back to index2018-04-22 Owe Nothing But Love
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All right, if you can turn your Bibles to Romans chapter 13, we're going to be reading 00:00:16.880 |
"Oh, no one, anything except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled 00:00:23.120 |
For the commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall 00:00:26.320 |
not steal, you shall not covet, and any other commandments are summed up in this word. 00:00:33.160 |
Love does no wrong to a neighbor, therefore love is fulfilling the law." 00:00:40.840 |
Gracious Father, we thank you for this morning and for the privilege that we have to have 00:00:48.920 |
We come before you with confidence, not by our own righteousness, but by the blood of 00:00:56.780 |
We thank you for allowing us, Lord God, access to you. 00:01:00.780 |
We thank you for caring enough to send in your only begotten Son. 00:01:04.120 |
I pray that that truth would always renew us, strengthen us, compel us, help us to be 00:01:17.000 |
As you guys know, our church has many weddings. 00:01:21.000 |
We again want to congratulate Mr. and Mrs. Chang, Ryan and Kate that got married yesterday. 00:01:34.400 |
Again anytime a young couple gets married, it's a great time of celebration and it's 00:01:42.700 |
But along with that, there's always a concern that our non-married singles will look at 00:01:48.520 |
that and just look in envy and just wanting maybe, "When am I going to get to that stage 00:01:56.720 |
There is a lot of things in singleness that even some of the married people may look with 00:02:02.520 |
And I was thinking about all the benefits of being single. 00:02:08.800 |
You have freedom that the married people do not have. 00:02:12.600 |
You get convicted by a sermon, you can do it. 00:02:15.360 |
Married people have to go and have a discussion. 00:02:22.760 |
You may look at a brochure, somebody's taking a trip and you say, "Oh, that'd be nice." 00:02:27.600 |
Married people have the same desires, but that's where it ends. 00:02:38.000 |
Married people have a lot more responsibility. 00:02:39.560 |
There's things that we need to take care of, bills that we need to pay. 00:02:41.760 |
Not that you don't have bills, but you have a bit more freedom to travel. 00:02:46.000 |
Even as a Christian, you want to go to short-term missions and do various things. 00:02:51.720 |
In fact, being married requires a lot of sacrifice. 00:03:03.560 |
And you can't just decide, "Oh, I want to eat this." 00:03:05.520 |
You have to make sure that the other person wants to eat it too. 00:03:08.520 |
And a lot of discussions, a lot of sacrifices go into being married. 00:03:13.280 |
Esther and I, every once in a while we'll have a conversation and she knows that if 00:03:19.000 |
I didn't have the family responsibility, I would probably live in a trailer, buy a little 00:03:29.040 |
So why would anybody get married with all the benefits of being single and all the sacrifices 00:03:36.840 |
Why would anybody in their right mind choose to partner up with somebody and make all those 00:03:43.920 |
The answer is pretty clear, because you want to. 00:03:49.360 |
There's not a biblical obligation that if you want to have a good follower of Christ 00:03:53.040 |
that you need to find somebody and sacrifice and this is where we learn to pick up our 00:04:01.720 |
And there's only one reason why anybody would make that choice, because you fall in love 00:04:06.040 |
with somebody and you choose to share your life with somebody. 00:04:10.680 |
I chose to get married because I'd rather be with Esther and I'd rather be with my children 00:04:16.120 |
than doing all this other stuff and it was more than worth sacrificing to do that. 00:04:19.960 |
So there's only one reason why you would do that. 00:04:22.360 |
So a marriage without love, all it is is obligations. 00:04:30.980 |
And that is no different with our walk with God. 00:04:34.360 |
If all it is in our relationship is just obligations, then Christianity is one of the biggest burdens 00:04:44.280 |
It's hard enough as it is to live a normal life just like everybody else in this world 00:04:50.480 |
But if love isn't what's compelling you, if love isn't the reason why God is drawing you 00:04:55.520 |
to himself, then all it is is picking up your cross and sacrificing and denying yourself. 00:05:02.840 |
And that's what it feels like for a lot of Christians, for a lot of people who are attending 00:05:11.120 |
And a lot of times, I mean, if love isn't what's compelling you, what is compelling 00:05:20.460 |
A lot of times it's because of the peer pressure of friends. 00:05:24.280 |
You just happen to be raised in a Christian home and you don't want to disappoint your 00:05:27.400 |
parents and all your friends happen to be at church, so if you don't behave a certain 00:05:31.380 |
way and sacrifice and do certain things, that because you want to fit in, you're willing 00:05:36.920 |
to make sacrifices and do all of these things. 00:05:39.400 |
But Christianity without love is no different than marriage, with marriage vow with just 00:05:47.360 |
That's why Apostle Paul for 11 chapters has been describing this love that God has given 00:05:56.080 |
When we talk about justification, you know, we think about it in theological terms of 00:05:59.440 |
what Christ has done, that our sins have been justified, that now we have free access to 00:06:05.040 |
God and all of these things are theological things, but if you take a step back and to 00:06:08.800 |
summarize what justification is, justification is simply God's expression of His love toward 00:06:15.040 |
So 11 chapters, He's been expounding this unconditional love that He targeted us, sinners. 00:06:24.360 |
And it's in response to that in chapter 12, He says, "In view of this mercy, in view of 00:06:28.640 |
this love, to live your life in sacrifice to God." 00:06:32.840 |
And that's why He starts in verse 2 by saying that the correct response to the love of God 00:06:38.000 |
that He has shown us is to renew our minds, not to be conformed to this world, but be 00:06:44.640 |
So that at the core of the renewing of our mind is our understanding of love and the 00:06:51.160 |
So the world's understanding of love is ultimately is self-centered love. 00:06:56.040 |
How we practice love is based upon who helps me to advance my cause, who helps me to become 00:07:04.520 |
more elevated, who advances my cause, who enhances my pride. 00:07:10.040 |
But He says our mind has to be renewed, completely renewed in order not to conform to this world, 00:07:16.160 |
but be transformed and begin to think and to believe and to practice what God has practiced. 00:07:22.240 |
And so if you look at the brief outline, in application of God's mercy, He says in chapter 00:07:29.520 |
12, verse 3 to 8, that we are to use our gifts in the church to glorify God, not ourselves. 00:07:37.240 |
Chapter 12, verse 9 through 13, it says, "It teaches us how to deal with our brothers and 00:07:43.840 |
In verse 14 to 21, it deals with how to practice this biblical love with those who persecute 00:07:54.000 |
And then chapter 13, 1 through 7, last week, we talked about how that love is to be expressed 00:07:59.880 |
for those who are in authority, for government. 00:08:03.040 |
Today in verse 8 to 10, He's not done with this discussion, but He pretty much summarizes 00:08:11.300 |
And in these two verses, I want to just break it up into three parts just to help us in 00:08:15.400 |
understanding of the three affirmations of this biblical love in conclusion. 00:08:20.680 |
Again, He has other things to say, but He kind of wraps up His argument in these two 00:08:24.600 |
verses, and that's what we want to look at this morning. 00:08:27.420 |
So the first thing we want to look at when He says in verse 8, "Owe no one anything except 00:08:34.440 |
Number one, love ultimately is an unpaid debt. 00:08:44.880 |
So much of our frustration in life, from relationship to relationship, from job to job, sometimes 00:08:50.600 |
from church to church, is when people disappoint us because we somehow think that people owe 00:08:59.520 |
See, there's a fundamental change in what Paul is saying in this text where he says, 00:09:05.600 |
we are all in one way or another debtors if we're Christians. 00:09:11.640 |
Years ago, Pastor John Piper wrote a book called Future Grace, and in that book, it 00:09:15.800 |
says that God does not want us to live in debtor's ethic, meaning that we are not to 00:09:21.480 |
live in a way that we're trying to pay God back, and he's absolutely correct. 00:09:25.640 |
How can we possibly pay back an infinite God who's given us an infinite love? 00:09:31.080 |
So the idea of somehow we're going to appease God and to live to pay what God has done for 00:09:37.360 |
us, it would bring us right back to the trap of the law. 00:09:42.560 |
What Paul is saying here is not to live as if to pay back the debt that He has given 00:09:50.840 |
He's saying that every Christian, every Christian has a debt that we owe to God that we cannot 00:09:59.240 |
And so therefore, it changes our fundamental attitude toward the way that we look at the 00:10:06.180 |
If you remember in Romans chapter 1, Paul says in verse 14 and 15, "I am under obligation 00:10:14.080 |
both to Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish." 00:10:24.900 |
Other than every synagogue that he went, they wanted to stone him and drag him out and kill 00:10:34.920 |
Every marketplace that he went to, there were a few Greeks who were converted, but for the 00:10:38.920 |
most part, the majority of them wanted him stoned and killed. 00:10:44.120 |
And yet he begins the book of Romans by saying he's obligated to the Greeks and to the barbarians. 00:10:50.920 |
Now obviously he's not saying that he's obligated because they've done something for him. 00:10:56.600 |
He's saying he's obligated in light of what God has done for him. 00:11:00.840 |
He's obligated not to them, but to God, and his expression of obligation to them is an 00:11:07.200 |
expression of love in response to what God has done for him. 00:11:12.640 |
He's changing fundamentally his outlook in life. 00:11:17.140 |
And that's the beginning of our walk with God as Christians. 00:11:20.040 |
If we walk to relationship with relationship looking for what that person's going to do 00:11:23.600 |
for me, at some point you're going to be disappointed because they're not going to meet your sinful 00:11:30.360 |
No selfish person will ever be satisfied with another person's selfishness. 00:11:37.760 |
Their selfishness is going to conflict with your selfishness, and eventually that conflict 00:11:44.860 |
As a Christian, our fundamental outlook of life changes when we meet Christ. 00:11:53.840 |
We've been the focus of a love that we can possibly even imagine. 00:11:59.240 |
No matter how much I try to describe this love, it will never do it justice. 00:12:05.160 |
In fact the more you study the Bible, the more we are all, but just how deep this love 00:12:15.240 |
And he says, "Do not owe anybody anything except for this depth of love." 00:12:23.360 |
Remember Sir Isaac Watts wrote this hymn, and I know many of you know this hymn. 00:12:29.360 |
And you probably sang it many times, you know bits and pieces, but I want to go over what 00:12:33.000 |
he's saying with you, especially the last part of it. 00:12:35.660 |
When he basically is describing for us the gospel truth, what every Christian confesses 00:12:42.600 |
When I survey the wondrous cross, on which the Prince of Glory died, 00:12:47.480 |
My richest gain I count but loss, and poor contempt and all my pride. 00:12:53.400 |
Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast and save in the death of Christ my God 00:12:57.120 |
All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to his blood. 00:13:01.940 |
See from his head, his hands, his feet, sorrow and love flow mingle down, 00:13:05.760 |
Did ever such love and sorrow meet, or thorns compose so rich a crown? 00:13:10.600 |
For the whole realm of nature mine that were present far too small. 00:13:15.040 |
Basically all this that he's saying here is basically a summary of Romans chapter 1 through 11. 00:13:20.720 |
When he surveys the cross, this wondrous cross, how all that God has done, 00:13:26.920 |
in light of all that God has done, everything that I have, my pride, my life, all of it, 00:13:33.900 |
And in conclusion he says, love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all. 00:13:43.120 |
Can you imagine what fellowship would look like if everybody who's been affected by the 00:13:49.420 |
love of Christ comes into the room thinking, "How can I pay this debt?" 00:13:57.260 |
Considering what God has done, I owe, I owe my brothers, I owe my sisters, I owe this world. 00:14:06.140 |
I have a debt that I cannot possibly begin to imagine to pay. 00:14:11.500 |
Can you imagine the community how it would change if the Christians lived with this ethics? 00:14:24.620 |
Again, this does not mean that Paul is calling us to pay back what we owe, 00:14:32.300 |
But he's saying that if we love God, the way we express our love for God is to express 00:14:38.980 |
Ask any parent who has multiple children, "How can I help you?" 00:14:45.740 |
Because so much of a parent's attention is to take care of the children, the best thing 00:14:50.220 |
that anybody can do is to help us with our kids. 00:14:54.000 |
So if my oldest child comes to me and says, "Dad, what can I do for your birthday?" 00:14:57.780 |
Usually, mom and dad, the first thing that we may say is, "Take care of your brother 00:15:09.060 |
And God is basically telling us the same thing. 00:15:15.860 |
First John chapter 4, 20 to 21, it says, "If anyone says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother, 00:15:23.100 |
"For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not 00:15:28.900 |
And this commandment we have found from him, whoever loves God must also love his brother." 00:15:33.700 |
How many of you have met somebody who's no longer going to church who said to you, "You 00:15:54.100 |
I love who he is, but I can't stand the church." 00:15:59.540 |
The scripture says it is not possible to do one with the other because God does not separate 00:16:07.900 |
He says, "If you love me, you must love your brothers and sisters in Christ." 00:16:12.380 |
You know the passage in John chapter 21, verse 17. 00:16:15.660 |
Remember, after Peter denies Christ and after the resurrection, Jesus meets him at the shore 00:16:21.820 |
of the Sea of Galilee and he asks Peter to restore him back. 00:16:31.500 |
If you read the commentaries, there's a lot of different discussions. 00:16:36.540 |
And I've heard some commentaries talking about how these are talking about the fish, you 00:16:40.900 |
know, because they were just fishing and said, "Jesus was pointing to the fish and, 'Do 00:16:45.460 |
Referring to, "Do you love me more than your previous life? 00:16:49.100 |
Do you love me more than, you know, what you have outside of me?" 00:16:56.860 |
I think he's referring back to what Peter said before Jesus went to the cross when Jesus 00:17:03.420 |
He said, "Everybody's going to deny you but not me. 00:17:06.800 |
These other disciples, these other guys, they're weak but not me. 00:17:17.820 |
I think Jesus was probably pointing to the other disciples, referring back to his confession, 00:17:28.020 |
Now this is the confidence that he had before, you know, now that he's actually failed, he's 00:17:32.780 |
on this other side, he's asking him, "Do you really love me more than these?" 00:17:40.580 |
I think Peter genuinely loved Christ before and he genuinely loved Christ after. 00:17:50.740 |
Jesus doesn't say, "Well, if you love me, don't do this. 00:17:57.180 |
If you really love me, next time anything like this happens, you better not deny me." 00:18:03.860 |
"If you really love me more than these, if you really love me," what does he say? 00:18:14.400 |
If you want to worship me, if you want to follow me, if you want to genuinely love me," 00:18:24.380 |
It is no different for us if we confess our love for Christ and we hate our brothers. 00:18:40.180 |
He says, "Owe nothing except for the debt of love." 00:18:44.540 |
That every single one of us, every time, any group that we go to, that you don't owe me 00:18:51.200 |
God has given me everything that I need for life and godliness. 00:18:55.700 |
It's great to have your love, but I don't need it. 00:18:58.580 |
It's great to have your support, but I don't need it. 00:19:03.420 |
It's great to be able to run the race together with other Christians. 00:19:06.380 |
All of these things are great, but I don't need it. 00:19:10.020 |
Everything I need has been given to me in Christ. 00:19:13.940 |
So can you imagine how that would affect the church if every single person coming to church 00:19:19.140 |
every time we're gathered together have this attitude that, "Owe nothing except for the 00:19:28.880 |
So first and foremost, our recognition of this love is at the foundation of who we are. 00:19:37.320 |
And without that love is no different than a loveless marriage. 00:19:46.280 |
Secondly, not only are we to have this attitude, he says love actually fulfills all the commandments. 00:19:54.200 |
Love is the fulfillment of all the commandments. 00:19:56.200 |
But in order to understand this, we have to understand it in context with what Jesus is 00:20:01.520 |
Because I've heard some people apply this by saying, "Well, if we love, we don't need 00:20:08.680 |
to obey any kind of commandments because love basically ended the commandments. 00:20:14.360 |
So all we need to do is love Jesus and love one another." 00:20:17.440 |
So all this talk about sanctification and holiness, that's against scripture because 00:20:26.520 |
Remember what Jesus says in Matthew 5, 17 when the Jews were accusing him? 00:20:37.160 |
And Jesus corrects them by saying, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the law 00:20:41.760 |
I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." 00:20:46.560 |
So we have to understand a distinction between abolishing the law and fulfilling the law. 00:20:51.840 |
The word that he uses here to fulfill is plereo. 00:20:57.760 |
And basically the word doesn't mean to terminate or to end. 00:21:01.280 |
It means to fill up something that is hollow. 00:21:04.240 |
And that's the word that is used in Ephesians chapter 5, 8 when it says to be filled with 00:21:08.040 |
the Holy Spirit is to have the Spirit of God consume us so that we are influenced by the 00:21:15.780 |
Holy Spirit in everything that we do and say. 00:21:18.900 |
So when he says the love fulfills the law, basically he's saying it is love that fills 00:21:25.720 |
us up to be able to carry out the law, what God intended. 00:21:31.960 |
Let me give you a perfect example of that in the book of Isaiah. 00:21:35.600 |
You know, we study through the book of Isaiah chapter 1 and one of the harshest indictments 00:21:39.640 |
against the nation of Israel happens right before they go into captivity. 00:21:44.600 |
The Babylonians are going to come, the Syrians are going to come and take them into captivity 00:21:48.320 |
and he describes the reason why this is happening. 00:21:51.960 |
In Isaiah chapter 1 verses 11 through 17 he says, "What to me is a multitude of your sacrifices," 00:21:56.720 |
says the Lord, "I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed 00:22:01.920 |
I do not delight in the blood of bulls or of lambs or of goats." 00:22:07.440 |
Those of you who have been studying through the book of Leviticus, right, why were they 00:22:18.480 |
Why were they giving many of these sacrifices? 00:22:20.240 |
Is anything mentioned here in chapter 11 that God himself did not explicitly command? 00:22:31.520 |
There's nothing mentioned here about idolatry. 00:22:33.520 |
There's nothing mentioned here about sexual impurity. 00:22:37.980 |
Everything he mentions here are the things that are explicitly commanded in the book 00:22:43.120 |
In fact, if they didn't do it correctly, they got killed. 00:22:52.480 |
Did God's economy change that at one point this is what he wanted, and now he changed 00:23:00.960 |
He says, "When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling 00:23:10.000 |
The whole purpose of the tabernacle is that through these sacrifices that they were to 00:23:20.840 |
Verse 13, "Bring no more vain offerings, incenses, and abomination to me." 00:23:25.440 |
Remember what it says in the book of Leviticus over and over again? 00:23:36.560 |
These burnt sacrifices, these incense that they burned repeatedly over and over again 00:23:41.240 |
was a pleasing aroma to God, and yet he says, "This incense is an abomination to me, new 00:23:49.600 |
I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly." 00:23:53.720 |
Every single thing that is mentioned here, verse 11 through 13, was commanded by God. 00:23:58.640 |
And to do this repeatedly, the burnt offering was to be given morning and night by the commandment 00:24:12.480 |
And he says, "Why do you bring these empty sacrifices? 00:24:17.440 |
When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. 00:24:20.720 |
Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen. 00:24:26.680 |
The whole purpose of the tabernacle, the sacrifices, the burning of incense was so that they can 00:24:32.600 |
And God says, "My house will be called a house of prayer." 00:24:38.120 |
And he says, "But now you come to me, I will not listen." 00:24:45.880 |
Is God's salvation plan different at this part of Israel's history than it was when 00:24:51.760 |
See, the reason why God was so angry with the nation of Israel was because God's whole 00:24:56.880 |
reason why he told them to make these sacrifices wasn't because he was a connoisseur of barbecue. 00:25:04.160 |
It wasn't because he loved the smell of burnt animals, or he liked to see candles being 00:25:10.080 |
burned, or he is an extrovert so he likes the assembly of his people together, that 00:25:20.200 |
"Wash yourself, make yourself clean, remove the evil from your deeds from before my eyes, 00:25:25.320 |
cease to do evil, learn to do good, seek justice, correct oppression, bring justice to the fatherless, 00:25:49.580 |
So if you don't practice love outside the temple and then you bring it into the temple 00:25:53.520 |
thinking that if you give many sacrifices that somehow that will appease the anger of 00:26:01.480 |
God was not seeking to see if you just kill a lot of animals that he's going to be satisfied. 00:26:08.120 |
If you just stick to this, just do exactly what I tell you to do, and just gather together 00:26:12.560 |
when I tell you to gather together, that somehow is going to appease his anger. 00:26:17.920 |
He was angry that they thought that somehow that killing these animals would somehow appease 00:26:26.760 |
The New Testament version of that, we see it at the church of Ephesus in Revelation 00:26:31.760 |
He says, "I know your works, your toil, your patient endurance, and how you cannot 00:26:36.440 |
bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are 00:26:44.080 |
On the surface, every part of this church is exactly what a church should be doing. 00:26:49.560 |
Right doctrine, patient endurance, having the right leaders. 00:26:55.880 |
All of these things are things that are commanded in the scripture. 00:26:59.280 |
And he says in verse 3, "I know you're enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, 00:27:03.560 |
and you have not grown weary, but I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love 00:27:12.940 |
This was such a serious problem that he says that if you do not restore your first love, 00:27:19.480 |
And lampstand in chapter 1 basically is referring to the church itself. 00:27:23.560 |
So when he says if you don't restore your first love, to take away the lampstand basically 00:27:28.520 |
means that God's presence is going to be withdrawn. 00:27:37.960 |
It is not the many times that we come to church. 00:27:41.600 |
And again, that's a danger of being in a church and growing up in a church where we think 00:27:48.080 |
that because of our many Sundays that we're gathered together, that we're better off than 00:27:55.320 |
That because we made the sacrifices, because we serve the church, because majority of the 00:28:03.560 |
I'm probably, probably among even your Christian friends, you study the Bible more than most 00:28:12.280 |
You're more active at the church more than most of the Christian friends that you probably 00:28:18.200 |
It may not be true for everybody, but for most of you. 00:28:21.920 |
Because of that, we can naturally think that God is more pleased with me than anybody else. 00:28:29.480 |
He said, but true worship, true worship and true sacrifice ultimately is a fulfillment 00:28:39.040 |
And that's why he says to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. 00:28:51.380 |
It wasn't just cleaning of the church and giving of the church. 00:28:55.840 |
All of these things are external expressions, but if it is not done in love, it means nothing. 00:29:02.880 |
We're guilty of the same thing that Israel was guilty of and guilty of the same thing 00:29:09.200 |
That ultimately what God desires is love expressed through giving. 00:29:26.660 |
And eventually, we can't stand up under that for too long. 00:29:31.840 |
Third and finally, love ultimately does no harm to its neighbors. 00:29:37.280 |
And so he says in verse 9 and 10, he says, "For the commandment, 'You shall not commit 00:29:42.760 |
adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet,' and other 00:29:46.000 |
commandments are summed up in this word, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'" 00:29:50.200 |
In 1 Peter 4, 8, Peter says, "Keep loving one another since love covers over a multitude 00:29:57.300 |
So when he says love covers over a multitude of sins, he's not saying that if you commit 00:30:01.540 |
certain sins but practice love that God will forgive you. 00:30:09.400 |
Love is not an excuse to live in sin because somehow it balances each other out. 00:30:14.240 |
What he's saying is if you practice love, it's much easier to be gracious, to cover 00:30:23.360 |
Let's look at the practical application of this. 00:30:27.960 |
How does love, how does the fullness of love fulfill the commandment of not committing 00:30:35.240 |
You know, people who fall into this temptation will sometimes say, "You know, I fell in love 00:30:43.860 |
But when you take a closer look at what they're saying is they didn't fall in love with somebody 00:30:47.240 |
else, it's lack of love that caused them to get into adultery. 00:30:51.180 |
You know, a lot of times the way that we use the word love, we use it in a way that we 00:31:01.840 |
You know, we say we love fish and say, "Oh, what do you mean by that?" 00:31:08.440 |
Because I love fish, I catch it, I kill it, and I cut it into small pieces and I put it 00:31:12.520 |
in my mouth and I chew it and I eat it, right? 00:31:18.280 |
A lot of times when we say we love something, that's what it means. 00:31:23.100 |
If we really love fish, we will protect it, feed it, make sure the tank is clean, and 00:31:29.760 |
that it lives a long and healthy, prosperous life, right? 00:31:34.340 |
The Bible says that love is when a friend lays down his life and he gives everything 00:31:40.780 |
He said that's how love is described, when you're willing to sacrifice for the object 00:31:45.140 |
But oftentimes, the way that the world describes love, it's not love for it, it's love for 00:31:51.620 |
I love the fish, I love you because you give me something. 00:31:56.580 |
So he said adultery ultimately is an expression of selfish love. 00:32:03.100 |
He says when we practice biblical love and we're filled with this love, it prevents us 00:32:10.940 |
It is lack of love for my wife or my children or the people around in my community that 00:32:20.940 |
So that's what it means when he says love fulfills all the commandment, it fills it 00:32:28.140 |
He's not saying that if you practice love, it doesn't matter if you commit adultery. 00:32:40.780 |
You know, the best way to prevent adultery is love your wife. 00:32:50.560 |
And if you love your wife and your wife loves you, that's the greatest deterrent to adultery. 00:32:56.540 |
How does love fill up the commandment not to murder? 00:32:59.940 |
You know, murder ultimately is hatred that we give into. 00:33:05.820 |
And then it bears fruit eventually into murder. 00:33:07.980 |
Obviously, you know, majority of people that we know will not commit murder. 00:33:11.440 |
But Jesus says that if you have hatred toward your brother, it is like it because it is 00:33:19.140 |
If you have love, it's a lot easier to be patient. 00:33:22.260 |
I mean, if we're driving down the road and somebody cuts us off and our immediate response 00:33:33.380 |
And then you drive up fast to see who did this to you and you look in and then you see 00:33:43.540 |
Or me, I go up and then I look at it's one of our church members. 00:33:55.880 |
Our relationship, the kind of relationship that we have toward one another helps us to 00:34:04.320 |
Now somebody that you already had something against, they do something wrong, we're eager 00:34:11.340 |
You know, we already had some animosity, a misunderstanding or something that you've 00:34:14.900 |
never dealt with and all of a sudden they say something wrong, they do something wrong 00:34:18.780 |
and you're so eager to spread it to everybody, let everybody know what they did wrong. 00:34:23.780 |
Because the root of that relationship is not love. 00:34:26.900 |
But if that was somebody that you really cared about, your brother, your sister, maybe your 00:34:34.320 |
I think every parent can directly relate to your child. 00:34:36.980 |
If your child did something, you're not eager to go and spread that on Facebook. 00:34:42.160 |
You're not eager to go and tell everybody what he did. 00:34:48.380 |
And you want to do the best that you can to help them. 00:34:53.980 |
He said if love is not at the root, our natural response, we're eager to expose other people's 00:35:02.660 |
How does love fill up the commandment, "You shall not steal." 00:35:07.980 |
You know, I worry about things getting stolen outside of the house, but inside of the house, 00:35:13.420 |
Typically people steal from people that they don't know. 00:35:18.460 |
So again, all of these things, when it says love is the filling up, and even the commandment, 00:35:25.980 |
When something good happens, they get a raise or they get a job or they get into school 00:35:29.860 |
that you wanted to go to, as much as on the outside we say, "Oh, congratulations, we feel 00:35:35.580 |
But there's a part of us that kind of covets and say, "Why didn't that happen to me?" 00:35:40.820 |
And it's, you know, we're supposed to rejoice with them, but we don't really rejoice with 00:35:47.180 |
Unless it happens to somebody we really love, we genuinely love and care for. 00:35:52.140 |
And when something good happens to them, we can rejoice with them. 00:36:00.780 |
You know, somebody asked me, because you know, a lot of you guys know I used to play a lot 00:36:07.580 |
And then when my kids started playing basketball, and my dream was one day that we'd be good 00:36:17.280 |
And I realized that I was tanking much faster than they were going up. 00:36:21.320 |
And so that line where we cross, where we can play competitively, may have been just 00:36:32.280 |
And then, you know, people would jokingly say, "Oh, you know, how do you feel? 00:36:39.400 |
And you would think that my response would be, "Oh my gosh, I feel horrible." 00:36:48.340 |
I want my kids to be taller than me and better looking than me. 00:36:51.240 |
It feels good as a father because when good things happen to them, I feel good about it. 00:37:10.280 |
He said love is the filling up of the command. 00:37:13.840 |
Like every command that he gave us, ultimately, it wasn't just not committing adultery. 00:37:31.480 |
And this is also true of the commandment for God. 00:37:34.440 |
"Thou shalt not have any other gods before me." 00:37:40.340 |
If we don't love God, this temptation from the world is too great. 00:37:51.360 |
Billions and billions of dollars are spent to get you to love what they're selling. 00:37:57.600 |
I mean, they dress it up and even the people in the magazine on the things that you watch 00:38:01.880 |
and they're the most beautiful people that you've ever seen. 00:38:04.920 |
You get the top 1% of the universe and you put them on a magazine and they're selling 00:38:15.160 |
How often are you going to just say no to that? 00:38:17.800 |
See, the first commandment to have no other gods before me is to gaze upon who he is. 00:38:24.400 |
And when you fall in love with God, everything else becomes rubbish. 00:38:29.560 |
You don't just say rubbish, rubbish, rubbish, rubbish and it disappears. 00:38:34.900 |
You gaze upon the beauty of God and the only thing that can compete, the only thing that 00:38:40.400 |
can compete with the attraction of this world is the glory of God. 00:38:46.280 |
So when you fall in love with God, all these other things are a hindrance to this joy. 00:38:53.100 |
So love is the filling up of that commandment. 00:38:57.800 |
Thou shalt have no graven images of me to make him something that he's not and worship 00:39:07.200 |
You know, when heresy and blasphemy things are being said and done in our culture, sometimes 00:39:14.720 |
Christians respond with indifference as if it was something that's just disconnected. 00:39:20.840 |
You know, maybe these are things that the pastors should worry about or theologians 00:39:26.040 |
That's because there's a disconnect in our affection for our God. 00:39:29.900 |
And I mentioned this to you before, years ago when that book came out, Dan Brown's book, 00:39:35.020 |
you know, and he came out, the Da Vinci Code, basically he said Jesus had an extra marital 00:39:39.560 |
affair with Mary and he had children out of wedlock and they were saying all this and 00:39:45.480 |
then when they confronted him about his facts, all he said was, "Oh, it's just fiction." 00:39:50.880 |
You know, some of it is true and some of it I made up, but it's just to sell books. 00:39:55.200 |
But what surprised me was how many Christians were entertained by this book. 00:40:00.840 |
And I remember having conversations with some Christians thinking, "This is your God that 00:40:05.500 |
you worship who died for our sins that supposedly that we love and worship every single week. 00:40:13.200 |
Now what if I said that I'm entertaining an article, not a book, about how your mother 00:40:19.480 |
I'm pretty sure all of us, you know, even just the fact that I said that made you feel 00:40:23.880 |
And the reason why it made you feel uncomfortable is because you love your mom, your dad, or 00:40:29.820 |
So even the thought of saying that makes you feel uncomfortable because you have affection 00:40:36.800 |
And yet when it comes to the God that we worship, it's just so cerebral. 00:40:46.080 |
See, when we love our God and we've seen the glory of who He is, all these things that 00:40:56.360 |
He's, all these commandments are just an expression of this love. 00:41:00.600 |
That's why we, even the keeping the Sabbath holy, it's not about, "Oh, Sabbath, you know, 00:41:08.540 |
"Man was not made for Sabbath, but Sabbath was," what? 00:41:17.740 |
So the corporate worship of God is not a burden for us to come together and say, "Oh, I have 00:41:25.200 |
He says, "No, the Sabbath was given to you to worship." 00:41:30.860 |
But if love is not what fills us, if love is not what compels us, if love is not what 00:41:36.980 |
moves us, yeah, that's exactly what it is, just an obligation, just a sacrifice, just 00:41:49.900 |
But when love is what fills us, it changes our fellowship, it changes our prayers, it 00:41:59.240 |
changes our worship, it changes our gathering, it changes evangelism, and everything that 00:42:39.840 |
But even among all of that, he says, "Faith is the greatest." 00:42:45.720 |
Hope causes us to persevere to get to this love. 00:42:55.800 |
And so that's how we evaluate everything that we do. 00:43:14.680 |
All of these things should only be an expression of that love. 00:43:18.200 |
So when we ask ourself how you're doing, the number one thing that we should be asking 00:43:31.920 |
And then is that love causing me to love my neighbors?" 00:43:36.240 |
Let's take a few minutes to pray, again, as we ask our praise team to come back up. 00:43:44.480 |
There's some of us that are always struggling with discipline, like prayer, reading the 00:43:51.600 |
Bible, and doing various things that we're supposed to do as Christians. 00:43:57.360 |
And I want you to take a step back and ask yourselves, "Why is prayer and the Word so 00:44:06.160 |
Is it simply a matter of discipline, or you do not connect that with Christ?" 00:44:13.640 |
That's not an avenue to pursue a loving relationship with Christ. 00:44:20.280 |
Maybe that's the reason why studying the Word of God and prayer is just an obligation, 00:44:27.320 |
to take a step back and examine ourselves to see where we are. 00:44:34.480 |
You've always been an A student, and you're so frustrated with other people who are just 00:44:38.680 |
not jumping through the hoops as well as you are. 00:44:41.920 |
We need to take a step back and ask ourselves, "Is my focus love for God and loving others?" 00:44:48.520 |
Why is it that every time somebody asks me how I'm doing, I'm only talking about how 00:44:56.200 |
Not about His love, not about what He's done for me, not about the fact that you and I 00:45:03.680 |
And again, to take a step back and examine ourselves, where is our affection? 00:45:10.200 |
Let's take a few minutes as our worship team leads us to really come before the Lord and 00:45:17.360 |
Let's take some time to pray as they lead us.