MESSAGES
Demands of Commitment-Part III
From Egypt to the Promised Land
Overcoming Obstacles part - II
Overcoming Obstacles Part -III
Receiving the Promises of God -I
Receiving the Promises of God - II
Reformation: Going Beyond the Obvious
Well Done is Better Than Well Said
When the Church is Gone - Part II
When the Church is Gone - Part III
When the Church is Gone - Part IV
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LET LOVE PREVAIL MATTHEW 22:34-40 The title of
this morning’s message is “Let Love Prevail.”
Now Webster says that the word prevail means “to gain
the advantage or mastery; to be victorious.
To produce or achieve the desired effect and finally to
become stronger or more widespread.”
So this morning we want to focus on letting love gain an
advantage and become victorious in our lives.
We want to focus on letting love produce the desired effects
in our lives as our love becomes stronger and more widespread.
When the Pharisees came to Jesus asking him which was the
greatest commandment it was meant to be a trap.
They were trying to make him look bad in the eyes of the
people. They were trying
to show that Jesus was a rebel; not will to go along with or be
in harmony with the accepted practices of that day. You see the Pharisees had divided the law in
affirmative laws and negatives laws.
They considered some to be greater and some to be lesser
laws. Jesus would not even enter into a debate with
them on their division of the laws.
They were tempting him and he refused to get caught in
the trap. He responds to their temptation with Love God
and love your neighbor. When
you stop to consider it, temptation often flows back to love and
can be conquered when we allow love to prevail.
When we are being tempted we are being challenged to disregard
our love for God and our love for one another.
Thus when we choose to let love prevail, we can overcome
temptation. Jesus in verse
37 quotes Deut. 6:5. Loving
God with all of our heart means loving Him with all of our inward
emotions. PHILIPPIANS 3:10 Paul says here
in this passage that he sacrifices everything that he once held
valuable to him for opportunity to intimately know Christ.
Likewise we are to be so in love with Christ that there
is nothing we would not give up or do to gain an opportunity to
be more involved with him. Jesus says that
we are to love God with all of our soul.
Our soul represents our appetites, our desires, and our
will. COLOSSIANS 3:1-3 Paul encourages
us here to set our desires on heavenly things. If we claim to be raised with Christ, then as
Christ is heavenly focused so should we be. Finally Jesus
says we are to love God with all of our minds.
This means that the love of God is to rule our thoughts. 2 CORINTHIANS 10:5 Paul encourages us here to put down every
dream, idea, or thought that is contrary to the will of God. We are to capture every unruly thought and force
it to surrender to the will of Christ.
Once I have cast down wrongful thinking Philippians 4:8
tell me “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever
things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever
things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever
things are of good report; if there be any virtue,
and if there be any praise, think on these things.”
In other words we are to turn our thoughts towards practicing
godly thinking. Jesus says the greatest commandment is
that we give total love to God. Total love is one that dominates
and transcends our emotions; it sets and directs our thoughts,
and is the force behind our actions and obedience. This love is
evidenced by total commitment of one’s life to God. The love
and commitment that God demands of us have nothing to do with
how we feel. It has nothing to do with whether or not we get what
we want, or whether or not we like the direction our life is taking. We are to love God with all that is in us in
spite of anything that is happening or has happened. And John
14:15 which says “If ye love me, keep my commandments”
let’s us know that love for God mandates obedience of God. If we practice loving God with all of
our heart, our soul and our mind we will be well on our way to
a prevailing love. MATTHEW 22:39 The commandment
quoted in verse 39 comes from Lev. 19:19. Our love for God must be followed with love
for mankind. However, it is only through our love for God that
true love for mankind can be experienced and expressed. We are
to love God and man not with sentimental lip service but with that total commitment which is demonstrated by complete
devotion to God and practical service and respectful treatment
of all mankind. Some would say well who is my neighbor? LUKE 10:25-37 Looking for an
excuse not to obey and a way to justify himself this lawyer asked
well who is my neighbor. Many
times when God tells us to do something, and start asking questions
about what he says it is generally in an attempt not so much to
gain clarity but rather to look for a way to get around doing
what God asks. The priest
here probably did not stop to assist the man for fear that he
was already dead. To touch
a dead man would have made him ceremonially unclean.
Sometimes we are too busy trying to religious to of any
real good to God. He can’t
send certain people certain places because they already have a
preconceived notion of where Christians are allowed to go and
where we can not go. The priest trying to be righteous neglected
to act in love. For him
righteousness not love prevailed.
Let us make an effort to stay in tune with the Spirit of
God, lest we too fall in the same trap.
The Levite actually came and looked at the man and then
continued on his way. He assessed the situation and deemed the man
unworthy of receiving his help.
Since the road was dangerous maybe he thought it unsafe
or to risky to stop long enough to assist him.
Whatever the reason, the Levite acted selfishly rather
than in love. This is something that we really have to fight
against. It is the natural
tendency of man to consider himself, his need, his desires and
his wishes. This is a tendency that flows out of our natural
man. It is not the way
of God and thus not the way of the new spirit man that now seeks
to direct our actions. We
thus must learn to respond to our spirit and not to our flesh
if we are to allow love to prevail. The Samaritan though treated as an outcast,
only saw another in need and his compassion led him to respond
to the need. So Jesus says
that the greatest commandments are to love God and to love our
neighbor MATTHEW 7:12 In responding
to or in treatment of others we are told to act as we would want
them to act with us. For the Jews, the principle stated here,
and in this form is a new teaching. Many teachers before Jesus
had stated similar What is the difference
in the negative and positive form of this principle? The negative form of Matt, 7:12 simply says refrain
from doing to others that which you would not wish them to do
to you. This for the most part is a matter of simply obeying the
law. It is not a religious matter, but is more of
a moral issue. Many who
have no relationship with God or any other religious beliefs,
do not see themselves as bad people normally because they say,
“I don’t hurt any one”. The negative form can be satisfied by simply
minding one’s own business and performing no action at all. By stating this principle in the positive form,
Jesus required more of His followers. It is one thing to say I
must not injure other people, and quite another to say I must
go out of my way to help others. JOHN 15:9-14 If we keep the
commandments that Jesus has given us then we dwell in His love.
If we love Him we are told to keep His commandments. The commandment
that is given here is clear. We are to love one another as Christ
has loved us. Christ loved us even unto death. I’m not asking
you to die for one another, not in the literal sense. But we should
be able lay aside our own desires and cravings to protect one
another from discomfort and hurt and to help one another even
if it is a bit inconvenient. We
are told in John 13:35 that all men will know that we are disciples of Christ
if we have love one for another. Love, to God
is not just lip service. John 3:16 teaches us that God’s
love for us prompted Him to action.
He so loved us that He gave His most precious possession.
What will you give in response to the cry of love, time, resources,
help, consideration of another’s feelings over your own desires? These
things are only reasonable service for those who name the name
of Christ. Some of us feel
that we are not able to love like Christ did. If that is true then Jesus commanded us to do
what he knew would be impossible for us to do, thus setting us
up for failure. The truth of the matter is that we are able
to love as Jesus loved. ROMANS 5:5 The love of God
has been poured out in our hearts by the presence of the Holy
Ghost in us. We have the ability to show forth the kind of love
required by Matt. 7:12. What bothers me is that with all the Holy Ghost
that we profess to have, we have problems often adhering to even
the Such a commitment to promoting the good,
the well being and the happiness of another can only be accomplished
through the love of God. It requires a total lack of selfishness
and a love for others beyond that which we can generate on our
own strength. However, the love needed to live out Jesus told the disciples in John 13:35
that all men would know that we are His disciples if we have love
one for another, or as the Amplified puts it, if we keep on showing
love among ourselves. PHIL 1:9 This is also
my prayer for the Fellowship; that our love may abound more and
more and that God would give us knowledge and insight into how
to display that love one for another. |