Agape | Take Action

Pastor Keion Henderson is the lead pastor of The Lighthouse Church in Houston, Texas Lighthouse is an organization that serves the body of Christ through our 5 pillars. We always ANTICIPATE a move of God in every experience, so we constantly set a great ATMOSPHERE, and we ACCEPT everyone through love. We believe the best way to impact people is by being AUTHENTIC to who we are and by taking ACTION to move everyone towards greater.

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Autogenerated Transcript

Pastor Keion (00:21):
Hey everybody. Welcome to another episode of Take Action. I am Keion Henderson, the pastor of the Lighthouse Church in Houston, Texas, and what a joy it is to share with you. Now listen, this is not an illusion. Yes, it’s the same shirt because the last lesson was so long that we just broke it into two parts. So we’re actually at another week and yesterday when we decided that we were going to do this lesson, we thought, yeah, let’s do it in two parts. And so the conforming work of Christ, how to get things, and we’re not talking about being materialistic, we’re talking about seeking God, and he’ll add all things unto you. Today we want to do the second part of that, which is the fruit of the spirit, which allows the Holy Spirit to make God’s love available to us. Agape love. And what I’ve learned in my studies and in my tenure as a minister over the last 28 years is that a lot of things that go on, we misdiagnosed, there is rumors of war and all kind of vitriol and hatred and racism, but the truth is that our world is lacking the love that’s available to us through Jesus Christ.

(01:33):
And in John 13, the Bible says, by this, men shall know that they are my disciples. How if they love one another? Isn’t that amazing that God is really saying that the way to identify whether somebody is with me is through their love, not their dance, not their tongue, not their theological application, not their understanding of expositional preaching, not their hermeneutics, not their homiletics, not their syntax, not their verb structure, not how long their skirt is or how sharp their suit is, or how many l e d screens the church has. No, I know I’m looking at the church when I see how much they love one another. Now, what does agape love mean? I’ve got a new book coming out and I do an extensive, extensive study on the word agape and be paying attention because I’m going to let you know when that new book is coming. But agape love is the deep spiritual giving, godly love that is far above ero.

(02:40):
Eros is physical love or fa Leo, which is companionable or brotherly love. Agape is like a supernatural love, right? Supernatural love somehow allows you to love the unlovable, right? It allows you to extend yourself for people who are withdrawing from you. And the most beautiful depiction of love I’ve ever seen, and you may not agree with it, but first Corinthians 13 is a beautiful description in my opinion of agape love. It is when Paul begins his description of agape love by giving it the supremacy over other spiritual gifts, then I start to realize, wait a minute. If Paul puts love in the conversation with other spiritual gifts, then is it plausible for us to assume that real agape love is a spiritual gift?

(03:49):
Everybody has either fallo, companionship, love or arrows, physical love because those serve us, but agape, this supernatural love to love the unlovable agape love says that I must be sacrificial. Agape love says that, listen, that I must receive abuse again and again and at the end still be kind. Now let me say this for anybody who would like to express that, I mean something other than what I’m saying. I’m not talking about being physically abused. I’m not talking about your life being in danger. Self-preservation is also a law. What I’m saying is if the love is abused, love can be abused without somebody abusing you, right? Love can be unappreciated. That’s what I mean by abused. It means you can do all you can for a person and they still only give you half of themselves. It means you can give a person your whole mind, body, and soul, and all they give you is a thank you card and that’s abuse. And at the end of those levels of abuse, agape love gets to the end of that and is still kind. Paul said it in one Corinthians, love is patient and love is kind. And I bet you 95% of the people watching me right now, although I am giving you the holy scripture, your flesh is telling you, and I ain’t got to take that.

(05:43):
You see how difficult it is for us to walk in the ways of God. When God speaks, we refer to our feelings and our opinions. Paul also said agape love seeks nothing for herself. It means that love does not insist on having its way. How many of y’all have ever been in a relationship with a person who isn’t happy with you unless they have their way that ain’t agape love? The word easily was inserted by the translator and it basically says love is not easily provoked. Provoked love is not easily provoked. Now let’s talk about what provoked means. Now, what does provoked mean? It means to give rise. It literally means that somebody’s doing something to get a reaction out of you. Can I tell you the biggest provocateur in the world has ever seen? It’s the devil. He’s a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, and he uses people to provoke you. That’s why the Bible even says that God says, provoke your children not to wrath provoking. See, when you provoke somebody, you can’t predict their reaction. How many of you all have ever been provoked? And then people want to act surprised when you responded according to your flesh.

(07:27):
So agape love a’s one of the gifts of God, the supernatural love, and when it flows through us, then we know we have passed from death to life. Talking about point from last week, you got to go back and watch last week talking about integrity and being perfect, not flawless, perfected. I am on a kick because I do not want to be a part of a religion or do not want to be a part of a church that continues to preach everybody do whatever you want and God’s just going to be okay with it. No, there is a standard and it ain’t perfection because if that were the standard, I’d have to opt out.

(08:19):
But integrity, love, you see, God is the source of love. So as we talked about it, if we’re created in the image of God, God is love. So without love you can’t be in this image. And when agape love flows through us, as I said, we do what we pass from death to life. We cannot generate the agape love when we need it, if we don’t. First you got to go back and watch last week believe and seek his righteousness. And we synonymized the word righteousness with godly integrity, maturity. So when we find ourselves lacking love, we need to ask God to fill our hearts with it because there is no way to seek ye first the kingdom of God and to be created in his image unless we are in his likeness.

(09:39):
Now lemme tell you why this is going to be difficult because the moment you listen to me and your spirit decides that it wants to work in contrast with your flesh, you’re going to have an internal battle by I show up virtual hands. How many of you all know what it feels like to be fighting within? It’s almost like you ever seen, and I can’t remember which cartoon it was and maybe somebody can put it in a chat. When you got the evil thing on one shoulder and the heavenly one, it may have been Tom and Jerry, I can’t remember, but it is one thing on one shoulder telling you say, I’m sorry. Then the other one on the other shoulder be like, no, no, don’t say I’m sorry because they’re going to think you’re weak or flesh battles with the spirit. So on one shoulder you got the flesh one shoulder, you got the spirit, and they’re battling because we want to do what’s right. I mean, truth is the flesh according to Galatians five and 17, it lusts against the spirit. It fights against the spirit. The spirit fights against the flesh and they are contrary to one another.

(10:58):
And I believe that God put it that way so that the just shall move by faith and we come for an outcome where we might not even come out. And as we do that the realm, the earthly realm of the works of the flesh get in the way of the things that the spirit wants to deliver. So God institutes something called the fruit of the spirit because number one, God, or I should say fruit is God. It’s his method. Let me say this correct, fruit is God’s method because let me tell you something, God wants integrity to be natural. Like if a person eats fruits and vegetables, do they say, oh, I eat all natural. So God doesn’t have the g m O of the spirit.

(12:02):
He doesn’t have the splendid of the spirit, and because I’m not a cook, I can’t name a thousand processed things that are not natural, but it’s the fruit of the spirit because God wants love and kindness and receiving to be natural and organic to you. I hope this is helping. In Galatians five, the works of the flesh are contrasted with the fruit of the spirit because you got the flesh and then you got the fruit. It’s like a person who eats a steak every day and a person who eats some steak, but some vegetables, some fruit. Who do you think is going to be more healthy? The person who eats all flesh or the person who eats mostly fruit?

(12:58):
I hope you understand what I mean. So God is the source of all love. We are to be created in his image which makes us subject to producing and performing love. And when we do seek E first the kingdom of God, then what happens? You got it. All things are added unto you. Okay? So the realm of the work is the realm of the flesh, but fruit is God’s method and he wants love to be natural to us. Now you have to abide in Christ to get this fruit. I hope this is helping you because I know the people that God has assigned to me, which is those of you who are watching now, you’re not satisfied with where you are in life.

(14:09):
You’re not satisfied with where you are in your current relationship. You’re not satisfied with how your temper won’t leave or how sometimes you struggle with the bad habit and all of us are like that and we’re trying to figure out how in the world can I get over this? And everybody keeps telling you, pray fast, pray fast. No, no, no. You have to have godly integrity. You have to be able to hear a principle and be trusted with the action and outcome of that principle. Matter of fact, right now you are being trusted with this Bible study. You’re being trusted with this conversation and some people are going to turn it off and some people are going to keep listening to it and then eventually everybody will look at each other and say, oh, so-and-so went further than so-and-so and oh my God, look at how their life turned around. It’s not because God favored them any more than you, it’s because they did something different with the information.

(15:04):
You see, I’m trying to get you to the place where you have joy, not just happiness. In fact, joy is love’s consequence. Joy is love’s conscience. You ever look at somebody, oh, and this really bothers me. How many of y’all know people who don’t like people who are always happy? They just too happy, they just always happy. What do you want ’em to be sad and sour like you? No. The joy of the Lord is their strength. They love naturally. They’re on a natural diet. They have integrity. They’re in the image of Christ. So it doesn’t mean that everything is going well with them, but they’re not stressed out with high blood pressure losing their hair about to die because they’re holding on to things that are not a part of the integral walk for those who walk not according to the flesh only, I only think about 300 people going to understand what I’m talking about. The rest of y’all, you may not get it, but the Holy Spirit literally put that number in my head. I just want anybody who this message is for. I need you to put three 100 emojis back to back because you’re a part of the 300, you’re a part of the 300. Peace is what I’m after for you.

(16:37):
Peace. I want you to have the kind of love in your heart that wishes no ill for anybody, even if you know they ain’t right, because a love that wishes no ill will against anybody is the real basis for true peace in your life. I’m telling you, somebody is about to be set free. I’m telling you this is probably one of the most important lessons and only 300 of you will hear it. So I’m going to type on nope, miracle, nope, car house, how to get a blessing. Nope. How your enemy’s going to pay for what they did. Nope. I’m talking about peace, the kind of peace that says if my enemies don’t suffer, I still got what I need.

(17:26):
Long suffering is the characteristic of love that makes us kind after being mistreated. Oh man, without keeping track, you’re going to have to go watch this one again. Love is gentle, not harsh or abusive. Love is the only positive motive for goodness. Some people are good because they fear the consequences of doing something wrong, but that is not true. Goodness, the faith that it takes to be kind after being mistreated, the meekness that doesn’t vault itself in the corner but expresses itself after pain and still does not seek to be praised or honored because you got over something just because you forgave somebody, you don’t need to have a forgiveness party. You don’t need to go online and bring all of your followers in. Girl, I almost dogg, I almost heard ’em and killed ’em, but I didn’t. And now 65 people in your comments talking about Gone Girl, you needed to do, I’m so proud of you. No, that’s just the cost of being like God.

(18:52):
Temperance. These are the characteristics of the Holy Spirit and this more than anything anybody tells you is how you will get things added unto you. Let nobody tell you anything different. If it were anything different, can you please explain to me the person you know that works 60 hours a week and is still robbing Peter to PayPal? It’s not in the amount of hours you work. It ain’t even always where you work, because I know a lot of people who work at Fortune 500 companies and can’t make it from day to day, but I don’t know anybody that expresses agape love practices, gratitude has no ill will towards anybody. I don’t know anybody like that who doesn’t not do it so that they don’t have consequences, but do it as a way of life and as a way of being integral.

(20:10):
I don’t know any stressed out people like that. I don’t know any depressed people like that. I don’t know anybody who does good because it’s good and not does good because they fear the consequences who are struggling like that. I want you to be really, really blessed. I want you to be really, really blessed and I want you to have the kind of joy that nobody can take away from you. I would that you would prosper and be in good health. I would that you be the lender and not the borrower. I would that you would no longer rob Peter to pay Paul. I want you to have the things, but you must seek the image and the integrity of God and you have to fight back the demons that make you say, this is the way I am. This is the way I always be.

(21:14):
Well, lemme tell you if this is the way you are and this is the way you will always be, you always get what you get. But if you want something different, you’re going to have to try something different. I speak different over your life. I just speak different. I pray different over your life. I pray grace over your life. I pray synergy over your life. I pray grace and glory over your life, the kind of relationships where you can feel safe and express, trust I speak the spirit of God and the fruit of the spirit over your life. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen. If you’re looking at me right now, this is our opportunity to give and I pray that the Lord will bless you. Bountifully, for those of you all who are Tylers and offering, I want you to make sure that you give your tithes and offering to the lighthouse church so that we can continue to do the work of the kingdom with tithes and offering.

(22:18):
Yes, we pay salaries, we pay mortgages, and we pay staff. But you ought to come visit us one day and see how many thousands of kids we’re going to send back to school with school supplies, and how many thousands of kids have come up on this campus and left with haircuts and opportunities knowing Jesus and camps and all of the many things that we do, our prison ministry, the thousands of men and women who have been prayed for and blessed in our prison ministries and all things that we do. I can’t even name it all, and I’m not bragging. I’m just telling you where your gift goes, that there may be meat in the house and we’re able to help single mothers to pay their rent and not lose their homes and keep air conditions running and helping senior citizens. All of the things we do, the parks that we build, even the 250 students that we’re getting ready to have in this building and school year starts.

(23:17):
We’re doing it all because you’re faithful in your giving. Thank you so much for it. All of the instructions on how to give are coming up on the screen. I want you to be a tither and an offer, and if you want to bless this ministry, take action so that we can continue to bless people. You do that too, but I believe that if you seek E one, the kingdom of God and his righteousness, his integrity, all things shall be added unto you. God bless you. I love you. We’ll see you next week. Hey everybody. My name is Pastor Keon Henderson. I am the founder of an organization called Take Action. Now. People are always direct messaging me and texting me and saying, pastor, what are you doing? How can I be a part of what you’re doing? And I know everybody doesn’t want to be a part of the local church, but what if I told you I had a way for you to partner with me so that we can affect change throughout the world?

(24:09):
Hence, take action now. A 5 0 1 C three nonprofit organization committed to advancing individual agency and social progress by protecting, strengthening and uplifting the underserved and disenfranchised throughout the world. We’re doing humanitarian things, teaching entrepreneurism, teaching home ownership and institutional inequities, cultural deficits. We have our ear to the ground and we need your help to make a difference whether it is making a sizable donation to the estate of a young woman who lost her battle with cancer via the internet and we were able to make a difference there. Or whether it is in a underserved community in the Caribbean islands where the children were playing amidst rocks and glass and we came in and broke ground recently on the park so that athletes and cheerleaders and young people in that community can have a safe place to stir up the gift inside of them. Whether it is paying the utility bills in cold climates for seniors, or just helping basketball players get the proper uniforms of football players. It’s just us making a difference through financial literacy and technological empowerment and mentoring services. This is what we do, and all I’m asking you to do is become a partner with me right now and I want you to go visit Take action now.org. Don’t put off for tomorrow what you can do today.