wasn't that we loved Him, but it’s that He loved us.

And church let’s really understand this today: God didn't do it because we were so good. God didn’t do it because we’re so nice and cuddly. As a matter of fact, we were deserving of wrath. As a matter of fact, we’ve been lawbreakers. As a matter of fact we’ve been the very ones to defile His goodness in our lives, and to turn from Him and to be wicked to the core. See, the motivation of God wasn’t my goodness, because my goodness it wasn't there. The motivation of God was love. To give it all because of His love. Yet I ask what is our motive today?

"Father I just want to honor You. I just want to honor You with my mind. I want to honor You with my life!"

See the Pharisees of Jesus’ day? They were all about sacrifice. They were all about you know, doing sacrifices among the people. They loved for all the people to see them sacrifice themselves and to fast and to pray into the public squares because they loved to be honored by man. They were compelled by a love not for God, but a love for self. See God? He doesn’t want our empty sacrifices. God’s not looking for us to do things with any other motive, but simply this: ‘Father, You sacrificed it all for me. Father, I’ve been touched by Your love. Here I am to do Your will. God I might not have much but God what I have I bring. God I may not have much to offer, but God I do offer my life, I do offer my children, I do offer my household - here I am Lord!’

See God’s love compels us to be a people of true sacrifice. Not because of something I’m gonna get out of it. It doesn't come to God saying, ‘God let's make a little bargain: If You do this for me I'll do this for You.’ It doesn't say, you know, ‘Maybe I’m gonna reap something good out of this so now I’m following You, God,’ looking for a benefit or anything else - but it simply comes to God saying, ‘Lord! I don’t need anything. You've already given enough. Father when I think of the cross I don't know how much more You can do. I don't know how much more You can give. Lord I know that You do so much more but Father, in lieu of Your sacrifice, in lieu of the love that You demonstrated - the love that You demonstrated for Your church and love that You demonstrated in laying down Your life: Here I am God. I don't care if I’m gonna be honored before man. Father I just want to honor You. I just want to honor You with my mind. I want to honor You with my life!’

See true sacrifice - when we reflect the sacrifice of God - it’s when nobody's watching. And you're the one who hops in the car, maybe in the middle of the night, and you’re thinkin’, ‘I gotta pray. I gotta pray for the church, I’ve gotta pray for the people I’ve gotta pray for my neighborhood.’ Maybe when nobody else is watching or knowing, you’ve been fasting for a day or you've been fasting for days, because you’ve just felt compelled - compelled to do something to move for God. And you’ve been fasting and praying maybe for the Pastors or for somebody that's just goin’ through it, that you know needs a little bit of boost. And listen, you're not gonna be honored by man for it. As a matter of fact it's done in the secret, where only God sees but hallelujah! You’ve just begun to reflect the true sacrifice of God. You’ve just been compelled to not look for the honor of man, but look to honor God - look for where only God is watching, but that's alright for you! ‘It's okay for me! It's okay for you, because God is my all. Because His love has been my everything, and He has touched my life.’

What compels us to do the things that we do in our lives? Church if it be any other motive, can we do away with the empty sacrifices today? Can we do away with the old ways, and truly bring a living sacrifice before the Lord?

See His love compels us to reflect the passion of Jesus. And I love this as I’m reading verse 9. It says in there that God sends His Son Jesus that we would live through Him. That we would live through Him! I know we read this but really think about that: He sent His Son that we would live through Him. And to live through Him also means that we would live like Him.

We should be compelled to do that every single day. But, we have to ask ourselves: How did Jesus live? What did it literally look like?

It looked like this: He was passionate for His Father.

I read Hebrews chapter 5, it’s not gonna be up there but you can mark it. Chapter 5, toward the end of that chapter. This is the explanation of how Jesus lived. It says that, “During the days of Jesus' life on earth, He offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the One who could save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverent submission.”

Jesus did wonderful miracles. He healed crowds of people! And I believe that those were awesome - I mean they were amazing things that Jesus did! But what I personally have found to be so much greater was His heart toward His Father! How He would cry out to Him, as the Bible says in fervent cries and in tears! He was heard because of His reverent submission - He was passionate! He was all out for God - He yearned for God, He sought Him, but do we reflect such a passion in our lives for the Father? Do we reflect such a yearning and a crying out? Such a push or heart cry to say, ‘Father You are God, You are King, and I need You God. Come! Come and touch me! Father, I’m not gonna stop God. And even if You don't touch me, I’m gonna touch You, God!’

This is the reflection of Jesus that nobody talks about! I talk to so many Christians sometimes. People in the church and out of the church and I talk to them. You know, what do you want God to do? What are you looking for? And many are so easy to say, ‘You know I want a ministry. I want to move in God's power. I want this and I want that.’ But who will just reflect Jesus? Who would be satisfied to say, ‘Lord, let me reflect You! Let me reflect Your passion! Let me reflect that there’s nothing else, but You in my life!’

"We have to be done with reflecting the way that the world does things... "

I want to be like Him. See when God touches you it compels you to reflect His passion. To be one who would just yearn for Him - shed tears for God to be honored. To shed more tears when you find that He's not being honored in your life - when you find He's not being honored in your sacrifice, and He’s not been honored in your house, and in your children. To be one to stop and say, ‘Lord there's no reflection here. Something needs to change!’ Will we be such a people before God?

And so what do we reflect in our lives? Church it’s time for us to wake up and look into that mirror as the book of James speaks about, right? We want to look into that mirror - in the mirror of the Word of the Lord and really look to see what we’ve reflected in our lives. And to not stop there. To look at what our children, my sisters, my brothers have reflected in terms of whether we have reflected Jesus or not. We have to be done with reflecting the world. We have to be done with reflecting the way that the world does things - we need to be done with reflecting the self-centeredness, with the entitlement of this world. We need to be done with reflecting the way that the world mis-prioritizes and just has a twisted way of putting things first that shouldn’t be first! We need to come and beg God that our children would no longer reflect the things that we’re seeing - to reflect such an evil wicked generation. God haters! Self lovers! Money lovers! Lover of everything but God! Church, today is the day! Would we break every other reflection, and come in to be touched by the power of God’s love?

"How long will we wait? How long will we wait until we come into the true love of God?"

If we find that we have not reflected the sacrificial heart of the Lord Jesus Christ, it's time to repent from living apart from the root. Literally the root of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ! To become a people who in view of God's mercy - to think of all God has done, to think of all the Lord Jesus has done - to become a living sacrifice, where we no longer care so much about our reputation. No longer care so much about our looks and everything else, and no longer compelled for self, but compelled by the power of God's love.

Can we today come to a clear understanding of the life that Jesus lived? He was passionate for the Father. Church, He was deep in His prayers. As I read that Scripture in Hebrews I just felt His heart - the yearning and the crying and the longing to be with His Father day in and day out. Can we be a people of longing? How long will we wait? How long will we wait until we come into the true love of God?

And you know even now I just think of those of you - some of you who are in here you’re twelve or thirteen years old. Maybe you’re seventeen, eighteen, you're in your youth: Listen, how long will you wait? Don't tell yourself, ‘In maybe a year I'll serve the Lord more, but I’m a little busy right now.’ Don't fool yourself and say, ‘In five years...’ God says, ‘Will you begin to long for Me?’ God says, ‘Will you begin to cry out for Me?’ God says, ‘Will you not settle and just say I’m too young,’ but will you let Him overtake you this day? May we come before God to truly come into the true love of God and reflect the Lord Jesus Christ, and to not settle for less.

And so God - the power of His love when it truly touches us we are compelled to have a passion as Jesus had. To have a passion and a heart for God that yearns to belong with Him that yearns for the nation to shift. That yearns for our communities to come to God. For salvation to fill this place, to touch our children, to touch our lives, and to touch God’s people.

Lastly, the mighty power of God's love compels us to unite. To unite! Let's look at John, chapter 17. Verses 22 to 23 and another favorite Scripture of mine that just shows the depth of the heart of the Lord Jesus as we find Him here praying. It says, “‘I have given them the glory that You gave Me, that they may be one as we are one - I in them and You in Me - so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that You have sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me.’”

"He died on the cross so that we would no longer be scattered and far and apart, but that we would be brought in from afar."

This is such a special time where Jesus is praying. And as we read this, you know it should compel us to unite to His will. Jesus was coming close to His crucifixion in this time of prayer. And what was on His heart? In this last moments, in this last time, what was His will? What was He gonna pray to the Father? He was praying that we would be united. That we would unite, that we would be one as He and the Father were one. This work that He was about to do - this work of love that He was about to do on the cross - was a work that was gonna now allow you and I - us together - to become one to be united through His blood. He prayed that this out of love - this was His will and His desire, but how has it moved us? As we read these words, if we have heard these words in the past, how has it moved us to unite to His will, to what He wanted for us to be one?

See His love should compel us to fulfill His will of unity. This is where there's no such thing as a solo Christian. There's no such thing! There's no such thing in Christianity as a “Lone Ranger.” Yes, we have a personal relationship with the Lord, absolutely. But the Lord Jesus Christ gave His life that the church would become one. He died on the cross that we would no longer be scattered and far and apart, but that we would be brought in from afar - brought in from other nations brought in from other families brought in from other places and towns - to be one for the sake of His Name.

He didn’t die for me to be doing my own thing. He didn’t die for me to be living in the same house with a bunch of people where none of us even know or have a clue what's going on in each other's lives. He didn’t die so you know I can just have my family and have my children, but not really care if they’re close to God or not, whether we’re united on one purpose and one heart. He didn’t die for that, He died for us to be made one! And it defiles His goodness - it defiles His will for us to have any other thing in our hearts. It defiles the work of the cross in our lives to have anything else or anything less!

For me to say, ‘I'm okay with being on my own,’ for me to say, ‘It's okay for me to have a lack of connection in my household,’ - it is not okay, it is not God! And He says to wake up, church! To come in, to unite!

We must repent for our independent ways. For that spirit of independence - that worldly spirit that just says, ‘I'm on my own. I’ve got this! I kinda have my own thing going on here,’ - no! It's time to stop being so united with the world. I believe sometimes we’re so united with those who don't even know the Lord - we’re so united with our boss to get things done we’re so united with our coworkers - yet no connection with anyone in the church, no connection with the opportunities that God presents here all the time every single day. Church, now is the time to unite!

See the power of God's love in our lives causes us to see how important this is. And it becomes evident that God is moving when we all of a sudden have a desire to join in together. To join into the will of what Jesus had and what He died for - unity! Not that we would kinda just join in as a club, but to join in heart to heart, for the same purpose - for the purpose of the Kingdom. Can you imagine if we grasped this fully? Can you imagine if we all became one? What could we not do for God? What could we not do for the Kingdom? Who could we not snatch out of hell? What community could we not impact?

You know the disciples, they were so one. I mean everywhere they went you knew they were there. The crowds must’ve said, ‘Here goes those people - they’re all united. I mean, you may say one thing to one of ‘em, but don't get me wrong you’re gonna be saying it to all of ‘em. You may hear one of ‘em, but don't be fooled you’re hearing all of ‘em. You may feel the ground shake and it seems like it's just one of ‘em, but trust me - the ground is shaking because there is a force. The ground is shaking because somebody decided to unite - a bunch of people have decided to unite. They’ve been compelled and touched by the love of God, and things are about to shift.’

His love compels us to be united, as I said as one. And I love how direct Jesus is. He's always purposeful. Even in His prayers! And He asks God to unite us - make us one. He goes further to say, “‘Make them one as we are one.’”

See Jesus was so at one with the Father, that He felt His heart. When the Father was angered, Jesus was angered. When the Father was rejoicing Jesus was rejoicing. When the Father was saddened, Jesus too was also saddened. See they were inseparable! Not just physically, but to the depth of a spiritual level - they were one! They were united! Jesus was always compelled by His Father to do everything that He did. He said, “I only do what I see My Father doing.” How is that? Because He just couldn't separate Himself - it was that tight. It was that knit. You ever feel so united to somebody - you ever feel so united to something. You know spouses, you ever feel so united to your spouse, hallelujah, church He’s calling us to be so united with each other. He's calling to be so united with the church - to be united by the power of His love.

This is where you can have ten people, right? Ten different people from different families, backgrounds and schools and lifestyles, and they all be made like one. Where we can all be in different places doing different things, but all of a sudden we feel a compelling. We know maybe there's something wrong in the atmosphere. All of a sudden somebody’s making a phone call or sending a text. ‘Hey, I don't know what's happening but I feel something, I’m praying for you.’ All of a sudden there’s a phone call to Pastor saying, ‘Pastor, I had a dream,’ or this and that. You know God begins to move as one unit. God begins to unite us together with a force that cannot be reckoned with. And so God's love compels us in unity to be as one.

It's maybe where somebody we’re connected to, right they're going through a trial. Maybe they're just going through some type of struggle or suffering. And even though you're doin’ okay, you decide, ‘You know what? I'm gonna join in that trial. It may not be my trial it may not be my suffering, but I'm gonna join in that trial and suffering as though it was my own, because I am united. I am ready, I’m gonna pray them through. I am ready to continue to move as one.’ Because that's what the true love of God does. That's what it compels us to do. It joins us, it compels us to be compassionate, to be connected and to be linked to each other.

"What will faze the world - what will shake the nations is when people are joined together by the power of the love of God."

See church, if you hear anything today, church was never about just kinda coming to church and paying our dues. To have a little bit of time to come in and to go - see, church it was about sharing together, rejoicing together, but it was also about facing our battles together. It's about suffering together, where, you know what? In my own life I might've been destroyed, but hallelujah, the darkness didn’t win over because I was not on my own - because somebody was compelled in this church. Somebody was moved to unite and to pray for me, to pray for my family, to pray for my child to come, to pray for my wife, to pray for my parents! Oh hallelujah because we've been united! That's what church is about! That’s what church is!

So are we so compelled? Has the love of God touched us to be united as one, to not settle for less to go after it? See, the power of God's love compels us to unite, and even impact the world. Jesus finishes this verse saying, “‘...[that] the world [may] know that You love them as You have loved Me.’” See the world doesn't get fazed by the fact that we’re really nice people. It doesn't get fazed that we’re not bad, we don’t do bad things - they don't even care whether we’re nice Christians, and that we go to church. What will phase the world is our unity. What will faze the world - what will shake the nations is when people are joined together by the power of the love of God. When people are no longer just out and about doing their own thing, but there is a connection. They know, and I know that I am not my own. Yes I belong to my heavenly Father, but I also belong to my brothers and sisters. As we are one body, as we are the hands and feet together joined together as one. I believe it, I know it.

"But can we look to unite, and show the world that God is not dead!"

And see, we have to ask: Are we compelled to such unity in our lives? And see many of us, we can think about this unity that God calls for. And we can think on our lives, you know, how does this pan out? Listen, many of us know unity. When we’ve been compelled to sign up for the football team, you know, when you guys are in school right you see the posters - I don’t know if they still hang posters on walls or everything is digital - but back in the day they used to hang the posters on the wall, ‘Come join.’ And you feel compelled, you know, ‘I’m gonna join that team! I’m gonna join that volleyball team, that soccer team,’ - whatever it may be. And even for us adults! How many times have you gotten the new job and they’re like, ‘You’re joining the team,’ right? And they make it a big team thing, and we understand that. And we understand what it means to be united for it. And we've given ourselves for it - to be one. We’ve given ourselves to make sure that the team looks good. We’ve given ourselves to make sure that the business looks good. We’ve given our lives, we’ve practiced hard, we’ve broken out a sweat - but I ask today: What has happened within the church? Where has it gone? Because it belongs to God! Our unity belongs to Him! Our energies, everything that we do, our bodies, our effort - it belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ!

And if we have fallen short of that - if we've given our energies and all that was in us for anything and everything else, then we’ve got to come back to God. We’ve got to come back to serve Him, and repent for our evilness, and come back to what God has called us to do! To give it all for His purpose! To give it all to be one, to demonstrate the power of God in this place - that the world would be impacted!

But as we close today, think with me. If God has ever touched you, if you've ever felt His love, if it's ever been so dear to you where God has done something in your family, and He’s rescued you and He’s delivered you and He’s just done such a work of love - if we look at the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ and see the greatest demonstration of love ever - can we stop, and allow it to compel us to unite? Can we stop, and look to give back to God? To turn from everything else and not be about just scoring goals on the football team that we’re gonna forget about by tomorrow? Not just look to build up the business where in all reality when we look at this day and age that business may not even be here in a week. But can we look to unite, and show the world that God is not dead. He rose out of the grave and He is seated on the throne, but He has also come in the flesh. He is moving in His church. He is not dead, but He is alive. That we, the church. we’re manifesting that, as one. That because we are united, the world will look in and not just see lovely songs, the world will look in and not just see good teachings - the world will look through these windows, and see a body. One body - as one, demonstrating the power of the love of God.