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This is a conversational podcast that brings powerful moments from the Inspirational Media sermon library into fresh, engaging dialogue. Hosted by voices who care deeply about sharing timeless biblical truth, each episode unpacks key ideas from sermons, devotionals, and real-life stories — helping listeners reflect, relate, and rediscover hope in today’s world.
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6816--Harry Greenwood--Love_128k
00:00:00 Speaker: Father, we thank you for the expectant hearts. We thank you for the love that worketh by the faith that worketh by love. Lord, that is present. We bless you right now, Lord, that you have so much to give to us in your wonderful love. Give us expectant hearts, Lord, beyond measure, full expectant hearts, Lord, to receive all that that love has given. Tonight. Lord, we ask you just to take these simple words, Lord, and take them beyond our minds and bring us into the experience of what we hear. Lord, I pray for myself that I might receive what I preach, Lord a little more of, and that I might come into it a little more deeper. Now, Lord, as we receive together what you've got for us. We know, Lord, that it will make us free. Thank you Jesus. Amen. Well, I'll just give a notice. By the way, I will be praying for handkerchiefs. I will be praying for handkerchiefs all next week. So you bring handkerchiefs for the sick? People have already brought them, but I haven't emphasized it. And I believe in the ministry of handkerchiefs. You'll find this, um, in acts chapter nineteen, verse twelve. If you're interested in the Scripture. Now we're going to take a very interesting verse tonight. Oh, by the way, I've also written some books. And if you would like my books, there are four of them. They are free. It's a new word that I brought over to New Zealand. Had a job getting it through the customs. I do declare. And, um, if you would like my books, just print your name on one of those envelopes and they will be sent to you when they've been printed. I've had to have them reprinted when I arrived. Interesting. They are also printed and translated in, um, they're printed in so many languages. Russian translated and printed in Russian. I have only one epistle with me in Russian. I've given one already in this country to the head of the Jewish Orthodox Church. I had some fellowship with him at the airport, and I had some fellowship with his wife, and I prayed for her, and God did something wonderful. And she broke down and put her arms around me. And I got a big kiss. And boy, I tell you, when you get a kiss from a Russian, that's something. Amen. Well, she was a German. Sorry. I'd like you to turn to the greatest verse in the Bible. Somebody tell me, please. John three sixteen. What a congregation I've got is correct. John three sixteen. I'm going to read it to you because most of you have forgotten it? Each night I've taken a separate subject. The first night it was on the mind. The second night the wisdom of God. And last night it was the name of Jesus. Tonight my subject is love. One of the most difficult subjects in the whole Bible. You cannot speak about love without your exposing your whole spiritual life, no matter who you are. If you're a preacher, you cannot speak about love without being affected or challenged. You cannot look into love without the full realization of what love really means. When it's God's love, I say this seriously before all people. Divine love is so great He passes all human understanding. He passes a mother's love, which is fantastic. It passes a brother and sister's love. It passes. Parents love. It passes everything. It passes husband and wife, children and parents. It passes everything. The love of God. But if God's love is so great, this is the important thing. Is it possible for a human being to experience it and to enter into that love? Because to enter into that love is from that moment, to be creative and to be in the ministry of power and healing. Love heals everything, I believe, and it's one of the greatest healing ministries in the church at the moment. The fact that we are beginning to love each other, it's not easy to come into love. One thing you've got to lose before you can love And that is your pride. Excuse me. You have to bend your pride. You have to humble yourself to be able to love today. And we need to learn to love again the way God intends us to love each other with a pure heart, fervently. And in the Greek, that word is white, hot, as fervent as you can possibly get. Do we love each other like this? No we don't. We don't love each other at all with divine love in the measure that God intends us to, on the measure that God has given it. And tonight, I want to just go into that experience of love that is going to be a challenge before you start. Husband and wife relationship can be completely changed. Children and parent relationship can be changed. Your brother and sister relationship in the body of Christ can be changed. Everything can be changed. John three sixteen For God so loved the world. The measure of his love follows. For God so loved the world. Did he love them because they were lovely. For God so loved the world. Emphasis on the soul. For God so loved the world that he gave his love. He gave his only begotten son. God gave everything when he gave his son. Love holds back nothing. God gave everything when he gave his son. There is nothing more than God could give today than what he has given. Isn't that wonderful to know that? So if God then at the very beginning, created man out of his love for man to love. And if God created man to love him, then man will only be fulfilled in his love when he is loving God. Not a woman and not a man, not a child. That love is wonderful, but it is not fulfilled in the human heart. It doesn't fulfill sorry, the human heart. We are made to love God and we are also made for God's love. Just think of that. That God created you out of his love, and therefore God needs you for what God creates out of himself. He needs himself. Isn't that wonderful to know that? So you are not just an afterthought. You are something very special in the eyes of God. God? What is man that thou art mindful of him? Says the Psalmist in Psalm eight. Or the son of man, that thou hast hath visited him, for thou hast made him a little lower than divinity. The Hebrew implies excuse me, or it can be translated. He's made you a little lower than divinity. God made you so close to himself that you could experience his love. And you could love him. Now people say, but to love God. Is that so great? It cures everything that you can name. It cures. Heals everything that you can name. A man that is in love has no fear whatsoever. Now you find a man without fear. Why don't we make progress individually? Because we are fearful of so many things, fearful of doing this, saying that, fearful of reaching out, fearful of praying, fearful of committing ourselves, fearful of challenging Satan. Fearful of advancing. Now, if you could take fear away from the church, folks, There's only one thing that'll take fear away from the church, and that is agape love, divine love, Holy Ghost love. Perfect love casts out fear. Hallelujah. Now we read in two Timothy one seven a much quoted verse. God has not given to us the spirit of fear. But you can. You can translate it this way. He has given unto us the spirit of love and power and a sound mind. The Holy Spirit is God's Spirit of love. It's an attribute of the Holy Spirit. The first fruit of the spirit is is love. Now if God started everything off on love, everything is going to go in love. Everything is going to move in love, and everything is going to be complete in love. God is going to have a wonderful end. He's going to bring out of you of your own volition. He's going to. You'll make the choice. You'll be the person that says, ah, father, folks, we've said, Almighty God in reverence. That's wonderful. We've respected God. But when you get so close in love that you can say, ABBA, father, you've made it. What does love do besides drive out fear? Love is so perfect that it believes all things. Now, Peter was the first case. We've got a lot of Peters around. Have you ever said. Do not fear? Harry. Harry's here. Peter was a little like that. He said, Lord, they'll all leave you. They may desert you. But do not fear. Peter is here. I'd be the last one to do so. You'll deny me thrice. Me? Not me. And sure enough, he did. Now can you imagine? Peter wept bitterly when the Lord looked at him. Now, how did the Lord look at him in scorn? You. You backslider! No! I'll tell you how the Lord looked at him. The Lord looked at him. In love. How do I know that? Because my wife and I, when she was doing her midwifery. This was in Plymouth in England. I was in missionary work to the forces. I had an office in the city of Plymouth. She used to come in. We were engaged at the time for some prayer. And we would pull the curtains of the office and we'd kneel down and pray. And one day a backslider came in. This is a Peter, a denier. He was denying the Lord. Now this is what happened. After a long time of prayer and loving the Lord, we both stood up together. We just knew we had finished praying. It was quite a long time. And the door opened and the light came on. And this young man looked at us both and burst into tears, got straight down on his knees without one word being said, and came back to God. We looked at him in the love that we've been looking at the Lord with for the last hour or so. We don't know how how much time went by, but we were just loving the Lord. And folks, that's when time really goes by, doesn't it? When you love folks. When you love people, you can't understand where the time is gone. Are you going? You say. And that's what it's like with the Lord. That's why so few of us. That's why so many of us, I should say, find it so difficult to spend time with God because we don't really love him, but we do love other people, and we'll spend time with them. Folks, if God's love is so wonderful, why are we so far away from it? Because God's love makes you perfect and you have such a tremendous ministry. It's incredible. You affect people the moment you come into the room. You affect people in your business, in your office. People have to either get right with God or get out. Love is the strongest power in the world. It's stronger than death. When love faces death, love cannot see death. For love has already gone beyond the grave. Conquered the grave. Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life. Stephen, they are throwing stones at you. They're stoning you to death. Death? Don't you realize that? But what are you doing? You're not caught up with the problem in your love. You're reaching out to the father. And in his love. He's keeping you. Keeping you? Yes. The love of God kept Peter. Sorry, Stephen. All the way to glory. And in that love, folks, he never swore, nor did he throw a stone back. They threw stones at him, but he didn't throw him back. And then he could say, forgive them. I'll tell you something about this, love. It goes all the way. So far. You wouldn't believe it. You wouldn't believe it. There is no length or depth that this love. Who can separate it from it. That's the most wonderful part. Not how deep, how wide it is only. But who can separate us? Because nobody can get to the end of it. Hallelujah! Folks, God loves you and me all the time. He doesn't love all we do and say. But he loves us all the time. You haven't come to the end of God's love. Isn't it wonderful to preach the gospel when you know that when you can reach out and you. You can love the person, love the sinner. When the sinner comes in, he comes into a love relationship. What is so wrong today is we're getting people technically converted to Christ. They get a salvation, but they don't get a Savior. Love is fellowship after relationship is put right. Love is the fellowship that continues. I was brought to birth in love. Hallelujah. That's why I stayed in. So many people have not been born again of the spirit in this sense. They weren't brought in by the love, but a message of condemnation or hell to me to escape hell. They came in to salvation or came to God. This is not God's way of doing things. It's the only way to escape hell. Hell is to come to Christ. But I believe that when we preach the love of God, people realize immediately they're either away from God or they've denied God, or they've let him down. And like Peter, they repent. Love is so great. Except something going in a person, a yearning in a person. I want what you've got. Have you ever heard anybody say that I want what you've got? I don't know what it is, but I want what you've got. Why? Because love allows me to open up my heart. You know, we are so closed, we wouldn't even shake hands with each other unless the preacher says. Turn around and shake hands with four people and then sit down. The Americans do that. We are doing it now, too. But there's nothing wrong with that. But the fact is, we shake hands with each other as if we're going to catch something. God bless you, brother. I love everyone. Well, why are you sitting over there? Oh, because she's sitting over there. Oh, yes. We say we love each other. To dwell above with those we love. Oh, won't that be glory? To live below with those we know. Well, that's another story. This is the point, folks. We have not reached the point of coming up to each other and embracing each other and telling each other that we love each other. We'll be able to do that when we're spiritual enough, and that will be the day when we can lean on the Lord's breath. You look at. You look at John. John, did you get that special place because you were good or fantastic or something else like that? No, I got this place because I chose it. You mean you chose to be that close to Jesus? Yes. And we make our choice. But in love, folks. It's wonderful. You couldn't believe that God condemn you, could could condemn you in love. In God's love. Do you realize that a lot of children of God are so condemned by Satan simply. Because they don't know God's love? If you knew my father's love, he will never, never condemn you. It's only Satan that condemns you. And the love of God is so great that we are at the moment, not able to experience it in its fullness. He would break your heart. I'll tell you now. He nearly did once or twice. I've had an experience of God's love and a deep measure that's revolutionized my life. One man I read about that really affected me was a little Chinese pastor in a communist concentration camp. The communist leader of the camp couldn't understand this little man, but he was greatly affected by him and so affected one day that he went up to this little man and he said to him. Who's Jesus Christ like? He what is he like? Describe this man to me. What is he like? He was so intrigued that this little man, who is so godly and so loving, could be influenced by another person. He thought, this other person must be fantastic. So he said, who is this? He bursted out. He burst out with it. Who is this person? What's he like? Describe him to me. And this little Chinese pastor looked him straight in the eyes and he said, he's just like me. Folks, I'd hit me where it hurt. I couldn't say that. He's just like me. No, but we're going to say that we're on our way to saying that he's just like me. Now the world, they're not going to see the Lord Jesus Christ, but he has got a body here, and the church is his body. And when we're under complete control of the head and we've got the love of God, now listen to it in Romans five verse five. Shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. That love will know no fear. Can you imagine going forward to battle, knowing no fear? Can you imagine coming against Satan, knowing no fear? Can you imagine standing up, knowing no fear? Perfect love casts out fear. Now I discovered that the heart is made for love, not the head. You never dream of saying to your wife before you married her. Darling, I love you with all my head. I mean, she she'd think that you'd gone out of it. But neither would you say, darling, I love you with all my pump pumping organ, you see. But you try and describe? I love you with all my heart. It's very difficult, but there's no need to describe something that you're doing. We are made for each other's love. And a woman doesn't have to be told that you're loving her when you're loving her. Now and then you have to tell her that you love her. Because you're not loving her all the time in loving her. Yes, darling. Of course I love you, I said it. When was it? When? Twenty years ago. Remember when I said, will you marry me, I love you. That sort of thing. Well, let's not overdo it, dear. That was twenty years ago. I sent you flowers on your birthday. That was ten years ago. Well, let's not overdo it, dear. We mustn't get fanatical about this. Now, we don't realize the serious damage that's been done in the church by the lack of love. The church suffers from a heart condition. That's right. A heart condition. Hard. Hard. Hardening of the arteries. That's what they call it. But a heart condition. Simply because we don't love. We're not flexible enough in God's hands. We're not flexible enough in the hands of the Holy Spirit, if you like. In that sense that he can move us and guide us and direct us. And the challenge comes to every one of us. Have you got a heart that can love? Now I go back to Peter, and I'm really, in one sense, challenged. Here's Peter. He's denied the Lord. And when Jesus appeared to the disciples, Peter wasn't there. And he said, look, I want you lot to meet me. That's my translation, uh, Galilee. And tell Peter also, isn't the Lord so good? He knew Peter would be feeling bad. He knew he'd be feeling bad about denying him. He said, Peter, I tell Peter I'll meet him as well, in other words. So Peter turned up. They all did. And they went fishing In John twenty one. That's another story. But when they'd come back in again, Jesus asked Peter a question. Now, Peter, you're the guy that said, this is my translation. Again. You're the guy that said, I never let you down, Lord. In other words, I'm much better than this lot. I'll never let you down. Now, Peter, I'm going to ask you a question. Do you love me more than this lot? Now, he knew one thing. No matter what he said. And he really meant to say he could only love Jesus with the love that he had. Now, note that, folks, many of us say we love you, Jesus, but we don't really love him because we can't. We are not really loving him. Now let me show you the difference. The play on words here. Most of you are familiar with this that have been around Christian circles. Jesus said to Peter, lovest thou me more than these now these love me. But do you love me more than these? No, I'm not going to be compared with them now. Peter was more or less saying, Lord, thou knowest. No longer was he saying, of course I love you more than that lot. He would have said that before, but now he knew different. The Lord could see his heart. And what did he say? Thou knowest, Lord, that I love you. Now we look at the play of words here. Jesus said in the Greek. Do you have divine love for me or agape love? And Peter replied, I have human love. Filial love. That translated means I have affection for you. Oh, brother, here is the Lord who's not alone. Forgiven him, but he's appeared to him after his resurrection, and he's speaking to him personally. Folks, what an opportunity to tell Jesus that you love him, but you can't tell him that you love him without the love. You see what I'm trying to say, folks? You can't love the Lord Jesus Christ without the love that comes by the Holy Ghost. And once you do, once you love the Lord with the love from heaven, Hallelujah! You begin to love everyone with the same love. And they're affected because it's God loving them directly through you. Now, for God to love a person through a person is the greatest and the highest ministry. It'll cost you the most. It'll cost yourself your pride, your dignity. All the things that are self esteem built up, your ego, you name it and you're going to lose it. You have a hard heart. You can't love with a hard heart. Did you realize that? You can't love you. You're frightened of letting people close to you. You're not loving them. You're protecting yourself from people. You're not loving them. Is that true or isn't it? Do we protect ourselves from each other? Of course we do. We're frightened of hurt. We're frightened of being hurt. Well, what? Frightened of being hurt? Pride is always frightened of being hurt. Then what about love? You can't hurt love, folks. Do you realize that you can't hurt it? It's greater than hurt. Hallelujah. It's the only thing that can heal the deepest hurt. There are ladies that have lost their husbands, who have loved their husbands and build the whole lives around the husband and the love and the family. When you take that away, what have they got? They've got nothing. But the love of God is so great that he can bring you to a place where you don't even miss your family. And that's love. Folks. That's love. Hallelujah! The love of God can take you to the other end of the world. The love of God can take you all the way to the cross. It's alright. You're saying God so loved the world that he gave the Lord Jesus Christ. But Jesus also was involved in this, and he loved the church and gave himself for the church. Love gives everything. Oh, hallelujah. Love gives everything. It's greater than faith. It's greater than hope. Why is love greatest of these three? We read in one Corinthians chapter thirteen. Well. Faith receives, but love gives. That's why it's the greatest. And there is a New Testament experience, faith that worketh by love. And that is the greatest faith receiving and love giving. It works both ways. It works both ways. Now the challenge comes to you and me. What about my heart? How does God go to work on my heart? I want you to turn with me as so many scriptures on this. I don't know how I'm ever going to get through it, but I'm what I'm going to do is I'm going to when I feel it's right, I'm going to come to an end. Uh, two Thessalonians chapter three, verse five. Now, how do you measure your love for God, folks? How do you measure your love for God? It's very simple. Your love for your brother and sister in the Lord. You love God as much as you love your brother and sister. And if you don't love your brother and sister, people say, well, I do. No. Listen to it. You've got to be loving them. Loving is doing something in their direction. No. Good. You're saying, well, I'm loving my God so loved he gave his only begotten son. Love gives. Love is actually can be translated one Corinthians chapter thirteen in from the Greek. Love in action, love in action. Not love, just passive. But love in action is God's love. Love is always in action. Have you seen a lady that loves full of love? Loves children. Our house is full of children eating jam butties. It's an old English term for a very special, complicated dish jam sandwich, to be exact. I heard it, that's the third time I've used it. I've heard it. And I like to use all these rather sophisticated words. And you see the kids going out with a piece of bread in their mouth and or a glass of milk they're drinking, but they come to this person. And I've noticed in my past, there's always a lady that loves children. They've got she's got a multitude round about her. All the neighborhoods, kids, they come to her when there's something wrong. She's got a whole host of kids or a gentleman that loves children the same thing. They're all round him all the time, and everybody's kids are like his own. That's just an ideal parents love. Can you imagine the heavenly family's love that God planned? That you should love Him as His Son loves him, and in that plan that he should love you as he loves His son. Wow, that God loves you as much as he loves Jesus Christ, his only begotten son. He loves all his sons the same. Now that's what I call love. Isn't it wonderful? Do you know the most wonderful thing in the world for anybody? A little child is to be loved. That's why I always maintain that breastfed children are always the best. They cling and they learn to love. Believe it or not. And they learn to give themselves. And the mother gives herself to the child in feeding the child. And it's so wonderful because later on, I believe they make the closest and the best wives, too. And and husbands likewise, because they've got very close, they've learned to get very close. But I have met children that are so insecure. They suffer from an inferiority complex. They've got all sorts of inner problems which result from not being loved and not loving. I met a little girl. She's brilliant. She was about seventeen, eighteen, in United States, and she said, I do not love my parents. Cold as you like. Very calculating. Studying psychology. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. I must admit she was brilliant. She had a brilliant mind. I like and enjoy a brilliant mind. But hers was cold like steel. She said I do not love my parents. And then she proceeded to cut to pieces every person that was of any consequence in the headlines, anywhere that had made it, she just tore them up, showed them how small they were, and I've never met a person like it. She was so cynical and so hard. She looked like a cold fish. That's about a very that's a very good description, a cold fish. Have you ever tried cuddling up to a cold fish? My advice is not to. That sort of fish. There's only one type. They're snappers. Oh, I made a funny Sorry, I couldn't resist it. I. I thought coming and I thought I mustn't flounder here. All right. I'm not going any further. No, I'm not going further. All the time. All the time. This little. This girl was speaking to me. I was conscious of her absolute lack of love and feeling and emotions. And I looked at her and I reached out to the Lord. And I can say this. I had to really let my heart be led into the love of God. And as the love came into my heart, I knew I was in love. I was really loving her. And I said to her, Jesus loves you. And she burst into tears and she put her arms around me and she wept like she was going to burst. And she wept. And I let her cry and cry and cry. There was no argument. I couldn't get anywhere near that girl. But there's one thing that would beat her. One thing that she needed more than life itself. And that was to love. She had never loved her parents. She'd never loved anybody. And she looked at me. And I'll tell you, she looked. Beautiful. Doesn't love transform you? Do you know my wife thought I was wonderful enough to marry me? Now that's real love, right? They say love is blind. Hallelujah. But in this particular case, she looked at me afterwards. And there was. She wasn't ashamed or anything. It looked like she had all of a sudden grown up. And she said, thank you. And all she needed was to be loved. That was all. She went to her parents and loved them. Her parents were very stiff and starchy. Intellectuals couldn't communicate love between each other. They weren't in fellowship at that level. What a pity. Just mind to mind. Sure. I'm going to enjoy somebody's mind for the rest of my life. I'm just a little old fashioned. I married my wife because I loved her. She wasn't perfect. I got into that the other night, didn't I? But God is perfecting that which concerneth her. I'm not doing too well. No wonder she's leaving me. If you just look at this verse for a moment, two Thessalonians chapter three, verse five, and the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God. I never seen that before, and never realized that my heart had to be directed into the love. I knew that the love of God could be shed abroad in my heart by the Holy Ghost. But first, my heart had to be prepared and brought to that love. Now, for a heart to be brought to that love means that you've got to be broken. A long time ago I prayed, Lord, break me. I've never prayed it since. I've always been scared to. But I know I'll pray it once again. It's the quickest prayer that God will answer, and he'll break you to the measure of your stiff nakedness and the measure of your pride, right deep down inside. In one week I said to the Lord, take me! I couldn't take any more. Folks. You will receive love to the depth that you're broken. Broken in a contrite spirit God will not despise. Most of us have had to shield ourselves from the world. And let's be practical. We've had to protect ourselves in schools from ungodly children and the devil trying to get at us, and a whole lot of other things. And we become hard. The whole church has become hard, and we don't think about others when you have your meals and things like that. We don't often think about the people that don't have any food, and we don't reach out like we should do. The church has more to give than any other person or people or peoples in the world. We have more to give. We have as much to give as God has, or as much as he gave in his love. God so loved the world that he gave Jesus. And we also give Jesus. Isn't God so good to let us give the Lord? Amen. Amen. Now I'm going to be just a little personal in relationship to the breaking down. I think many of us here would really love to love each other and get close. And I have found that love is. What is necessary to prepare the patient for the operation? You know when it says speaking the truth in love. There are some people who love love to speak the truth. Speaking the truth in love is the most difficult ministry. You've got to find the place of love where that truth hurts you and affects you as as much as it will do the person that's speaking the truth in love. In other words, you humble yourself so much that you prepare the patient for the operation. You love the patient first and then you operate. Depending on your depth of love will also depend on your depth of operation. Do you realize what I'm saying? Just as a patient as before, they brought to the theater have to be injected and given an anesthetic and a and so forth. So also God's love is like that and you don't feel it. Somebody once wrote to me and said, your pride is an abomination before the Lord. And they wrote a whole lot of verses and scriptures relating to my pride. And when I got it, I was brokenhearted, because it was from a friend who was supposed to be a friend. And I was so upset about this, and I kept this letter hidden all day. And then I took it to the Lord. Now, this is the best thing to do to find out who really sent it. Did God send it? And I asked the Lord if he if this was true, and he said yes. Oh, I tell you, I wept and wept and wept. I rang this person up and apologized and humbled myself. And I owned the truth. That was the truth. But it set me free, folks. Yeah, it set me free by owning the truth. Many people won't own the truth today that they're a sinner. But if you own the truth that you're a sinner, the truth will make you free. Christ died for sinners, folks. Not for anybody else but sinners. If you're not a sinner, then you don't need the truth. I don't know any person that's not a sinner. But what happened was this God showed me then that this was the truth, ministered without love, and it really nearly destroyed me. It really did. It affected me so much. So I said to the Lord, now, Lord, next time you're going to speak to me personally about my pride or anything else, please do it personally. Lord, not through Christians. The Lord said, I will. I'll speak to you first, and if you don't obey, I'll speak you to you the second time through a Christian. And the person that wrote to me was as full of pride as I was, God made sure he got picked the right person. So it was really hard to take without I could justify myself because this man was in the same condition. But that's not what God asks you to do. Don't look at the messenger boy. The milk is clean if even he's dirty. You know you've got the message. That's good. Anyway, the Lord showed me that he was in love. He wouldn't have said it that way. He wouldn't have, in other words, ministered to me the way he did. But praise the Lord! God has got a way of working things together for your good. Now, when I was in Northern Ireland, some of you maybe heard me mention this before, but it's worthwhile because it happened to me. First of all, um, when I minister to the sick, God said I wasn't like a machine. I was like a machine, just ministering to the sick. There's no compassion. And I didn't realize that this affected people. I loved to pray for the sick. And I love to see people healed. And when I don't love a people, I cannot minister to them. And God told me this. It's no good you go into a country unless you first love them and you've got to really love them. And when you love them, you can minister to them and they know it. People in our meetings come into a wonderful love and enjoying a peace. They like the presence of God and I praise the Lord for that. That's really wonderful as a ministry. Anyway, the Lord that night revealed to me his compassion and I was so broken I couldn't take it. I wet my bed with my tears. I tell you, I just my stomach was screwed up and I just couldn't take it. And he said, you see, that's how I feel about the sick. Do you know if you knew how the Lord felt about the sick, every Christian would be praying for the sick. If you knew in God's love how he feels about people that are lacking or in need, folks, you would go into all the world and preach the gospel. We would reach out, but we are so much in our own pride and so much self conscious and not God conscious. We don't reach out. We criticize each other and pull each other down. We have a habit of doing this, and the result is this that our hearts are out of condition to love. Therefore out of condition to believe. You believe with the heart. Therefore out of condition to minister. Most of us don't really know that there exists the divine love of God. Peter, do you love me? Nay, Lord, thou knowest that I love you. Well, feed my sheep. If you love me, do something in that love that benefits the whole body of Christ. And you know how good the Lord was. He got Peter to confess that his love for him three times, to cancel out his denial three times wasn't that good of the Lord. Amen. I thought so too. Now I went to Scotland. It's a very famous place. It's on the north of England, right on the very top. It's famous for Scotsman. Scotsman. Scotsman is defined as a person who prays on his knees on a Sunday in praise of his neighbors during the week. That's not true. Sorry, I won't have any friends here, but I'm going to finish with this story and I'd like to go on, believe it or not. But I'm going to call this part one of love, because what I've got to say is how to come into loving. And I'm going to try and finish at this point, it's going to be very difficult for me. Please appreciate it. I'm not used to preaching short messages, but I've done so every night so far. Hallelujah! I went to Scotland because God said, Go to Scotland when the Lord tells you to go someplace, don't let the the airlines stop you. I called up the airlines and they said there's no possibility of getting a seat to Scotland. They told me there was no possibility. So I rang off and said to the Lord, there you are. They're all booked. No possibility. It was Hogmanay, you know, New Year's Eve, going from Northern Ireland to Scotland. Ridiculous. Nobody. Ridiculous. Nobody would be so idiotic as to try and book a ticket on the same night when every other person in all the ancestors of the the, the Scotch Scots, they're all over Scotch. They're all over there now getting mixed up with my scotch. I'll be on the rocks next. And all their ancestors are over there, and they all sort of migrate. On New Year's Eve. They fly across to Scotland and get a thick head and come back. Well, God told me to go. And so I called up the airlines again, and sure enough, There was a seat. Isn't it wonderful to know who's really running the airlines? Hallelujah. Anyway, don't you tell him that. By the way, I'm getting really going. Fine on that revelation. So I went to Scotland, and while I was there, they had a tremendous service. There were three meetings, one after the other, and in two meetings. All I did was sit there and criticize. There were people waving their hands in the air that was against my religion to start. There were people jumping in the air that was against my religion. There were people hugging each other and there really loving each other. And that's how the service went on. It was hilarious. But I was sitting back there like death warmed up and I was getting harder and harder and harder because I didn't think it was right, spiritual or anything else. It was pure, unadulterated emotionalism at its worst. As far as I was concerned. And then I made my final mistake Take the last night of the meetings. I sat up in the front and the only door out was the back door. The door was in the back and the brother said, now to close the service. He said, I want you to stand up and greet your brother and sister with a holy kiss and tell them that you love them. And I was set right down the front. I'd have to get all the way through that congregation to the door to get through, and they weren't going to let me. That was for sure. So brother came towards me and I prepared for the worst, and I put my arms around him and I said, I love you, brother. And he said, I love you, brother. And I discovered something for the first time. I didn't love him and he certainly didn't love me. Now you say to your wife, I love you, darling. She can tell you whether she's being loved or she's not. You can't love in word. It isn't. It isn't in the book for the word. You've got to love. Indeed. You've got to love in action. Amen. So the next brother came up to me and said, I love you, Brother Greenwood. And I said, I love you, brother. He didn't love me and I didn't love him. And I realized how long I've been doing this, saying, I love you, brother, I love you, but not loving the person. And now I was stripped, I was I was really naked. I didn't know what to do with myself. I couldn't hide my lack of love now. But these people also found it difficult to love me. Now that's understandable. But this is what happened. A little guy came up next. Boy, God knew he was there. He was from the Exclusive Brethren originally, and he got filled with the Holy Ghost. That's a very definite experience that many people will be having after this meeting. If you don't know what it is, you just join them. Um, and his family wouldn't speak to him. His wife lived in one part of the house and wouldn't go near him. Talk to him and the rest of his children. They all ate their meals separately from him. Can you imagine that? And he was such a lovable person, and it broke his heart not to go bitter. The love of God had to reach down to the depth of that hurt so he wouldn't go bitter. And that's it, folks. And he had a depth of love that could love me. And that's the truth before God. And he came up to me and he looked at me and he said, I love you, brother Harry. And I wept. I cried my eyes out for the next twenty four hours. I was hit so hard. My whole heart was broken, smashed, beaten the whole lot. I was the first for the first time. Putty in the hands of the Lord. Every person I came up to, I put my arms around. And I told them that I loved them. And they started to cry. They broke down. And for the first time I loved my brother and sister with divine agape love. I came back to the church that I'm in, and I stood up and and preached this, or ministered it or shared it, and they began to weep and break down. Folks, do you know what? We don't even know what the love of God is really like. We don't have we don't have a clue, really. And I'm so glad it's there on the agenda for each one of us to love each other to such an extent that you can't see a thing wrong with me, and I can't see a thing wrong with you folks. Love covers a multitude of sins, and the Bible says you were born in love or out of love. Then keep yourself in the love of God in G20. Now, tonight I'm going to challenge you. Do you really love the Lord? Do you love your brother and sister? How can you love God whom you have not seen? If you don't love your brother, who you can now you can tell if you love your brother and sister. If you are not criticizing them, but you are praying for them and the people that are backslidden. Do you know why so many people backslide? Because there's nobody around to love them. They never came in deep enough, so stay in. Do you know why so many people are having problems today? Because they're not in love. They're in criticism. And criticism is the worst disease. You can have to be critical in heart to sit in meetings and criticize and to pull down and to destroy. Criticism is to destroy. And you're open to every disease. Many, many people suffer in their body sickness because they are critical in their hearts. You ask any doctor and I'll tell you, many people are suffering because of their attitude towards other people and hatred in their hearts. Now, tonight, I believe God so loved the world that he sent Jesus for you, for you, for you, for me. I've received him as my Savior. Have you? Let us pray. Now, tonight, it's wonderful to be secure. But you're only secure in God's love. You have peace of mind and there are no questions about the future. God has planned the future in his love. I'm going to ask you now a personal question tonight. God's given us the most precious gift in this love, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ, have you at any point in your life ever received Christ into your life as your Savior? Have you? Now, if you can answer that question, say yes. Now you should be able to. You were there when it happened. If it never happened, then it hasn't happened by accident or the church didn't do it for you. The church will help you to enjoy your spiritual life. But you personally have to receive it. Your parents didn't do it for you. God has no grandchildren, only sons. Each person must come to Christ personally. Now I'm going to ask those to stand up in a few moments. Who tonight would like to give their lives to him and receive his life. To receive God's love is to receive Christ Jesus. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. This is the gospel. Pure and simple. Now, for every person in this meeting who would love to come to know the Lord and receive him, I'm asking you right now to stand up. You are not right with God. And tonight you want to be right. You want your life to be pure and clean. You want your thoughts to be clean. You want the habits in your life broken. This is what God does in his love. He's made provision. So I'm asking you right now just where you are to stand. Every person tonight who is not right with God and you want to get right. Would you stand up right now, please? And I'm going to pray for everyone that is standing. My family are here tonight for the last time. And I'm going to ask him now if they'll minister to you in song. That's my three children, Jill, Ruth and David. You can see their little greenwoods. Just a branch of the family. Only little children standing before you now. But the story that we like to tell is all about a man. Who died on the cross long ago. He died for love and took away our sin. There's joy in our hearts and joy. And now, as you can see. A smile on our face. But let us pray. Now you've heard the story of us. There's something else. You think you ought to know that Jesus died for. You just pay the debt for us. And he rose up from the dead on a sunny day. Jesus is alive. By the spirit is upon us, a man on this earth. Give yourself to him, and he'll come into your heart, and you'll know that he's alive. Oh, yes he does. He loves us and took away our sin. There's joy in my heart and joy. That you can see. Smile on my face. To be set free.