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[MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] Spirit of God, sing among my heart.

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We live a life full of exultance new. Stood to my weakness, mighty as the waters, The earth made me lovely as I ought to know. ♪ As the country flows ♪

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♪ The people and king ♪ ♪ Oh, so my home, son ♪ ♪ Lord and strength and mine ♪ ♪ I've seen thy cross, friend ♪

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♪ Teach my heart to fear ♪ ♪ O let me see thee ♪ ♪ And hold that dear heart ♪ Teach me to love thee as thine angels come.

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One holy passion filling all my brain. ♪ God, in we all love ♪ ♪ Heav'nly Saint and God ♪ ♪ My Lord and Master ♪

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♪ And my God and Man ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ - John 3:16 is this word. For God so loved the world

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that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. The subject of the message, God's love life.

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God's love life. Our text is one of the most celebrated passages of Holy Scripture. It's called the golden text of the Bible

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because it is the heart of the Christian gospel. These words vividly and eloquently describe God's love life. God so loved the world.

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God is a great lover. And we do well to consider his love life. There was a very popular physician in Waco a number of years ago.

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And one of the first questions that he ask all of his patients was, "How is your love life? How is your love life?" And for him the answer to this question was a key to finding out what was wrong with the patient. If an individual can see God, he sees himself as he ought to be.

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He not only sees himself as he ought to be, he sees himself as he really is. Nicodemus came to see Jesus by night. Nicodemus is a man in the dark. in the dark about himself. He does not know who he is. He does not know what he is to

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do. He does not know where he is going. He is in the dark. He's in the dark about the eternal reality. He is a disciple of the night. His lack of knowledge has caused in him a sickness, a sickness of spirit, a soul sickness. So he comes to the great physician. He comes at the most convenient time, he comes under the cover of darkness. He comes to the one who is

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thoroughly capable of analyzing his condition. When he comes to Jesus, he finds that light which shines in the darkness. The light that shines in the darkness because the darkness cannot put it out. And Jesus sees his trouble. He sees that he is spiritually dead. His life is empty, without meaning. You see Nicodemus is a

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captive of dull, drab nothingness. He has his terminal degree. He has the prestige of a learned and distinguished rabbi in Israel. He is a member of the powerful Sanhedrin court. He has the responsibility of telling people how to live. But Nicodemus is an organization man. He's caught up with the bureaucratic maze. He's methodical and

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calculating in his manner. He has the form but no force. He has facts but without living faith. And what he really lacks is a life of love.

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And so many people are in the position of Nicodemus. We do so many things that we don't put our heart in. We may work on a job, but our hearts may not be in it. We may even proclaim God's words with our lips,

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but our hearts may not be in it. We may sing his praises with our lips, Our hearts may not be in it. There are people that will do many things

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that you ask them to do, but they have certain reservations. Their hearts are not in it. And you see, putting your heart in what you do

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has to do with loving. The Apostle Paul says in that great hymn of love, Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not love, though I do all of this and I have a great deal of eloquence, if my heart is not in it. Though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries, but if my heart is not in it.

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Though I give my body to be burned, if my heart is not in it, all of this is nothing. This is the situation which Nicodemus finds himself in. And what Jesus says to him is that Nicodemus, what you really need is to become a new you. What you need Nicodemus is love and then Jesus proceeds to describe the love life of God. In other words he presents a

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kind of mirror in which Nicodemus can see himself and we always when we look at God we sort of see what God wants us to be. We see ourselves as we really are. He did not concern himself with the love life here of Nicodemus. What he did was to have him to look at the love life of God so he could get a clear view of

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himself and his possibilities. God so loved the world. God's love for the world is his action in human history for God demonstrates his love. His love is expressed in concrete acts. God loves the world and his love life is not shut up been a cage. It's active. He pursues the world, so to speak. God's love follows us

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wherever we go. There is no place that we can go and escape the love of God, though I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea. Though I make my bed in hell, wherever I am, God's love follows me. We cannot escape the love of God.

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God so loves the world. The world is the domain of darkness. It's the dwelling place of error. The world is the dwelling place of demonic forces, yet God loves the world.

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There is light that shines in the darkness, people of many races and tongues, and yet God loves all of them. For you see God's love is not confined to one race of people. It's not confined to a particular nation or a particular clan.

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God's love embraces the world. The world is all there was. In other words, God loves all there was. God loves all there is.

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This means that God loves everyone. Great is his love. It's wide enough to embrace the world. loves all there was and in as much as he loves all there was God gives all he had.

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Isn't that a wonderful thing? God loves all there was. You know there are certain parts of you, well I like this part of you but I don't like the other part of you. And And then so often we give and we have certain reservations. We hold back.

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Many of us are very careful about how much we let people know about us. We only give a certain part of ourselves. And the other part we are going to hold in reservation.

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I used to hear people say a great deal when I was a boy, I'm going to save myself. I'm gonna look out for myself, I'm gonna save myself. But the objective of God's love here

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is the world God loves all there was and he gave all he had. And so you see, his love is expressed in universal terms. His love has no limits, no boundaries.

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It's all embracing and it's not a trivial thing. His love is great. It's universal and yet it's particular. So well, oh, it's good, Reverend,

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to talk about God loves the world, but what about me? Well, God loves us not only collectively, God loves us individually. He loves everybody, but he loves me, he loves you.

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It's very personal, God loves all of us. God loves you. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.

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God so loved us that he gave all he had for us. the only begotten Son. In other words, no reservations, no competition here, nothing is withheld. God so loves us that he gives us his heart. The heart of God is given for the world and that's God's concern for every living creature, every creature made in his

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image God is concerned. God loves the world. He gave the heart, he gave his heart for the world and the heart of God is Jesus Christ. And so to love like God is to give your heart. That's his love life. You don't have to look very far to see people when we think about love like most of us think about giving our bodies. That's just a part of ourselves.

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Just around on 11th Street, you can hardly pass without finding someone on the corner who wants to give her body for a price. Most of the time when we think about love life, what we think about. God wants more than that. Some people say, "Well, yes, Reverend, I go to church. I have my body there in the sanctuary." That's good, just to have your body, but God

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wants more than your body. We can go to hell with our body. Nicodemus, you're a man that high position but Nicodemus, look at God's love life. You are a man acquainted with the law but what is the first law? Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy mind, with all thy body, soul, mind, spirit. Thou shalt love the Lord with all you've got."

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That's what that really means. God gave all he had for all there was and if we would pattern our love life after the love life of God we would give all we've got. We've put our hearts in it. We're not only have our bodies but our minds, our thoughts, our will, our all. And that's why we sing, "I surrender all."

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It's to walk in the steps of the Master. You see, loving is giving. It's giving Giving yourself. Giving yourself. And so often we give people so many things

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and I give them myself. I had a friend who was having some family difficulties. He was saying to me, "Marvin, I don't understand. "I give my wife a fine home.

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"I give her a car. "She has a fine car. all the clothes that she wants to have and I asked him I said what have you given her yourself? She can have all of those things and a lot and then really if you are not sharing yourself if you're not sharing your life if not somehow you are blended together and sharing your spirit, spirit to spirit and this is what God is talking about to really live is to participate in God's love life.

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So you see, loving is giving. It's really giving yourself away. I spoke a few moments ago about keeping yourself. And people who try to keep themselves for themselves never really learn to live. You can be a hermit and you can build a wall around ourselves, but somehow to share ourselves, to give ourselves away. That's what it means to live. There have been many

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people when we started looking in history for the outstanding people, they weren't the people who kept themselves for themselves. We began to name the great people that are remembered for their outstanding achievements in history. They are people who gave of themselves. They gave themselves away. They forgot about themselves and in forgetting about themselves, they found immortality by giving themselves away.

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That's participating in the love life of God. God's love life. God so loved the world that he gave himself for us. that whosoever believeth in him, whosoever commits himself to God's love, whosoever empties himself in the love of God, finds himself made anew. Whosoever surrenders himself to God's love becomes a new creature. You become a new humanity.

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You are lifted to a higher level. Loving is giving. Loving is living. Whosoever believe within him, whosoever participates in that love should not perish, should not perish, should not be in bondage to decay. A lot of this stuff we so caught up in is decay. It's going to pass away. It's going to corrupt. And many people become slaves

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to that which will decay. We find ourselves in bondage to decay. And so those who are in bondage to decay perish. But God's love life is given to us as a pattern,

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as an example, that we may not be in bondage to decay. So there are two destinies before us, life and death. And he that hath the love life of God, he that hath Jesus Christ as the guiding star in his life,

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hath eternal life. And you see the wonderful thing about it is that he hath, look at that scripture. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever

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believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. Now it says have, that means right now. Now most of us think about having eternal life when we die and go to heaven, have the judgment later. But it's talking about a present judgment is right now. They call that realized eschatology. In other words, the

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last is right here now. That the those who accept Jesus Christ are saved here and now. We don't have to worry about the hereafter. We've got it now. Right now. Paul Tiddick calls it the eternal now. That the eternal is now. That whatever God has to give. He's just given us a foretaste of it right now. We don't have to wait. The

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judgment is now. Nicodemus, you have a name that means conqueror. It means that you are a ruler of the people, but if you would be a conqueror you must possess this love that is characterized by the love life of God. This is the love that must guide you. This is the love that does not let go. this is the love that keeps us keeping on. This is the love that saves us. This

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is the love that redeems us. Oh thanks be to God for this love. For with this love we are more than conquerors. With this love no matter what happens, if we have this love, if If somehow we've given our hearts to God, as God has given his heart to the world, we give our hearts to God.

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Paul talks about it. So yes, I said at the feet of Gamaliel, I have received my training, and I have all of the prestige that one could have.

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I was a Pharisee of Pharisees. I was of the tribe of Benjamin. I have all of these things, But I count all of this as nothing.

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But he says, I am persuaded, when he looks at his life. He said, well now, Paul, you're a prisoner most of the time. You're being talked about. You are being humiliated.

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He said, yes, but I am persuaded. I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things which are, or things which are to come shall be able to separate us

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from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Thanks be to God for the love life that he has given to us. Thanks be to God for his love that will not let go of us, for his love that tracks us down like the hound of heaven.

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Thanks be to God for that love. As we come now to the time of commitment, the time of decision, we invite you, we call upon you, we plead with you to make a public witness, a dedication, to unite with the family of God for those of us who are entrusted with the responsibility of revealing in

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concrete ways the love life of God. Show forth His love in all that we do. We invite you to come. We invite you to unite. We invite you to accept God's love and to and make it known today as we sing. Just as I am.

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(choir singing) ♪ The land I love, I share for thee ♪ ♪ And that thou didst become to me ♪ ♪ O man, of God my God, my God ♪

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[ Music ] ♪ Raging out to rid my soul ♪ ♪ Of all the blood that we have shed ♪ ♪ And raise each spark of flame ♪

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♪ From all our God, our God ♪ ♪ 'Cause as I am, so will be seen ♪ ♪ With earth, love, and man's truth be ♪ ♪ Because I know, 'cause I believe ♪

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♪ All that I've done, I've done ♪ ♪ I know ♪ [MUSIC] [INAUDIBLE]

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[INAUDIBLE] [MUSIC PLAYING] [INAUDIBLE] [ Music ]

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[INAUDIBLE] O Bishop John Dolly, here on the Father, we thank you for your love life, for giving of yourself, for giving all you have, for all that you are. [INAUDIBLE] [inaudible]

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[inaudible] [ Music ] [BLANK_AUDIO]