Sermon series - 6 qualities for spiritual health part 3 (Love All)
Sermon Father’s Day 2019
- Today we are celebrating Father’s Day, but I also am going to continue our 6 qualities
for spiritual health too.
- You’ll Get Why in a minute.
- The call to be a dad, is a big undertaking, & I’ll admit some guys just can’t handle it.
- But Listen to this,
> If both father and mother go to church, 72% of the children will also go to church when they grow up.
If only the father goes to church, the percentage drops to 55%.
However, if only the mother goes to church, only 15% of those children will go to church when they are grown.
- I know the numbers are a little skewed, because there are a lot more women who
attend church than men.
- Up until 2012 38% of women attended church regularly & 25% of men attended
regularly.
Q- Why is that a big deal?
- Listen closely!
- In 2012 the pew research conducted the same survey & found only 28% of women
& 22% of men attend church regularly.
- 10% of women stopped going to church & 3% of men stopped!
- Our society is changing.
- Our Spiritual Health is declining!
- I want to fight that!
- So, I started putting our sermons on YouTube, & they’ve been broadcast on the
radio for some time now.
Q- Why is that important?
- It’s because people will never know anything’s wrong unless they see a Physician.
- I hope that up until this time you have seen a way to a healthy spiritual life.
- Think about it with me. It begins with,
1. The love we share with our Father - We Love God totally
2. The talks we have Him- Prayer time
- This third quality encompasses not just dads, but all of us.
- We need to Love All
- That’s a big order, but if you take it from a fatherly, or even motherly view, you
would agree that even though they’ve done wrong, you still love them.
- Here’s the Godly view, & where we’re going to begin with this morning.
1 John 4:7-11
7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.
10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
- There are a lot of ideas about love in this day, but not very many are about a love that
can keep somebody from an eternity from Hell.
- Prayer
>True love. www.jokes.christiansunite.com/
If you love something, set it free.
If it comes back, it was, and always will be yours.
If it never returns, it was never yours to begin with.
If it just sits in your living room,
messes up your stuff,
eats your food,
uses your telephone,
takes your money,
and never behaves as if you actually set it free in the first place,
you either married it or gave birth to it!
- One of the most troubling “true” statements is, often times your family will do you
wrong more often than a stranger.
- Also a Christian business man will do you wrong more often than a lost business
man!
- The numbers of the church are falling off, because of statements like these!
- Our Health is flatlining & not too many people want to hang around a sick
person.
Q- Have you ever heard the statement of, “I’ll avoid them like the plague”?
- Right now, people are avoiding the church, because they say we’re not loving.
Q- Do you know why they say we’re not loving?
- It’s because we tell them God’s views about sinning!
- After that they make up the rest of the reasons.
- Look at what John said though,
1 John 4:9-10
9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.
10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
- The whole purpose of God sending Jesus was to save us from Hell!
- That’s a whole lot different form of love than, “oh let’s love everybody” of today.
- Now here’s where I think things are being messed up.
- If a person came up to me & said you’re dying of cancer I’m probably not going to
believe them.
- If I go to a Physician I am more likely to believe that prognosis.
- So What the world is seeing today is our love, not God’s Love.
- I know that sounds crazy, but go back to what I just said about the Church.
- A Christian business man will do you wrong before a lost business man.
- Our Love has been greatly hurt by a lot of bad actions.
Q- How can we fix that?
- We will never erase the stigma people already hold against us, but instead of
trying to impress the person, our desire should be on one thing.
- Rather than dwelling on the disease (sin). Dwell on the person!
Q- What does that person need?
- So many people make bad choices because they’re broken & need fixed!
- The disease of sin has been cured, but there’s still people infected with it, & they
need that cure!
- That’s How we show the love of God.
- Paul spoke to the church of Ephesus & said,
Ephesians 5:8-14
8 For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:
9 (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;)
10 Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.
11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.
12 For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.
13 But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light.
14 Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
- We don’t dwell on the hatred, or the negative. Instead we arise, choose to not do
these wrongs (Sins), & Let our lives be the inspiration for the lost.
- We need to be the ones who reach out to those who are hurting worse.
- There’s a great callousness Growing in America, & I’m fearful that it’s scripture
coming to fruition.
- Let’s read it as my closing scripture,
James 5:1-6
1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.
4 Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.
5 Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.
6 Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.
- Replace the rich men with America.
- We used to be a nation that sent missionaries, by great numbers, to foreign lands.
- We used to be a much more Christian nation, but hatred & false ideas are
corrupting all the lands.
- The fads & the crazes change almost daily.
- All this as our neighbors die of thirst, hunger, & no knowledge of the redeemer.
- The headlines are rocking the southern baptist to our core. We are hit with
accounts of Pastor’s sexual misconduct.
- Now we go back to the world’s impression of Christians.
- They don’t see love! They see our imperfections.
- So, my closing thought is this. Instead of showing ourselves to the world,
let’s show Christ!
- If He wouldn’t do it, don’t do it!
- If we are going to be spiritually healthy, then we have got to live like we want to be!
> God Says. www.varietyreading.carlsguides.com
You say: It's impossible
God says: All things are possible (Lk.18:27)
You say: I'm too tired
God says: I will give you rest (Mt. 11:28-30)
You say: Nobody loves me
God says: I love you (Jn 3:16)
You say: I can't go on
God says: My grace is sufficient (2 Cor. 12:9)
You say: I can't figure things out
God says: I will direct your steps (Prov.3:5-6)
You say: I can't do it
God says: You can do all things (Phil.4:13)
You say: I'm not able
God says: I am able (2 Cor. 9:8)
You say: It's not worth it
God says: It will be worth it (Rom. 8:28)
You say: I can't forgive myself
God says: I forgive you (1 John 1:9)
You say: I can't manage
God says: I will supply all your needs (Phil. 4:19)
You say: I'm afraid
God says: I have not given you a spirit of fear (2 Tim 1:7)
You say: I'm always worried and frustrated
God says: Cast all your care on me (1 Pet. 5:7)
You say: I'm not smart enough
God says: I give you wisdom (1 Cor. 1:30)
You say: I feel all alone
God says: I will never leave you or forsake you (Heb. 13:5)
- Now that we’ve identified the thing that’s hurting us so much, Ourselves.
- Let’s stop trusting in ourselves & trust in our Savior, who shows to us the greatest of
Love.
