Open your Bibles to 1-Cor. 13 as we talk today about Love Is Something That You Do. The word love is one is probably the most used and most abused word in the English language. The word love slips glibly out of our mouths, but what does it mean. Our lives are shaped by those who love us and by those who refuse to love us. But what is love? Every marriage is an effort to find love.
A man said to his friend, "do you know what it means to go home and find warmth and love?" And his said, "No, what does it mean?" He said, "It generally means you are in the wrong house."
Love is a mystery that you'll never understand until you examine the love of God. The Bible says, "God is love and they that have not love have not God." Love is not an emotion. Love is an act of the will, it is a principle. Love is not measured by what you say. It is not measured by what you feel. Love in the Bible is measured by what you do.
You are not saved by doing, but if you love, love will drive you to action. Jesus didn't say, "I was hungry and you felt sorry for me." He didn't say, "I was naked and you felt shame for me." Or, "I was in prison and you felt embarrassed for me." Or, "I was sick and you felt sympathetic for me." That's not what He said. He said, "I was hungry and you fed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was in prison and you visited me. I was sick and you visited me." These are things that make a difference. Love is what you do.
The message of Christ is "love is measured by action." Jesus said, "You are My disciples if you DO what so ever I ask you." Read with me please I-Cor. 13 as we talk today about "Love is something you do." (vs. 1-7, 13)
Father, let this congregation today feel the love of God, that our lives may be changed forever, in Jesus name we pray and ask it and all of God's children said, praise the Lord.
Begin with this thought, LOVE DEMANDS ACTION. Jesus said, "You are My disciples if you do whatsoever I command you." A mother who loves her baby, seeing the baby run into the street after the ball, in front of a speeding car. She doesn't piously walk out the front door and say to her son, "Billy, would you place consider not playing in the street." No she doesn't. She screams to the top of her lungs, "STOP!!" She gets his attention and gets him out of the street.
Anger is often loves clearest voice. A father who sees his son in the garage playing with matches, near a container of gasoline, does not say, "Ah, there he is, my little domestic tyrant, who is playing with gasoline and matches" No, he doesn't say that. He says, "STOP PLAYING WITH THOSE MATCHES!!" He gets his attention immediately.
The point is, there comes a time when love demands action. People say, "I love America." Do you? Do you love America enough to take action, to be involved. Do you love America enough to vote against a politician who endorses what God condemns. Do you love America enough to endure ridicule that we are now finding in the media for YOUR faith in the Word of God.
Please hear this, Christian bashing is now an art form in Hollywood and in the media and locally, if you pay attention. And many Christians in this dimension of persecution are piously running for cover. Saying, "Christians shouldn't get involved in the public arena." They are saying that we should turn our children, our families and our nation into the hands of God hating secular humanist because they know better. I DON'T BELIEVE THAT. I think that you, you, you, you and you and all the rest of you, who believe that Jesus is Lord and believe in the Word of God, have a voice in this nation and that voice needs to be heard and to be heard NOW, for the benefit of this nation.
But I ask those of you who are running for cover, at what point in time will you stand up and be counted. At what point in time will your love drive you to take action for your faith, for your family and for our nation. Will you take action when your family, your children are forced to sit in a sex education class and hear homosexuality presented as a normal life style by a homosexual teacher. WILL THAT DRIVE YOU TO ACTION?
Or will you object, when the state tells you how to raise your children and if you do not raise them that way, you will lose custody of them. Do you know that's being talked about? Will you object when your children are given a children's bill of rights which totally destroys your authority as a parent and over rides your every wish? Will you get involved then?
Will you speak out when the government says the church is no longer tax exempt and that you tithes and offering can no longer be written off. Will you say, "Well, I knew it was a bad idea all the time." At what point will you respond? At what point will love force you to take action, for God, your home and your country?
Hear me, those of you who say we should remain neutral and just kind of blend in with the woodwork and everything will go away. THERE IS NO COMPROMISE WITH EVIL. Evil is a cancer. And you either get the cancer or the cancer gets you. What would you say, if you were a Christian in 1860, just before the civil war broke out and the controversial issue was slavery and you knew that black people were being sold like cattle. And that they were being abused and the women were being raped and families were being separated but it was the basis of the agrarian economy. Would you remain silent or would you speak up?
What would you do if you were a Christian in 1933, in Europe, it Hitler's nazi Germany, when he came to power and started systematically executing the Jewish people. Would you say, "Well, I just can't get involved. I think I should remain neutral. I really can't do anything." And in principle, that's what Christian did in Europe while 6 million died.
Love is not what you say. Love is not what you feel. LOVE IS WHAT YOU DO. And it is time for the Church of Jesus Christ in America to accept the fact, that we MUST STAND UP AND SPEAK UP AND ACT UP, for God, for this nation and for the future of our children. It is time to take this nation back, back to the Bible, back to basics and back to the God of our fathers. THIS WORKS (Bible) AND NOTHING ELSE DOES!
Listen to this. We must do what we are. What we do must flow from what we are. You cannot give away what you do not have. The Bible says, "God is love" and if you don't have God's love, you can't give it away. I-John 3:14 says, "We know that we have passed from death into life because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death." Simply stated, "Without love you are dead." If love is lacking, we remain in death.
The Bible gives 3 evidences of salvation. One, if we confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus. That can be imitated. Second is water baptism. That can be imitated. But the acid test is this, LOVE FOR THE BRETHREN. The Bible says, "By this sign shall all men know that you are my disciples, that you love one another as I have loved you." You can fake your confession in Christ. And you can fake water baptism. But you cannot fake love.
And let me tell you something, Christianity without love is just another cult. Christianity without the love of Jesus Christ is an empty, meaningless facade. The church and the world does not care what we know until they know that we care. Paul said, "Without love you are nothing." Literally, of no account, of no value. Junk, beyond junk.
Paul says, "Though I speak with the tongues of men" What does that mean? It means this. I have studied, German, Greek, Hebrew, Spanish and English and have mastered none of them. A wife said to her husband, "You don't speak very well." He said, "I speak as well as you do. Weller in fact."
A cat chased a mouse thru the house and the mouse ran into a cavity in the wall and sat there and said, "I wonder if that cat is gone?" A few minutes passed and he heard bow-wow. He said, "Hey, if there is a dog out there, there is no cat." And so feeling safe, he leaped out of the wall and as soon as he did the cat picked him up and look him right in the eye and said, "you have got to be bi-lingual."
So what Paul is saying here is, that if I am eloquent in every language here on earth, I would have the tendency to say, "I am something". Paul says, WITHOUT THE LOVE OF GOD, YOU ARE NOTHING. "And though I speak with prophecy", I had the ability to tell the future. I would have the ability to say, "I am something", Paul says, "Without God's love, you are nothing." And if I understand all mysteries. A mystery is something that has not been revealed to this point in time. I would have the ability to say, "I am something" But Paul says, "Without the love of God (say it with me) YOU ARE NOTHING."
Do you want to do something great for God? Then be kind to His children. Because God loves all of His children. Even those who disagree with you. Even those who go to a different church than you. Even those who have a different theology than you. Even those whose prophecy chart does not agree with yours. He loves those too. Kindness is the language the deaf can hear and the blind can see. It is too bad that those folks who pass out the milk of kindness always try to skin it first.
Listen to this. There are some of you here, who have gone thru a bad marriage, or you have been thru a domestic scrabble, or you have been a hateful business experience and your life and your heart and your mind is filled with a bitterness that nothing can take out. I want you to know that when you come to know Jesus and His love invades your heart, soul, mind and body, He can take the rejection and the bitterness from you and He can give you joy that is unspeakable and a peace that surpasses knowledge and he can give you a new song and He'll give you the ability to laugh again. I'm saying to you, TRY JESUS CHRIST -- HE IS THE ANSWER FOR YOUR LIFE.
Learn to speak kind words. Nobody resents them.
A wife said to her husband, "Do I look 45." And he said, "No, but you use to." Love does not put itself on display. Love has no pride. Love is needed most by those who deserve it least. To love the world is easy. To love the jerk next door, that's a problem. He's real close. He's identifiable, but the world is a long way off. Love is never rude.
Love has discipline. Anyone who teaches love without discipline is presenting you with the doctrine of the occult. Love is unselfish. Love seeketh not its own. Does not exist on its own way. It does not pursue a selfish advantage. Love does not seek its own. Love looks for a new way to give. And lastly, love has self control. Say that with me, love has self control. Love is not living life with a chip on your shoulder looking for you can offend you. And if you're living life with a chip on your shoulder, you are going to live one miserable life.
Love is not quick to take an offense. One mother said to her son, "Son, it time for you to get up, get dressed and go to church with me." The son said, "I don't want to go to church, I don't like the people at that church and those people don't like me." The mother said, "I want you to go." And he said, "Give me 3 good reasons why I should go to that church." She said, "Alright. First, I am your mother and I want you to go. Secondly, you're 45 years of age and you need to go. Thirdly, you're the pastor."
A bell is not a bell until you ring it. A song is not a song until you sing it. Love in your heart is not put there to stay. Love is not love until you give it away.
Some of you here today are going thru life with the bitter memory of a marriage that went bad, of a relationship that broke your heart and you have abandoned the love of God.
And I challenge you today in Jesus name, forget those things which are behind, and plunge into the depths of the love of God and sing a new song and know the joy and the peace that the world can't describe as you discover the love of God. Can we stand to our feet and bow our heads.
Holy Spirit of God, feel this room and let us grasp the depth and the breathe of the love of God. For as the ocean that has no shore line, it has depths that are unsearchable and unknowable. And broke hearts and broken lives are searching for an answer today, in Jesus name.
While the organist is playing, how many of you in this room can say pastor, I confess to you that in my past there has been a bitter marriage, a bitter relationship in my family a bitter business transaction and I am a person who has bitterness and resentment living within me, that's from the past and today I want it to be replaced by the love of God. Can I see your hand, right where you are. Raise it please. God bless you. God bless you.
How many of you are in this room and you can say, pastor, I am not happy with the quality of love that's in my marriage and I am asking God today to make the quiet war zone of my home to become the living citadel of the love of God. Can I see your hands, right where you are. God bless you. God bless you. You're not happy. You are not satisfied with the quality of the love that's in your marriage. The Lord bless those raising your hands.
How many of you are in this room. You can say, pastor, I am not kind, I am not patient, I am selfish, I am domineering, I live with a chip on my shoulder. I am self-centered. And I am asking God today to take this carnal nature of mine, let it be crucified and let me experience the love of God, such as Jesus demonstrated at Calvary. Can I see you hand right where you are. God bless you.
As we sing, "There's room at the cross for you", (#645, Chorus only) I want those of you who raised your hands, I want you to come and stand right here. And I want to have a prayer with you and I'm going to believe today that God will do something supernatural for you that will change your life forever. On the first word I want you to come. Ready, "There's room at the cross for you, there's room at the cross for you, though millions have come, there's still room for one-Yes, there's room at the cross for you." (repeat) A number of you have come here today, desperately seeking for an answer in Jesus, and with all confidence, you are going to find it - I want you to pray this prayer in faith believing - the love of God can heal your broken heart today, today and forever.
Join us in this prayer if you will please. Lord Jesus Christ, -- I ask you to heal -- and to restore -- everything that's within me -- that is painful -- heal every memory -- every broken relationship -- every form of bitterness -- Let it leave me -- as I receive the love of God -- Lord Jesus Christ -- let every form of the love of God -- that Paul wrote in I-Cor. 13 -- invade my heart, soul, mind and body -- In the name of Jesus -- I know I am loved -- therefore I can love others -- and let the love of Jesus -- rule my heart, soul, mind and body -- that I may be healed -- in Jesus name, amen. Give the Lord a praise.
