The Do’s and Don’ts of Love
Hebrews 13:1-9
Intro: I am a commercial guy. I enjoy the commercials on TV just about as much as I do the programming. There is a commercial out right now that I really like. It stars the M&M guy. It starts out with the M&M guy sitting at a piano playing and singing the popular Song titled I Will Do Anything For Love. As the song goes forward, he is singing and he says I will do anything for love but; I won’t do that. It shows women trying to take bites out of him or cooking him or putting whip cream on him.
. Our scripture this morning is much like that commercial.
. It gives us the do’s and don’ts of love.
. We are back in Hebrews this morning and we are starting to wind down this book also.
. Last week we finished our series in Nehemiah and now we are winding down Hebrews.
. The writer of Hebrews has spent the first 11 chapters laying out doctrine to the Hebrew people and us.
. He has explained the sufficiency of Christ to them. Helping them and us understand that Jesus was God in the flesh. That they no longer needed someone to talk to God for them. Now they had direct access to God.
. Jesus was their High Priest and He has made the final sacrifice that the High priest made.
. He sacrificed himself for them and all mankind.
. In Chapter 12, the writer encourages us to be faithful and run the race of faith all the way to the finish line.
.Now as he is ending this epistle, he gets to the practical matters.
. He is telling us how we as Christians should live our lives.
. The first thing he deals with is love.
. What you should love and what you should not love.
. Let’s look at our scripture.
. 1Keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters.
2Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it!
3Remember those in prison, as if you were there yourself. Remember also those being mistreated, as if you felt their pain in your own bodies.
4Give honor to marriage, and remain faithful to one another in marriage. God will surely judge people who are immoral and those who commit adultery.
5Don’t love money; be satisfied with what you have. For God has said, “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.”
6So we can say with confidence, “The LORD is my helper, so I will have no fear. What can mere people do to me?”
7Remember your leaders who taught you the word of God. Think of all the good that has come from their lives, and follow the example of their faith.
8Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
9So do not be attracted by strange, new ideas. Your strength comes from God’s grace, not from rules about food, which don’t help those who follow them.
. The first thing we see here is that you are to:
.Love Your Brothers and Sisters In Christ.
. Look at verse one again.
. 1Keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters.
. How many of you go to family reunions.
. I’m not particularly fond of them myself because I usually don’t know anybody. Inevitably when your there, you look around at your family and kind of shake your head and say. Am I really related to those people.
. Guess what, they are looking at you and saying the same thing.
. Folks you can pick your friends as they say but you can’t pick your relatives.
. We all belong to family’s through flesh and blood.
. If you are here this morning and have accepted Jesus Christ as savior, you belong to another family. You belong to a spiritual family.
. You belong to the family of God.
. The writer of Hebrews says that we are to keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters. That’s how close we are to become with each other.
. We are to concern ourselves with the well being of our fellow Christians.
. This goes back to what we have been talking about since I got here. Love God, Love each other.
. This is the central theme in the New Testament.
. The writer of Hebrews says love your brothers and sisters in Christ.
. Then He goes on to say:
. Love Your Spouse
.Look with me at verse 4
. 4Give honor to marriage, and remain faithful to one another in marriage. God will surely judge people who are immoral and those who commit adultery.
. Give honor to your marriage, remain faithful.
. Love your spouse.
. The story is told of a man and woman who had been married for over 60 years. They had shared everything except there was one secret in their marriage. The wife had a shoe box in the top of her closet, and she had cautioned her husband never to open it and never to ask about it. He never did. But one day his wife got sick. It was determined that she would not recover. As they began to sort out her affairs, the husband took down the shoe box and took it to his wife. They agreed that it was time that she should explain the box. When he opened it, he found two crocheted dolls and a stack of money totaling $25,000. He lovingly asked her about the contents. She responded by saying “Just before we got married, my grandmother told me that the secret of a happy marriage was never to argue. She told me that if I ever got angry with you, I should just keep quiet and crochet a doll. The husband was moved to tears, as he looked at the two dolls lying in the box. Only twice in all those years had his darling wife been angry with him. He said, “But what about all this money? How did you manage to save all of this money?” “Oh” she
answered, “that is the money I made from selling the dolls.”
. That’s one way we show love to our spouses folks.
. The writer here is talking about fidelity and morality within our marriages.
. Once when Mark Twain was lecturing in Utah, a Mormon acquaintance argued with him on the subject of polygamy. After a long and rather heated debate, the Mormon finally said, “Can you find for me a single passage of Scripture which forbids polygamy?” “Certainly,” replied Twain. “‘No man can serve two masters.’”
. Folks we are to be true to our spouses. That’s what God intended from the beginning.
. We are to love and treasure and honor our spouses.
. Now we come to a do not love.
. Look with me at verse 5 & 6
. 5Don’t love money; be satisfied with what you have. For God has said, “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.”
. 6So we can say with confidence, “The LORD is my helper, so I will have no fear. What can mere people do to me?”
. Don’t love money
. Guy who was getting married, had the ring in his hand and said:
Sweetheart, I love you so much,
I want you to marry me.
I don’t have a car like Jonny green,
I don’t have a Yacht like him
I don’t have a house his size,
I don’t have the money of Jonny green
But I love you with all my heart.
She looked into his eyes and said I love you too, sweetheart,
But could you tell me a little more about Johnny Green.
. It’s not money that is the issue, it’s the love of money and how that effects the way we live.
. Money can’t effect how a church operates either.
. I heard the story the other day of a woman who called several Churches to see if they would hold a funeral for her dog? Everybody just laughed at her request except the Baptist preacher who said, "Maam, we don’t really do that but I’d be interested in knowing why you want that done." She said, "Well, I just loved that dog and I want a funeral for him." "Well," the preacher said, "that’s nice but we just can’t." She then said, "I sure loved him, I’d be willing to give $10000 to any church who would hold the funeral." "Oh," said the preacher, “why didn’t you tell me your dog was a Baptist? Of course we’ll do it."
. You see, that’s what the love of money will do to us.
. There is the danger that it will skew our view of what we should be doing.
. The love of money is covetousness.
. We want money so that we can poses things. Things that we see and think we need.
. When John Rockefeller was a young man a friend asked him how much money he wanted. He replied a million dollars. After he had earned that million, he asked him again how much he wanted. He said another million. Greed and covetousness follow each other. There is never enough. There is always something else out there that we want.
. Look at verse 5 again:
. 5Don’t love money; be satisfied with what you have. For God has said, “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.”
. Our dependence can’t be upon money, it must be upon God.
. God says that He will never abandon us or fail us.
. I have talked to so many people who tell me about how God has supplied their needs.
. Through job losses and tragedies when they didn’t know how they were going to survive, God provided.
. God was sufficient in their need.
. Is there anything wrong with having an abundance of money? No
. It’s what you do with your money is what the writer is talking about here.
. If you are here this morning and God has blessed you with an abundance, that is great. The writer is warning us that we can’t let this be the priority in our lives.
. If you are here this morning and maybe wondering how you are going to survive, God will provide in some way shape form or fashion.
. He will never leave you nor forsake you.
. The writer says do not trust in money, trust in God.
. Lastly we see that we are to:
. Love the Truth.
. Look at verse 9 again:
. 9So do not be attracted by strange, new ideas. Your strength comes from God’s grace, not from rules about food, which don’t help those who follow them.
. Don’t be attracted by strange new ideas.
. Know the truth
. Love the truth.
. We know the truth because Jesus told us what the truth is.
. John 14:6 Jesus says this:
. “…I am the way, the truth, and the life…”
. Don’t be attracted by strange new Idea’s, love the truth.
. Paul warned Timothy and us about this in his second letter to Timothy chapter 4: 3-4
. 3For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear.
4They will reject the truth and chase after myths.
. That time is upon us folks.
. People don’t want to hear the truth.
. They want to hear things that make them feel good not how they are lost in their sin and shame and the only way to be forgiven is through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.
. Last week when we looked at Nehemiah’s last words to us he was saying the same thing. Keep the faith.
. Folks, there is no new truth.
.As we close this morning look back at verse 8.
. 8Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
. The writer tells that there is nothing new out there to save us.
. All that is necessary is Jesus Christ.
. He is the same yesterday today and forever.
. Do you know him today.
Invitation
*** To my Christian brothers and sisters, thank you for taking the time to read this sermon. I ask that you take another second and score this for me. I am always open to feedback so that I can continue to grow in the proclamation of God’s word.
May God bless you as you continue to strive to walk worthy of His calling.
Sources: The Holy Bible, NLT
The John MacArthur New Testament Commentary, Hebrew
Illustrations from sermon central
