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Love That's Been Through Fire
00:03:02
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| If you're going to hold your family together, if you're going to make it in the 21st century as a family, you are going to have to deal with offense. | |
| It's going to come. | |
| Jesus said, offenses will come. | |
| You're going to be hurt. | |
| Anybody can get along as long as there's no conflict. | |
| As long as you have the same mindset and you agree on everything and same theology, anybody can get along. | |
| The title of the book implies love like you've never been hurt means it's love that's been tested. | |
| It's love that's been through the fire. | |
| It's love that's been tried. | |
| It's love that's hit bottom and you didn't see any hope and didn't know how in the world would this thing ever be put back together again. | |
| I know what that feels like. | |
| I've been there. | |
| I know what that feels like. | |
| And it is a hopeless feeling. | |
| And yet the answer is right in front of you. | |
| You have to love like you've never been hurt. | |
| There's two chapters in the Bible that God said these subjects are important enough, only these two subjects, to give an entire chapter in the Bible to. | |
| One is faith, Hebrews chapter 11, and one is love, 1 Corinthians 13. | |
| And love is a big deal. | |
| And I love that scripture in 1 Corinthians 13 that says love never fails. | |
| It never fails. | |
| It never fails. | |
| If you will keep loving, if you will keep reaching, if you will keep calling, if you will keep asking, if you will keep texting, if you will keep going to counseling, whatever it is you have to do. | |
| And we had to do it and still do sometimes. | |
| So what's so bad about admitting I need help in my family? | |
| I think one of the greatest miracles in the Bible, Jim, is when Jesus walked in the synagogue and he said to the man with the withered hand, stretch forth your hand. | |
| And he had to make a decision at that moment. | |
| There was a lot of people like in this studio. | |
| And when Jesus put him on the spot, he could have raised, he didn't say raise your withered hand. | |
| He said, stretch forth your hand. | |
| He could have raised his well-manicured, good hand, healthy hand, normal hand. | |
| But the moment he exposed the withered place of his life, the moment that he said, I'm not perfect and I don't have it together, and I could walk in church and put on a plastic fake Christianity. | |
| You hear a lot about fake news and fake this. | |
| We have fake Christians. | |
| That's right. | |
| That's right. | |
| And we need to take the withered places of our life and say, my family is in a mess and I need God's help. | |
| I need God's love. | |
| I need God's anointing and presence in my home again. | |
| God can do that. | |
| The moment he exposed the withered place of his life, instantly the hand was healed and restored. | |