What would you do for love?
Matthew 22:35-38 Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, 36 "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" 37 Jesus said to him, "’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’38 This is the first and great commandment.
Intro: It’s Valentines Day this week and love is in the air. You know I was thinking about some of the crazy things we do for love. Perhaps you have seen the Dr Pepper commercial; it shows a young man going to great lengths for love. It shows him buying… well let’s just say something men aren’t comfortable buying. You see him in an aerobics class, then walking in the rain holding an umbrella over his special lady as he is getting soaked. Then you see them sitting on a couch watching a movie he has a Dr Pepper in his hand, she begins to reach over to take his Dr Pepper and he gets a look in his eyes that says now that’s going to far. I did the female shopping, the aerobics, I held your umbrella while I got soaked, but you are not getting my Dr Pepper, that’s going to far! Next thing you see is her standing on the porch and him running down the street with the Dr Pepper still in his hands.
You know I think this is also true with a lot of believers, I know it has been true in my life at times. Many times we say God I’m yours, I’ll do anything for you, my life belongs to you but in reality there are things we won’t do, there are things we won’t let go of. God I love you but I am not going to give up this habit or addiction. I love you but you can’t be number #1 that place belongs to my family, my career, my own desires. God I will give you Sunday morning but the rest of the week belongs to me. God I give you my all but not my tithe that’s too much.
Today as believers God wants our all. Are you ready to give it?
Matthew 22 tells us that loving the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength is the first and greatest commandment. I believe it is the greatest commandment because if we love him with all our hearts we will want to serve him; our love will drive us and push us to live our lives to please him.
John 14:15
"If you love Me, keep My commandments
If you have been in love you know it does some things to you. Here are some things we know about love and what we are willing to do for love.
I. When you love someone you want to be with them.
a. Man I see some couples and they are so lovey dovey it almost makes you sick.
i. They are always together; you almost think they are Siamese twins joined at the hip.
ii. She’s got a t Shirt that says I love Billy Bob; he’s got a matching shirt that says I love Mary Ann.
iii. They can’t afford to go to a fancy restaurant all they can afford is to share a French fries at McDonalds, but they don’t care cause they’ve got love and they’ve got each other.
iv. Because I love God, I can’t wait to spend time with him.
1Th 5:17
pray without ceasing,
b. If we are praying with out ceasing we are communicating with God all day long.
i. Remember prayer is a conversation with God.
ii. That means you and God talking together all day. You are hearing from God through out the day.
c. We spend time with the one we love because we want to know them better
i. I want to learn more about God.
ii. I want to know him intimately. I want to know his thoughts, his heartbeat. His desires for me.
iii. I want to read his love letter to me, it tells me how much he loves me, he tells me he wants to spend eternity with me.
When you are in love you will be completely committed faithful to that person.
I Cor 13:4-8a
4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never fails…
II. When you are in love you will be completely committed faithful to that person
a. When you love someone and you marry that person, you pledge, “till death due us part.”
i. Marriage is designed by God to be a lifetime commitment.
ii. Our relationship with God is to be the same way. We don’t try God, We don’t give him a test drive, we commit our lives to him for the long haul.
b. We are committed to love even if we don’t feel like it. Love is not just a feeling it is decision.
i. When the newness wears off, when the honeymoon period if over, when the wrinkles come, and the figure changes that should not change our love.
ii. As a Christian I enjoy when I’m on the mountain, I love the blessings of God, I it when worship is taking place and I feel the joy of the Lord.
iii. However when I have had a bad day I still love him, when he doesn’t answer my prayers in the way I think he should I am still committed to my relationship with him, When I am weary from the battles, the tests, and the trials he is still God, he is still the love of my life.
c. When you are committed to someone you are faithful to that person.
i. We do not share the Mormon belief in seven wives,
ii. God expects faithfulness from us, he is a jealous God.
Ex 20:5
you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,
iii. I love my wife, and I am committed to my wife therefore I am a “One woman man”
iv. I love God and I am committed to him therefore there will be no other gods in my life.
v. God is a jealous God and he wants us to be faithful, but many times we are cheating on the love of our lives.
d. We must make sure to keep the love alive. It takes work to keep your first love. The church of Ephesus was a great church God said a lot of great things about them but he said one thing I have against you.
Re 2:4
Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love
III. When you are in love you do crazy things
a. When I was dating Shantrel in college I did crazy stuff to show my love. One Christmas I wanted to buy her nice things. However as a bible college student I didn’t have a lot of money, but I did and still do have a pretty cool baseball card collection. So I sold three of my favorite cards. Now this was a great sacrifice for me. I didn’t realize then how great of sacrifice it was at the time. One of them was Cal Ripken Jr. rookie card. No telling what that’s worth now, a Kirby Puckett rookie card that was pretty valuable especially since I went to college in Minnesota, The final one I am actually quite proud I sold it, I got $60.00 for a Jose Canseco rookie card, I bet its worth two dollars now.
b. Love pushed me to do things I had never done. Love made me give of myself, make sacrifices, and put Shantrel’s desires above my own. As Michael Bolton sings Love is a wonderful thing.
c. As I prepared this message I felt like God asked me would I have sold those cards and gave the money to a missionary if he told me to? Would I make the kind of sacrifices for God that I do for someone else, do I give as much energy and effort for God as I do for my job?
d. Love makes you do some things that seem crazy. David looked like a fool when the arc of God returned to Israel dacing with all his might, Mary Magdalene looked crazy when she broke open her alabaster box worth a years wages, and washed Jesus feet with her tears. Missionaries look crazy when they sell all they have and follow God’s plan to a foreign land.
e. If I seem crazy serving God I am sorry I just can’t help it because I’m in love.
IV. Now love is always best when the person you love loves you back.
a. Now I don’t know about you but when I was in school there were times I was in love with someone and they didn’t love me back and I must tell you that can really put a damper on a relationship.
b. Today I want you to know that God loves you, He loved you before you loved him
1John 4:19
We love Him because He first loved us.
Ro 5:8
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
c. He wants the love to be a mutual love between you and him.
d. Do you remember the three things we will do for love?
i. When you love someone you want to be with them.
ii. When you are in love you will be completely committed faithful to that person.
iii. When you are in love you do crazy things.
e. Jesus loves us, he wants to spend time with you.
f. He is always faithful, unfortunately sometime people aren’t always faithful. You may have had relationships and the other person wasn’t faithful but God is always faithful. Heb 13:5 tells us…”He will never leave you or forsake you.”
g. He did some things we would consider crazy.
i. He left the splendors of heaven, to come to this earth full of pain and suffering.
ii. He willing allowed himself to be beaten, mocked and crucified.
iii. Why would he do something that crazy? Because he loves you.
Closing:
The title of the message is “what would you do for love?” But the most important thing is what he did for love. He gave his life. Now it’s our turn. He gave everything for love, have you given him your life. I’m not talking about going to church, or giving him an offering, or doing some type of ministry. I’m talking about your whole life, your heart, soul, mind and strength. Some of us have said God I love you, I’ll serve you, but I won’t do that. Today may I tell you what ever “that” is, is what he wants today. Don’t be like the rich young ruler who walked away sad because he wouldn’t do “that”.
