Love Is Series

INTRO.- ILL.- I went to the Cable TV office sometime back to change our subscription. The lady behind the counter and I were discussing TV programs and I told her that I watched Lifetime movies with my wife. She said, “YOU DO?!” as in debelief.

The she said that whenever the Cubs were playing ball on TV that she was non-existent in her home. She said, “When the Cubs are playing my husband doesn’t even know I’m alive.”

It’s obvious that her husband is a Cubs’ lover! I can’t imagine that. Cardinals, yes! Cubs, no. We’ve often heard someone say, “I just love baseball.” Or perhaps some other sport. And often in reference to a material thing or an activity. “I just love my house, my car, my clothes, my whatever....”

Well, we know that’s not real love. It may a good feeling for something material, but what happens when that material thing breaks down or that sports team doesn’t perform well??? That’s when our love may go out the window.

ILL.- It’s like what has happened to the Toyota car company. They have recalled 8.1 million of cars because of an accelerator problem. And this may cause a lot of Toyota lovers to lose some of their love for their cars.

Likewise, if your ball team doesn’t perform well, WELL, WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THEM THEN? Is this what love is? We know it’s not. No, we know that love deals with people relationships.

ILL.- Someone said: “We often love things and use people, when we should use things and love people.” Do material things mean more to us than people? If so, something is dreadfully wrong with our hearts.

You can LIKE things but you must LOVE people. And genuine love for others is somewhat life-changing.

ILL.- (Here is an old story but it makes a good point) Aleida Huissen, 78, of Rotterdam, Netherlands, has been smoking for 50 years. And for 50 years she has been trying to give up her harmful habit. But she has not been successful—that is, until recently.

She has now given up cigarettes, cigars, and pipes. The secret? Leo Jansen, 79, proposed marriage last year, but refused to go through with the wedding until Aleida gave up smoking. Says Aleida now: “Will power never was enough to get me off the tobacco habit. But love did it.” HOW CUTE IS THAT?

I’m glad that love did it for that lady. Love is powerful, especially, if it is genuine and from the Lord. And true love is from the Lord. Much of the love that we see on TV, etc. may be nothing but a form of lust except when it deals with genuine giving.

ILL.- E.C. McKenzie wrote: “The loneliest place in the world is the human heart when love is absent.”

PROP.- Regardless of what the world calls love and thinks about love, we must consider what God says about love.

1- Love is a continuing debt

2- Love is a command of God

3- Love is a completion of the law

I. LOVE IS A CONTINUING DEBT

8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.

ILL.- A tour guide was showing a tourist around Washington, D. C. The guide pointed out the place where George Washington supposedly threw a dollar across the Potomac River.

"That's impossible," said the tourist. "No one could throw a coin that far!" "You have to remember," answered the guide. "A dollar went a lot farther in those days."

It does seem like our money doesn’t go as far as it used to.

Let no debt remain outstanding. What’s the meaning? It means to pay your bills. If you do anything at all in this life you will get some bills. But if you are faithful in paying your bills you will have no outstanding debs.

It used to be that people didn’t buy anything on credit except for a house or a car, but nowadays, it seems like almost anything and everything is bought on credit and that’s not good. Generally, that makes for a great debt, which some people will never be able to pay. But here’s an exception to that rule.

ILL.- Couple pay off $46,000 in debt, throw party, April 2009. For Sherrie Muldoon, the credit card debt was $46,244. But the relief she felt after paying it off was priceless. So much so that the Colorado resident and her husband threw a party for friends and family after mailing off the final check. The event at a community center featured a cake decorated with the debt amount in green icing, CNN television affiliate KUSA reported.

The couple had been paying the debt for three years and seven months, Muldoon told CNN, adding that the last payment they made recently was for $1,500. "When we mailed that last check ... I sat down in the car, I looked over to my husband and I just burst out into tears," she said.