Mission Sent
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Mission Sent
Love: The Ultimate Motivator
What drives you to do everything in your life? The answer might surprise you. It's not fear, obligation, or necessity—it's love. The real question isn't whether love motivates you, but what you truly love most.
This powerful exploration of motivation reveals how love is the driving force behind every action we take. Even negative behaviors stem from misplaced love. The addict breaking into homes? They love fulfilling their desire. The person who hates their job but shows up daily? They love having food on the table and lights on at home. Our hearts follow what we truly love.
Romans 13:8-10 illuminates this truth: loving others fulfills all of God's commandments. When we love our neighbors, we naturally avoid harming them. But our natural tendency leans toward self-love above all else. Every wrongdoing in our lives stems from selfishness—from the statement "I want." True love, however, asks "How can I serve you?" rather than "What can I get?"
The attributes of love in 1 Corinthians 13—patience, kindness, humility, selflessness—present a radical alternative to our self-focused culture. Imagine how your life would transform if you embodied these qualities. These don't come naturally, but flow from a heart transformed by relationship with Jesus.
The beautiful paradox of Christian living is that transformation doesn't come through sin management or rule-following. As we spend time with Jesus and fall more deeply in love with Him, our hearts naturally change. The Holy Spirit convicts us far more effectively than any human ever could, and growing love for Christ makes obedience not a burden but a joy.
Ready to experience transformation? Examine what you truly love most. What occupies your thoughts, time, and resources? The solution isn't trying harder but loving Jesus more deeply through time in His presence, His Word, and with His people. Want different in your life? Choose to do different in your life.
We're going to talk about our motivation in life, and I'm going to start with asking you this question what is it that causes you to do everything and I mean everything in your life Desire. I'm going to go a little deeper than that. Like, think about every single action you do. It is motivated by one word only. In fact, last week, we talked about how fear is a terrible motivator. This is actually a motivator that causes you to do anything.
Speaker 1:Ooh, close with lust, love. You do everything you do because you love to do it. Think about it like this right what causes an addict to break into houses? It's love. It's not addiction, it's love. It's love to fulfill that desire, and when I can't fill that desire, I will literally do anything in the world to cause me to be able to fill that desire. Think about it like this right 80% of Americans hate going to their job, right? So why do they go, then? Because they love their paycheck, they love to eat, they love to have lights on, they love to have electricity. Love is what motivates every single thing we do.
Speaker 1:And Paul is going to jump deep into that, and I want to start by challenging us to understand this that if you want different in your life. You have to choose to do different in your life. So I'm going to pray and then we're going to jump right into it. Father, I ask and I pray that as I go through this, that it be your words that people hear, that, even if it's my voice going into their ears, god, through your supernatural spirit, that, god, we are transformed by your words. Father, we pray this in Jesus' name, amen. All right, so we're going to start in verse 8. And it says this owe no one anything except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law For the commandments you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet and any other commandment are summed up in this word you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore, love is fulfilling the law, all right.
Speaker 1:So Romans 13, 8, if you've ever been through, like Dave Ramsey's financial piece, is one of the verses that they use a lot. Right, because it starts with this owe no one anything. And most of the time that verse is preached, it's preached in that context. Right, it talks about how debt is bad and how you shouldn't owe anyone any money. And although there is biblical wisdom to that, like if we followed along with Proverbs 22, 7, it says this that the rich rules over the poor and the borrower is slave to the lender. All right, so there is biblical wisdom in not getting ourselves really in debt, but that is not at all what Paul is talking about here.
Speaker 1:Remember, he's finishing up this section right, and in Romans 12, we saw this shift in his letter, where he sits here and he starts talking about okay, if you call yourself a Christian, if you sit here and go, hey, I follow Jesus, then this is how our lives should look, and there's a lot in there that is actually really challenging. If we were to sit here and hold a mirror up to our life, and that mirror being the word of God, think about this do not conform to the ways of this world. Well, how many of us, if we were to look through our lives, conform more to the world than we do? The word I mean honestly, not like today, because it's Sunday morning, we're all here and dressed and ready to go. What about this like feed your enemies. If your enemy is hungry, give them food. How many of us are like we're killing it on that.
Speaker 1:Most of us go out of our way to avoid our enemies, right? We block them, we don't accept the friend request. We do all of these things why? Because we're enemies with each other, right? Who wants to hang out with someone? Who is actually like full-on opposing them? And I'm not calling out anyone, but there may be someone in here that I go to the grocery store with quite often, and if we see someone on one aisle, we have been known to very covertly duck down another aisle, maybe get behind some clothes or something like that, until you can watch them walk away. And I know that's no one else in here, but we've done it. We've actually, like, gotten out of the car, saw someone walking into a store, got back in the car and left and went. You know what We'll go to the store later, left and went. You know what we'll go to the store later.
Speaker 1:See, the Bible calls us to do these hard things, right? What are we supposed to repay evil with Good? How many of us do that? How many of us like we? Someone talks about us. Someone talks behind our back. Someone got us in trouble talks about us. Someone talks behind our back. Someone got us in trouble someone, whatever you want to look at and we're like, oh, no, vengeance. I know the Bible says vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord, but no, I'm going to repay that vengeance because God ain't going to do it, as good as I can See. If we're honest, most of us fall into all these categories because the Bible calls us to do some really hard things.
Speaker 1:Sometimes, I know, for most of us in this room, you're like I got the I will not murder part down, right? Anybody. Hey, it's pastor, whatever, confidentiality, you guys can admit it. Now. If you need to get something off your chest, okay, so no one, cool. However, but if we were to follow what the Bible says, jesus says this that if you call your brother a fool, you have committed murder. Uh-oh, anybody in here ever called their brother a fool, and I'm sure you've used words that are a lot more harsh than fool, right? So, uh-oh, I don't even do well with that not murdering. What about this? That?
Speaker 1:Remember that cuss word we talked about last week submission. Any of us struggle with that. We struggle with being in submission to Jesus, wives. Do we struggle with being in submission to our husbands, husbands? Do you struggle with being in submission. Well, I guess the husbands, for the most part, decided to take off this week. So that's cool. Oh, it's all good, I'll put it up in the men's group, it's all good.
Speaker 1:But do you struggle to be in submission to Jesus, to love your wife as Christ loved the church and gave her life up for him? Kids do you struggle with being in submission to your parents? I'll even do you one better In a week from now. Are you going to struggle being in submission to your teachers? See, the Bible calls us to do these hard things, these things that, honestly, in the flesh, under our own strength, I'm going to go ahead and tell you right now are impossible to do. You know why? Because without Christ redeeming my heart, who is the most important person in this world, me, look out for numero uno. This is what you're taught from the time you're a child, right, in fact, on IEPs. A lot of times, this is one of the things that goes under independent functioning. Can you advocate for yourself? Can you sit here and go? Hey, I'm going to make sure that I'm taking care of.
Speaker 1:So then, what is it that causes us to see this shift in our behavior, to look and love and speak more like Jesus. Well, paul just said it it's love, because love is what motivates everything. The question isn't does love motivate? The question is what do you love? In fact, in our group chat, our men's group chat, this week, there was a person and I was going to give them credit, but they're not even here. So, guess what? They're not even going to get a name drop.
Speaker 1:Who went? What is it in your life that you love more than Jesus? You know what we call that in the church world? Good job, gabby, an idol. You know what we call that in the church world? Good job, gabby, an idol. An idol is anything that takes the place of Jesus, and it's easy for us to like. Read through the Old Testament and we see what Carved statues. Right, we see totem poles, we see asherah poles, we see all of these lowercase g gods, and all of us in this room are like we're sophisticated and we don't worship anything like that.
Speaker 1:What about your phone? You worship your phone. A fun game we like to play at our house is who can have a lower battery percentage than me? Because, I'll be honest, that's not one of my like Achilles heels Half the time I really don't even know where I put my phone at, because I hate my phone, I hate being tethered to something like that. My family doesn't share that same view with me, though. See, we worship all sorts of things.
Speaker 1:What about Netflix? And I know everyone in here is like I don't pray to Netflix, and that's good, but how many hours do you spend binging? I just found this new thing on Hulu. It's not Netflix, so I'm good right, but I just found this new show on Hulu called A Day in America, and it chronicalizes like these traumatic, like days that we have had, you know, like the Oklahoma City bombing and 9-11 and all of these things, and my mind is naturally bent towards those things anyway, because I love, you know, just researching how people could be so evil, and you know what? I have lost count sometimes of how long I've sat in my recliner and went. Uh-oh, how many episodes have I watched? It's never been that many.
Speaker 1:But see, we understand that what we're doing is loving. We're just loving the wrong thing, and it's easy for me to preach on this, because if you've been with us since, like before, we even planted when we were still over in Sanford love, being a verb is something I have preached on for years and years and years and years. See, love isn't a feeling, like when I look at my wife and I go I love you. It's not that I'm feeling something, because sometimes I don't look at her and feel those warm things, right, oh, I do feel something all of the time, but it isn't always like this warm gentle, like, oh, I just want to caress her and hold her, like sometimes it's like I want to lay hands on her and pray for her. So, all of you that thought I was going somewhere else, shame on you. That's your wickedness. But see, that's what we're talking about, right, because love isn't what I feel, it's what I do.
Speaker 1:So, at like 1030, 11 o'clock at night, when Debbie all of a sudden wakes up and forgets that she didn't check the doors and she goes oh, I got to get up and I got to go check the doors, knowing that she struggles with sleeping to begin with, I go no, no, no, you lay down, you go to sleep. I'll get up and I'll go check the doors To which I normally just call one of my children, and go hey, check the doors and make sure everything's locked, but I make sure she doesn't have to get up to do that. Years ago we switched that role of where I'm starting like I cook. She doesn't have to. Why? Because I love her and I love good food.
Speaker 1:Not that her cooking wasn't good, but she really gave up in the kitchen after a while, like when we first got married I forget who we were talking to the other day like she used to make these incredible like delicious dishes right Empanadas and garnachas and like all this wonderful Spanish food that, growing up as a white boy, I didn't get to eat a lot unless we went out to the one Mexican restaurant my parents ate at. And then all of a sudden I'm like Deb, I can bake chicken, like everybody knows how to do this, and she's like life just is too much for me right now and I'm overwhelmed and I was like cool, sit down. I got this because that's what love is. It's not that feeling I get.
Speaker 1:And if we could understand what love really is and how we are to love, understand it will change your house, it will change your community, it will literally change the world. All we have to do is understand what it is. I would argue that our biggest problem is that we don't fully understand what love is and that's why the world looks the way it does Think about it. Even the world tries to hijack this. Love is love. All we need is love. See people far from Christ. They understand how powerful love is. They understand that if we could just wrap our head around that, if we could just love, then all of the problems we face as a society, honestly we wouldn't. But our problem is is we don't know what love is.
Speaker 1:So let's see what Paul says in verse 9. He said for the commandments you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and any other commandment are summed up in this word you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Again last week we looked at fear and how fear is a terrible motivator because it only motivates you as long as you're afraid. Once you are no longer afraid, fear doesn't do anything to motivate you. Love, being the greatest motivator, continues to motivate you long after anything else will. That's why in first corin, corinthians 13, and we're going to get there in a second it says this so these three things remain faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. Paul is sitting here saying, like love is greater than faith, love is greater than hope. You know why? Because love is going to be the only thing we have on that side of glory. Because are you going to need to have faith in Jesus if you're standing face to face with Jesus? No. Are you going to need to have hope that you heard well done and good, faithful servant if you're standing right there with Jesus? No. But guess what you will still do? Love, see, love is that motivator.
Speaker 1:And I remember, as a new dad, when JT was first born and I was talking to my dad and we were just talking about like discipline and how discipline works, and we were talking about like, when a child is small, they need that fear. They need to know, when dad hits that dad voice, that whatever is happening at this point needs to stop. Why? Because when he's running out towards the road, I don't have time to go. Now, JT, let's think about this right, you're 40 pounds, the car is 4,000 pounds. The car is traveling at 30 miles an hour. You're running at a brisk 3 miles an hour. Now, let's think about the physics involved in this, jt, and what happens when that car hits your little body. I didn't have time for all of that. I just need them to stop running right now to have that fear. But my dad was explaining to me a lot like and listen, spare the rod, spoil the child.
Speaker 1:I am all for spanking children, but my dad also let me know that at some point that doesn't work anymore. Like, think about it. If you're in here and you know JT, do you really think if Debbie looked at him and went, I'm going to put you over my knee right now, there would be any fear in him whatsoever? In fact, we watch a lot of MMA in the house. Jt goes and trains and does j, does jujitsu and does all of these things. I've literally seen him go mommy, hit me as hard as you can and then laugh when it gets done, to which I go. Jt, can daddy jump in on this action too And's like no, no, no, no, let's not go that far. But like yesterday, I'm like trying to cook. Right, I'm out at the grill. We got these fat porterhouses on sale at Publix, so I think the sale's still going on if you're in the mood for steak. I am literally looking down at the grill, not paying attention to anything else going on around me, because, oh my gosh, look at these steaks. They delicious.
Speaker 1:When all of a sudden someone comes up behind me and tries to like, put me in a rear naked choke. We are next to a 500 degree grill in an empty pool that if one of us falls in, something's breaking. And I went dude, what is wrong with you? Oh, daddy, you couldn't get out of it, you had to. And I was like man, look, here's the deal. I'm going to break your finger. You do that to me again. Okay, like I'm done with this game.
Speaker 1:But see for him, spanking isn't the case. He's bigger. It doesn't have the same effect that it once did. And my dad was telling me this because my dad knew that one day it wasn't going to be the same thing. He knew one day I was going to be not bigger than him, because I never actually got bigger than my dad. But you know what caught up to my dad that I didn't have to worry with at the time Age, like when you're starting to move a little slower and then your 18 year old is like winning state championships in weightlifting.
Speaker 1:All of a sudden we're not on the same equal yoke, and so, like when I was 18 and he looked me right in my face and he started yelling. You know what I did? Yes, sir, absolutely sir. I Absolutely sir. I'm sorry, sir, even though in a fight I could have taken him, but you know what kept me from that? I loved him. That's my dad. I couldn't even think to raise a hand to him. It wasn't even like a thought running through my mind, because the more I knew my dad, the more I loved my dad. And if you were a child in here, you know what was crazy. The more I loved my dad, the easier it became to listen to him. Because the more I saw that my dad loved me and the more that I saw that, the more I went.
Speaker 1:You know what? He's telling me this stuff for my best interest. He's telling me this stuff because he really does want my life to be better. He's not telling me this stuff just because he simply wants to be mean. He's not telling me this stuff simply because, you know he wants to flex his power and authority over me. He's sitting here, going. I want the best for you and some of you.
Speaker 1:You may not have had a dad like that and I get that and that sucks for you, but it's the same thing your heavenly father does in the Bible. We look at these lists of things and we go, oh, the Bible is sitting here saying I can't do any of the fun stuff I want to do. I can't do any of the fun stuff I want to do, like, I want to be able to live whatever lifestyle I have and have no consequence whatsoever for it. And do you understand how unloving that is For your heavenly father to look at you and go, hey, you know what? These things that are going to cause you pain, these things that are going to hurt you, these things that are going to cause you pain, these things that are going to hurt you, these things that are going to cause your life to explode? Go ahead and do them.
Speaker 1:Let's just look at adultery, for instance. I'm pretty sure we haven't sat down and had a formal conversation about it yet, but I'm pretty sure Debbie would not be okay if I was like, hey, babe, I want another girlfriend, so one. It's going to explode my marriage, right? What's that mean for my kids? And I know some of us in here are like, oh yeah, you know, I was in that situation two Christmases. Really, you really think that's what they want. So it's not only going to affect my life, it's going to affect my kids' life.
Speaker 1:And then let's talk about, you know, other things that come along with that kind of lifestyle. Right, there are gifts that you can get that keep giving. Right, it ain't just what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, kind of thing. So, by God going, hey, don't commit adultery. Do you see what he's saving me from? Like you know, I've met so many guys that just go on and on and on about their alimony check that they have to write and I go. You know what could have kept you from having to write that check? Don't come to me and complain about child support. You want to know why? Because if you would have just been the father and the husband you were supposed to be, all of your paycheck is child support. And now you're ooh almost and complaining. You guys can fill in the other word.
Speaker 1:Not that I struggle with things in my own heart because you got to pay x amount a month per month, whatever. Make it make sense in your own head. See, we don't have all of these things and commandments to keep us from the fun things. Our heavenly father goes hey, I love you enough that I'm going to keep you from the things that are going to cause harm to you. And, just like with my own dad, the more I love Jesus, the easier it is for me to follow what he tells me. See, the more I love Christ, the more I look to Christ, the more my eyes are on Christ, the more I can look at all this stuff and go. You know what? It really isn't that big of a deal, because here's the deal.
Speaker 1:I've had people talk about me. I've had people lie and say stuff I did and I didn't do, and all of those craziness. Just like everyone in here, you know what. I've never had people do Murder me, so I've never had to sit there and go Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. Jesus knows what that's like though. Jesus knows what it's like to sit there all night and be starved and beat to death and whipped and literally have his skin like ripped from his flesh, and he knows what it's like to sit there and have nails driven into his hands. And yet what were his words? Hey, I can't wait to see you on the other side, because I'm going to have a field day when I get to judge you. No, his words were Father, forgive them. His words were like I'm going to take this because I love them enough that I want them to have the opportunity to live as I've designed this thing to go, because I know when my spirit falls upon them and their hearts are transformed and they become a new person from the inside out, they're going to finally be able to enjoy this thing called life.
Speaker 1:It's another thing. Jt is about to hit 18 in a couple of months, so we have a lot of talk about him telling me how he's a grown man now. And, yes, most of those talks don't bode well for him, right, because I'm like cool, then I can hit you with every single bill that I pay for you right now. But one of the things we were talking about and you know we're having a heavy conversation about here's what adult male men life looks like. And he looks at me and he goes dad, daddy. That doesn't sound like any fun whatsoever. I don't even want to live that and I get it right because responsibility sucks Like. Adulting is a terrible thing and I hate it. Like I am really trying to get my family on board with. Let's just sell everything we own, buy some land and just never come back into society. I've got, like one of them convinced, and it ain't my children. But, that being said, I had to stop in the conversation. I had to go, jt.
Speaker 1:But here's what I want you to understand, man. There's a lot of joy to life, a whole lot. There's a lot of joy in marriage. Debbie and myself we laugh a lot, usually at Debbie, but we're both laughing so it doesn't matter, right? There's a lot of joy when you have children. There's just like joy that they just bring to you, just in being them.
Speaker 1:There's joy in friends. There's joy in, let's be honest, there's joy in friends. There's joy in, let's be honest, fishing. And if you didn't like, everybody was nodding their head right till I got to that point. Obviously you have not fished, because I'm telling you, you pull a 40 inch snook out of the water. There's joy in that. It just does something on the inside To know that you can feed your family with nothing but a lure. But see, the more I love Jesus, the more this life becomes joy-filled.
Speaker 1:Think about this At Christmas, which is in 17 Fridays. Here's what I want you to understand. We sing this song. It's called Joy to the World. Why? Because the King has come, because Jesus has took our place and went. Hey, I can give you a new life. And the more I love Jesus, the less I look to my own will and desire and the more I go I want to follow where Jesus is going.
Speaker 1:You've heard me say this a lot. I'm going to say it again. Too many times, all we do is preach sin management. Too many times, all you hear is stop doing this, stop doing this, stop doing this, stop doing this. You know what the only message of the gospel is Don't worry about what you're doing. Jesus already did it. What you're doing, jesus already did it. The more you fall in love with Jesus, the less I have to sit here and correct in your life because guess who? It can correct way better than I ever will be able to the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1:You go back and you read John 16. The first thing, the first rule of the spirit, is that he will convict the world of sin. In other words, I don't have to do that. Chances are. You know the stuff that goes on in your own life a lot better than you'll ever tell me, and you know it's wrong, so you don't need me to stand up here and go hey, tighten it up. So you don't need me to stand up here and go, hey, tighten it up. And I tried to point in between so that way everyone could think, like, was he pointing at me? This side, you're too far spread out, so I can't like, do that, just start over here and I'll do like this, come back to me, right, but I don't need to do that. All I need to do is I need to preach Christ to you so that you fall deeper in love with Jesus and your heart changes all by itself.
Speaker 1:And you know, the beautiful thing about that is, regardless of what you hear on social media, your heart is the worst thing in the world for you to follow, because it is wicked and deceitful above all things. But when Christ grabs a hold of it and, as Ezekiel 36 says, takes that heart of stone and replaces it with a heart of flesh, all of a sudden my desires change. My desire is less about me and my desire becomes more about you. See, the heart is where all of this stuff kicks off. Jesus shows us this in Matthew 15, 19, when he says for out of the heart comes evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness and slander. Where does that all come from? The heart. Because an unregenerate heart is bent towards what? Self? Why do we steal? Because you have something I want. That's why we steal, right. Why do we commit adultery? Because you have something I want. Why do we murder? Well, james would tell us, you do not have and you covet, so you murder. Why do we do all of this stuff? Because my heart's bent towards me At that point.
Speaker 1:What do I love most in this world? Self. Selfishness is terrible and is the root of everything you do wrong in life. Every single time you have gotten in trouble in your life. If you stop, take a minute today and just like, go back and think about all the times you've been in trouble. Some of us that list is a lot longer, right. Some of you, I get it you only got like two or three things. But think about every time you've gotten in trouble At the bottom of it. Why did you do whatever you did? Selfishness, think about it.
Speaker 1:We go all the way back to the garden in Genesis 3. Why did they eat of the fruit? Because they wanted to be like God. Selfishness. I want that.
Speaker 1:Everything in your life that went wrong started with the statement I want, and what we have to understand is love is the opposite of that. Love isn't sitting here going. I want. Love is sitting here going. How can I serve you? Because that's what love is Love is sitting here going. It doesn't matter what I want. The only thing that matters is how can I serve? How do we know that? What's our greatest picture of love?
Speaker 1:The cross. Why did Jesus do that? Why would Jesus choose to leave glory, take on the form of a man? Because he loved you. Right, to quote Matt Chandler because he loved you. That's why. So we have this weird compartmentalized thing. We don't think that Christ sees all that we are, or if he could have somehow seen who we would be, that he wouldn't have gone to the cross. That's the whole point of the cross because God knew exactly who we were, because God knew exactly what our lives would look like, because God knew that we would never choose willingly to have that kind of life, choose willingly to have that kind of life. He knew our heart had to be remade, our heart had to be new, and so, therefore, we get the cross, and the more I keep my mind on that, the more I can fall in love with Jesus over and over and over again.
Speaker 1:And here's the thing, because I think we kind of got it messed up here in America, especially Because most of us, like we oh, you know, I met Jesus, I've been saved, I go to church, all of these things, right, I got baptized, all of these things and those things are good. Please don't misunderstand what I'm saying when I say this. But what if? Okay, and I joke with Debbie all the time. Right, because when Debbie met me you may not tell it by looking at me now, but like I was like state weightlifting champion and like all of the things like Debbie could literally wash shirts on my abs instead of like the barrel that she has now. And and one of the jokes we make all the time was well, we got married.
Speaker 1:What did I need to keep working out for? I got you now like man by the time JT came along. You're really trapped now, sweetheart, like I'm gonna work out less now. In fact, I have days where my steps may not even get to triple digits. Y'all can laugh, thinking that's a joke. I really mean that. It's usually when it's cold outside, because it feels really nice to sit in my recliner with the windows open and the wind just kind of blowing in as I'm watching.
Speaker 1:One Day in America Think about it, guys the Pharisees did it too. More than 21 steps on the Sabbath is considered a sin. That is not keeping the Sabbath holy, so I'm just following. You know, pharisaical law Doesn't matter what day it is Sabbath could be any day but think about it, that's not what happened. That is a joke I make Because here's the deal Gravity wins in the end. I don't care how many hours.
Speaker 1:Hulk Hogan just died a little bit ago, right, 71 years old Now. If you were like me and you grew up on WWF, not WWE, you remember Hulk Hogan and them 24-inch pythons brother. When he died, he didn't have 24-inch pythons, though it didn't matter how many steroids he could have pumped at that point, they weren't going to be 24 inches. Why? Because gravity wins in the end. However, how can I sit here and honestly go? You know what? I love Debbie more now than I did 21 years ago, and I mean it with everything in my being. Why? Because you know some of this crap me and Debbie have gone through over those 21 years and you know what that spurs up in me Affection. I can look at her and go I got a ride or die chick, like it doesn't matter how bad it gets, I know she's going to be here.
Speaker 1:Is the same true for your relationship with Jesus, though? Think about it. Why is Jesus the bridegroom of the church? Why do they use marriage over and over and over as a symbol of our union with Christ? Because it should look exactly the same. You should be able to look through it and go. You know what Jesus has been with me from day one, even before I came to know him. Hindsight's always 20-20, right. Look through your life and at all of those low points, how did you get through it? Because Christ was walking with you, regardless of whether you knew him or not. And so what happens in a relationship is, the more you get to know that person, the deeper that relationship goes.
Speaker 1:The problem is is we have a lot of nominal Christians who do what I was just talking about doing, right, like hey, I got saved. Now I'm just going to kind of coast this one out until Jesus either comes and takes me home or I go meet him. How many of us like we're sitting here and you know what we're just digging into scripture. How many of us are reading books outside of the Bible that are going to cause my affection for Jesus to well? What kind of podcast are we listening to? Because, I hate to tell you, religion and spirituality doesn't even make the top like three categories of podcasts. So, that's great, you can tell me about every serial killer that's ever happened you know, through the true crime podcast that you listen to, or what the latest like fad and superfood we should eat through the latest like health podcast you listen to. But how many of us are like, hey, man, I just want to forward you this sermon, I just heard it today, and this one, like this one, hit deep.
Speaker 1:We have a men's chat group. I can tell you right now that's only happened like three times where it was like, hey, you guys got into this. Why? Because we got saved, we're good. It would be like if I went, hey, I got married and then I just never spent time around Debbie anymore. We got saved, we're good. It would be like if I went, hey, I got married and then I just never spent time around Debbie anymore and I just kind of continued to live my own life over here.
Speaker 1:How well would my marriage go? How long is my wife going to stay if I never am like hey, you know what? I want to sit down and talk to you. Hey, let's go out on a date. Hey, let's go have dinner. You know what will happen eventually Someone else will come by and go hey, I'll take you out, because if I don't nurture it, what's going to happen to it? It's going to die. Why then do we treat our relationship with Jesus any different than that? Why then are we sitting here and going hey, it's cool, I went to service on sunday, cool. But if I only spent an hour with debbie a week, my marriage is not going to be very strong. And again, what keeps us from this because we always do the things we love. Here's what I'm trying to say is, I think most of us have a lot of things in our life we love more than we love Jesus, and we can sit here and we can make excuses and justify and all of those kind of things, but at the end of the day, I think we got some stuff in the way of Jesus. I think we got some idols going on.
Speaker 1:Now Paul ended this with saying that love is fulfilling the law. Let me answer this one real quick, just because I'm gonna run out of time. In Matthew 22, jesus echo or Paul is just echoing what Jesus says In Matthew 22,. There's a lawyer and he's trying to trick Jesus and he's like hey, if you're so smart, what's the greatest commandment? And Jesus goes you are to love your God with all your heart, mind, body and soul. And the second is like this you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophet. So love is what I can do to keep every single commandment. If I love rightly now, what is loving rightly? Well, paul also answers that in 1 Corinthians 13.
Speaker 1:Now, real quick, if you were unmarried in here and you eventually want to get married and you're like, oh, we're going to have a scripture reading at our wedding, first Corinthians 13, although we know it as the love chapter is not what you want to read at your wedding, because Paul is writing this, because he needs to correct what's happening in the church, because the church is having like these drunken, like orgy parties at church and Paul and they're doing it under the guise of, well, we love each other. And Paul's like, nope, not what love is, and that's where this comes from. He's explaining here is what love is, and he says this love is patient and kind.
Speaker 1:Love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way, it is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Speaker 1:Think about how your life would look if you weren't rude and I know you're sitting in here going. I'm not rude, yes, you are, and you've had people in your life call you rude. Think about how your life would look if you were patient. And if you're sitting in here going, I'm not patient or I'm not impatient, yes, you are. My kids know we get done eating. Like daddy's food's gone, dinner's over, it's like, all right, clean up the table and they're like we're still. We have like food on our plates and I'm like I'm done eating. I don't want to just sit here.
Speaker 1:On to the next mission, let's go. What would your life look like if you weren't irritable? Because some of us, we hide behind that, right. Oh, I just struggle with anger. Okay, so I'm the only one. Okay, cool, but again. What if I didn't? What if I had a longer fuse? What if I could handle more before I had an explosion Like what would our life look like if we did these things? Because that's what love is.
Speaker 1:Think about your relationship with your kid. I get it. Having a conversation with a child is sometimes very frustrating because they don't think the way an adult thinks. Kayla will argue everything, even if she agrees with you. You know how frustrating that can be. It's like baby, we're on the same page and she's just like, but. You said and it's like baby, we're on the same page and she's just like, but. You said and it's like, but what if I was patient with her? What if, like, my goal was to sit here and go? Baby, I'm worried about your heart At the end. What if my life didn't revolve around me? What if I went? My life is given to me for everyone else. See, all of a sudden, my priorities shift. At that point right. All of a sudden, I can start seeing people different. At that point, all of a sudden, I realized that this world wasn't given so that I could have more. It was given so I could give more.
Speaker 1:Last week I said this a definition of a man is this right? A man pours out for those around him, a boy goes. I want and the reason I was talking about that had to do with more with, like, how we look at our young men, men coming up, because 18 doesn't make you a man. The only thing that does is mean now you can go to big boy jail. You can't even buy cigarettes anymore at 18 remember, that was the big thing when we were growing up right, finally legally buy tobacco. Now you gotta be 21 and, let's be honest, by the time some of y'all are 21, they ain't even going to have tobacco anymore. It's going to be just like chemicals mixed with other chemicals that aerate in whatever it is that they do, just like we're not going to have gasoline cars anymore. That's a different sermon. But what I want you to understand is, if you're a woman in here, the same is true for you. We do that because that's what Jesus did. So as we look through our life, we can start looking at all of this and we can go.
Speaker 1:Okay, what's my problem here? How do I correct this? And it's super simple. This isn't sin management. This isn't white knuckle and do better, because at the end of the day, you're not strong enough for that. I'm not strong enough for that. Here's what I need to do, though. I need to make more time for Jesus, whether that's gathering with his people, whether that's sending a text and going hey, I was reading this and it just you, and there were some things in it I thought were confusing.
Speaker 1:We've had Wednesday nights like systematic theology classes that I had a whole presentation like, hey, here we're going to learn about this huge doctrine, and then someone asked a question and next thing, I know it's been like hours and we haven't even started learning about what we were talking about, and they're like oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, and I'm like no, no, no, I would rather that. I would rather you come in on a Wednesday and be like hey, look, I was reading and I don't understand any of this. Can we go over this? Because you know what that's going to do. Drive you deeper into relationship with Christ. Drive you deeper into relationship with Christ. I can care less if we can pass Bible tests, because here's the deal All of these young people right here can pass a Bible test. I know because I've given them Bible tests and they passed.
Speaker 1:But just because you have all of the information in the world does not mean that you have any kind of relationship with Christ. James is very clear about that. Even the demons believe in shut up. So what separates us? Relationship? What is relationship built on Love? And if I want to love Jesus more, what does that mean? I need to spend more time with Jesus.
Speaker 1:As I say that, I'm like crap, I'm running out of time. You know this is only an American problem, right? Like when you go to other countries, like they have church all day, so just put that in the back of mind. I've got some changes coming for the fall, right? No, I'm just playing so as we close this morning, are you loving, like if people were to look at your life, are they sitting here going? You know what so-and-so is a really loving person? If not, why not? What is it that is hung up in your life that you are so focused on the inward and so very little focus on the outward? Are you sitting here today going? You know what? I need to spend more time with Jesus. Or are you sitting here today going? No, I got it. I'm good. If that's you, how is it working out for you? I'm going to go out on a limb and say probably not as good as it could be.
Speaker 1:So if you're sitting here and you're like, you know what I need to submit to this. I need to fall in love with Jesus all over again. Come talk to me before you leave, come to ha'adimim before you leave. We can pray, I can give you practical things to do, but at the end of the day, if you want different, you have to choose to do different.
Speaker 1:So, father, I ask, I pray, that God you be with each and every one of us. God you, just today, woo us and go. You know what? I want you to fall in love with me all over again. I want to be the center of your life. I want to seek first the kingdom of God and let everything else in my life be added to it. Father, I ask and I pray that, as we just close today, that Father, if there's anyone in here that you're sitting here and going hey, you know what he was talking to you today that Father, you just break their heart. That Father, they can just dive deeper into who you are. And, father, fall in love with you all over again. Father, we pray this in Jesus' name, amen.