First Love

HOLY FATHER...we are here in Your presence... to WORSHIP and Adore You. We are here to listen to Your every word... To be filled with Your Almighty Wisdom and Strength We praise You and bless You and Your ALMIGHTY Name YAHWEH LET THIS BE OUR CALL TO WORSHIP

SCRIPTURE

Genesis 2:20-23 (NKJV) [20] So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him. [21] And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. [22] Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. [23] And Adam said: "This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man."

INTRODUCTION

Today's sermon is titled 'FIRST LOVE''

Bone of My Bones and Flesh of my flesh

The actual Hebrew word used to describe Adam's first love is ISHA...Made of man She was to be His Love...

A covenant of God Can you imagine his surprise...

the LOOK on his FACE Reminds you of the LOOK you had when you first saw your spouse standing before you...

Of course, NOT yet being your spouse for that would come soon enough... for some of us... I guess!

How many of us remember our FIRST LOVES?

There was something EXTRAORDINARY wasn't there?

Some MAGNETISM that you may NOT have been able to UNDERSTAND

An ATTRACTION like NONE OTHER

But maybe our FIRST LOVE was NOT our TRUE LOVE

I'm with my TRUE LOVE now...but she was not my FIRST LOVE

Oh, how I wish she had been...but I wouldn't wish my sons from that marriage away... it's just that Patti is my PERFECT LOVE, my TRUE LOVE, my FOREVER LOVE

All rolled up into one!

But have you ever felt that your LOVE...was BONE OF YOUR BONES?

What does that mean anyway?

It meant back then that she was TRULY a physical, biological part of him... SHE had one of his BONES!

But other than having some sort of TRANSPLANT... our LOVE will never be a biological part of us...

ILLUSTRATION #1

In his book, “The Christian Counselors Manual” Jay Adams tells about a man who came to him and said, “I know you hate to hear this preacher, but my wife and I don’t love each other and we are going to get a divorce. Adams’ answered: “I do hate to hear that you don’t love each other, you need to repent of that and start loving each other because the Bible commands, Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and you are a Christian, so you have to obey the Lord’s commands. Undaunted the man said, “Well, I just don’t feel anything toward her anymore.” Adams said, “Okay, let’s go down to a lower level then. The Bible commands love your neighbor as yourself. She’s your closest neighbor. So you have to love her regardless of how you feel about her. How you feel is irrelevant.”

Feeling defensive now, the man said, “I’m going to have to be honest with you preacher, I despise her. She despises me. We can’t stand the ground that we are walking on and we just cannot get along.” “Oh!” Then Adams replied, “You are going to have to go down to a lower lever then. The Bible also says to love your enemies as yourselves. You have no option. You are commanded to love.” Desperately the man answered, “How in the world can I do that when I don’t feel anything.

Adams responded: “You are going to have to understand that feelings are irrelevant. That’s the Hollywood concept of love. That is the romantic concept of love. A Christian’s love is Agape love: Doing the right thing regardless of feeling. So make a list of the ten things that you would do if you were madly in love with her and go and do them anyway. One counselor said, ‘If you act the way you wish you felt, eventually you will feel the way you act.’ So go do them regardless of feeling.”

In a last-ditch attempt to justify himself the man said, “I couldn’t do that, that would be hypocritical.” And the preacher said, “No that is not hypocrisy. That is obedience. Hypocrisy is not acting contrary to the way you feel. Hypocrisy is acting contrary to the way you believe.”

FOUR POINTS

HIS LOVE

YOUR LOVE

LOVE HIM

LOVE THEM

#1

HIS LOVE

So, as you can tell... LOVE Started with GOD

He loved ADAM so much that He gave him ISHA