All right, if you can turn your Bibles to Romans chapter 13, we're going to be reading verse 8 through 10. Romans chapter 13, verse 8 through 10. Reading out of the ESV. "Oh, no one, anything except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.

For the commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and any other commandments are summed up in this word. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor, therefore love is fulfilling the law." Let's pray.

Gracious Father, we thank you for this morning and for the privilege that we have to have access to the throne of grace. We come before you with confidence, not by our own righteousness, but by the blood of Christ. We thank you for hearing our prayers. We thank you for allowing us, Lord God, access to you.

We thank you for caring enough to send in your only begotten Son. I pray that that truth would always renew us, strengthen us, compel us, help us to be hearers and doers of your word this morning. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. As you guys know, our church has many weddings.

We again want to congratulate Mr. and Mrs. Chang, Ryan and Kate that got married yesterday. So let's say congratulations to them. Again anytime a young couple gets married, it's a great time of celebration and it's great to have the church gathered together. But along with that, there's always a concern that our non-married singles will look at that and just look in envy and just wanting maybe, "When am I going to get to that stage and waste our singleness?" There is a lot of things in singleness that even some of the married people may look with fond memory.

And I was thinking about all the benefits of being single. Obviously, the freedom. You have freedom that the married people do not have. You get convicted by a sermon, you can do it. Married people have to go and have a discussion. Is this even possible? You may look at a brochure, somebody's taking a trip and you say, "Oh, that'd be nice." Married people have the same desires, but that's where it ends.

You definitely have more money. Married people have a lot more responsibility. There's things that we need to take care of, bills that we need to pay. Not that you don't have bills, but you have a bit more freedom to travel. Even as a Christian, you want to go to short-term missions and do various things.

There's a lot of things that you can do. In fact, being married requires a lot of sacrifice. You have to share space. You have to share your money. You have to share your bed. And you can't just decide, "Oh, I want to eat this." You have to make sure that the other person wants to eat it too.

And a lot of discussions, a lot of sacrifices go into being married. Esther and I, every once in a while we'll have a conversation and she knows that if I didn't have the family responsibility, I would probably live in a trailer, buy a little motorcycle and just be free.

So why would anybody get married with all the benefits of being single and all the sacrifices that go into being married? Why would anybody in their right mind choose to partner up with somebody and make all those sacrifices? The answer is pretty clear, because you want to. Nobody twists your arm.

There's not a biblical obligation that if you want to have a good follower of Christ that you need to find somebody and sacrifice and this is where we learn to pick up our cross, right? You just do it because you want to. And there's only one reason why anybody would make that choice, because you fall in love with somebody and you choose to share your life with somebody.

I chose to get married because I'd rather be with Esther and I'd rather be with my children than doing all this other stuff and it was more than worth sacrificing to do that. So there's only one reason why you would do that. So a marriage without love, all it is is obligations.

All it is is sacrifice. And that is no different with our walk with God. If all it is in our relationship is just obligations, then Christianity is one of the biggest burdens of any human being. It's hard enough as it is to live a normal life just like everybody else in this world struggles and suffers.

But if love isn't what's compelling you, if love isn't the reason why God is drawing you to himself, then all it is is picking up your cross and sacrificing and denying yourself. And that's what it feels like for a lot of Christians, for a lot of people who are attending church and you feel obligated.

And a lot of times, I mean, if love isn't what's compelling you, what is compelling you? Sometimes it's habit. Sometimes it's superstition. A lot of times it's because of the peer pressure of friends. You just happen to be raised in a Christian home and you don't want to disappoint your parents and all your friends happen to be at church, so if you don't behave a certain way and sacrifice and do certain things, that because you want to fit in, you're willing to make sacrifices and do all of these things.

But Christianity without love is no different than marriage, with marriage vow with just obligations. That's why Apostle Paul for 11 chapters has been describing this love that God has given us. 11 chapters. When we talk about justification, you know, we think about it in theological terms of what Christ has done, that our sins have been justified, that now we have free access to God and all of these things are theological things, but if you take a step back and to summarize what justification is, justification is simply God's expression of His love toward us.

So 11 chapters, He's been expounding this unconditional love that He targeted us, sinners. And it's in response to that in chapter 12, He says, "In view of this mercy, in view of this love, to live your life in sacrifice to God." And that's why He starts in verse 2 by saying that the correct response to the love of God that He has shown us is to renew our minds, not to be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our mind.

So that at the core of the renewing of our mind is our understanding of love and the world's understanding of love. So the world's understanding of love is ultimately is self-centered love. How we practice love is based upon who helps me to advance my cause, who helps me to become more elevated, who advances my cause, who enhances my pride.

But He says our mind has to be renewed, completely renewed in order not to conform to this world, but be transformed and begin to think and to believe and to practice what God has practiced. And so if you look at the brief outline, in application of God's mercy, He says in chapter 12, verse 3 to 8, that we are to use our gifts in the church to glorify God, not ourselves.

Chapter 12, verse 9 through 13, it says, "It teaches us how to deal with our brothers and sisters in Christ in this agape love." In verse 14 to 21, it deals with how to practice this biblical love with those who persecute us and who we consider to be harmful to us.

And then chapter 13, 1 through 7, last week, we talked about how that love is to be expressed for those who are in authority, for government. Today in verse 8 to 10, He's not done with this discussion, but He pretty much summarizes what He has to say in these two verses.

And in these two verses, I want to just break it up into three parts just to help us in understanding of the three affirmations of this biblical love in conclusion. Again, He has other things to say, but He kind of wraps up His argument in these two verses, and that's what we want to look at this morning.

So the first thing we want to look at when He says in verse 8, "Owe no one anything except to love." Number one, love ultimately is an unpaid debt. It is an unpaid debt. So much of our frustration in life, from relationship to relationship, from job to job, sometimes from church to church, is when people disappoint us because we somehow think that people owe us something.

See, there's a fundamental change in what Paul is saying in this text where he says, we are all in one way or another debtors if we're Christians. Years ago, Pastor John Piper wrote a book called Future Grace, and in that book, it says that God does not want us to live in debtor's ethic, meaning that we are not to live in a way that we're trying to pay God back, and he's absolutely correct.

How can we possibly pay back an infinite God who's given us an infinite love? So the idea of somehow we're going to appease God and to live to pay what God has done for us, it would bring us right back to the trap of the law. What Paul is saying here is not to live as if to pay back the debt that He has given us, He paid for us.

He's saying that every Christian, every Christian has a debt that we owe to God that we cannot possibly pay. And so therefore, it changes our fundamental attitude toward the way that we look at the world. If you remember in Romans chapter 1, Paul says in verse 14 and 15, "I am under obligation both to Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish." Why is Paul obligated to the Jews?

What did the Jews do? Other than every synagogue that he went, they wanted to stone him and drag him out and kill him. Why does he say he's obligated? What did the Gentiles ever do for him? Every marketplace that he went to, there were a few Greeks who were converted, but for the most part, the majority of them wanted him stoned and killed.

And yet he begins the book of Romans by saying he's obligated to the Greeks and to the barbarians. Now obviously he's not saying that he's obligated because they've done something for him. He's saying he's obligated in light of what God has done for him. He's obligated not to them, but to God, and his expression of obligation to them is an expression of love in response to what God has done for him.

He's changing fundamentally his outlook in life. And that's the beginning of our walk with God as Christians. If we walk to relationship with relationship looking for what that person's going to do for me, at some point you're going to be disappointed because they're not going to meet your sinful needs.

No selfish person will ever be satisfied with another person's selfishness. At some point it will be expressed. Their selfishness is going to conflict with your selfishness, and eventually that conflict is not going to be resolved. As a Christian, our fundamental outlook of life changes when we meet Christ. Because we won the spiritual lottery.

We've been the focus of a love that we can possibly even imagine. No matter how much I try to describe this love, it will never do it justice. In fact the more you study the Bible, the more we are all, but just how deep this love is. And so fundamentally we are changed.

That's what Paul is describing. And he says, "Do not owe anybody anything except for this depth of love." When you recognize what it is. Remember Sir Isaac Watts wrote this hymn, and I know many of you know this hymn. And you probably sang it many times, you know bits and pieces, but I want to go over what he's saying with you, especially the last part of it.

When he basically is describing for us the gospel truth, what every Christian confesses at its core. When I survey the wondrous cross, on which the Prince of Glory died, My richest gain I count but loss, and poor contempt and all my pride. Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast and save in the death of Christ my God All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to his blood.

See from his head, his hands, his feet, sorrow and love flow mingle down, Did ever such love and sorrow meet, or thorns compose so rich a crown? For the whole realm of nature mine that were present far too small. Basically all this that he's saying here is basically a summary of Romans chapter 1 through 11.

When he surveys the cross, this wondrous cross, how all that God has done, in light of all that God has done, everything that I have, my pride, my life, all of it, becomes rubbish. And in conclusion he says, love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.

Can you imagine what fellowship would look like if everybody who's been affected by the love of Christ comes into the room thinking, "How can I pay this debt?" Considering what God has done, I owe, I owe my brothers, I owe my sisters, I owe this world. I have a debt that I cannot possibly begin to imagine to pay.

Can you imagine the community how it would change if the Christians lived with this ethics? To owe nothing but this debt of love. That's what Paul is referring to. Again, this does not mean that Paul is calling us to pay back what we owe, because that's not possible. But he's saying that if we love God, the way we express our love for God is to express our love for our brothers and sisters.

Ask any parent who has multiple children, "How can I help you?" Because so much of a parent's attention is to take care of the children, the best thing that anybody can do is to help us with our kids. So if my oldest child comes to me and says, "Dad, what can I do for your birthday?" Usually, mom and dad, the first thing that we may say is, "Take care of your brother and sister.

Take care of your siblings. That's the best way to help me. That's the best way to love me." And God is basically telling us the same thing. If you love me, take care of my kids. First John chapter 4, 20 to 21, it says, "If anyone says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar." He does not mix words.

"For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have found from him, whoever loves God must also love his brother." How many of you have met somebody who's no longer going to church who said to you, "You know what?

I love God. I love everything about who Jesus is. I love the gospel, but I hate the church. I love about what he has done. I love what Jesus stands for. I love who he is, but I can't stand the church." The scripture says it is not possible to do one with the other because God does not separate himself from the church.

He says the church is the body of Christ. He says, "If you love me, you must love your brothers and sisters in Christ." You know the passage in John chapter 21, verse 17. Remember, after Peter denies Christ and after the resurrection, Jesus meets him at the shore of the Sea of Galilee and he asks Peter to restore him back.

"Do you love me more than these?" If you read the commentaries, there's a lot of different discussions. What does Jesus mean here by these? And I've heard some commentaries talking about how these are talking about the fish, you know, because they were just fishing and said, "Jesus was pointing to the fish and, 'Do you love me more than these?'" Referring to, "Do you love me more than your previous life?

Do you love me more than, you know, what you have outside of me?" I don't think it's that complicated. I think he's referring back to what Peter said before Jesus went to the cross when Jesus told him that he was going. He said, "Everybody's going to deny you but not me.

These other disciples, these other guys, they're weak but not me. I'm going to prove my love to you. Even if they all fall, I won't fall." I think Jesus was probably pointing to the other disciples, referring back to his confession, his confidence. "Do you love me? Do you truly love me more than these?" Now this is the confidence that he had before, you know, now that he's actually failed, he's on this other side, he's asking him, "Do you really love me more than these?" Peter's affection for Jesus didn't change.

I think Peter genuinely loved Christ before and he genuinely loved Christ after. But this is a humbled version of Peter. Jesus doesn't say, "Well, if you love me, don't do this. Don't do it again. If you really love me, next time anything like this happens, you better not deny me." He doesn't say that.

Remember what he says? "If you really love me more than these, if you really love me," what does he say? "Feed my sheep. Feed my sheep. If you want to worship me, if you want to follow me, if you want to genuinely love me," he said, "love the ones that I love." He says, "Feed my sheep." It is no different for us if we confess our love for Christ and we hate our brothers.

That's hypocrisy. You can't love God and hate your brothers. And that's basically what he's saying. That's what Paul is saying. He says, "Owe nothing except for the debt of love." That every single one of us, every time, any group that we go to, that you don't owe me anything.

God has given me everything that I need for life and godliness. Everything. It's great to have your love, but I don't need it. It's great to have your support, but I don't need it. It's great to have accountability. It's great to be able to run the race together with other Christians.

All of these things are great, but I don't need it. Everything I need has been given to me in Christ. So can you imagine how that would affect the church if every single person coming to church every time we're gathered together have this attitude that, "Owe nothing except for the debt of love," because of what God has done.

So first and foremost, our recognition of this love is at the foundation of who we are. And without that love is no different than a loveless marriage. It's just sacrifice. It's just religiousness. It's just superstition. Secondly, not only are we to have this attitude, he says love actually fulfills all the commandments.

Love is the fulfillment of all the commandments. But in order to understand this, we have to understand it in context with what Jesus is saying. Because I've heard some people apply this by saying, "Well, if we love, we don't need to obey any kind of commandments because love basically ended the commandments.

We don't need to. So all we need to do is love Jesus and love one another." So all this talk about sanctification and holiness, that's against scripture because now the Bible says love fulfilled all of it. Remember what Jesus says in Matthew 5, 17 when the Jews were accusing him?

"This guy is against our law. He's not obeying anything." Not that he wasn't obeying. He wasn't obeying their tradition. And Jesus corrects them by saying, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." So we have to understand a distinction between abolishing the law and fulfilling the law.

The word that he uses here to fulfill is plereo. And basically the word doesn't mean to terminate or to end. It means to fill up something that is hollow. And that's the word that is used in Ephesians chapter 5, 8 when it says to be filled with the Holy Spirit is to have the Spirit of God consume us so that we are influenced by the Holy Spirit in everything that we do and say.

So when he says the love fulfills the law, basically he's saying it is love that fills us up to be able to carry out the law, what God intended. Let me give you a perfect example of that in the book of Isaiah. You know, we study through the book of Isaiah chapter 1 and one of the harshest indictments against the nation of Israel happens right before they go into captivity.

The Babylonians are going to come, the Syrians are going to come and take them into captivity and he describes the reason why this is happening. In Isaiah chapter 1 verses 11 through 17 he says, "What to me is a multitude of your sacrifices," says the Lord, "I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts.

I do not delight in the blood of bulls or of lambs or of goats." Let me stop right here. Those of you who have been studying through the book of Leviticus, right, why were they giving these sacrifices? Why were they giving these sacrifices? Why were they giving many of these sacrifices?

Is anything mentioned here in chapter 11 that God himself did not explicitly command? So why does God say he's tired of them? There's nothing mentioned here about idolatry. There's nothing mentioned here about sexual impurity. He doesn't mention anything. Everything he mentions here are the things that are explicitly commanded in the book of Leviticus.

In fact, if they didn't do it correctly, they got killed. And so God here says, "I'm tired of them." So did he change his mind? Did God's economy change that at one point this is what he wanted, and now he changed his mind, and they didn't really know him?

He goes on further. He says, "When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts?" Who told them to come to the courts? God did. The whole purpose of the tabernacle is that through these sacrifices that they were to come to the tabernacle.

And yet he says, "Who told you to come? Who told you to come and trample my court?" Verse 13, "Bring no more vain offerings, incenses, and abomination to me." Remember what it says in the book of Leviticus over and over again? What do these incense... How did the Bible describe these incense?

A pleasing aroma? These burnt sacrifices, these incense that they burned repeatedly over and over again was a pleasing aroma to God, and yet he says, "This incense is an abomination to me, new moon and Sabbath calling of convocation. I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly." Every single thing that is mentioned here, verse 11 through 13, was commanded by God.

And to do this repeatedly, the burnt offering was to be given morning and night by the commandment of God. The fire never was quenched. Once he lit the fire, it was always going. Sacrifice was always going. And he says, "Why do you bring these empty sacrifices? When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you.

Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood." The whole purpose of the tabernacle, the sacrifices, the burning of incense was so that they can draw near to him. And God says, "My house will be called a house of prayer." And he says, "But now you come to me, I will not listen." Why?

Did he change his mind? Is God's salvation plan different at this part of Israel's history than it was when he began? See, the reason why God was so angry with the nation of Israel was because God's whole reason why he told them to make these sacrifices wasn't because he was a connoisseur of barbecue.

It wasn't because he loved the smell of burnt animals, or he liked to see candles being burned, or he is an extrovert so he likes the assembly of his people together, that somehow he finds satisfaction in that. Look what he says. "Wash yourself, make yourself clean, remove the evil from your deeds from before my eyes, cease to do evil, learn to do good, seek justice, correct oppression, bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause." In other words, what is he saying?

Practice love. It wasn't about the animals. It wasn't about the candles. There's no power in these things. What he wanted was an expression of love. So if you don't practice love outside the temple and then you bring it into the temple thinking that if you give many sacrifices that somehow that will appease the anger of God, you got it completely wrong.

God was not seeking to see if you just kill a lot of animals that he's going to be satisfied. If you just stick to this, just do exactly what I tell you to do, and just gather together when I tell you to gather together, that somehow is going to appease his anger.

He was angry that they thought that somehow that killing these animals would somehow appease God. The New Testament version of that, we see it at the church of Ephesus in Revelation chapter 2. He says, "I know your works, your toil, your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not and found them to be false." On the surface, every part of this church is exactly what a church should be doing.

Right doctrine, patient endurance, having the right leaders. All of these things are things that are commanded in the scripture. And he says in verse 3, "I know you're enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary, but I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.

You're forsaken your first love." This was such a serious problem that he says that if you do not restore your first love, I will take away my lampstand. And lampstand in chapter 1 basically is referring to the church itself. So when he says if you don't restore your first love, to take away the lampstand basically means that God's presence is going to be withdrawn.

Your worship is going to be meaningless. Your gathering would be meaningless. Your sacrifice would be meaningless. It is not the many times that we come to church. And again, that's a danger of being in a church and growing up in a church where we think that because of our many Sundays that we're gathered together, that we're better off than everybody else.

That because we made the sacrifices, because we serve the church, because majority of the people around you probably do less than you. And I'm not talking about non-Christians. I'm probably, probably among even your Christian friends, you study the Bible more than most of the Christians that you know. You're more active at the church more than most of the Christian friends that you probably know.

That's my guess. It may not be true for everybody, but for most of you. Because of that, we can naturally think that God is more pleased with me than anybody else. He said, but true worship, true worship and true sacrifice ultimately is a fulfillment of this law of love.

And that's why he says to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. That is what fills up. That is what God desires. So it wasn't just the burnt animals. It wasn't just the sacrifices. It wasn't just cleaning of the church and giving of the church.

All of these things are external expressions, but if it is not done in love, it means nothing. We're guilty of the same thing that Israel was guilty of and guilty of the same thing that the church of Ephesus was guilty of. That ultimately what God desires is love expressed through giving.

Love expressed through worship. Love expressed through service. Without love, it's just sacrifice. It's just obligation. And eventually, we can't stand up under that for too long. Third and finally, love ultimately does no harm to its neighbors. And so he says in verse 9 and 10, he says, "For the commandment, 'You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet,' and other commandments are summed up in this word, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'" In 1 Peter 4, 8, Peter says, "Keep loving one another since love covers over a multitude of sins." So when he says love covers over a multitude of sins, he's not saying that if you commit certain sins but practice love that God will forgive you.

That's not what he's saying. Love is not an excuse to live in sin because somehow it balances each other out. That's not what he's saying. What he's saying is if you practice love, it's much easier to be gracious, to cover over sin. Let's look at the practical application of this.

How does love, how does the fullness of love fulfill the commandment of not committing adultery? You know, people who fall into this temptation will sometimes say, "You know, I fell in love with somebody else." But when you take a closer look at what they're saying is they didn't fall in love with somebody else, it's lack of love that caused them to get into adultery.

You know, a lot of times the way that we use the word love, we use it in a way that we describe, you know, loving fish, right? And let me describe what I mean by that. You know, we say we love fish and say, "Oh, what do you mean by that?" Because I love fish, I catch it, I kill it, and I cut it into small pieces and I put it in my mouth and I chew it and I eat it, right?

That's what we mean by when we love fish. A lot of times when we say we love something, that's what it means. So it's not because we love fish. If we really love fish, we will protect it, feed it, make sure the tank is clean, and that it lives a long and healthy, prosperous life, right?

The Bible says that love is when a friend lays down his life and he gives everything for the sake of his friend. He said that's how love is described, when you're willing to sacrifice for the object of your love. But oftentimes, the way that the world describes love, it's not love for it, it's love for yourself.

I love the fish, I love you because you give me something. So he said adultery ultimately is an expression of selfish love. He says when we practice biblical love and we're filled with this love, it prevents us from adultery. It is lack of love for my wife or my children or the people around in my community that causes an individual to walk down this path.

So that's what it means when he says love fulfills all the commandment, it fills it all up. And that's what ultimately God is intending. He's not saying that if you practice love, it doesn't matter if you commit adultery. That's not what he's saying, obviously. Without love, it's just self-control.

You know, the best way to prevent adultery is love your wife. Love your wife passionately. Commit to your wife. And if you love your wife and your wife loves you, that's the greatest deterrent to adultery. How does love fill up the commandment not to murder? You know, murder ultimately is hatred that we give into.

And then it bears fruit eventually into murder. Obviously, you know, majority of people that we know will not commit murder. But Jesus says that if you have hatred toward your brother, it is like it because it is the root of love, the root of murder. If you have love, it's a lot easier to be patient.

I mean, if we're driving down the road and somebody cuts us off and our immediate response is rage, how dare you? You know, I almost crashed my car. And then you drive up fast to see who did this to you and you look in and then you see it's one of your elders.

Or me, I go up and then I look at it's one of our church members. And you turn into, bless you, brother. Our relationship, the kind of relationship that we have toward one another helps us to cover over multitude of sins. Now somebody that you already had something against, they do something wrong, we're eager to share that.

We're eager to highlight it. You know, we already had some animosity, a misunderstanding or something that you've never dealt with and all of a sudden they say something wrong, they do something wrong and you're so eager to spread it to everybody, let everybody know what they did wrong. Because the root of that relationship is not love.

But if that was somebody that you really cared about, your brother, your sister, maybe your child. I think every parent can directly relate to your child. If your child did something, you're not eager to go and spread that on Facebook. You're not eager to go and tell everybody what he did.

Because you love your kid. And you want to do the best that you can to help them. That's what he's saying. He said if love is not at the root, our natural response, we're eager to expose other people's sins. How does love fill up the commandment, "You shall not steal." You know, I worry about things getting stolen outside of the house, but inside of the house, because I love them, they love me.

Typically people steal from people that they don't know. So again, all of these things, when it says love is the filling up, and even the commandment, "Thou shalt not covet." When something good happens, they get a raise or they get a job or they get into school that you wanted to go to, as much as on the outside we say, "Oh, congratulations, we feel good for you." But there's a part of us that kind of covets and say, "Why didn't that happen to me?" And it's, you know, we're supposed to rejoice with them, but we don't really rejoice with them because we covet what they have.

Unless it happens to somebody we really love, we genuinely love and care for. And when something good happens to them, we can rejoice with them. It's almost like we won. It's almost like we got in. You know, somebody asked me, because you know, a lot of you guys know I used to play a lot of basketball when I was younger.

And then when my kids started playing basketball, and my dream was one day that we'd be good enough to play competitively together. And I realized that I was tanking much faster than they were going up. And so that line where we cross, where we can play competitively, may have been just a few hours.

Because we changed hands so quickly. And then, you know, people would jokingly say, "Oh, you know, how do you feel? Your son beat you. Your son can shoot better than you. Your son could do this." And you would think that my response would be, "Oh my gosh, I feel horrible." You know?

I want my kids to be better than me. I want my kids to be taller than me and better looking than me. It feels good as a father because when good things happen to them, I feel good about it. Ask any parent if they feel different. If love is the base, it deals with coveting.

It deals with adultery. It deals with murder. It deals with stealing. And he said that's what he means. He said love is the filling up of the command. Like every command that he gave us, ultimately, it wasn't just not committing adultery. It's to love your wife. It's not just not stealing.

You love and you want what's best for them. It's not just not coveting. You want what's best for them. And this is also true of the commandment for God. "Thou shalt not have any other gods before me." If we don't love God, this temptation from the world is too great.

Because I mean, think about it. Billions and billions of dollars are spent to get you to love what they're selling. I mean, they dress it up and even the people in the magazine on the things that you watch and they're the most beautiful people that you've ever seen. You get the top 1% of the universe and you put them on a magazine and they're selling something.

I mean, and you give yourself to that. How do you just walk past that and say no? How often are you going to just say no to that? See, the first commandment to have no other gods before me is to gaze upon who he is. And when you fall in love with God, everything else becomes rubbish.

You don't just say rubbish, rubbish, rubbish, rubbish and it disappears. You gaze upon the beauty of God and the only thing that can compete, the only thing that can compete with the attraction of this world is the glory of God. So when you fall in love with God, all these other things are a hindrance to this joy.

So love is the filling up of that commandment. Thou shalt have no graven images of me to make him something that he's not and worship it to ultimately worship ourselves. You know, when heresy and blasphemy things are being said and done in our culture, sometimes Christians respond with indifference as if it was something that's just disconnected.

You know, maybe these are things that the pastors should worry about or theologians should worry about. That's because there's a disconnect in our affection for our God. And I mentioned this to you before, years ago when that book came out, Dan Brown's book, you know, and he came out, the Da Vinci Code, basically he said Jesus had an extra marital affair with Mary and he had children out of wedlock and they were saying all this and then when they confronted him about his facts, all he said was, "Oh, it's just fiction." You know, some of it is true and some of it I made up, but it's just to sell books.

It's just a fiction. But what surprised me was how many Christians were entertained by this book. And I remember having conversations with some Christians thinking, "This is your God that you worship who died for our sins that supposedly that we love and worship every single week. Now what if I said that I'm entertaining an article, not a book, about how your mother is a whore?" I'm pretty sure all of us, you know, even just the fact that I said that made you feel uncomfortable.

And the reason why it made you feel uncomfortable is because you love your mom, your dad, or your kids. So even the thought of saying that makes you feel uncomfortable because you have affection for your mom. And yet when it comes to the God that we worship, it's just so cerebral.

It's like, "Oh, okay, we should. That's wrong. We shouldn't be doing that. But we're not outraged." See, when we love our God and we've seen the glory of who He is, all these things that He's, all these commandments are just an expression of this love. That's why we, even the keeping the Sabbath holy, it's not about, "Oh, Sabbath, you know, we shouldn't do this.

We shouldn't do that." Remember what Jesus said? "Man was not made for Sabbath, but Sabbath was," what? "Made for man." It was given to you as a gift. So the corporate worship of God is not a burden for us to come together and say, "Oh, I have to do this because I'm a Christian.

I have to go to church." He says, "No, the Sabbath was given to you to worship." But if love is not what fills us, if love is not what compels us, if love is not what moves us, yeah, that's exactly what it is, just an obligation, just a sacrifice, just a bunch of duties.

And eventually it gets old. But when love is what fills us, it changes our fellowship, it changes our prayers, it changes our worship, it changes our gathering, it changes evangelism, and everything that God commands us, what does He say? "It is no longer a burden." This is where we find life.

We find life in obedience. We find life in worship. We find life in sacrifice. When love is what compels us. That's why love is not a peripheral issue. Love is not one of many virtues. It is the virtue of love, faith, and hope. Consider faith is what saves us.

Consider hope is why we are persevering. But even among all of that, he says, "Faith is the greatest." Because faith leads us to love. Hope causes us to persevere to get to this love. Love is the core. Love is our foundation. Love is the fuel. And love is our goal.

And so that's how we evaluate everything that we do. How are you doing spiritually? We typically answer, "Oh, I did quiet time." Or, "I didn't do quiet time. I memorized some verses. I shared the gospel. I'm serving the church. I'm giving." You can do all of that without love.

All of these things should only be an expression of that love. So when we ask ourself how you're doing, the number one thing that we should be asking ourselves is, "Where is my affection? Where is my affection? Do I love the Lord? Am I pursuing the Lord to love Him?

And then is that love causing me to love my neighbors?" Let's take a few minutes to pray, again, as we ask our praise team to come back up. And I want to encourage you. There's some of us that are always struggling with discipline, like prayer, reading the Bible, and doing various things that we're supposed to do as Christians.

And I want you to take a step back and ask yourselves, "Why is prayer and the Word so difficult for you? Is it simply a matter of discipline, or you do not connect that with Christ?" That's not an avenue to pursue a loving relationship with Christ. Maybe you don't have faith.

Maybe that's the reason why studying the Word of God and prayer is just an obligation, to take a step back and examine ourselves to see where we are. Some of you are very good at discipline. You've always been an A student, and you're so frustrated with other people who are just not jumping through the hoops as well as you are.

We need to take a step back and ask ourselves, "Is my focus love for God and loving others?" Why is it that every time somebody asks me how I'm doing, I'm only talking about how frustrated I am with other people? Not about His love, not about what He's done for me, not about the fact that you and I are debtors of this love.

And again, to take a step back and examine ourselves, where is our affection? Let's take a few minutes as our worship team leads us to really come before the Lord and ask the Lord, "We want to love you. Help us." Let's take some time to pray as they lead us.

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