But what is amazing about love, is this:
• A young boy at a certain age despises young girls
• He frowns like he swallowed a dose of castor oil when the teacher makes him sit next to a girl
• But at a certain age, something very mysterious begins to happen to him. That same boy that despised sitting beside a girl, now wants to sit beside her every time he gets a chance.
WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM?
We say the “love bug” bit him. This is the only way we know to explain his odd behavior. But notice this:
• Without ever being in love before
• Without ever taking a course in class
• Without ever reading a book on love
All of a sudden they become experts on love!
Now I am being facetious, because they may THINK they know all about love, but in actuality they know very little about it.
WHY DO WE SAY THAT?
Illus: A young man might meet a young girl named Susie, and immediately he feels that he cannot go through life without her. The very next week when you see him, you ask him how his girlfriend Susie is doing. And he might tell you that he has had three other girlfriends since then.
Yet a few weeks ago he was madly in love with Susie!
There is something seriously wrong with the dating system in this country. We wonder why there are so many divorces in this country, and it could be related to how young folks go about selecting a companion.
HOW DO THEY GO ABOUT SEEKING A MATE?
A young man seeks for a mate the same way that a young man seeks for his first new car. That is, when a young man reaches that certain age and begins to look for a car, he goes to a car lot and looks the many cars over, and he finds the one he likes. After he looks them all over and he decides that this is the one he wants, then he just has to have that car.
But he knows that he is only going to keep that car for so many years. He knows, as excited as he is now, there will be a time when the newness will wear off, and he will come across another one that is shinier, and that has a lot more to offer. When that time comes, he knows he will swap his old car in for on a new one.
This is the kind of love today that many practice when they get married. It is as if they enter the marriage with the idea that this one will do for the present, but as soon as I can find another one I like better, I will swap this one off.
And if you ask these people if they know anything about love, they would give you that little grin like, “Yes, I know a great deal about LOVE!” BUT THEY DO NOT!
Illus: You can ask the average man on the street if he loves the Lord, and he will look at you like you fell off the back of a turnip truck, and say, “Of course, I love the Lord. Everybody loves the Lord!”
No, everyone might say they love the Lord, but according to the scriptures everyone does not love the Lord.
The Lord said love for Him can be summarized in one way. Look at John 14:15 “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”
Notice, he starts this off with little conjunction, “If” ye love me. When it comes to loving the Lord, there is a big “If” in the front of some people who claim to love the Lord.
In other words, He is saying:
• Do not go around telling people that you love the Lord when you are not willing to obey Him, because the fact is, you do NOT LOVE THE LORD
• Do not get on your knees and pray, and tell God that you love Him, unless you are willing to obey Him
The PROOF OF OUR LOVE is that we obey Him.
What are some of the areas of our life that will be affected by obedience to his commandments? If I really love the Lord Jesus-
I. THERE WILL BE A CONVERSION
Our relationship with the Lord starts off with a love gift – we give Him our LIFE at conversion.
We did not always love Him enough to do this, but something very mysterious happened at CONVERSION and we started loving Him, and we came to realize that life without Him is not worth living. We gave Him our HEART and our LIFE!
When you find a person who loves to give, you will find a person who knows something about love.
WHY IS THIS TRUE?
Because love always wants to give! This is why the Bible tells us in John 3:16, “God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son…”
A lot of folks give the impression that they love people, but their life does not reflect that.
WHY DO WE SAY THAT?
Because their life reflects that they only love themselves.
Illus: For example, in the presidential race in the year 2000, the Democratic candidate, Al Gore, ran on the campaign that he cared about the poor and the hard working people of this nation. But he was greatly embarrassed when it was revealed on national television, that with all his wealth, he only gave a little more that $200.00 dollars to charity the prior year.
But listen, when we love people we will want to give to them. And when a person comes to know Christ as their Savior, they will give their HEART and LIFE to Him.
The first way we show our love for the Lord is by CONVERSION. We who did not love the Lord are now CONVERTED and we give Him our hearts as He commands us to do.
When there is love THERE WILL BE A CONVERSION. When there is love-
II. THERE WILL BE A CHANGE
WHAT KIND OF A CHANGE? A drastic change.
Illus: There used to be a television program called “Change of heart.” The program would bring a couple on national television and they would tell how long they had been dating. The reason they were willing to come on the show was because they were not sure they wanted to CONTINUE THE RELATIONSHIP, or have a CHANGE OF HEART and start a new relationship with someone else more compatible. Often, after both would go out on a date with someone else, one or both of them had a CHANGE OF HEART.
This is what happened when we were converted. We were hooked up with the devil, but we were not happy with this relationship. We became acquainted with the Lord Jesus and we had a CHANGE OF HEART!
At CONVERSION, God the Holy Spirit spoke to our hearts and showed us some things.
WHAT DID HE SHOW US?
• He showed us our sins
• He showed us our destination
• He showed us the Savior
We repented of our sins, and He saved us. We became born-again and we had a CHANGE OF HEART. When this happens to us, there are some major changes that take place.
2 Cor 5:17 says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” Our life after conversion bears no similarity to what we used to be.
Illus: Linda Tripp became famous during the Monica Lewinski scandal in Washington, D.C. She had to appear in court for wire tapping charges brought against her. Her lawyer advised her to make some changes in her appearance. She went to a plastic surgeon and had some major changes made. She now has appeared on national television and no longer looks like the same person.
This is similar to what happened to us when we got saved. When the Lord saved us, we became a new creature in Christ Jesus, and now our NEW LIFE bears no similarity to our OLD LIFE.
The Lord said the test of being converted is this; “IF YE LOVE ME, KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS!”
This creates a serious problem for some who claim to love the Lord.
WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?
The problem is this, if there is NO CHANGE, there was NO CONVERSION.
• It does not matter what THEY CLAIM, THEY HAVE NEVER BEEN BORN AGAIN
• It does not matter how many churches THEY JOIN, THEY HAVE NEVER BEEN SAVED
• It does not matter how much THEY GIVE to the church, THEY HAVE NEVER BEEN SAVED
• It does not matter if THEY ATTENDED church all their life, THEY HAVE NEVER BEEN SAVED
• It does not matter that their parents are saved, THEY HAVE NEVER BEEN SAVED
• It does not matter how talented they might be, THEY HAVE NEVER BEEN SAVED
Someone might be saying, “Preacher, you have no right to judge them.” I say you are absolutely correct! But I am not judging them, the Word of God is judging them, and the Word of God tells us they have never been born-again!
The Word of God says that when we become born-again, we become “…a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
The Lord specifically states that there should be a change when a person is truly converted.
The Bible says one of the ways you can know they have been truly converted is by their obedience. “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”
Before conversion, one of the ways we knew we were not born again was because we did not OBEY HIM. We demonstrate our love for God when we obey Him! We are no longer the same person we once were.
Before we were converted, our life revealed that we hated everything God stood for. But once we came to know Him, we fell in love with Him and wanted to PLEASE HIM!
Illus: J. Allan Petersen tells the story of a woman who came to a minister, Dr. George Crane, and stated she hated her husband and wanted to divorce him. In her words she said, "I do not only want to get rid of him, I want to get even. Before I divorce him, I want to hurt him as much as he has hurt me."
Dr. Crane suggested an ingenious plan "Go home and act as if you really love your husband. Tell him how much he means to you. Praise him for every decent trait. Go out of your way to be as kind, considerate, and generous as possible. Spare no efforts to please him, to enjoy him. Make him believe you love him. After you've convinced him of your undying love and that you cannot live without him, then drop the bomb. Tell him that you're getting a divorce. That will really hurt him." With revenge in her eyes, she smiled and exclaimed, "Beautiful, beautiful. Will he ever be surprised!" And she did it with enthusiasm. For two months she showed love, kindness, attention, giving, reinforcing, and sharing. When she didn't return, Crane called. "Are you ready now to go through with the divorce?"
"Divorce?" she exclaimed. "Never! I discovered I really do love him."
At one time, every one of us who are saved were at enmity with Christ. We did things to hurt him.
• We laughed at sacrilegious jokes
• We stayed out of church knowing we did not have a good excuse
• We did things knowing it would break His heart
• We refused to come to church regardless of how hard Christians would beg us to attend
• We would make time for the things of the world but no time for God
But now we have been CONVERTED and now a CHANGE has taken place in our life. Now, the more we serve Him, the more we come to love Him.
Illus: Back in the 50’s there was a love song that had these words, “To know, know, know him, is to love, love, love him. And I do.”
The fact is, the more we come to know about Him, the more we LOVE HIM and WANT TO OBEY HIM. When there is love:
• THERE WILL BE A CONVERSION
• THERE WILL BE A CHANGE
Also …
III. THERE WILL BE COMMUNICATION
Illus: When you love someone, there will be communication. That is, you will talk with that person, and that person will talk to you. When someone says they love us and they do not talk to us, we ask them, “What’s wrong, why won’t you talk to me?”
And there is something wrong when a person will not talk to the Lord.
A. JESUS SAYS, IF YOU LOVE ME, TALK TO ME
If you love Him you will keep His commandments. And one of the commandments of the Lord is, “Pray without ceasing!” (1 Thess. 5:17)
Now listen, we all have met some men who were married to women who loved to talk.
Illus: Phil and Jill had been married for many years, but now they were in a divorce court. The judge asked him, "Phil, is it true that for the last three years of your marriage you did not speak to Jill?" Phil replied, "Yes Judge, that is correct." "And how do you explain this unusual conduct?" the judge inquired. Phil replied, "I didn't want to interrupt her Your Honor.”
There are some men that seem to love women who love to talk. But every time I meet men who have wives like this, I always leave with relief that they are married to her, and I’m not.
But did you know we can talk to God every day, seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day, and God will never get tired of us talking to Him? He commands us to talk to Him through the day.
WHY DOES HE COMMAND US TO DO THIS? Because He wants to hear us tell Him:
(1) WE LOVE HIM
Illus: Some folks remind us of the woman who said to her husband, “We have been married fifty years and you have not told me one time in those fifty years that you love me.” He said, “I told you before I married you that I love you. And the reason I haven’t told you since then is because I have not changed my mind.”
But everyone loves to hear the words, “I love you!”
• We who are married love to hear it
• We who are parents love to hear it
• We who are grandparents love to hear it
And God also loves to hear it throughout the day. He wants us to tell Him that we LOVE HIM because He loves to hear it.
Throughout the day we should talk to Him and tell Him that -
(2) WE ARE TRUSTING HIM
1 John 5:14 “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, IF WE ASK ANY THING ACCORDING TO HIS WILL, he heareth us:”
You see, as we live throughout the day, we are putting our trust in three places. We are trusting:
• IN OURSELVES
• IN OTHERS
• IN GOD
We need to tell Him throughout the day, “Lord, I am trusting you!”
WHY SHOULD WE TELL HIM THIS CONTINUOUSLY? As we do this, WE ARE REMINDING OURSELVES that we are trusting in Him! That is, throughout the day we need to trust him:
• FOR OURSELVES
• FOR OTHERS
If I Love the Lord I will COMMUNICATE WITH HIM and pray without ceasing. Because I love him, THERE WILL BE CONVERSION, CHANGE, and COMMUNICATION.
Conclusion:
I. CONVERSION
II. CHANGE
III. COMMUNICATION
