Compiled by: Herman Abrahams (Pastor), Cornerstone Faith Ministries, P.O. Box 740, Westridge 7802, Rep. of South Africa.
E-Mail: Mentorship2003@yahoo.co.uk
Note to the reader:
If you have been blessed with this sermon compilation, I would be honoured to receive an e-mail from you merely telling me where in the world you are based- I do not need any other information. This is merely so that I can have the pleasure of giving thanks to Almighty God that all over the globe the ministry which he has entrusted to me, is blessing the body of Christ and helping to extend the Kingdom of God.
Thank you.
Herman Abrahams,
Cape Town, South Africa.
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THE CHRISTIAN MAN’S DUTY TO LOVE
1. HE MUST LOVE GOD
A) As a father and parent
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DEUT 6:4-9 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.” (NIV)
This is a command to parents in the house of God. Christian parents must lead their children by example, loving God with their whole being and with all their might.
B) As a leader & mentor
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1 TIM 4:12 … set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love (Greek – AGAPE – “Unconquerable benevolence”), in faith and in purity.
Christian leaders must set an example in showing the love of God to others. If we are to be spiritual dads and mentors in the house of God, we must lead by example in this discipline of love and be able to say with Paul “Follow me as I follow Christ” (1 Cor 11:1).
2. HE MUST LOVE HIS WIFE
EPHESIANS 5:25-33 25 “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing a her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies.
He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” b 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.
33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.”
A. Vs 25: Christ loved the church to the extent that he made the ultimate sacrifice for the church- death on a cross. So too a husband must be prepared to sacrifice his life for his wife, even being prepared to die for her.
B. Vs 28,33: A man no doubt loves his own body. He will feed his body when he’s hungry. He will bathe his body when necessary. He will nurse his body when it’s hurting. In the same way a husband should love his wife by taking care of her as he takes care of his own body and loves it. For a husband not to love his wife is to hate himself.
3. HE MUST LOVE HIS CHILDREN
A. Fathers/parents must tell their children “I love you”.
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ILLUSTRATION
Just a couple weeks ago, a sweet lady in our church family stood before the congregation to share her story. She had been raised in a sound Christian home and had received proper instruction as well as all the comforts a modest home could provide. Although she acknowledged that she was loved by her parents, she lamented the fact that her father had never actually said to her, "I love you."
Standing before our congregation, however, her tears flowed freely as she related how her father finally had verbally confessed his love for her. When he did, he put in place one of the essential missing pieces to the puzzle of his daughter’s life. (JAMES RAY JOHNSON, TH.M. – GOSPEL HERALD AND SUNDAY SCHOOL TIMES)
ILLUSTRATION
Bill Orr and Erwin Lutzer collaborated on a cute book called If I Could Change My Mom and Dad (Moody). The authors compiled notes written by children who had been asked to complete this sentence: "If I could change my mom and dad, I would …" One sweet twelve-year-old girl wrote:
"If I could change my mom and dad, I would teach them to hug and telI me they love me. My parents never hug me. My older brother gets all the attention. Sometimes I wish I would get real sick and maybe they would notice me. I only wish they would hug me." (JAMES RAY JOHNSON, TH.M. – GOSPEL HERALD AND SUNDAY SCHOOL TIMES)
This little girl really wanted to hear her parents tell her that they love her. Was she justified? Is it the duty of parents to verbally communicate their love to their children?
B. The Word of God clearly instructs us to love our children:
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i). Older women are to teach younger women how to love their children
Titus 2:3-4 3 “Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. 4 Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children”.
When, as older men and women we teach what is good, and make that a lifestyle for ourselves, we will be filled with goodness, which we can then pass on to younger men and women, teaching them to love their children.
ii). Fathers are commanded,
"Provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord" (Eph. 6:4 KJV).
4 “Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord”. (Eph. 6:4 NIV)
“God is love” (1 John 4:8). As parents, nurturing our children will involve raising them in and with the love of God.
C. Is it necessary, however, to verbally express our love to our children?
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I believe the Scriptures answer that question adequately through the example of our Lord.
Jeremiah 31:3 The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.
Malachi 1:2 "I have loved you, saith the Lord."
John 15:9 "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you"
John 14:21 He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.
Who among us has gone through the dating process without wondering now and then whether the other person loved us?
It is true that we can recognize the signs of love through expressions of courtesy and concern and through cards and gifts. We need something more, however. God created us with a deep emotional need that is satisfied only when we hear the one we care for say "I love you."
Our children certainly need to hear those words. They may recognize our loving gestures and appreciate the things we provide while wondering at the same time whether they are really loved.
When we get out of bed in the morning, we may not really want to go to work. Most of us buckle up and go anyway because we must. I wonder whether our children might observe us and wonder sometimes, Do Dad and Mom provide for me and encourage me because they have to or because they love me?
To say to a son or a daughter, "I love you," is to declare that you cherish him or her. You are saying that your love transcends what the child says or does. Your focus is upon the person. Our children desperately need this kind of affirmation.
4. HE MUST LOVE THE BELIEVERS
As a leader & mentor.
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i) 1 TIM 4:12 “… set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love (Greek – AGAPE - Unconquerable benevolence’), in faith and in purity”.
Christian men must grow to the point where they are an example of love to the believers. We must become fathers and mentors in the faith.
ii) 1 Tim 3:2-3 Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.
A violent, quarrelsome man/leader/mentor will not be able to set an example in love because he will want his own way all the time; he will fight and quarrel for it and not love the believers.
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