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
It was NOT GOOD for ADAM to be ALONE
Genesis 1:26-27 (NKJV) [26] Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." [27] So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
Genesis 1:31 (NKJV) Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
God gave ADAM, ISHA... and then for ADAM things were also GOOD... Isn't that how we feel about our LOVED ONE?
It's the EXACT same FEELING that Adam had because...
#2
YOUR LOVE
It's the EXACT same FEELING God had when He created ADAM and then ISHA
You're probably wondering why I calling ADAM's LOVE...Isha... still???
That's because ADAM would later name her EVE
Genesis 3:20 (NKJV) And Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.
You and I are here today because of these two
Many disbelieve this story of creation
They would rather believe we came from some sort of primeval pond scum
My daughter recently had her DNA checked as birthday gift from her husband
It may have been something to do with me...or where I came from...who knows...anyway
She told me the results over the phone and said, "Dad, how is it that 37% of my ancestry came from the Middle-East?"
I said, "Well you know you and I came from that region"
"Huh-uh, she said, Get out of town!"
"No, it's true darling, are ancestors came from there. You may have heard of our great...great...great...great...great...grandparents... ADAM and EVE?
She giggled and said, "Yeah you're right Dad I hadn't thought of it that way!"
#3
LOVE HIM
NOW the REAL question becomes... Why do some of us had such a HARD TIME
LOVING HIM?
There's NOTHING we have...NOT one DARN thing that we WOULDN'T HAVE...was it NOT for His LOVE
NOT a ONE!
You think that shiny NEW truck or that shiny ring your wearing that necklace your husband so loves on you NONE OF IT is YOURS...NONE OF IT all belongs to Him...but He gave it to you to WATCH...
To HOLD...to KEEP... to PROTECT for Him...why?
Because He LOVES YOU!
John 3:16-17 (NKJV) [16] For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. [17] For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
We are SAVED because of HIM
We are NO LONGER CONDEMNED because of HIM
We have LOVE because of HIM
#4
LOVE THEM
And so what are we supposed to do with all of this LOVE?
Are we to HIDE it UNDER a BUSHEL?
NO!
You only thought that applied to LIGHT until NOW... Didn't you...come one...have you ever heard anyone talk about LOVE that way"
When is the last time you walked up to a stranger... or as you left talking to a person who you had just met... and said, "GOD loves you and so do I!"
They may spin around and wonder how goofy you are,
But that should not matter
You have just planted a seed!
And only GOD knows if that seed will grow... if it fell on GOOD SOIL!
But that is NOT up to you to DECIDE
My Mother and Father used to take bushels of our apples
Bushels and bags of our corn
Homemade cakes and cookies
And just drop them off on the tables in our church
Never cared about a "Thank You"
Never cared about RECOGNITION
Just cared about their FELLOW man
CLOSING
As POOR as we were...I couldn't quite figure out why they would do such a thing...after all... I was wearing hand-me-downs...
Hand-me-downs from my SISTERS
The lacy socks really looked good on me!
So, I asked Dad one time
"How can we afford to give our food away when we have so little?"
He said, "Son, what is it that you are lacking?"
"There is always someone worse off than you...
"Someone who is starving...
"Someone who is cold...
"We are to LOVE them as we LOVE ourselves!"
I have never forgotten that talk and how my Dad... carried on the LOVE that GOD had given him... and gave it FORWARD to those he didn't even know
My Dad always winked at everyone. Including strangers
It was said often about my Dad, "There isn't a stranger Curly doesn't know... CURLY was his nickname...Oh how I miss him
In 2019...what do you say we all try to give our LOVE away!
After all, it doesn't belong to us ANYWAY!
BENEDICTION
Oh LORD we are thankful for all that You have given us. Be with us as we leave Your house. Keep us in Thy Heavenly Hands. Make us to learn Your Way. Help us to help others... to Love them as ourselves. AMEN.
