Where The Rubber Meets The Road - Love

WHERE THE RUBBER MEETS THE ROAD: LOVE

TEXT: Luke 10:25-37; I Cor. 13

INTRODUCTION:

1. Read Poem, "Just Next To Me."

Just Next To Me

Our preacher sure did pour it on,

But he just let me be.

He took the starch all out of them

That sat just next to me.

You should have heard the things he said;

It was true as it could be;

He burned the seat from under them

That sat just next to me.

He hit the nail square on the head;

With him, I did agree.

He trimmed the dead limb off them

That sat just next to me.

And when I got to thinking

I felt sneaking as could be;

And when I turned to look at him

His guns were turned on me.

2. One of the significant weaknesses of much of our preaching is that much of it lacks application. No, I’m not saying preachers are failing to point out the application of the lesson. I’m not even suggesting that people are failing to apply the sermons to others. I mean that we often fail to make practicle application of what we have learned to our own lives.

3. We have no problem applying it to others. It self-application that becomes problematic.

4. Mark Twain once comented that it wasn’t the parts of the Bible that he didn’t understand that caused him trouble. It was the parts that he understood.

a. This problem with self-application shouldn’t surprise us because Jesus dealt with the same problem in the conclusion of the sermon on the mount.

Matthew 7:26-27 "Now everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall."

4. Occasionally, we preachers have created the problem by a tendency to dwell in the ether. We are going to do our best to stay out of the ether and get down to where the rubber meets the road.

5. THE MOST IMPORTANT SUBJECT EVER PREACHED was the Cross of Christ, But Today, we are going to discuss THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION EVER ASKED, under the title "Where the Rubber Meets The Road."

DISCUSSION:

I. An exposition of the text. Luke 10:25-37

A. Luke 10:25 answers the greatest question ever asked.

Luke 10:25 And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"

1. Matthew 16:26 ""For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?"

B. Since the man’s question was insincere, Jesus turned the question on him.

Luke 10:26 He said to him, "What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?"

1. He was a lawyer who should have known the answer without asking.

C. The answer to the most important question ever asked.

Luke 10:27 So he answered and said, "’You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ’your neighbor as yourself.’"

1. Heart =

1b) denotes the center of all physical and spiritual life

2a) the vigour and sense of physical life

2b) the center and seat of spiritual life

2b1) the soul or mind, as it is the fountain and seat of the thoughts, passions, desires, appetites, affections, purposes, endeavors

2b2) of the understanding, the faculty and seat of the intelligence

2b3) of the will and character

2b4) of the soul so far as it is affected and stirred in a bad way or good, or of the soul as the seat of the sensibilities, affections, emotions, desires, appetites, passions

D. Jesus’ answer to this question must appear odd to modern man - DO THIS not FEEL THIS.

E. Discuss the words translated love.

1. EROS

2. STORGE

3. PHILEO

4. AGAPE = ’s Preference for or supreme concern for the welfare of another.

F. The Bible never commands PHILEO but it does command AGAPE.

G. AGAPE is something you will to do, while all other forms of love are reciprocal emotions.

H. When the lawyer tries to avoid the application, Jesus tells him, "where the rubber meets the road" with the parable of the GOOD SAMARITAN

I. Expose the text and note we are never told what the Samaritan felt, just what he did.

J. EXTREMES

1. Doctrine only or love Only (devined as a warm feeling about Jesus).

1 John 5:2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments.