Balcony let's see your pens, let's say you see your word, let's see your word, say Jesus up there. Try that one more time. I'm sorry I got, confused you all. I'll give you the benefit of that doubt. One more time, say Jesus! Very good, very good ok. You, you can put all that away. You don't need any of it today cuz we are gonna take a quiz. Ok quiz now.
How many of you have never been in a quiz here at the church and you don't even know what that is? Raise your hand. Ok, ok here's how it goes. You got to get in the quiz position which means you put your booty back. That means sit up straight. Put your booty all the way back in the seat and we do a quiz usually at the end of a series and what we'll do is review a lot of the highpoints of the series and we're gonna quiz Wired for Love. And I don't know how much we're gonna get as far as what's in your lesson plan. you have probably 60 or 70 questions in your lesson plan. We are not going to read it. You won't be able to keep up but I'm mot gonna say exactly what's in it anyway. So here's how the quiz works. I tell you, I make a statement and then I ask you a question based on the statement. So I'll say to love God means to obey God, and I'll say to love God means to what? Just like that, simple as that and we'll do that all throughout the rest of the next half hour or so.
The key is to say something. You learn more when you say than when you listen. You learn more when you write than when you read. And you learn more when you do than when you watch. And so a lot of times when you go to learn what do you do? You listen, you watch and, and you don't say anything so, and you read. So you do what's the least way to learn. So we're gonna make it interactive. That's one of the reasons I always have you interact, raise your hand, answer questions cuz you learn better when, when you do that. You remember stuff so we're gonna do that for 40 minutes. Ah understand this, when we take a quiz and I'm gonna give you information, I'm gonna come fast and hard boom-boom-boom-boom-boom. Your brain is receiving information faster than you are. I know your brain is you and so your brain is getting it and you don't think you're getting it but your brain is getting it.
And so when I ask you for a question or ask you to respond just respond. Don't worry about being wrong cuz no one's gonna hear you. In other words people aren't gonna go - That's wrong. That ain't gonna happen cuz they're not gonna be sure if you got it right and they got it wrong and they're not gonna hear you anyway. We're just gonna all shout out and if I make a mistake which I will you can laugh. That's fine. You know laugh, make fun of, it's a fun thing and so I'm gonna have hand signs. I'm gonna do all this and I'm gonna ask you this, I'm gonna ask you this and I'm gonna be going so fast I'm gonna mess up. We just laugh and keep going. Ok? And one of the reasons that I want to focus is, bring that up is because making a mistake is overrated. It's no big deal. We all make mistakes e very day so don't, don't trip out on it. Let's just keep going and learn and by the end you'll have learned and memorized a lot of things that maybe you didn't have. Ok? Amen? Ok let's pray.
Lord thank you so much for your faithfulness. Thank you so much for being good to us and we pray you ah, I pray Lord that you'd teach people a lot more information that they think they're gonna be able to learn and I pray more importantly that we apply it to our life. In Jesus' name, Amen!
Everyone say Jesus! Very good. Wave your hands in the air like you just don't care. Give the person next to you a high five. Ok. Muy bueno, muy bueno.
When I was 22 years old I was ah drafted to the Los Angeles Rams and as part of our physical which took all day. I don't remember if it was 1 or 2 days but it was at least a long day. As part of the physical we had to do a treadmill test and it was a stress test for your heart and your lungs and they put up all these electrodes, EKG, blood pressure, blah-blah-blah-blah-blah on our brain and everything and they put us on the treadmill and they started to tread real slow and the goal was to get our heart rate as high as it can go. At that time my maximum heart rate was 198 beats a minute and if you want to know your maximum heart rate you just take the number 220 minus your age and if you're gonna work out you should work out at 80% of that number. So let me do a little math for you. I know I just fried some of you all's brains. So if you're 30, 220-30 is 180/190 and then 190 80% of that is 190x.8 and then whatever that number is that's how you/the number you should try to work out at and that will keep you in really good shape.
So anyway I'm on the treadmill and they put us all on the treadmill and they started walking the treadmill and they said run when you feel it's necessary and they kept speeding it up, kept speeding it up, then you jog, then you jog and they're trying to get your heart rate boom-boom-boom-boom-boom and then they, they increase the incline and they start speeding it u and before you know it we're sprinting on this treadmill with all these stuff on, tubes in your throat and everything and they, they're trying to see if your body's healthy cuz they're gonna invest in you and you're like a horse. They just want to see if you're gonna, you're not gonna die when they're running around the track.
The devil does the same thing to us and he gets our life going and going and going where he has you trying to outdo the next person, out buy the next person, outperform the next person, trying to prove this to God and he gets your life going so fast you're just running on the treadmill. When God says you can slow down. All I want is a relationship with you. God wants a relationship.
Ah one of the things we learned in Wired for Love is that God created us to have a relationship. The bible says that everything God created was good, everyone say good. After God created everything for 6 days He said it was very good. After God created everything for 6 days He said it was what?
And then there's only one thing during creation that He said was not good and that was that man would be alone. It is not good that man be alone. It is not good that man be what? It's not good that man be what?
And I don't mean to not have a date necessarily. Some of you all are like - Man! What I mean is that it's not good that people be isolated from other people. Some of you all have dogs and cats and the dogs and cats you have might not ever hang out with another dog or cat. The only dog in their life is you. I'm just saying they don't, they don't have a bark bark dog. They just got you and when you come home they're like heh-heh-heh-heh and they're so excited and happy to see and they can live very happily with just humans. Humans cannot live without humans. We would die, literally.
If you go get a lung transplant one of the, one of the tests and evalua… and questions in your evaluation to whether they will give you a lung because lungs are hard to come by and they're not just going to give you one because you need one. They will let you die if you are not a good candidate and one of the questions is - Do you have relationships? Because people without relationships die quicker than people with relationships. We were made for relationships.
And so God said - It's not good that man be alone. It's not good that man be what?
And the reason being God, the reason God created us to have relationships cuz God wanted us to enjoy what He enjoys which are loving relationships. God wanted us to enjoy what He enjoys which is what? Say it again.
Well who did God have a relationship with before there was people? He had a relationship with The Father, Son and Holy Spirit and He created us that we can enjoy the similar relationship not only with Him but with each other.
Now I'm gonna give you some signs. This is the Father so if I point to the ceiling you say Father. This is the Son, say Son. This is the Holy Spirit say Holy Spirit. Very good. The Father, the what? He sent the? And the? But see how you made the mistake. It was no big deal right? Look to the person next to you and say making mistakes is way overrated. Because let's do it one more time. He sent the? And the? Sent the? And guess what the? Says? Ah the what? He says what the? and the? What the? There you go, look at that. So one more time the? He sent the? And the? He sent the? and the? What the? And the? What the?
Now here's the, here's the thing about it what you just learned you're not gonna go around doing all this stuff but you can very easily go up to someone says the Father sent the Son and the Son sent the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit…. you can say that. You just learned that and it took 2 minutes. Are you following me? Ok very good.
Here's the, guess what else? The Holy? Say it one more time. He just say what you think I'm doing. Very good, say it again. Very good, say it again. God's? In our? Look at that, look at that, look at that. So here's what happens. The Father, Son and the Holy Spirit they support each other. They promote each other. They, they differ to each other. They had a relationship and God says - You know what? We have to create something that can enjoy that with us. None of the animals could do that. He created us in His image to have a relationship. Why is this so critical? It's because the devil will tell you - You have to accomplish. You have to be better than. You have to make a lot of money. God says - No, no, all that stuff is a byproduct. I just want to have a relationship with you. That's it.
Now in our relationship we'll do a bunch of stuff but in the end it's about relationship. When you die no one's gonna be asking how much money you made. No one's gonna be asking you did you make vice president? Did you make partner? Did you own your own business? That is not gonna be relevant. At all. When you die God's gonna say, Oh you want to hear God say - Well done good and faithful servant. You accomplished what I wanted to which means by the way, which means you walk with me. That's it. You were obedient to me. That's it. I didn't ask you to try to do all that other stuff. I didn't ask you to try to outdo that person or that person. It was never that. It's all about relationship.
And so the Father, Son and Holy Spirit they modeled that with each other as they differed to each other and pointed to each other. The Holy Spirit think about it. Who is the Holy Spirit? He don't even have a name. I mean Holy Spirit's a title. It's a description. He's the Spirit of God. But who is He? He lives in people and when the, when the Father, when Jesus said - I'm gonna send the Holy Spirit, He said - Holy Spirit you're gonna live in people. No one's gonna see you. No one's gonna know your name. And matter of fact you're gonna live in their heart and they're not gonna listen to you. They're not gonna do what you ask. But go anyway. Ok. They, they all work together. Imagine if we could have that relationship where we support each other, where we esteem other people better than ourself, and we promote, and we talk good about other people. We went up to people and said - You know what I like about you? That's all, this is the kind of relationship God would love to have and see in His family. Ok. So that's just one relationship.
Now, now ah this is gonna be right brain. This is your right my left so I know the difference between right and left but this is your right brain. I'm doing it for your sake cuz I love you. Say right brain, left brain. Ok right brain is about feeling and emotion, two words feeling and emotion. Say it. Very good. Right brain is about?
Left brain is about ah, ah, ah facts and problem solving. Say facts, say problem solving, say facts, say problem solving. Ok this is? This is? This is? And it processes? It processes? Who's this? Very good. This is what? It processes? This is? This is problem solving. Facts and problem solving. Ok. In order for you to, your love to be perfected your right brain and your left brain have to be intergraded.
Now to love God means to obey God. To love God means to what God? To love God means to what God? Some people cannot obey God cuz they are emotionally dysfunctional. You're insecure. Oh I love God. Yes you have a very strong emotional commitment to God. You read your bible. You obey God but there are going to be things you will not be able to do because you are insecure cuz God's gonna call you to do something that your right brain's gonna tell you is gonna be scary. Woo! You can read all the bible you want and by the way that God wants to renew your mind. He wants to renew your mind. ok.
So there's 3 kinds of love we talked about. We talked about aeros love. Aeros love is where we get the word erotic. Aeros love is all about feeling and emotion and it's all about me feeling good. Aeros love is all about me feeling what? It's all about me feeling what? I didn't have a sign for erotic or aeros love so I did this (funny sound). That's as erotic as I want to get on Sunday morning in church. Ok? It's like a purring cat, rrrhhh, rrrhhh. Ok so that, that… Do you know I practice this stuff at home? I'm walking around my house and my wife's like - There he goes again? I'm down there talking to myself going rrrhhh. Purring. Sometimes people ask my kid is he like that all the time?
Aeros love is when you first meet somebody and you are just like over the top - I can't stay away from them. You feel good. Everything's right about ya all's relationship. When they say they like ice cream you're like - I like ice cream too! Yeah like 6.9 billion other people like ice cream. What high school did you go to? I go to the same high school. Like everybody you know goes to that high school cuz you don't know anybody else. But you're, but aeros love is like everything's perfect and aeros love is all about how you feel and what you really love about this person is that the relationship makes you feel good. It's all about me. Aeros love is all about feeling good. Say feeling good. Feeling what?
And by the way thee, thee, thee feel good that you feel comes from a hormone called dopamine, dope-amine. It's a pleasure drug and when you take cocaine dopamine washes your brain. It's the same sensation as cocaine. I had cocaine and I had aeros love. They're the same. Ok? They really are. Ah, um and so aeros love, but the problem with aeros love is it's not reality. Matter of fact you don't see reality. You have friends that come and say to you - That guy ain't no good for you. Oh you, not him. The brother's a dog. You just can't see it.
Then you move into phileo love where the aeros love high of the relationship come/starts to dwindle and you think you're falling out of love when in fact you're not necessarily falling out of love just moving into a more mature less feeling based love. It's a factual based love. This is a relationship. In other words I'm start, now I see that this person's not perfect, perfect. I see that they have faults but you know what? It's ok. I love him anyway. Or I don't like that. But you're starting to see reality. When you're in aeros love you do not see reality. You're blinded and I'm not gonna ask you to raise your hand but a lot of you've been intoxicated before. You've been high before and you know when you're high and intoxicated you have this really good feeling and you don't see a lot of negative. You just - Hey how ya doing? Give me a hug. You don't care. And so it's the same type of, it's a similar thing when you fall in aeros love but then when you get to phileo love it's more balanced but your love is still not perfect.
That's when you move into agape love. Agape love is unconditional self sacrificial. Now what does this have to do with Jesus? When people get saved they're in aeros love with Jesus. Jesus is never in aeros love with you. It's never about feelings for Him. It's always about fact. And so what happens is when you get in aeros love with Jesus you're like - Oh I'm a Christian. I got a bible and you know I got a church. I'm learning how to pray and God has blessed me with all these things. All you see is the good and you think that's reality. You think that's Christianity. It's aeros love. I'm not saying it's wrong, it's not saying it's wrong it's just a part of it. And then what happens over time God allows some things to happen into your life that are not all good and you're like - Oh my gosh God is leaving me and God's not blessing me. And I'm trying, you're trying to hold onto the good feeling and you think that's Christianity and no that's just a part of it. God wants to mature and perfect that love.
So you move into phileo love where you learn I got to read my bible. I have to get counsel, a multitude of counsel to get good answers. I got to, I got to study. I got to pray and I learn how to pray and get through my hard times through prayer and you start to struggle with the struggle of what Christianity is all about. That's phileo love but you're still, your love is still not perfected.
Remember you're/perfect love is where you obey God all the time and then you get to the point where you have agape love. Agape love is gonna be a long road where you will say - God I will do anything you ask anytime you want. Remember left brain is feeling and emotion. Right brain is fact. What happens is when you have agape love or when Jesus had agape love cuz we're a still a long way to go. It's when God calls you to obey Him which is what love is and your right brain says - Oh it's gonna be scary and your right brain dictates what you do because of your fear. But when you right brain and your left brain are working together your right brain is gonna say it's gonna be scary but your left brain will say - Wait a minute. The facts are this! God is on your side. The facts are this. God will never leave you or forsake you. The facts are this is that pain and failure is way overrated. Don't worry about that. You're like - But-but-but-but-but I'm scared and what if they reject me? and you go through this battle in your brain and in your heart and you make a decision. I'm gonna succumb and I'm gonna submit to my fear. Your love is not perfect.
If you remember ah Job, Job lost everything. Just read the book of Job. See all his 10 kids died. All his animals were stolen or taken or burned or killed. His servants were killed except 4 cuz each 1 of the 4 came and ran to tell him the bad news and, and, and his wife was spared. She should have been killed but I'm gonna tell you why in a minute. The reason she, the reason she should have been killed if you don't know the story is because she told Job her husband - Curse God and die. Ha jack that women. Now you don't want to hear that advice. I'm not, I'm just talking about her. I'm not advocating for hit woman. It's just an expression. It's just an expression so just ease off, ease off girlfriend. But the, but the point is that, is that she said curse God and die. But here's what Job said. Job said to her - Though God slay me I will still trust Him.
I don't know if you know that football is the official sport of God. For all you who don't care please listen closely because this is a biblical concept. This is straight up bible I'm getting ready to tell you. Straight up bible. You watch the game today or, or, or any of the games this weekend and you'll see a guy 200lbs. whatever 250 have a collision with a guy bigger than him or 2 guys bigger than him. Bham! And reality it is the force of a car. The guy will get up and he will talk trash, go back to the huddle and say - Give me the ball again.
That's what kind of Christian we need to be when the devil punches us in the mouth we go - That's all you got? I'm still gonna obey God.
Now, amen. Basketball players of the other hand all you got to do is touch them and they want 2 free shots. And don't get me started on soccer players drama queens! Ah-huh-huh-ha-ha.
Agape love is this, agape love says - Lord I will obey you no matter what. When Jesus was in the garden He was getting ready to be arrested and crucified He was sweating blood He was so stressed out and He says to the Father- Father is there any other way? I don't want to do this. This is gonna hurt. The Father says - No you got to do it. And even though emotionally He didn't want to do it as far as the pain, the facts were there was only 1 way man could be saved was by a blood sacrifice by a sinful man, it was Him. I got to do it. That's agape love, agape love.
So aeros love, aeros say aeros love, aeros love is all about me feeling? Aeros love is all about me feeling?
Phileo love is about friendship, say friendship. Agape love, ha, agape love is covenant love, say covenant. It says I will obey no matter what. The bible says to love God is to obey God. To love God is to what God?
Agape love is nurtured over time, say time, over time, say time. Agape love happens when your mind is renewed, say renewed. What is renewed? What is renewed?
Ok let's go back to the beginning. The what? He sent the? And the? Sent the? And the? What the? And the? What the? Very good.
Ah what kind of love is (purring sound)?
And aeros love is all about me feeling? Aeros love is all about me feeling?
And what kind of love is this kind of love? Very good. Friendship love or phileo love, say phileo, say phileo. What kind of love is this? fell love, fell love. Agape, agape love.
Context, context, this is what kind of love? Say aeros, say phileo. Yes agape love is what kind of love? Say covenant love.
To a, to love God is to what God? To love God is to what God?
Agape love is nurtured over? And is nurtured when your mind is? When your mind is? By the way agape love must be received before it can be given. We love Him because He first loved us.
Someone came up to me after the service um ah last service and said - Is it, is it possible to really have agape love? To love unconditionally. I said - What does your mother got to do for you to love her? He says - Nothing. I said - You got a kid, babies? No, well when you do you'll learn that. Babies can't do anything. Think about it, they do nothing. They can't talk. They can't walk. They can't pay any bills. They can barely move. All they do is cry and poop. Think about it. That's all they can do. Am I telling the truth? But you love…. No? He's not a baby he's a little young man. I'm talking about infants, infants like 2-3-4-5-6-7 days, weeks old, months old they can't do nothing. They're like this, but we love them tremendously. We love them. Matter of fact you love, love babies you don't even know. But when we get old problems. It takes time to love agape love and we have to receive it from God.
Ah next one, in every relationship there is a gatekeeper, superhero, say gatekeeper, nurturer, say gatekeeper, say nurturer, say gatekeeper, nurturer. They work together the gatekeeper and the nurturer. The gatekeeper's the man usually and he protects the home. He protects the environment. Our job is to create environments where people are loved, where relationships are developed.
Every human lives to answer 2 questions. 1-Am I loveable? And 2-Is love available? Am I loveable? Say am I loveable? Am I what? Am I what? Am I what? Is love what? Is love what? If you think about who you hang with, how you act, how you respond to what people say, what you say, what you do, what you dress, how you dress, and everything you do how much of all that time and energy is to answer those 2 questions. Do I put myself or do we put ourselves in a position in relationships and in places where we can feel love? When we don't feel loved or we don't feel love it's an environment where I can be loved we shy away but we gage a lot of our relationships and what we do and where we go and how we act based on are we being loved and am I feeling valued and important or not? People who don't, who we don't feel loved by or valued by we stay away from them. Environments where you don't feel lovable or you don't feel love is available or we don't feel it’s safe to love we avoid.
And so when God says - I want to develop a relationship he's gonna have someone be a gatekeeper to protect the environment and someone be a nurturer to love. Now it doesn't mean that the gatekeeper is usually the guy is not a nurturer. It doesn’t mean the, the nurturer usually the mom is not a gatekeeper. Because if you see a mom with a baby that mommy's gate keeping that baby. I mean if you try to take that baby she'll jack you up. Can I get an amen? So I'm not saying she's a softy but I'm saying, but the, but women who have a higher level of oxytocin which is a hormone, it's a hormone to bonding hormone. It's nurturing hormone. Women have a high level of oxytocin they're more nurturers and guys have a higher level of testosterone they're drivers, driven.
Gatekeeper. They're relationship is a what? And a what? So they can create a safe haven, say safe have, say safe haven, say safe haven, say safe haven and in the safe haven I answered 2 questions.
I learn in a safe haven that I am lovable. That I am what? And that love is available. Say love is, say available. So in a safe haven I learn that I am what? And love is a? And love is? Very good, very good.
So in every relationship there's a gatekeeper, say gatekeeper, and say ah, very good. The man represents n the relationship the man represents Christ, the husband I should say. The wife represents church. The man represents who? And the woman represents who? The man represents who? The wife represents who? You all are learning to understand caveman.
When my son was young, he's 23 tomorrow actually, 23 years old and he's our youngest. Ah he speaks, he speaks less now but he used to speak caveman when he was young. How many of you all have a son that speaks caveman? Let me explain: yeheyeheehahaha. So you, you all learned caveman watch. The man represents who? The represents who? See you understand caveman.
Marriage is a blood covenant. Marriage is what kind of covenant? Marriage is a what kind of covenant? Why? Because when Christ and His church are united it's a blood covenant. The only way you can become part of Christ is through His bloodshed on the cross. When a man and a woman get married technically they're supposed to both be virgins, technically the woman is sealed shut with a blood membrane called the hymen and when the man and the woman have sex and consummate the marriage the woman bleeds so the groom and the bride Christ and the church are united through blood. So marriage is a what kind of covenant? What kind of covenant? What kind of covenant?
Ah sex is a one flesh union. God says - I'm gonna make 2 people to become 1. God created sex so 2 people can become 1 and when you become 1 with your spouse there is a physical imprint on your brain of your spouse's smell, look, sounds, all the memories you have of your spouse is imprinted on your brain. All by the way anyone you are intimate with on your left brain. Your right brain has all the emotions and what God does is that He enabled the brain to where your neurons fire at the same time, feeling emotions and facts of the relationship they wired together. Neurons that fire together wired together. Say fire, say wire. Neurons that what together? They do what together?
And what God wants to do is God says - I'm gonna connect the emotions that, any emotions and feelings associated with this person in your life to the fact that that person and I'm going to connect them together because sex is about pleasure and bonding. Sex is about pleasure and bonding. Say pleasure, say bond. So God wants to wire your brain where you have, you are connected to 1 person.
My wife and I have been together 31 years. We've been married 27. Amen! And there are so many memories of every part of her physical body, every part of her voice, every part of her emotions, all our experiences, imprinted on my brain and not only, not only the physical but the emotions and the memories that are associated with those experiences and God wanted that way so we can be 1 with each other. So she is part of me and I am part of her and that's the way God intended it that we would be 1.
Let me go, let me back up. In every relationship there's a what? There's a what?
And if they work together they create a what kind of haven? Say safe haven and in that safe haven we learn 2 things that we are what? Say it again, say it again. And that love is what?
And it's safe, it's not only for you 2 to express love with each other but for your children to express love and for your children to feel safe that if they make a mistake no one's gonna beat them on the head. When you make a mistake God doesn't beat you on the head. He picks you up and He says - Let's keep going. He wants to create a safe haven around your life and the devil wants to, he wants to pervert that haven to be unsafe and to be un, unsecure.
Now if God created….. Oh by the way marriage is a what kind of covenant? What kind of covenant? What kind of covenant? And sex is a what kind of giving union? Life. This is blood, blood, blood. Life, life, life. This is blood, blood, blood.
Ok we, we got, we're running out of time so let me do, let me, let me just wrap this up. Ah we got a whole bunch we're not gonna go over. Last thing lust desires to please self at the expense of? You know what lust is. Look at you all ok. Lust desires to please? At the expense of? Because lust wants to? Get, take, say get.
Ok everyone sit up straight. We're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna close down here. Sit up straight. Ok some of you all are hugged up. You're all like - Oh here we're talking about love, love. I see you brother. I see with you. Go ahead it's cool.
Ok so lust desires to please? At the expense of? Because lust wants to?
By the way you know someone lusts you when they're asking you to do something that's disobedient to God. You cannot be loved by someone or let me say it this way. If you ask someone to do something that's disobedient to God that is not, I repeat not, I'm gonna say it again then I'm gonna pause for emphasis not love. It's not love it's lust. It's all about what I want not what God wants. That's not love. God is love. God cannot contradict Himself so something that contradicts God cannot be love. It's impossible. Ok?
Let me do it again. Lust desires to please, lust desires to please? At the expense of? Cuz lust wants to? One more time lust desires to please? At the expense of? Cuz lust wants to?
Love desires to please? At the expense of? Because love wants to? Love wants to? Say it 3 times. Very good.
Everyone sit up straight. Let's do the whole thing. Ok you all ready? Here we go, here we go, here we go, here we go, here we go. It is not good that man be? Because God wanted man to enjoy what He enjoys which is? I didn't teach you good enough. It's my fault. Say loving relationships, say loving relationships. It's not good that man be? Because God wanted man to enjoy what He enjoys which is what? Very good.
And, and part of that picture is what, how the trinity interacts with each other. The? He sent the? And the? Sent the? And the? What the? (laughter) That, that, that hand ok. The, the, the? What the? and the? what the? Very good. You all have that memorized, you all have that. Oh by the way The Holy Spirit. The? Whisper. That's a verse in the bible by the way. It's Romans 5:5, Romans 5:5 says the Holy Spirit pours God's love in our heart.
Ah, ah brain, brain, brain? Right brain processes? Left brain processes? 3 kinds, to love God is to what God? To love God is to what God? Again what's the relevance if your right brain is telling you you're scared and your left brain is saying you better do it. Obeying God is doing it. And if your right brain emotions bottle you up and freeze you up you can't obey God.
If you ever watch athletes do something in a game you say they choked. What that literally means and in a neurological level is that their right brain said there's too much, there's too many people watching. There's too much on the line and it freezes up their physical body where they can't do what they know they can do. That's why they can shoot free throws all day long in the gym by yourself and now when there's people watching your right brain says oh-oh everyone's watching and if you miss they're gonna laugh at you or whatever and you get scared and you ahhhhh and you can't. That's what that means. Ok?
So when, when God tells you to do something your right brain may be saying - What about this? What about this? What about this? And you go - Yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah. Instead of saying - Wait a minute what does the left brain say? What do the facts say? What does the word of God say? That's why it's so important to read the word and put the word in your head cuz that's the fact. What love is always based on fact never feeling. Love is based on fact. I may feel one way for about my wife today and another way tomorrow but the fact is I love her. The fact is I'm married to her. That's a fact so it has nothing to do with what I feel. Now feelings are evolved but the feelings don't determine whether I or shouldn't determine that I love her or not, or treat her in love.
Ok let's get back up, let's back up. Go forward Ok. Say, say, say right brain, say left brain. Right brain processes? Say it again. Left brain processes? 3 kinds of love (purr sound) Eros love is all about feeling? All about me feeling? And then there's what kind of love? Phileo love's about what? Very good. And then there's a? Ah, ah agape love is covenant love. Say covenant love. It's self sacrificial, say self sacrificial. Ah agape love is learned over? When your what is renewed? When your what is renewed? Agape love can only be? Yes say it again, say it again. To love God means to what God? To love God means to what God? In every relationship there's a? And a? And they work together to create a what? To create a what? And in that safe haven you learn that you are what? And that love is?
And by the way if you don't feel lovable today it's because something happened to you that taught you, you weren't loveable but that was a lie. God loves you. The devil might of taught you you weren't loveable but that was a lie. God loves you. The devil might have taught you that through people how you were treated but you are loveable because God still loves you and that's what really matters and when you submit yourself to God He will teach you, nurture you, and bring you into areas and places where people will love you and also teach you how to by faith love other people without worrying about getting hurt. The devil wants you to be scared to love and scared to extend yourself and give of yourself because you don't want to get hurt. That's, and I don't want to say game, that's the dance we dance our entire life.
Agape love gets to the point where I feel so secure in my relationship with God I don't have, I'm not holding onto anything. You could laugh at me. I'm ok. I’m still gonna obey God. You can criticize me. I'm ok. I'm still gonna obey God. That's what God wants to get you to. It's not about how much money you make or how popular you are. Can you obey God at all costs? Ok.
Lastly and then I'm gonna, I'm gonna send you out of here. Ah lust, lust desires to please? At the expense of? Cuz lust wants to? Love desires to please? At the expense of ? Love wants to give?
Give yourself a hand. Ah couple quick things. #1-I want to encourage you, you have facts in your brain. Now you have to use them. You have to apply it to your life. And so when you get into a situation where your feelings, your emotions, your hormones or whatever are saying one thing you have to say -What are the facts? I got to obey God and God will allow you to be in situations where your faithfulness is tested and it's simple about making a decision. You have to make a decision. Obeying God is not about feeling it's about a decision. Sometimes it will be easy and you'll feel like it and sometimes you won't. It's irrelevant. It's about a decision and you have to take those thoughts captive and make them obedient to Christ. I’m not feeling like I'm supposed to obey but I know what I'm supposed to do. Take those thoughts captive and you obey.
If you remember I was talking about rem-paralysis. When you go to sleep at night you have about 5 rem cycles, rapid eye movement and during your rem cycle you have dreams and during your rem cycle your brain is actually more active than when you're awake. But during your rem cycle you're having these dreams. Your, you have, you go into rem paralysis which means that your body, your spine will block all the nerve signals to your hands and feet so you can't move when you're having your dream. Why? Because if you can move you might act out your dream. Someone say thank God! Say praise the Lord.
And so what happens is you can't act out your dream but you're having this dream in your head and your body's going argh cuz you, you want to do it but you can't and, and, and what God is teaching us is, He's teaching us a whole lot of things but 1-He's teaching us - Look you have to take thoughts captive and even though you may be thinking something that you don't let your body act on it. So your right brain, your ___ brain's saying - go do this. You say - No-no-no I got to make it obedient to the fact of God's word. Love is always based on fact never feeling. Fact! And the fact is God's word. Ok.
I'll leave with this do you all know who Tim Tebow is? Ok so, so ah I went and did the Broncos chapel last night and he was there and I don't know if you all do Twitter or Facebook but I tweet out stuff every day and I got a little prayer request/conversation with him and I'm gonna tweet out today but if you don't follow Facebook or Twitter, follow me cuz I tweet out stuff every day but he was here this morning and I want to challenge you - forget Chargers, Broncos, football whatever. Forget they're in the AMC west and all this kind of stuff. It's bigger than that because he is, I just share very briefly. God has him in a very most unique position of what he is doing and how God is using him in the NFL. Now I'm sure a lot of you are following it. You don't care but I will just tell you the brother in the Lord, him as our brother in the Lord to pray for that dude cuz I have never, and this is my, my small experience in life. I'm not a very old and you know I haven't seen everything but in my brief experience I've never seen an athlete in my life be so much in the eye of the spiritual battle, eye of the storm like I had with him and so I would ask you to pray for him ah and that he would just stay strong in the Lord which I'm very confident he will and God would use him in an amazing way.
Ah so when I did the chapel last night I said to the like 20 guys and the coach, the head coach was in there I said - Look If you guys want to come to church tomorrow our church is 5 minutes away. You can be here 8:00 service, go back to the hotel boom-boom-boom-boom-boom and he's the only guy that said I'm gonna go. And he came down here, got up early, came to church, went back and got in time for his meeting. But that's a small thing compared to what he's doing in the field so when you see him out there playing yeah he's AMC west but there's something way bigger than that that God and you'll hear a lot of criticism about him - He can't do this, he can't do this. But God has somehow anointed. They had a commentator on ESPN say - If the Broncos beat the Jets, this was last week, if the Broncos beat the Jets I will go to church. So I say, I say it to say that's kind of the front and center of Jesus in, in his situation because they don't think he's that good and blah-blah-blah and you know if, if he can pull that off God must be in it and, and the Broncos beat the Jets and the guy said - I'm going to first service Sunday. (laughter) But I, I, there's a lot more to the story. There's, there's a lot to the story but I would just tell you just pray for him because like I said there's a lot of Christians in the NFL, I think it's probably more than any other sport. We have, there's chapel, they have chapel every week, every team. It's just amazing. It's very Christianized. Ah but that guy is over the top. God has anointed him for something very special. So just pray for him and I say that I just saw him. He was here today so you know hopefully God can use this in his life to encourage him.
Lord thank you so much for your faithfulness. Thank you so much for your goodness. And Lord may we be a light in this world for Jesus. And Lord I pray that we would be pure, that we would live pure lives, and that we would be men and women of God, and that when our right brain is telling us to back down, to be nervous, to be fearful, to hesitate that we would act on the facts. In Jesus' name, Amen!
