In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of having a leader and shepherd in our lives. He compares human beings to sheep, highlighting our need for guidance and direction. The speaker also reflects on his own journey of realizing the need for a Lord in his life, rather than just a Savior. He emphasizes the power of love and the transformation it brings when we allow God's love to fill our hearts. The sermon concludes with a reminder of the Holy Spirit's role in producing love, joy, and peace in our lives.

The thing we were talking about yesterday, the power of the cross, and I began by noticing the probable disorder that our priorities find in respect of dealing with the cross, that the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, and we live in a world that has a pretensive sort of response to God, not having a form of godliness, but standing in denial of its actual power. And we were talking about the power of that cross, and the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but us which are saved, it's the power of God. And in conjunction with that, as we looked at the fulfillment of our obedient relationship to God by a right estimate of what the cross is, what we said was that we need to agree with the cross, we need to agree as to its provision, and beyond that we have to agree as to the necessity of that provision. It is not merely the gift of God's grace, but it is also a necessary gift. Just like we talked this morning about the necessity of grace, we can consider the necessity of the gift. And so it is a necessary work of grace for a person like me, and that's the context in which it needs to set, that it is important for a person like me. I need not merely to agree with the cross, but to accept that it is essential for me. I would say that my agreement is less than complete if I haven't agreed that the cross is important for me and absolutely essential. But you know, as I relate properly to the cross, I begin to move into the other area that I believe, or perhaps we need to elevate the area of love because it is the primary commandment. It needs to be first in our priority list. How can we get it there? I think we defect from it because we give up. We think, well, we will hardly make it a number one subject. And I know how in the past maybe 15 years, this topic became very obnoxious to some ministers in my acquaintance because they felt that love had been so perverted that they would rather not talk about love. I even heard preachers say, don't give me that love stuff. Have you ever heard a preacher say that? You see, because he's so acquainted with the area that spells love, L-U-S-T, that he thinks that he's lost touch with all love. He doesn't know what love really is. But God isn't going to end love just because some people spell it wrong. And so we have a number one priority on account of the fact that God has put us under absolute command to love. In the New Testament, this is the essence of God's absolute desire for my life, that love is the number one commandment. The Lord Jesus Christ never fails to reinforce this. He doesn't change His mind. And when we see the commandment that's displayed to us in Matthew 22 and reinforced in John 13, and then once again in Romans 13 by the pen of the apostle, where there's never any retreat from the importance of love. It stands number one in importance. But it also stands in absolute need of bringing the believer to a place where he has the resources. I know that in my own life, I always found it difficult to have enough resources, perhaps even to love myself. We need to maybe take a bad fire in order to see what it really means not to be able to have enough resources to love. And self-respect falls away. Isn't it strange that when God brings us to the cross, He does not destroy our self-respect because He gives us a new selfness in Himself. And we're able to look right square in the mirror and say, Thank you, God, for whom you want me to be. Thank you that I'm the only one that you're so uniquely involved with. I just thank God that this seems to be true. But in coming from the cross, at last, I am armed with love. How can it possibly be that I would be armed with love by coming from the cross? And as God instructs me as to the absolute need of love, if I love God with all my heart, with all my soul, and with all my mind, we tempt a little ten-minute message on this up at Grace Bible Sunday morning. But just to notice the high point as we consider what may be the central scripture in Matthew 22, the second part of it says there's a second light to it, that we should love our neighbor as ourselves. And so I have a very great problem loving my neighbor as myself. I couldn't love my wife. I couldn't love my children until I came in touch with the cross. And so God really did. And we wonder, well, how can it be? Why is it that love languishes? I'll tell you why it languishes. It languishes because of our lack of a proper acquaintance with the cross. Now, that seems a strange statement to make. And if we shut down and went home right there, well, it would maybe not have any sense to it at all. But you see, what God does is when he brings me into agreement with the cross, well, that agreement with the cross has the capability to devastate my old life, my old man. When I truly agree, when I truly reckon myself to be under the authority of that cross, then God devastates the old man. He is absolutely devastated. He comes to a right place because that commandment, that work of the cross has the power to end the old man. And it's only then that I can begin to be put back together by the fullness of God's Spirit in me. And I begin to have a relationship of true power of the love of God flowing down into my life. The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us. Well, that isn't strange, is it? Because you know, the nature of the Holy Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace. You know, as the Spirit of God shows his many-faceted nature, love shows up first. It's of paramount importance. And so it isn't strange, is it, to think that I would be filled with love. Indeed, I should be filled with love. Because whereas I never have enough love, now I have a compassion that's brought about simply because I'm devastated by my agreement with the cross. Now, if I'm not devastated, I haven't really agreed. That God should bring me to the place, and I would think that the fullness of this understanding of the cross is, that I am smashed, I am broken. We say devastated because it has psychological implications. Now, God is able to break my spirit and give me a broken and a loving spirit when I understand the cross. If I do not understand the cross, I will never love as I ought to love. I will be committed to try to train a poor man with a deficiency of love into a more polite circle, into a more ethical mode, some way to try to love when I don't have the love of God pouring into my heart. The love of God will pour in as fast as I'm able to pour it out. I believe that to be true. I need to practice being a lover, but I need to practice it in light of the cross. I see other poor sinners just like me, not any different. And so God inspires me because, you know, as God calls me into such a complete agreement with Him and such love of God so that my heart, my soul, and my mind are gathered up in the whole thing in a complete, closed circuit, where God is able to allow me an appreciation of God because at last a whole man is drawn into the thing. And I've tried to piecemeal it out. I've tried to do love in little sections and small packages. And God has never been able to deal with me in these options that I've tried to exercise because my whole mind, you see, has to be involved. And my heart needs to be involved in it. My emotions need to be involved in it. My intellect needs to be involved. And so as I at last see that God has done a tremendous work of love, I witness it at the cross. And my agreement will send me away full of love. Now when I'm out of agreement, I will not have much success with my Christian life. Whether I'm out of agreement with the fact of the cross and the necessity of that provision of God or whether I'm out of agreement with the disposition of sin or whether I'm out of agreement and I am not trusting Him to sustain me through this valley, however this life, however dark the valley may be, well then I have difficulties with my Christian life. I'm not in obedience to Him. And so He says the second commandment is like the first one, that I'm to love my neighbor as myself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Now God has an intent to bring us back into a new law but into a new obligation because justification does not come from obedience to this law, but victory comes from obedience to the law. It is a rule of grace, you see, and whereas all laws that are exercised are coercive, you see, I'm not to fail in these laws without being subject to punishment. I will pay a price. But God's law is horditive. It invites me into a place of fellowship. And He anticipates obedience. Isn't that amazing? You know that any law that's written anticipates disobedience. You ever thought of that? Don't go over 50 miles an hour or else. And so as a law is inflexible and punitive and it anticipates failure, because all law anticipates failure. But the law of love and the law of grace anticipates fulfillment and obedience. Now I say this because we may think that we're letting the bars down to our obligation. We have an obligation to love. And that's why the scripture furthermore says that our obligation relates to others, me being able to love people like I love myself. Now that's the chap that I really understand. I do everything for him. I make sure he gets fed. We do our best to keep him presentable, warm, housed. And yet God would have me certify the nature of my relationship to him by loving other people. And, you know, I think this is that portion that Gene Dreyer, pastor down at the University Church in Gainesville, believes to be the central verse in Revival. And it is central in the sense that when at last we look at what's happening and we ask whether the product of God's desire is full on us, well, it is indeed a very testing verse. But it's strange then, isn't it, that as the Lord Jesus Christ, on another occasion in speaking in John 13, and we all know the thing so well, you almost find this verse on every piece of literature that comes out of the Canadian Revival Fellowship, the verse in John 13, 34, A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another, this part in particular. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. This is the evidence that cannot be hid. You know, it's impossible to hide love. I've discovered that. You know, you have the same old hard-bitten face. You know, you're not framed any different, but when God does a work in your life, well, then the inside of your life somehow begins to be seen on the outside. And folks can recognize this. Oh, isn't it strange how much energy and how much agony we go through in order to try to sell the church, in order to try to sell the program of the church, when God makes it certain that if we only loved one another, everyone around would know that we're His little learners. Because that's all God asks us to be. Sometimes we think, well, we need to be Sunday school teachers or preachers or popes. When really, what the neighborhood wants to see is whether we are little learners or not. And here we are now with a complete weapon at our disposal. Because He says, I want you to love one another as I have loved you. And by this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. What we need is godly love. It's been said, you know, that in human love we look at the loveliness of the object. We look at the delightfulness of the object, the target of our human love. And we're able to respond, we dig some love up and we meet. We meet that delightfulness that's in the object. But in God, the love is in the lover. God Himself possesses the love. He has the love. He is the love. And so when the love begins to come into my life, it doesn't go out on such shabby basis as to whether someone else deserves the love. I just want us to just think a minute on what the love of God really is. I think it's important for us to distinguish the nature of the love. Because God's love is different than our love. We scarcely have a framework of definition in our own love. We desire to find folks around us that are lovable and we can never find them. They're so different from us. I think in my own life how it went within the church, you know, became so frustrated. I didn't know that no one could keep me from loving Him. Until at last God began to give me resources. And then I found out that no one could keep me from loving Him. You know, I sat under the preaching of many men for many years. I never heard a preacher say it's better to love than to hate. I guess you're supposed to know that. That it's better to love than to hate. It's better to always to love than to hate. There's never a time when hating is as good as love. Love is an absolute virtue. And you know, when God began to reveal this truth, and as He's able to reveal it so quickly, and I can't understand for the life of me how God could do it so quickly to turn us away from that old form, that old hate. Because I would say this, beloved, that if our hearts emerge into a new plane of joy and peace, well then some work has already been done in our hearts. God has already started pouring that love into our hearts. I had to share of a lady that I hated in the church. She'd been a malicious gossiper in the church. And you know, when our meetings were just about a week old, not quite a week old, we were finishing up the first week. We were Saturday night in the gym. We had our coffee session. And this lady was there, you know, and I'd systematically ignored her. And my wife, you know, we were standing there drinking coffee, and my wife said, there she is. Give me a little, you know, how wives are supposed to do. She nudged me a little and said, there she is. And I said, I see her. Now I don't know why my wife bumped me like that, because I didn't say I'm going to make sure I see her and get things right. She knew I didn't have to tell her that. My wife and I had come into a new relationship with God where we each had to learn all of a sudden how to love God more than we loved each other. You see, we really had. And so this was, so I guess that God must have been telling her the same things that he was telling me. So she just knew that I'd have to see this lady. And I said, I see her. And pretty soon she was alone. And I went over and there began a godly relationship of love between me and that woman. And it went on for about three years until she left the church. I was praying for her husband. He had a bad back. He had a stone yard. You know, you could easily ruin your back every other day. I used to send those stones up on the trucks. And her son was sick up in Sheboygan. He had recurring infections. She had a daughter with congenital kidney problem. And God filled me full of love for her. Guess what it was that I loved? I loved what she didn't have. It was what she wasn't. That at last God enabled me not to love her for what she was, but for what she wasn't. I saw she was the same poor kind of sinner that God dealt with at the cross. Namely me. She was exactly the same because God had devastated me at the cross. And it was possible for me to say that at last I had a broken spirit. Now the advantage of a broken spirit and the necessity of a broken spirit is simply that God wants to have the right to continually move about all the parts of my spirit. My spirit should not become compacted. It shouldn't become like stone. Watchman Nee says when God breaks it, it's as if he broke a little cake. And then he gently put it back together and from then on it'll break along the same lines. Well I don't know if that's exactly true. But I do sense that God wants a brokenness in our hearts in order that we may love. That's what I'm really saying this morning. The brokenness that Calvary has brought in order that we may love. Without it we will never love. We will never love. I believe this is one of the absolutes of our ongoing walk. And this does not mean that we don't need to come to a place when the old man gets hold of the side of the coffin. He pulls himself up out of the grave. You see him and you know and you think well what I'll do is I'll stomp his fingers back down into the coffin again. But you didn't notice and he got clean out of the coffin. And you got to march him back to the place of devastation. You got to take him by his tin ear and take him back where he belongs. He has no right to survive because if he survives then love can't survive. You will always measure the other fellow off in some comparative way to your own life. And only when I see that I have no right to survive except in the form that God will raise up. Well then I begin to be a lover. I can be a practicing lover. I don't need to spare any of it. I can pour it out. In our first crusade over Prince Albert a good many nine years ago we learned this lesson in the prayer room. We had a chap that on the second time round we had nice big prayer meetings in the Saturday morning men's meetings. And we ran about 50 or 60 men in those meetings and we ran all morning from 7 in the morning till noon. And it was the second time around. You know we had missionaries down from the north country from the Indians. It just so happened they had a conference in town that week because you know God knew missionaries needed to get revived too. I just I even wonder who needs revival more than a missionary. I don't know if there's anybody except me. You see. Wouldn't need revival more than a missionary. And the missionary shared but we had this one fellow and he was a very pillar in the church. Except he was a bitter pillar. I don't know what a pillar is made out of when it's bitter. But he was a bitter pillar. He'd been in there for years and you know some of the more recent movements in the church had set him back to where he didn't have much prominence. But when this fellow prayed he could if you asked him to pray for your mother-in-law he'd put her right in the Psalms and pray for her. Oh yes he would. He'd pray right on. The man was the most eloquent prayer I ever heard in my life. I've never heard anything like it. He must have known every Psalm. All he'd do would be take David out and put your mother-in-law in. Nice for someone to be able to say something nice about your mother-in-law right? But you know at the end of the meeting was really running down and this brother sensed that he was the only man that had not responded. And finally his hand went up just about that high. It didn't get just a little high. And so I asked him, what is it brother? And he said, I want you to pray for my wife. She has MS and she doesn't understand me. That was what he said. I was astounded. I sank. There were two doctors that visited those meetings. We had one in there that time. He was also the church argumenter. He had a stethoscope. It was kind of hung out. We were all bowed with our heads kind and we decided we'd pray. And someone prayed and noted how that love is therapeutic. Love can go out. Love can heal. The doctor is nodding his head. He knows it's true too. You see the point is that we can carry our love. And when we ask God for that love, we can take it to the farthest corner of the church. We can take it to the farthest corner of the community. But if we look for us to find enough of our own, I warrant you, you won't be able to spare it. You won't be able to spare it. You'll have to get it in order to give it. And so we need to take that love and go with it. So it's amazing that even though love is so important, even though it's not disguised, even though it's elevated to such a doctrinal position, it's so significant in its giving, so that Jesus doesn't even so much as hesitate to tell us how important it is, we somehow have to hold back because we just don't know where to get that love. We just don't know where to get it. We need so much of it. And we don't know where to get it. Because we have such a revulsion at bringing that self-man to where at last the cross will be able to devastate him by his own agreement. He is devastated not only by the cross, but by his agreement. It's his agreement that devastates him. When he falls out of agreement, he begins to heal up. All the cracks begin to disappear. He shows that same old solid form. Why is it? Because agreement has failed. My life's fallen out of agreement with God. If I am in agreement with God, I have revival. When I disagree with God, I need revival. A simple thing. An agreement with Him over all of the aspects of living. By this, all men will know that you're my disciples. If you have love one to another. You know, there's a terrible price, apparently, on love. I think of when we move into the arena of conflict. Only by pride cometh contention. Ralph quoted that verse. Proverbs 13, 10. And you know, I argued with that for years. I thought, I can't really be so. But at last, it seems so clearly evident. So positive. And so right. That it's only by pride that contention comes. And contention is an aspect of my failure to love. I would rather contend than to love. I cannot give up. It will cost me the price of giving up my contention. If I'm going to love. And so we need to ask ourselves if we're real poverty stricken. If we are real paupers. Are we paupers, beloved? Are we paupers? And is that why we can't love? Because we're paupers? And we're stingy because we think we have something that is carnal. And that is somehow worth. It has the value of self to it. And we do not evaluate the true value of love. You know, our right to be our self, man. That's the chap. Oh, if I give him up. Well, I tell you what. God wants to show us that we can easily relinquish. We can afford to give that rascal up. It's not easy to see. But you know, that's really where the struggle comes. Because that rascal is so insistent on surviving. Now, when the scripture tells us in Romans 13. And he says, Oh, no man anything but to love one another. He opens up a possibility to my mind. Because you know, we take the negative part of this thing. In order to avoid entering into fiscal agreements, mortgages, contracts. And really what the scripture is saying here is. That I'm not to owe any man anything. And very frequently and almost exclusively in the world we live in. We have a thing that's called equity. That forbids us from really getting involved with a banker. Or with a mortgager. Whereby we would be really thought to have taken an unsecured loan. You see, you can't do it. I mean, it's almost impossible for you to get an unsecured loan. If you had an unsecured loan, you'd be going. But really, when you have the car. Well, you're going to give the car up. Then the man's not in jeopardy of you. Coming into a place where he'll ultimately be defrauded. There's very little chance. He's doing this because he'll earn money. And you have a contract. But when God says, oh no man anything but to love him. Well, what he's really saying is that I can't run myself out of this obligation. That's what he's really saying. What he's saying is after I've loved you, I still owe you love. You see. If I just got done loving you. Well, I haven't even made a dent in the problem. I owe you love, love, love, love and more love. There's absolutely no possibility of me fulfilling my obligation to you to love you. I'm under continual obligation. I'm under absolute command and continual obligation. Now, I'd just like to say this. That you know, I had a little opportunity to become involved in this kind of thing. In different areas when God first did a new work in my life. And I want to say it's so much better to love. It is so much fun to love. It is really delightful to love. And you know, once God will get at my heart and begin to fill me full of his love. I find that some of my stuff can even get fried loose. My money, my concern, my hospitality. All of the things, you know, that should go along in order to confirm love. So that the human man also comes along. And God has him in tow. And God has him in tow because God is pouring that love. The love of God is shed abroad in our heart. Oh, how for how many years it was only trickled in. We just trickled in in self-appreciation of our salvation. We didn't have a Lord. Who will deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ, my Lord. My Lordship. All I had was a Savior. Didn't have a Lord. No wonder my selfishness was so clear to see. Because there was no Lordship. Oh, no man anything but to love one another. For he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness. Thou shalt not covet. And if there be any other commandment. Now I like that. Because we fell in pretty hard times down in our area. I don't know how it is in your area. But we've had a pretty bitter time resisting the onslaughts of the world. Down in our part of the United States and Michigan. Because you know the society is so manifestly evil. There's no question about it. And we like to fix all kinds of rules. And so we put rules on top of our rules. But the scripture here says. After citing the first few important rules. And if there be any other commandment. It is briefly comprehended in this saying. Namely thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. And the whole reason. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor. I wouldn't think of hurting my neighbor if I love him. I wouldn't think of it. I could hurt him accidentally. But it would break my heart to hurt my neighbor. But I will not work ill. And so you know as we look at some of the propositions that we see. We see some of the effrontery of people in this society. As they do things in our presence that offend us. You know they never stop to ask whether we would be offended. And get past the offensiveness of their own personal nature. But we don't want to offend folk. Love covers the multitude of offenses. In our relationships one to another. The multitude of sins. Now the kind of sins that we're. First Peter 4.8. The kind of sins we're talking about. Is our offensiveness to one another. Now love covers the multitude of offenses. And so we're able to walk in a social sense. In relationship with one another. Within the church. Because we have love. We have a true relationship. With whom we are. On account of the fact. That our agreement with God has devastated the self. The old man. He's raised him up. And gathered. And gathered in some. Some of the. Factors. The blessings of the Holy Spirit. Now you know in 1st John 1. I just want us to look at this. Because we're not going to have a long message. But. Just to bring forth a few of these. Of these things that I. Believe are important. But you know in 1st John 1.3. It says. Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us. That we should be called. The children of God. The Greek word there means. The little born ones of God. By the way I have noticed. That in the King James. There are a few kind of macho. Transinterpretations of some of these words. And maybe in John 1.12. There's a similar one. Where the same word is used. Where son seems to be systematically put in. And where the truth is. That God's talking about his little born ones. You see. He's talking about his little born ones. You know when I think of the dear sisters. That sometimes. They have to have a real capacity for interpretation. Don't they. Define themselves in some of the things we say. They really do. God bless them. Because I'm sure. I'm sure they're better than we are. You know. Or they could never do it. They have a more gentle spirit. And I know. Anybody that knows my wife. Would have some idea of what this means. She has no visible self life. That I've hardly noticed. And I've lived with her for 20 years. Now that's quite a. A hard thing to. To be able to say. You know. In order to be able to say that. There has to be some substance to it. And. And. So I say. I say. My conviction is that. That sometimes. Ladies are short changed. But it says. Look at the kind of love. And by the way. This is. This is what's. What we would call an interrogative adjective. I check different translations. Because usually. We're talking about. Usually we're talking about a quantity. We're talking about an ocean of love. Oh look how much love. But that's not what God's saying. He's not saying. Look how much love. And all the modern translations. Bring this across. As though. As though we are. Talking about a whole. A whole lot of love. But what God's talking about. Is a different kind of love. The Greek word is potopone. And what it talks about. Is the. Is the quality of the love. The kind of love. Look at the kind of love. Well in the first place. The love had to be such. In order for us to be called. The little children of God. The love had to be such. That God would be able to make us. The little children. Because he couldn't call us. What he hadn't made us. He would never lie about it. And so he really brought us across. To where we were. By the grace and mercy. And by the work of his. Of his gospel. He makes us little children. And then he calls us little children. Which is great. And I'm for that. But you know when we look at this. We don't still get a hold of the handle. Because you know. This does not tell us necessarily. What that love of God is. And I think it's just. It's very significant to me. That God puts a little portion out. For our examinee. Oh there are more than this one. I'm certain. And I've seen a few others. That I thought I should correlate. And get into focus. But you know in Matthew 9. There's an interesting portion. That sort of tells us. What the love of God is. And how it is. And when we begin to see this. We realize the importance. Of God bringing us. To this new position of love. Where at last we pour love out. Because God gives. We pour it out. Because of our love. Of the human family. Because we are heartbroken. Like Jesus was. While we were able to manifest God's love. Because when we were still sinners. Christ died for us. He didn't wait until we were good enough. He loved us when we were still sinners. He loves the world that isn't saved. And so in order to understand this. We need to see what his nature is. It is in the nature of God. To love sinners. What can he love about us? What is it about sinners? Some of the gross sinners. That not only are immersed in sin themselves. And who wallow in sin. But teach others to do sin. You could say. Well that kind of a chap. Probably never gets into heaven. But we see certain examples of that. Where the offensiveness of Paul. For example. Meets the response of the grace of God. As he is verily an enemy of the church. And he's transformed. And changed. And brought into the family of God. But you'll notice in the portion in Matthew 9 there. Where it says in Matthew 9.36. After Jesus had been doing his ministry healing. It says. But when he saw the multitudes. He was moved with compassion on them. Now compassion is a broken hearted kind of love. You know. I believe that compassion is the kind of love that I have. When I visualize myself. In the same trouble. The same kind of stress. And the same kind of threat. And so here's Jesus. And he has the capacity. To look on this crowd and have compassion. Because in all things he was tested. Or tempted like as we. And yet without sin. And we don't have a high priest. That can't be touched with the feeling of our infirmity. And he's out there in the field. And he sees the multitude out there. And he knows what it means to be out in the field. But it says he was moved with compassion. Because they fainted. You see. That's why he was moved with compassion. Because they fainted. It wasn't because they were such great folk. And they were all enlisted in the calling program. That's not why he loved them. He says they were fainted. And they were scattered abroad. That's why he loved them. They were disorganized. He looked at them and he thought. Oh wow. Look. They're disorganized. These poor folks. These poor folks. Are fainting. And they're disorganized. And they don't have a leader. The last point. They don't have a shepherd. He sees them just as if. They were sheep. And when a sheep has no headship. He's miserable and has no capacity to lead himself. And all human beings are gathered into that same picture. By God as he makes it clear to us. That we're nothing more than sheep. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. The Old and New Testament form. Places us in the place of abject need. Of leadership. We must have leadership. We are folks that cannot go on alone. And so when David sees his own position. He does not deny. Does he? But in poetic form he says. I am a sheep. He says the Lord is my shepherd. You think of the great poet. The greatest of all poets. Putting it down in poetry. He says I'm only a sheep. You see the Lord is my shepherd. For the great general. The great king. The great poet. To be under the headship. And to be no more than a sheep. Under the staff and the crook. Of God Almighty. What a precious picture. And so we see this. And we see the compassion. Of Jesus going out. He says the harvest truly is plenteous. I just want to say one thing about that beloved. As the scripture says over and over. That the harvest is plenteous. I want you to know. That everyone somewhere deep down in his heart. Longs to be picked. Did you ever think of that? What is the white harvest? And what is the plenteous harvest? Except those parts of the harvest. That are ready to be picked. And my belief is that somehow they long to be picked. But they don't long to be embarrassed. They need to hear clearly. They need to see the evidence of God's work in our lives. But in this context. As we see the Lord Jesus. Reaching out in compassion. And seeing these folk. It's as if he sees himself involved in the same kind of need. And he loves them for what they aren't. He doesn't love them for what they are. And so this is the secret. This is what godly love is. Godly love always goes out toward need. It never goes out because it sees somebody who parts their hair right. Or somebody who has a potential to be moral. Or ethical. But it goes out to somebody who has a need. And so God always loves for what we aren't. Not for what we are. His desire is to bring us into his fold. And make us what he knows we may be. If we allow him to do a work in us. And so that's why basically and essentially. In revival we come to a new arrangement with God. Oh our works may flow out with much activity. With many deeds. But first of all. We come to a place where we settle the whole question with God over what we are. That I simply want to be what he wants me to be. And the other kinds of things will come along. And so these things then. What is God's desire for me in love? Well his desire for me is that I should love him with all my heart. With all my soul. And with all my mind. And I should get launched off on that. Because it will be an eternity of love. It will stretch out into eternity. It's not a love that will stop and find it's fulfillment. God doesn't say no I want this love to find it's fulfillment right this moment in your life. Well that would be too bad. Your wife wouldn't even like that. If you loved her like that and then didn't love her anymore. God wants your relationship of love with him. To gain an instant reality. You see because we think right away because of the terms that are given here. With all my heart. With all my soul. And with all my mind. That it's got to peak out and press. And tap off. And that's it. And that's not so. But it's God's eagerness to bring me. To induct me. Into a love relationship with him. And I tell you it sure helps when you know your wife comes into this shape. So you've got to love your wife. With all your heart. You've got to love her unconditionally. So that together you can both together cooperate. It would be much easier for you. When you both learn to love God. And know that you love one another somewhat less. Than you love God. We have a little bit to say about that tomorrow. And talk about fearlessness. But just to understand. That God's desire for me is. That I owe everyone love. I hope I'm not overdoing it. I know I'm not. But let's ask God to bless us. Lord you've said every good gift and every perfect gift is from above. And it comes down from the father of lights. We thank you Lord for your great. And holy gift of our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord for the gift of the spirit. We delight oh Lord God that you're able to pour out to us such necessary things. As we look to you Lord in light of our. Our need of the love we can't find in ourselves. We just thank you for these hopes and expectations. We wait before you. And Lord our purpose is and our determination is. To pour out love. And Lord we just thank you that you stand willing. And ready pouring in more love. Than we can pour out. Now we thank you for this encouragement. Minister to us. Bring to us the reality. Of this matter. And we know that maybe the reality is hard to see in the doctrine. But Lord it cannot be hidden. As we manifest it. In the walking of our lives. And in the receiving. Of your holy gifts. We ask your blessing in Jesus name. Amen.