What's Love Got To Do With It?

INTRO.- ILL.- A man called the police and reported that all of his wife’s credit cards had been stolen. Then he added, "But don’t look too hard for the thief. He’s charging less than my wife ever did."

ILL.- Someone said: The only reason a great many American families don’t own an elephant is that they have never been offered an elephant for a dollar down and easy weekly payments.

ILL.- A man was once boasting to an acquaintance, "We have a whole room full of furniture from France that goes back to Louis the 14th." "That’s nothing," replied the other. "We’ve got a whole house full of furniture from Sears that goes back to Harry on the first."

8Let no debt remain outstanding.

What does this mean? It means pay your debts. Pay your bills. Don’t try to get out of paying them. Does this mean that you can’t charge anything and pay it off? No, it doesn’t, but it does mean that whatever you charge, you should pay for it.

ILL.- TWO lawyers were in a bank, when armed robbers suddenly burst in. While several of the robbers took money from the tellers, others lined the customers, including the lawyers, up against a wall, and proceeded to take their wallets, watches, etc.

While this was going on, lawyer number one jammed something in lawyer number two’s hand. Without looking down, lawyer number two whispered, "What is this?" To which lawyer number one replied, "It’s that $250 I owe you."

That’s a dirty trick but it’s also a dirty trick to try and get out of indebtedness!

While none of us like having indebtedness and paying bills, it seems like they will always be with us to some extent. But here is the main thought of the text.

8Let no debt remain outstanding, EXCEPT the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.

The one debt that we will never fully pay back is the debt of love to all mankind. We will owe this debt until the day we die. And while we live, we must pay this debt as often as possible, as much as possible, and to all who come our way.

The title of this message is, "What’s Love got to do with it?" Where does this come from? It’s Tina Turner’s big single hit that came out in 1984 and we presume that she was talking about her relationship to her former husband, Ike Turner, who recently passed away from drug overdose. Perhaps that was how she truly felt about their relationship: WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT? Perhaps love had nothing to do with their relationship, but it should have a lot to do with it.

PROP.- Let’s think about this continuing debt of love that we must pay.

1- What’s love got to do with marriage?

2- What’s love got to do with raising kids?

3- What’s love got to do with life?

I. WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH MARRIAGE?

Eph. 5:25-26 "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word."

Eph. 5:28 "In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself."

ILL.- A couple had been debating the purchase of a new auto for weeks. He wanted a new truck. She wanted a fast little sports-like car so she could zip through traffic around town. He would probably have settled on any beat up old truck, but everything she seemed to like was way out of their price range.

"Look!" she said. "I want something that goes from 0 to 200 in 4 seconds or less. And my birthday is coming up. You could surprise me."

So, for her birthday, he bought her a brand new bathroom scale. Services will be at Downing Funeral Home on Monday the 12th. Due to the condition of the body, this will be a closed casket service.

What does love have to do with marriage? A whole lot. And especially, if you ask the wife!

ILL.- Newspaper columnist and minister George Crane tells of a wife who came into his office full of hatred toward her husband. "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 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 your’re getting a divorce. That will really hurt him."