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Hendersonville Seventh-day Adventist Church, NC

Brian Hindman

I Principle You

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.

And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all knowledge and all mysteries, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not charity, I am nothing.

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

Charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things, charity never faileth.

But whether there be prophecies, they shall fail.

Whether there be tongues, they shall cease.

Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, But when that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away When I was a child I spake as a child.

But when I became a man, I put away childish things.

For now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face.

Now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I am known.

And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these 3, but the greatest of these is charity." Good morning everyone.

Our subject this morning is, I principle you.

If that doesn't make sense to you, well it was somewhat intended to be that way.

By the end of this message it should be clear, I hope crystal clear, what that actually means.

And our subject is actually found in your Bible, as all subjects should be found from our worship services.

It's found in your Bible, and we're gonna look at how God loves us.

How God loves us, and I want to startle you just a bit this morning and suggest that I don't know, maybe I shouldn't say it too harshly, I'm not sure we understand what love really is.

It's something that's often talked about but not, in my understanding, as I've come to study it out more recently, clearly understood at all.

Well, because the Bible tells us that God is love and if we are going to reflect his character we must have love.

Well I want to share a quick story with you as we launch in this morning to our subject, I Principle You.

It's the story of a Vietnam War veteran named Dave Reaver.

Dave at a young age was drafted into the Vietnam War back in the 1960s, and he had just recently gotten married.

He had a young wife, and they decided to wait until after the Vietnam War until starting a family Because he didn't want his wife to get pregnant and have a child and he didn't know how long he'd be away and then she would have to raise the child with him gone.

So we're gonna wait until he comes back, he said, to start a family.

Well while he was away in Vietnam, of course tragedy struck and he was holding up a grenade.

It was a phosphorus grenade, and he was about to throw that when a sniper shot and hit him, or the grenade, or something, I'm not sure the exact, anyway, it caused the grenade to explode.

And phosphorus, when it explodes, it burns at around 5, 000 degrees Fahrenheit.

And so, he was, on his right side, he was severely burned.

His ear and his eye and everything gone, and phosphorus, even in water, I guess, it doesn't go out, the burning.

And so he happened to be on a boat, a patrol boat, and he jumped into the water immediately and tried, and anyway, his whole, I won't go into a graphic description But his whole body was practically on fire.

When they pulled him out of the water and they thought he was dead, anyway, they carried him out.

In fact, 1 of the things that gripped me was he said that he could even look down into his chest cavity and see his heart beating.

I don't want to go that far, but I already did.

So, you know he was severely burned and he spent 14 months in recovery and when he was finally shipped back stateside, He was from Texas and he was shipped back to an army medical hospital in Texas.

That was where the wives would come back to see their husbands for the first time in this burn unit.

And so, I wasn't expecting to get choked up this quickly.

And so what happened is, I guess in that burn unit, there were many wives that would come in and they would see their husband and they would take off their wedding rings and leave it beside the table and just walk out because they were just so overcome with how horrible their husband looked.

Anyway, so David, he was severely burned, is laying there and his wife comes and her name was Brenda and she came and looked for him.

In fact, she looked at the chart above his bed to see is it really him.

And when she was finally convinced it was him, she leaned over and he's blind in 1 of his eyes, right eye, his left eye he could see, and she bent over and she said, I love you honey just the way you are, and she kissed him on the cheek.

And Dave said, I'm sorry I won't be very good looking anymore.

And she said, well that's okay you really weren't very good looking anyway.

So Anyway, that is just a small snippet though to illustrate what is love.

Is it based on externals or is it based on something more than that?

Something more than just what's on the outside.

I'm happy to say that Dave, with the support of his wife, they did start a family.

He has 4 grandchildren today, and he travels around as kind of a motivational speaker, speaking about how God can deliver and rescue even those who are, I mean, because he went through a terrible depression.

Loving not just for what's on the outside, but loving for what is on the inside.

Well, what does the scripture tell us will be the condition of the world at the time of Jesus' return.

The Bible tells us, and because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall grow cold.

But then it says, but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." As we look around us, we can see iniquity and sin rapidly multiplying and abounding as the result of the wickedness and the violence and the hate, just the scorn and outrage, is that most people's love grows cold.

How tender is your love for your family, and something we maybe almost never consider, how deep, how earnest is your love for lost sheep, those who are in darkness, those who are angry, bitter, hostile, argumentative, and stubborn.

This morning I want us to examine the principle of love.

The Bible says, and Nicholas I appreciate your scripture reading this morning, our scripture reading, 1st John 4, 7 and 8, Beloved let us love 1 another.

Is it clear that all true love, if it is truly love, it must come from God?

That's what this Bible verse is saying, for love is of God or from God.

There might be a false appearance of love, but unless it comes from God, it's not really love.

It says, and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God.

He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God has love.

That's not quite what it says, for God is love.

There's a difference in having something and being something.

If God is love, everything he does must come from that attribute.

In fact, whenever I read a difficult Bible verse or passage or story, and it seems difficult or confusing, and it seems to maybe contradict this, this is always my ground 0 default where I start with my thinking on whatever it is that there's a story in the Bible of that might seem difficult.

And I'm gonna go to some of those in a minute.

God is love so everything he does must come from that characteristic.

Notice the statement from the Spirit of Prophecy volume 2.

It says, God does not propose to be called to account for his ways and works.

It is for his glory to conceal his purposes now.

That lets us know that someday is coming when he will reveal all things to us, but by and by they will be revealed in their true importance, but he has not concealed his great love which lies at the What?

The foundation of all his dealings with his children.

So this is the default, the platform on which everything God does comes from.

The foundation of everything God does with his children, all of his dealings, whether it's a judgment or whether it's something else, it comes from the principle of love.

Is this really something we need to look at today?

Does this fit into a present truth message?

We always are interested in truth, always, but we are particularly interested in present truth, the truth for this time that must be known and practiced.

It says in Christ Object Lessons, page 415, the last message, what message?

The last message of mercy to be given to the world is a revelation, a revealing of His, speaking of God's, God's character of love.

In order to reveal something, we must know it and experience it ourselves.

The children of God are to manifest His glory in their own life and character, they are to reveal what the grace of God has done for them.

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I Principle You

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