More love to thee…
As we continue this journey on MORE we are reminded of our desire for community but this week we are going to talk about our greatest desire as human beings…and no its not banana pudding…or ribeye steak…its to be loved…when I first remember Leslie she was taking my order at McDonalds in Abingdon VA…she didn’t even give me a second thought…in fact, I don’t think she even saw me other that the money I handed her for my Big Mac…
I however, couldn’t get her out of my head…I had friends call her I asked her out…I found myself eating at MCDonalds a lot…if she was working the drive thru and I went in I would order get my food then go through the drive thru for my apple pie…
I asked her out for months before I finally got a MAYBE…I didn’t know it but I was seeking her love and I was finding myself obsessed about it…
Love has a strange power on us doesn’t it? And God knew it would because he created us to have the desire for to receive love but unknowingly that means that we must give love to truly receive it…
I will get back to that thought in just a moment…first lets talk about how God views love…
Of all things love appears in the bible very often…
Love appears -
310 times in the King James Version.
131 times in the Old Testament.
179 times in the New Testament.
348 times in New American Standard Bible.
551 times in New International Version.
538 times in New Revised Standard Version.
57 times in the Gospel of John, more than the Mathew, Mark or Luke gospels.
46 times in the First Epistle of John.
The command ‘love one another’ appears 11 times in the New Testament, including 3 times from Jesus himself and 4 times ‘love each other’ command with Jesus uttering it twice. This is from the New International Version.
The New King James version mentions the presence of the command ‘love one another’ 5 times.
The number of appearance of love in different translations of the Bible varies from 514 to 810 times.
The bible uses different kinds of love…
EROS: this Greek word was not used in the New Testament. It refers to sexual love and probably derived its name from the mythical god of love. This form is found throughout Song of Solomon…
STORGE: This is the type of love signifying the natural affection between kinfolk. This word appears only occasionally in the New Testament and only in compound form… Romans 12:10
10 Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.
PHILEO: This Greek word for love signifies, “…spontaneous natural affection, with more feeling than reason” (Elwell, p. 1357). John 5:20 describes phileo: “For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these so that you will be amazed.” Picture the father, tenderly and lovingly showing his son what to do, and how to do it. The verse describes a progressive action of a father helping his son along.
AGAPE: This Greek word for love is by far the one that appears most frequently in the New Testament. It is, “…generally assumed to mean moral goodwill which proceeds from esteem, principle, or duty, rather than attraction or charm… [it] means to love the undeserving, despite disappointment and rejection…Though agape has more to do with moral principle than with inclination or liking, it never means the cold religious kindness shown from duty alone, as scriptural make clear” (Elwell, p. 1357).
AGAPE AND PHILEO are similar yet different it is not a helping action but deep profound affection of the heart that isn’t easily broken…John 17:27, we read, “I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and I myself may be in them.” The Father had Agape for his son. It is also the love that the Son has for us.
Love is one of the most powerful emotions we have. The actress Joan Crawford once said “Love is a fire but whether it warms your heart or burns your house down, you can never tell!”
Love can motivate, give pleasure, hurt even destroy.
It can make us do bold, even stupid things.
During the 17th century, Oliver Cromwell, sentenced a soldier to be shot for his crimes. The execution was to take place at the ringing of the evening curfew bell. However, the bell did not sound.
The soldier’s fiancé had climbed into the belfry and clung to the great clapper of the bell to prevent it from striking.
When she was summoned by Cromwell to account for her actions, she wept as she showed him her bruised and bleeding hands. Cromwell’s heart was touched and he said, "Your lover shall live because of your sacrifice. Curfew shall not ring tonight!"
As Christians, portrayed in the bible as brides of Christ, who is the Bridegroom, we too have a lover who gives us life because of his sacrifice. We are told that one day the Bridegroom will return and we shall be reunited and honeymoon, so to speak, in heaven.
But love can drive us to seek out many things that are not love…
The world views love much differently than it was intended to be…
We love hot dogs and baseball…
We love fishing and tv shows…
We love things and stuff…
God intended us to enjoy these things but all to often they become a trap or an idol so to speak that pulls us away from true love that we find in Jesus
Much like the spouse who is in love with his or her husband or wife who suddenly find themselves spending too much time with a coworker…the attention is taken away from the good love to the lust of the flesh…
This is only an example…there are many others that can take you focus off of the love that is right and true and place your focus on that which is not.
An example that comes to mind…two brothers that love to fish together…nothing wrong with that…they are good at too…
One buys the newest best boat and the other invest in poles and lures…they are winning tournament after tournament…one day one of the brothers is confronted by his wife as she walks out the door with his kids and stops only to say…”you don’t love us” “You are married to that boat and fishing”. It was too late she was gone and they were soon divorced…
What is taking your focus off your first love?
God sends us messages about losing our love for him…lets begin with Jesus in
Matthew 24:10-12 “And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the LOVE of many will grow cold.”
Paul writes us in…
2 Timothy 3:1-5
3 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be LOVERS of themselves, LOVERS of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.
People will choose themselves over the love of God or rather the opportunity to love God…
So many people want to proclaim they love Jesus, but they line up more with those described in 2 Timothy 3
More concerned with their own self-interest than the love that last for eternity…
More in love with money or power or stuff than a treasure that will last forever…
Loving pleasure rather than loving GOD…proclaiming to be godly but yet never tapping into the power that comes from living completely in love with Jesus.
To often we fall deeper and deeper into our own selfishness through one sin after another never acknowledging that God can help us if we choose to ask Him to cover us with His love…
Afterall, isn’t it love that drives everyone to do great things?
Our military goes to war for the love of their country and to fight for freedom…not to mention the love of their family that they are protecting.
It is love that allows a small built woman to fight of an mountain lion to save her toddler from death with her bare hands.
It is love that drove a man to attack a shark that was going after his little one in the waves of the sea.
It is love that demands more of us than we ever thought possible.
But the fact remains…who do you love more
God or yourself
You have to choose…you cant love stuff more than God. You cant love power more than God…you cant love sin more than God and expect to spend eternity in Heaven.
In the parable of the shrewd manager found in Luke 16 Jesus tells of a instance where a poor manager raised concern.
A crooked manager raised the eyebrow of his master. He apparently managed a farm for a landowner who lived in the city.
The manager squandered the landowner’s assets much as the prodigal son had squandered his father’s (see 15:13). A pink slip was in order.
What did a manager without a job do?
He knew he was too old and out of shape to go back to manual labor.
He was too proud to beg for help from his friends, or worse, to sit on the street corner, hat in hand.
Using all his managerial skills, he developed a plan. He would not have to beg. Friends would welcome him with open arms.
The plan was simple: a fire sale on debt.
He went to reducing the people debts to the landowner to get payment and to make friends.
The manager may have been illegally reducing debt. He may have been subtracting interest that had accrued on the debt.
He may have been sacrificing his own commission for long-term gains.
Jesus did not condone the man’s business practice as legal or one to be imitated.
This was a long-term plan by the manager to have friends indebted to him when he needed them.
But how would the landowner react when he heard the news or saw the books?
Ironically, the landowner praised the man. Why?
Because his business plan was smart and it accomplished the purposes the manager set out for it.
First, it made the landowner look good in the eyes of those who were indebted to him and who continued to do business with him.
Second, it looked forward to the long term rather than being limited to the present moment.
Third, it assured people would be indebted to the manager and thus honor bound to help him when he would need it, much sooner than they suspected.
Jesus put the parable in context.
In this world the children of light—those who have become lamps letting God’s light shine through them (11:35–36)—often are much more foolish in their dealings with other people than are the secular people who have no concern for God.
God’s people should be as dedicated to living out kingdom living with other people in this world as the people of this world are in living out their own values to their own advantage in this world. No where does the Bible say we are to be taken advantage of or that we cant be successful in this world.
The world’s citizens, however, are only of this age.
They have no future beyond the here and now. Christians will shine through all the ages of eternity. Live in a manner now so you are assured of eternity.
Jesus drove the point home to his disciples: “Make use of the world’s resources so friends will be there to help you when you need it most. Things of this world may be unrighteous in themselves, but they can be used for good.
To do so, you must recognize that such worldly resources are temporary.
One day they will no longer be available. Use them while you can, but do not make them the end, only the means.
Used in this way, unrighteous worldly resources can help you prepare for eternity.
By being generous with secular resources, particularly by sharing them with the poor, blind, lame, and crippled, you can store up treasures in heaven.
Just as the grateful debtors would welcome the manager into their homes when he needed them (v. 4), so you will be welcomed to your eternal home when you die and material resources are no longer of value.
Meeting you there will be those friends with whom you shared unrighteous worldly resources. They will show you to your heavenly resources.”
The disciples dismissed this parable as not applying to them.
They had no worldly resources, so the message of this parable did not apply to them. Jesus disagreed.
No matter how few resources you have, be trustworthy with them, he said.
Only as you get in the habit of generous, trustworthy use of resources can you be trusted with more.
That habit will lead you to continue to be trustworthy, no matter how high the value of your resources. Look out for the other side of this truth.
You may think that it does not make much difference how you handle the little that you have.
You can cheat and mislead and squander such resources.
After all, it is just unrighteous money, not worth anything.
Again, Jesus emphasized, the habit you form now stays with you.
Be faithful in little; you will be faithful in much. Be unfaithful in little, you will be unfaithful and unrighteous if you get the opportunity to manage many resources.
If you are unfaithful in unrighteous worldly goods, no one will trust you with heavenly goods.
Finally Jesus drops the hammer and makes things very clear on choice
Luke 16:13
13 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
I am very aware that Jesus is talk about money and resources but God love is a resource that we can squander and mistreat…so many teach that you can do whatever
We have to choose love of God and His ways over our own selfish desires…
What will you choose?
