INTRO.- ILL.- A man called the police and reported that all of his wife’s credit cards had been stolen. Then he added, "But don’t look too hard for the thief. He’s charging less than my wife ever did."
ILL.- Someone said: The only reason a great many American families don’t own an elephant is that they have never been offered an elephant for a dollar down and easy weekly payments.
ILL.- A man was once boasting to an acquaintance, "We have a whole room full of furniture from France that goes back to Louis the 14th." "That’s nothing," replied the other. "We’ve got a whole house full of furniture from Sears that goes back to Harry on the first."
8Let no debt remain outstanding.
What does this mean? It means pay your debts. Pay your bills. Don’t try to get out of paying them. Does this mean that you can’t charge anything and pay it off? No, it doesn’t, but it does mean that whatever you charge, you should pay for it.
ILL.- TWO lawyers were in a bank, when armed robbers suddenly burst in. While several of the robbers took money from the tellers, others lined the customers, including the lawyers, up against a wall, and proceeded to take their wallets, watches, etc.
While this was going on, lawyer number one jammed something in lawyer number two’s hand. Without looking down, lawyer number two whispered, "What is this?" To which lawyer number one replied, "It’s that $250 I owe you."
That’s a dirty trick but it’s also a dirty trick to try and get out of indebtedness!
While none of us like having indebtedness and paying bills, it seems like they will always be with us to some extent. But here is the main thought of the text.
8Let no debt remain outstanding, EXCEPT the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.
The one debt that we will never fully pay back is the debt of love to all mankind. We will owe this debt until the day we die. And while we live, we must pay this debt as often as possible, as much as possible, and to all who come our way.
The title of this message is, "What’s Love got to do with it?" Where does this come from? It’s Tina Turner’s big single hit that came out in 1984 and we presume that she was talking about her relationship to her former husband, Ike Turner, who recently passed away from drug overdose. Perhaps that was how she truly felt about their relationship: WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT? Perhaps love had nothing to do with their relationship, but it should have a lot to do with it.
PROP.- Let’s think about this continuing debt of love that we must pay.
1- What’s love got to do with marriage?
2- What’s love got to do with raising kids?
3- What’s love got to do with life?
I. WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH MARRIAGE?
Eph. 5:25-26 "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word."
Eph. 5:28 "In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself."
ILL.- A couple had been debating the purchase of a new auto for weeks. He wanted a new truck. She wanted a fast little sports-like car so she could zip through traffic around town. He would probably have settled on any beat up old truck, but everything she seemed to like was way out of their price range.
"Look!" she said. "I want something that goes from 0 to 200 in 4 seconds or less. And my birthday is coming up. You could surprise me."
So, for her birthday, he bought her a brand new bathroom scale. Services will be at Downing Funeral Home on Monday the 12th. Due to the condition of the body, this will be a closed casket service.
What does love have to do with marriage? A whole lot. And especially, if you ask the wife!
ILL.- Newspaper columnist and minister George Crane tells of a wife who came into his office full of hatred toward her husband. "I do not only want to get rid of him, I want to get even. Before I divorce him, I want to hurt him as much as he has me."
Dr. Crane suggested an ingenious plan "Go home and act as if you really love your husband. Tell him how much he means to you. Praise him for every decent trait. Go out of your way to be as kind, considerate, and generous as possible. Spare no efforts to please him, to enjoy him. Make him believe you love him. After you’ve convinced him of your undying love and that you cannot live without him, then drop the bomb. Tell him that your’re getting a divorce. That will really hurt him."
With revenge in her eyes, she smiled and exclaimed, "Beautiful, beautiful. Will he ever be surprised!" And she did it with enthusiasm. Acting "as if." For two months she showed love, kindness, listening, giving, reinforcing, sharing.
When she didn’t return, Crane called. "Are you ready now to go through with the divorce?" "Divorce?" she exclaimed. "Never! I discovered I really do love him." Her actions had changed her feelings. Motion resulted in emotion.
ILL.- In his book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis wrote, "Do not waste your time bothering whether you ’love’ your neighbor ACT as if you did. As soon as we do this, we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him."
And the same is true in marriage. We must continue to perform "acts" of love whether we want to or not, and eventually, whether we do love or not, WE WILL COME TO LOVE OUR MATE!
Husbands: So you don’t like picking up after yourself? DO IT ANYWAY. You don’t like helping out around the house, do it just the same! You don’t like some of the TV programs that your wife likes, watch some of them anyway. Elaine and I watch a lot of Lifetime movies together!
Wives: It may be that you don’t like the fact that your husband loves to hunt. Let him hunt anyway. In fact, you might even join him. It might shock him and perhaps embarrass him.
Wives: you may not like some sports on TV that your husband likes. Watch some anyway. Then ask so many questions about the game so that he may never want to watch again!!!
Seriously, please do some things to your mate, for your mate that you know would bless them. AND YOU JUST MIGHT BE SURPRISED AT HOW MUCH MORE LOVING THEY ARE TO YOU AND HOW MUCH YOUR LOVE WITH GROW!
What’s love got to do with marriage? A BIG BUNCH.
II. WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH RAISING KIDS?
What’s love got to do with raising children? A whole lot! A big bunch. How is love demonstrated in raising our children? We DISCIPLINE in love.
ILL.- Little Johnny had misbehaved badly. Not only had he misbehaved but he also smarted off to his mother so his daddy turned him over his knee and spanked him.
With tears in his eyes he ran to his mom, saying, "Mama, you should have married Jesus. He LOVES little children!" While it is very true that Jesus loves little children, He also approves of loving discipline.
Prov. 13:24 "He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him."
Prov. 3:11-12 "My son, do not despise the LORD’s discipline and do not resent his rebuke, because the LORD disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in."
I’m convinced that loving discipline includes an occasionally spanking or swat when children are small. Sometimes that’s they only thing that will get their attention and speak their language.
Of course, I was raised with that kind of discipline and I never got as much as I deserved. I needed more! And both of my children got their fair share of discipline when they were little.
I remember disciplining my kids in anger or aggravation, but I also remember disciplining them in love. That’s when I would discipline them for something I felt was definitely wrong. Then I would sit down with them and explain to them why I did it and also reassure them how much I loved them! WE MUST DISCIPLINE CHILDREN IN LOVE!
Eph. 6:4 "Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord." We teach our children what is right and proper because we love them.
ILL.- I recently visited my daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren in Mechanicsville, VA, and was pleasantly surprised! Every time we ate breakfast, lunch or dinner, the family had prayer and often one of the children said their little prayer.
"Ruba, dub, dub, Thanks for the grub, Yeah God!" No, that was not their prayer, but it was a sweet, heartfelt thankful prayer. Both Hope (age 7) and Caleb (age 4) offered the prayers. And of course, sometimes Papa prayed or daddy.
How do children learn to give thanks and pray prayers of thanksgiving? IT DOESN’T HAPPEN BY ACCIDENT!
ILL.- It’s like our last Church Cleaning fellowship. And do you know who offered the prayer of thanks for the pizza? Benjamin Frakes. And Benjamin prayed, "Dear God, thank you for the food and make it healthy...." AMEN. Somebody’s been teaching Benjamin something good. That’s a good prayer!
WHAT ABOUT YOU? Are you teaching your children? Are you answering their questions about God, Christ and the Bible? And are you teaching them anything at all about Christ and living the Christian life?
ILL.- I received this note from a preacher by email recently. "Steve. Thanks for the sermon. I’m going to go through it with my children tomorrow." Go through a sermon with his kids??!!
We also teach by example, do we not? Let’s be honest about this. What are your recollections of your parents from childhood? What do you remember best? What example did they set for you?
ILL.- For example, I remember well my dad’s hard work as a truck driver and always appreciated it. He was a good example in that department. But I also remember his smoking, which was not a good example. I never did like that. Not as a child nor as an adult. I knew it was a bad habit and unhealthy and it also contributed to his death at the age of 72.
I also remember that my dad drank beer quite often.
He wasn’t a drunk but he did drink. And occasionally, he would drink some hard liquor. Also, I remember that my dad didn’t go to church very often. It was pretty rare. On the other hand, I remember that my mother was fairly faithful to take us to church and Sunday School. And it wasn’t ’just’ church, it was also Sunday School. And often, we were encouraged to go to the youth meetings on Sunday nights. I also remember my mother being baptized, which was a very good example to a young child!
I can still see her being baptized in my mind’s eye! Amazing isn’t it, how such a memory stands out? Surely, this must say something for a person’s baptism into Christ!
What’s love got to do with raising children? EVERYTHING!
III. WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH LIFE?
I Cor. 16:13-14 "Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. Do everything in love."
Eph. 5:1-2 "Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God."
ILL.- A woman named Kathy Lee said: ON A FAMILY VACATION in Texas, my brother-in-law Mike exhibited the exuberance of a tourist. At a diner, he and his brothers ordered cheeseburgers. When his meal arrived, the first thing Mike noticed was its size.
"Wow," he exclaimed, "everything is bigger in Texas!" As he lifted the burger to his lips, his eyes met the cold stare of a 300-pound waitress.
That’s what you call "foot and mouth." And our mouths can get us into trouble or cause us to sin. BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU SAY!
James 3:2 "We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check."
ILL.- Slinging slime is what Clintons do best By PHILIP GAILEY. This commentator said that Bill Clinton is all over the place, like a mad dog’s slobber. Here is what he said: "On the campaign trail as his wife’s chief surrogate, he is losing his temper, snapping at reporters, mangling the truth, distorting the record including his own and acting more like a political hatchet man than a former president."
Brothers and sisters, when I read this commentary about Bill Clinton’s mud-slinging tactics, I thought, "That’s not nice!" And it’s not nice. It’s most certainly not nice for the Christian to do.
Eph. 4:29-32 "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you."
We are supposed to build up one another, not tear down one another! Of course, we might say, "That’s just politics!" That may be but it’s not Christian!
ILL.- The old poem says it best:
I saw them tearing a building down,
A gang of men in a busy town;
With a "ho-heave-ho" and a lusty yell,
They swung a beam and the side wall fell.
I asked the foreman, "Are these men skilled,
As the men you would hire if you had to build?"
He laughed and said, "No indeed:
Just common labor is all I need.
I can easily wreck in a day or two,
What builders have taken a year to do."
Prov. 10:12 "Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrongs." In hatred or anger we often speak the wrong words. But love overcomes wrongdoing.
Brothers and sisters, we must love people with our speaking, in our speaking! We must build up one another and bless one another! And this is one reason why I enjoy so very much saying to people, "The Lord bless you." I’d much rather bless someone in that way than curse them with bad or negative words.
Gal. 5:13-14 "You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself."
Ah ha, there it is! What? SERVE ONE ANOTHER IN LOVE! Jesus came not to be served, but to serve! Of course, sometimes we serve but we don’t do it in love. We do it in complaint. We do it in grouchiness. We do it in a spirit of negativeness. We may do it, thinking, "Do I have to do this?" Jesus served in love.
ILL.- During the American Revolution a man in civilian clothes rode past a group of soldiers repairing a small defensive barrier. their leader was shouting instructions, but making no attempt to help them. Asking why he didn’t help, he retorted with great dignity, "Sir, I am a corporal!" The stranger apologized, dismounted, and proceeded to help the exhausted soldiers.
The job done, he turned to the corporal and said, "Mr. Corporal, next time you have a job like this and not enough men to do it, go to your commander-in-chief, and I will come and help you again." It was none other than George Washington.
That’s the spirit in which we all should serve one another! Quickly, joyfully, wholeheartedly! God put us to love one another and that’s a good way to demonstrate love! SERVE ONE ANOTHER IN LOVE. What’s love got to do with life? Everything.
CONCLUSIOIN----------------------------------
Col. 3:12-14 "Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity."
I Pet. 4:7-8 "The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray. Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins."
Alfred Lord Tennyson:
I hold it true, whate’er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
’Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.
