Amen, so Exodus 20, of course, we had that very famous passage with the Ten Commandments
being laid out there.
And you've got the great story about God coming down the mount, and it's such a, one of my
favorite stories really, just because of the power of God that's on display there.
But as you might have caught in the bulletin, and I've been announcing the last few weeks,
we're starting a series this morning entitled, Love the Lord, Love the Lord, so it'll be
a four part series about Love the Lord.
And you might ask yourself, you know, why preach a sermon series about loving the Lord?
Why preach a sermon series about loving God?
And really, the main reason is because of the fact that we're commanded to love God.
And if you caught that there, you know, that's one of the first commandments is the fact
that we should love the Lord our God, that we're not going to have any other gods before
Him.
And later we'll see that this is what Jesus calls the greatest commandment, to love the
Lord thy God.
So if we're commanded in Scripture, and if God puts such an emphasis on loving Him, it's
probably pretty important that we take some time to think about what it means to love
the Lord, how we love the Lord, and all of that.
And we'll get into that over the next few weeks.
But this morning, I just want to begin by pointing out that loving the Lord is something
that needs to be a priority in your life, it needs to be a priority.
And this series will be alliterated, hopefully not too much for some of you, but it will
be alliterated.
So first of all, we're going to love the Lord, and we're going to make that a priority in
our lives.
And this is why it's important that we understand this because of the fact that loving the Lord
is the first commandment.
He says there in Exodus chapter 20 verse 3, thou shalt have no other gods before me, meaning
you're going to make me the priority, you're going to put me first in your life.
And we have to understand this as God's people, and as God's children, that God wants His
proper place in our lives.
We can't just throw God a bone, we can't just put Him on the back burner, we can't just
give God His five minutes or whatever a day, or His one service a week or whatever it is,
and then just not think about Him the rest of the week.
God should be always on our mind, we should always be thinking about the things of God,
we should, obviously we have to stop and think about other things, but we don't want to live
our lives every single day with no thought of God, not putting Him first, not making
Him a priority, and prioritizing our lives around other things other than the Lord.
The Lord has to come first in our lives.
And that's not just because, that's not me saying that, that's what the Bible teaches.
The Bible says thou shalt have no other gods before me, and when God starts a list of commandments
and the first one is, I come first, that tells me that's a very important commandment.
We need to make loving the Lord a priority in our lives.
The reason why is because of the fact that God takes this seriously.
This is something that we need to learn to take seriously in our Christian's lives,
to love the Lord, make it a priority.
Why should I take it seriously?
Why should I pay attention to this series?
Why should I maybe begin to apply these things in my life?
Why should I care so much about loving the Lord?
Why preach an entire series entitled Love the Lord?
Because God takes loving Him very seriously.
It's a priority to Him, we ought to make it a priority to us.
This is something I've reiterated several times across the pulpit, I think even recently,
is the fact that God doesn't just sit back and accept being ignored.
You can't just ignore God in your life and have Him just go, He's not going to go suck
His thumb in a corner and feel bad about it.
God is going to get your attention, and that's all I'm trying to do this morning, is try
to get you to pay attention to the fact that God wants us to make Him a priority in our
lives because of the fact that God is a jealous God.
God is a jealous God.
And I understand that in today's vernacular, the word jealous has different meanings, but
the biblical meaning is the one that we're using.
To be jealous over somebody is not a bad thing.
We would be jealous of our spouses if they began to give affection or time to other people
besides ourselves.
We'd be very jealous about that.
That is biblical.
What we call jealousy today is really what the Bible refers to as envy, and those are
two different things.
Envying is desiring something that you can't have or something that somebody else has.
It's envying and covetousness.
Jealousy is not that in the Bible.
That's how we use that word today, jealousy, but that's not how the Bible uses it.
The Bible uses it in a very positive way.
In fact, God says here that He is a jealous God.
He says in verse 5, Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them.
I the Lord thy God am a jealous God.
Again, He doesn't say, I the Lord thy God am an indifferent God.
I the Lord thy God really don't care how you treat me in life.
I really don't care what kind of priority you do or do not put upon me in your life.
That's not what God says, and He's following this up with the first commandment.
He's saying, hey, thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Why?
Because I'm jealous, and I'm not just going to sit there and take it.
That's the God that we worship.
That's the God that we serve.
That's the God of the Bible.
Do something in Exodus 20 and go to Deuteronomy.
Deuteronomy chapter number 5, you say, oh, well, you know, He mentioned it.
No, God reiterates this over and over.
Deuteronomy 5 where He reiterates the 10 commandments, He brings this up again, saying, let me remind
you once again that I'm a jealous God.
This is why you should have no other gods before me.
This is why you need to love the Lord first.
How do you do that?
By making God a priority in your life.
He said in Deuteronomy chapter 4, you go into chapter 5, take heed unto yourselves lest you
forget the covenant of the Lord your God which He made with you, and make you a graven image
or the likeness of any thing which the Lord thy God hath forbidden thee.
For the Lord thy God is a consuming fire.
A consuming fire.
He's not just some ice cube that you have to walk around.
No, God's going to come get you.
He's a consuming fire.
Even a jealous God is what He's saying there.
And those of us that have been going through the Second Kings series, or the First Kings,
really, and Second Kings, we're seeing this play out.
God has warned them in Moses' day to not forget the covenant, and to not make other gods,
and we see that's exactly what Israel goes on and does.
And as a result, they're destroyed.
The kingdom is divided, and Israel is taken into captivity, and then Judah is going to
turn to Judah and punish them severely.
Why?
Because God's a jealous God.
That's the message of scripture.
That's what God is trying to get across to us throughout the Bible, is that God doesn't
just sit back and take our negligence.
God wants our attention.
God wants us to make Him a priority in our lives.
He reiterates this again in Deuteronomy chapter 5, look at verse 9.
Thou shall not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them, for I, the Lord thy God, am
a jealous God.
I mean, that's three times right there.
We could go to other passages, just in the beginning of the Bible, those first few books
where God's saying, I'm jealous, I'm jealous, I'm jealous, don't forget me, don't forget
me, have no one else before me, love me, make me, what, a priority in your life.
That's what God wants us to understand.
You know, God is not an indifferent God.
Go to Deuteronomy chapter number 6, just go one few pages over, probably, in Deuteronomy
chapter number 6.
Why should you make loving the Lord a priority in your life?
Because God's not indifferent to it.
He's jealous, the Bible says, that's His name.
He says in verse 13, thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve Him, and shalt swear by
His name.
You shall not go after other gods, or the gods of the people which are round about you,
for the Lord thy God is a jealous God among you.
You say, well, what does that mean if God's jealous, you know, what's gonna happen considering
the fact that God is jealous?
What does that mean to us?
Does it mean that God's just gonna feel bad?
That God's just gonna be upset?
No, He's a consuming fire.
And as I just pointed out, with His people, the children of Israel, He dealt with them
severely.
And notice here, He says, for the Lord thy God is a jealous God among you, lest the anger
of the Lord thy God be kindled against thee.
And this is a teaching that's fallen out of style in a lot of Christian churches today,
the idea that God can get angry.
You don't say, oh God, God doesn't hate anyone.
And yet the Bible says that there's things that God hates, there's people that God hates,
there's things that make God angry and upset.
You say, oh yeah, I understand that the heathen, I understand that, you know, people who work
all this abomination out there, people who laugh and scoff and mock at the things of
God, people that hate God, God hates them, God gets angry with them.
But look down at your Bible there, it says, the anger of the Lord thy God, be kindled
against thee.
And who is He talking to there?
He's not talking about these Canaanitish nations, He's talking to Israel.
His people.
He's saying, look, if you forget me, if you don't make me a priority in your life, I'm
going to get angry with you.
That's what He's saying.
And it's not that He's just gonna sit there and be angry and pout.
He's going to say, my anger will be kindled against thee and destroy thee from off the
face of the earth.
That's a pretty severe punishment, and it's a pretty severe warning.
Look, I'm not saying that if you get backslidden, if God's not that much of a priority in your
life, that God's going to wipe you off the face of the earth, He might, depending on
how bad you get, but here's the thing, God, you know, is going to take action in your
life.
That's what I'm trying to get across.
That God's not indifferent to how we treat Him.
That we can't just, you know, expect God to take what we give Him when it's convenient
for us.
And this is how people come to God, they say, well, I'll serve God when it's convenient
for me.
That's not loving God, folks.
That's not making God a priority in your life.
That's not putting Him before all other things.
Look at Deuteronomy chapter 7, verse 9.
I'll begin reading in Deuteronomy chapter 7, verse 9.
Look, we need to learn to love the Lord first, make Him a priority.
He takes it seriously.
He's a jealous God.
He's not indifferent.
He takes action.
Verse 9, know therefore that the Lord thy God, He is God, the faithful God.
You know, we love these attributes about God.
We love God's faithfulness.
I mean, God is a faithful God.
But some, you know, and I understand we're sinners, we're not perfect, we all come
short of the glory of God, but, you know, we should all consider how faithful are we
to God.
I mean, God's faithful to us through and through.
God's, you know, His faithfulness will never fail.
How often does our faithfulness fail to God?
How often do we, you know, not make God a priority in our lives?
He said He is the faithful God which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love Him
and keep His commandments to a thousand generations.
He says there that God, you know, He is faithful.
He has mercy for people, for anyone, for everyone.
No matter how they treat God, it's love and mercy for you.
Wrong.
He keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love Him.
You begin to see why it's such an important topic to love the Lord thy God, to learn to
love the Lord.
Why you should love the Lord first, make God a priority in your life.
I mean, I know I'm going to need the mercy of God in my life.
I know I'm going to need God's grace and mercy in my life because I know I'm a sinner.
I know I'm not perfect.
I know I'm going to fall short.
I'm going to make mistakes.
I'm going to do things wrong.
I'm going to upset God.
Man, I'm going to need His mercy.
How am I going to get it?
By loving Him.
By keeping His commandments.
God has mercy and love for those to a thousand generations if they love Him and keep His
commandments.
Notice verse 10, there's the negative side because people say, oh, you know, they read
that, say, well, that would be nice to have the love and mercy of God, but you know, I
can go without it.
I'm content to not have the love and mercy of God in my life.
You know, thanks, but no thanks, I'll pass.
And then they think it's like there's this gray area.
There's like this, you know, demilitarized zone.
There's this, you know, this neutral area where God's just kind of not going to do anything,
you know, and then there's making God upset.
No, this little zone that people just think, you know, where God's just going to be benign
and He's not going to do anything.
That doesn't exist.
It's not real.
That's something people make up in their minds.
He says, look, I have faith, or excuse me, I have love, I have mercy, I have faithfulness
for those that love and keep my commandments.
Verse 10, and here's the negative side, here's the other side of that coin, repayeth them
that hate me to their face to destroy them.
He will not be slack to him that hateth them.
He will repay him to his face.
You know, we could apply that to the unsaved.
You know, the unsaved are going to mock God, they're going to scoff at God, eventually
they're going to get paid back to their face.
They're going to stand before God and God's going to pay them back everything.
They're going to pay the wages of unrighteousness.
They're going to pay for the wages of sin.
The wages of sin is death.
God's going to repay them.
Okay?
But you know, this applies to us too.
I mean, why is He telling Israel this?
Why is Moses taking the time to express this, you know, in the law?
He goes on in verse 11 and says, Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments.
What's the therefore there for?
Because of the fact that God repays them that hate Him to His face.
Those that don't love Him, those that want to make Him a priority, those that don't keep
His commandments, you know, in a sense, they kind of hate God.
But people want to just have this, they can just act like they're indifferent towards
God.
How would that work with your spouse?
Well, I don't ever tell my spouse I love her.
I never tell my spouse I love them.
I just assume they know that.
You know, I don't really talk to them much.
I don't spend a lot of time with them.
You know, that person might actually get to the place thinking, I wonder if they even
like me.
I wonder if they hate me.
Did I do something wrong?
Have I upset them?
They never express any love, they never express any affection, they seem to ignore me every
time they get around me.
They don't want to talk to me.
I'm not even in their life.
I think they hate me.
That would be a natural conclusion, wouldn't it?
It's the same with God.
We never read His Bible, we're barely in church, we don't want to serve Him, we don't want
to make Him a priority in our lives.
God might look down and think, I think you hate me.
And I think I'm going to repay you to your face.
I mean, that's what the therefore in verse 11 is there for.
Because we should keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, which are
commanded us.
Why?
Because God repays them that hate Him to their face.
God's not indifferent.
That's why we need to learn to love the Lord first to make Him a priority.
He takes it seriously, He's a jealous God.
So to love the Lord first is to make God a priority.
We'll end here in Exodus chapter number 20 if you've still got something there in Exodus
chapter number 20.
We're going to go to Exodus 20 and then we're going to go back one more time to verse 5.
So look at verse 5 with me again, it says, Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor
serve them.
For though I, the Lord, thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers
upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and showing
mercy unto thousands of them that love me.
Who gets the mercy?
Them that love God.
And what?
Keep my commandments.
That's how we know if we love God, if we keep His commandments.
So we see that loving the Lord is very important.
It should make it a priority in our lives.
Do that, we do what?
We put God first.
You make Him a priority.
That's how you love Him.
You do this purposefully.
This is something you do on purpose.
You're not just going to accidentally make God a priority in your life, folks.
You're not just going to accidentally become faithful to the things of God.
You're not just going to wake up one morning and all of a sudden, oh, I'm a faithful Christian.
Oh, I'm faithful to the word, oh, I love God and I'm doing His commandments.
Just by accident, I just tripped, stumbled and fell into a godly Christian life.
That's not how it works.
If we're going to love God, we're going to have to do it purposefully.
That's a hard word to say.
On purpose.
I'm going to go with that, all right?
It's going to ruin my alliteration a little bit, but it's still got the P in there, okay?
On purpose.
It's something you're going to have to intend to do.
And I want you to consider this.
Consider the fact that God has already loved us on purpose.
I mean, is anyone in the room doubt the fact that God loves you?
I don't think anyone would say, I wonder if God loves me.
I think we would all sit back and say, yeah, I know God loves me.
We might question whether or not we really love God as much as we think we do, but I
think everyone, and if you're not certain, you should be 100% certain that God does love
you.
You know, that's a good thing.
Sometimes that's just nice to think about.
Sometimes that's nice to just sit there and just remind yourself, God loves me.
God loves me.
I mean, I'll do that sometimes in prayer.
What do you pray about?
Sometimes I just sit there in prayer and I just go, I know you love me, Lord.
It's a very comforting thought to know that God loves you.
But you know, and we understand that God is love.
That's God's nature.
That's who he is.
But God's love for you didn't just happen on accident, did it?
God took some very, what, purposeful action to display, to show us his love, didn't he?
Think about Ephesians 4.
I'll read to you.
You're still in Exodus 20.
But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love worth, he loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ.
By grace are you saved, and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly
places in Christ.
That's what God has done for us.
God has made us to sit in heavenly places with Christ.
He has quickened us together with Christ.
We're saved by grace.
But why is that?
Because God, who is what?
Rich in mercy for his great love, wherewith he loved us.
No one's going to be quickened together with Christ.
No one's going to sit in heavenly places because of their good works.
By grace are you saved?
The only reason any of us is going to heaven is because of the great love wherewith God
has loved us.
God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were at sinners, Christ died for
us.
That's how we know that God loves us.
Because God took what?
Purposeful action.
He said, I love these people, let me show them by sending my son to die for them.
We would never question that.
My point is this, is that if we're going to make God a priority, if we're going to love
him, we're going to have to do it purposefully.
We're going to have to, what?
Take action.
That's what love does.
It takes action.
Love is something that has to be shown to people.
It's no different with God.
Exodus 20 verse 6, we just went over it.
It says he's showing mercy unto thousands of them that love him and keep my commandments.
Oh, I love God.
How do you know?
You keep his commandments.
If you would go to Revelation chapter number 2.
So we see that God's jealousy, we're done in Exodus, God's jealousy, his mercy, his
love, it's all within the context of what?
Keeping his commandments.
He's expressing the fact that he's a jealous God, he's expressing the fact that he's a
faithful God, that he's a merciful God, that he's a loving God, all within the context
of trying to get God's people to keep his commandments.
And to do the things that are commanded of them.
Jesus said, why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?
It's one thing to sit there and call God Lord, it's another thing to do the things that he
says.
Oh, I love God.
Do you keep his commandments?
No.
Then I wonder how much you really love him.
Love is something that obviously begins within.
It is a feeling.
I don't want to just disregard that.
Love obviously is something that begins within a person, but then it works its way out.
If you love somebody, of course you're going to have those feelings, you're going to have
those emotions, you're going to have that feeling in the pit of your stomach, you're
going to have the butterflies, all that stuff.
They walk in the room and it's just pitter patter.
I get that.
But that's not where it ends, that's where it begins.
If you love somebody, you're going to express that to them.
You're going to do things for them.
You're going to sacrifice for them.
You're going to want to please them with your actions.
That's how you manifest love towards other people.
It doesn't change with God.
Why would it be any different with the Lord?
When you see people who lack outward service, sometimes I have to wonder, is it a lack of
inward affection?
Why is it some people don't want to make God a priority in their life?
Maybe because there's just not that love there, maybe that love isn't as great.
Look, some people love God more than others, it's just a fact folks.
You can look at people and say, I can tell this person loves God because of what they're
doing for the Lord, what they're willing to do, the actions that they take.
Sometimes a lack of outward service is really just the lack of inward affection.
Look at Revelation chapter 2 verse 1.
And the angel of the church of Ephesus writes, These things saith he that holdeth the seven
stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks.
I know thy works and thy labor and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are
evil.
And thou hast tried them which say they are apostles and are not, and hast found them
liars, and hast borne, and hast patience.
And for my name's sake hast labored, and hast not fainted.
Verse 4, Nevertheless I have someone against thee, because thou hast loved thy first love.
Remember therefore, from whence thou art fallen, and repent and do the first works, or else
I will come unto thee quickly, and remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou
repent.
Now what I want you to notice here is that when he's writing to this church at Ephesus,
he's bringing up all the things that they have or hast done.
I think in the context of the way he's using that word hast is in the past tense.
These are things that you have done.
There was a time when it was real obvious that you loved me, because you did all these
things.
And he's saying you have done these things.
A good example to kind of wrap your mind around that word hast is the fact that in Genesis
3, I'll just read to you, when God comes and confronts Adam and Eve, he says, Hast thou
eaten?
Saying, did you do that?
So it's kind of the past tense of having done something.
Hast thou?
The woman said, I did eat.
He said, what is it that thou hast done?
The woman said, the serpent godly I did eat, and the Lord God said unto the serpent, because
thou hast done, because thou hast hearkened on the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten.
These are things that they did.
So when we get here to Revelation, you get that definition at the beginning.
I mean, isn't the King James Bible so hard to understand?
Who understands the word hast?
Well, if you read Genesis 3, by the time you got to Revelation 2, you would know what the
word hast means and how it's being used.
It's not that complicated.
When we get to Revelation 2, he's saying, look, you did try them that are apostles and
are not.
Thou hast found them liars.
You did that.
You did bear.
You did have patience.
You did labor for my name's sake.
You did not faint.
Nevertheless, I have someone against thee.
Why?
Because what else did they do?
Thou hast left thy first love.
And we can't just coast on the things that we did once for God.
Well, there was a time when I served God.
There was a time when I was in church.
There was a time when I cared about the things of God.
There was a time when I made God a priority, but not anymore.
God says, thou hast left thy first love.
And again, notice, how does God know that they've left their first love?
He's not saying, I've noticed that you don't have this inward affection anymore.
I've noticed that a little tear doesn't come down your eye every time you sing that
song again.
No, he looks at their works and he says, I've noticed that you used to do these things.
Now you're not doing them.
You've left your first love.
Again, it goes back to the point, how do we know when you love somebody?
You obey them.
You keep their commandments.
You do things.
Love takes action.
It's done on purpose.
What we see in Revelation with the church of Ephesus is this waning, a lacking in their
service.
It dips.
Look at Revelation, chapter 2, verse 18, and on the church in Thy Tyre, write, These things
saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like
fine brass.
I know thy works, and charity, and service.
And again, charity is another word for love, that's what it means.
How do I know thy charity?
Because I know thy works.
It says, I know your works first, and because I see your works, now I know your charity
and your what?
Service.
Works.
Service.
Serving God.
That's how God knows whether or not we love him.
I know thy service, and thy faith, and thy patience, and thy works, and the last to be
more than the first.
And what does he mean by that?
That last to be more than the first?
I think all he's simply saying here is that the church of Thy Tyre has increased in their
works.
They have increased in their love.
I saw you, I saw your works, I saw your charity, I saw your service, your faith, your patience,
and thy works.
Again, I saw thy works.
And I notice that your last was more than the first.
I think he's showing us here is that one church in Revelation chapter 2, the church at Ephesus,
they waxed, they waned in their love.
They dipped down.
They had all these things.
They hassed these things.
But then, when you get down to Thy Tyre, it's the opposite.
It says, I know your works, and I know your works, and the last to be more than the first.
You're doing more.
Why is it that they're doing more?
Because they love God.
Because they made God a priority in their lives, and they were purposeful about it.
It wasn't just lip service.
They actually did something with that.
Verse number 20, not withstanding, I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest
that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants
and to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.
And I gave her space to repent of her fornication, and she repented not.
Behold, I will cast her from a bed, and them that commit adultery with her, into great
tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.
Now, these are the few things that he has against them.
So no church is perfect, and he goes on and talks about, verse 23, how he's going to kill
her with death, and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins
and hearts, and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.
But notice verse 24, but unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, meaning, this wasn't
something everybody was guilty of, this was just a few things that he had against them.
He's saying, look, unto the rest, and as many as have not this doctrine, and which have
not known the depths of Satan as they speak, I will put upon you none other burden.
But that which ye have already, hold fast till I come.
Thyatira is a church that increased in works, and God said, look, I'm not going to put
anything, you know, the others of you, except for this little thing over here with Jezebel
and those people that are guilty of that, everybody else, I'm not going to put anything
else on you, you're doing great, just hold fast until I come.
Just keep being faithful, keep loving me, keep making me a priority.
You know, the rest need none other, excuse me, need none other burden, why?
Because they have not ceased in their labor and their love.
Why is God not going to put any other burden upon them?
Because there's no need.
Because God knows their works and the last to be more than the first, they only need
to hold fast.
You know, and this is something that I'll point out, go to 1 John chapter 2, put a bookmark
there, we're done in Revelation, we're going to look at a few passages in 1 John.
You know, if our love is shown through an outward service, if God can look at our works
and say, you love me or you don't, just like any other relationship in our lives, it has
to be expressed outwardly, it has to manifest outside of just some feeling you have inwardly.
What that tells me is that a lack of love will be evident before others.
A lack of love is something that's just going to show up in your life.
And here's the thing I want to get across, you know, is this idea that, yeah, it shows
up in front of others, but it's really not the people around you that you should be most
concerned with.
Who should be most concerned with noticing whether or not you love them?
Is God.
God's going to notice this.
I mean, isn't that what we just read?
I mean, we've just been reading where God's saying, love me, love me, love me, put me
first, keep my commandments.
I mean, God notices whether or not we love him.
He can tell, he can look at our works and say, you don't love me.
Why?
Because I know thy works.
And this is something, you know, a lack of love will be evident to others both here and
in heaven.
And don't get this idea that God's not going to, you know, straighten us out on some things
in heaven and some things aren't going to be obvious in heaven.
I get the notion and the understanding and the idea that God's not going to bring up
sin in our lives and all these secret things, all these things that nobody else knows about
God's going to go, oh, did you see that?
Well, I caught you doing that.
I get that.
But the Bible's real clear that we're going to give an account for our works on earth
to God.
And it's going to be real evident based on our works, whether or not we really love God,
whether or not we really love the Lord first, whether or not we really made God a priority
in our lives and served him with purpose.
The Bible says in James 1, blessed is the man that endureth temptation for when he is
tried, he shall receive the crown of life.
Not everyone gets this crown of life.
It's those that endure temptation, those that aren't, you know, don't fall out.
When he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, meaning it's not for everybody.
Some people aren't going to get it.
Some people, it's going to be a possibility for them to have had it and then they're not
going to get it because they're not going to endure.
They're going to fall out.
He hath promised this, what, to them that love him.
Blessed is the man that endureth temptation for when he is tried, he shall receive the
crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
How am I going to endure temptation?
How is it I'm going to make it through the trials that come?
How is it that I'm going to earn that crown of life that God will give me is if I love
him?
You can see why it's so important to understand what it means to love the Lord.
It can be the difference between a crown of life or not.
You'll still be in heaven, it's just that reward's gone.
And I don't want to have, I don't want to go through my Christian life and have this
mentality of, well, I'll be in heaven and that's good enough.
And look, amen, if I'm in heaven, that's good enough.
But that's all I get at the end of the day, it beats hell by a country mile, right?
But is that really what you want your Christian life to add up to?
Well, I didn't go to hell.
Well, good for you.
Wow, you just really got after it down there, didn't you?
Because you didn't go to hell.
You know, that was all God that did that.
That was his grace, his love.
He had nothing to do that except believe.
But if you want to have a crown, if you want to have a reward, you're going to have to
earn it.
Look at 1 John chapter 2 verse 28, and it's important to understand because people get
this idea that, you know, there's not, that no one's going to be ashamed before God.
The Bible says different.
1 John 2 verse 28, and now little children abide in him that when he shall appear, we
may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming.
So why is he saying to abide in him?
Why is he saying to love him so that when he appears that we may have confidence and
not be ashamed?
Why?
Because it's going to be before him.
Who is it that we're going to be ashamed in front of?
God.
And again, I'm not talking about sin.
I'm not talking about God bringing up specific sins.
I'm not talking about God airing your dirty laundry.
What he's saying is here, hey, abide in God, serve him, love for him, labor for him so
that you can have confidence, so that you can know that no man has taken my reward.
I have confidence at the coming of Christ because I've kept the faith.
I've finished my course.
Therefore there's laid up for me a crown of righteousness, like Paul said.
I know that there's something waiting for me in heaven.
I have confidence in his coming.
Not going, oh, is God coming?
Man, I didn't do anything down here.
And being ashamed in that moment, you know, I want to stand before God and be able to
hold my head up high and say, put that crown right here, Lord.
And the nails go, gladly.
But only those that love him, only those that endure for him.
That's not motivation enough.
Let me just kind of wrap it up on this thought that loving the Lord is for your own well-being.
God is so gracious and God is so great.
We're saved by grace.
It's a free gift.
And then on top of that, if we serve him, he'll reward us in heaven.
Bible teaches that.
But even here on earth, you know, if you love God and you serve him, you're going to be
better off.
You know, if you choose not to serve God, it's not like, it's not going to take anything
from God.
It's not like God's going to be, you know, less of a God or something.
It's not going to do him any hurt.
It's only going to hurt you.
Loving the Lord results in your own well-being.
Now I had you go to, are you still in 1 John?
Let me just read to you then.
It says in Luke chapter 6, whosoever cometh to me and heareth my sayings and doeth them
I will show you unto whom he is like, he is like a man which built his house and dig
deep and laid the foundation upon a rock and when the flood arose and the stream beat vehemently
upon that house and could not shake it for it was founded upon a rock.
Now who's benefiting out of that whole thing?
It's the guy who built the house.
You know, the guy who built the house on the rock, the flood came and look, the Bible says
and when the flood arose, meaning this, look, floods are going to come into your life.
It's the nature of life.
The storms are going to come, they're unavoidable.
And some people when they come, it just sweeps them right away.
Why is it?
Because they're not founded upon the rock.
When the trials and the difficulties that are just inherent in life come to you, and
they will, they just get carried away because they're not founded upon the rock.
However, those that not just hear his sayings, but what doeth them.
He that heareth my sayings, that's good enough.
No, he that heareth my sayings and doeth them is like the man that built his house upon
a rock.
He actually, you know, got the plans out and said, let me see how God wants this house
built.
Well, the first thing, you know, I got the foundation, now let me start seeing what's
the blueprint here?
Instead of, you know, just going out and building it on the shifting sands of the world's philosophy,
the shifting sands of how you feel about it, or your opinion, you know, that's not going
to help when the storm comes.
We benefit when we love the Lord.
It's for our own well-being.
The Bible says in Psalm 31, O love the Lord, all ye saints, for he preserveth the faithful
and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer.
Who does God preserve?
The faithful.
Who does God reward?
The doer.
Ye that love the Lord hate evil.
He preserveth the souls of his saints, he deliverth them out of the hand of the wicked.
That's a promise that is made to those that love the Lord.
And notice again, in Psalm 97, where I'm reading in verse 10, he's saying, love the Lord, hate
evil.
You know, if you love God, you're going to hate the things that are evil.
You're going to hate the things that God hates.
And sometimes, you know, and I think a lot of us, we all have to eventually, probably
everybody is going to have to pray that prayer.
Lord, help me to hate the things that you hate.
And maybe even be willing to admit, Lord, I love the things that you hate, but I want
to change because I want to love you.
Why?
Because it's for my benefit if I love you.
Because if I hate evil, you're going to preserve the soul of his saints, you're going to deliver
them out of the hand of the wicked.
The Lord preserveth all them that love him, but all the wicked he will destroy.
So you can see again this morning how important it is to love the Lord.
Why preach an entire series on this?
Why preach a four part series on just loving God?
Well, because it's that important.
We ought to make it a priority.
God certainly made it a priority in his word.
There's a lot of things that are contingent upon you loving God, isn't there?
His protection, his blessing, his reward, it's all contingent on whether or not you
love God.
How do you know you love God?
You make him a priority and you love him purposefully.
You do it on purpose.
Lastly I want to look at this last point here.
If you love the Lord thy God, it's something you have to protect.
Loving the Lord is something that has to be protected.
That's how love remains constant.
It's not like you fall in love with somebody, you get married, and then it's just no matter
what I'm going to love them.
It's just automatic.
Love is something you have to put into action.
How do you keep that love constant?
You protect it.
You don't let other things get in the way.
People do this, other things enter into their lives and it steals the love that they had
either for their spouse or their children or their church or their God.
Your affections can be stolen away onto other things.
How do you think marriages end so badly?
Because they just never loved each other?
No.
I believe people get married, I mean I hope they get married and they love one another.
They have affection for one another.
They care about one another.
But then eventually things change in their heart and their affections get stolen away.
Look if you're going to love the Lord you're going to have to protect that love.
Just like any other affection, your love for God can be stolen away by the world.
The cares of this world and other things entering in choke the word and make it unfruitful.
That's the type of ground that's on there, that thorny ground.
That parable of the sower.
You had the wayside and the stony ground and the thorny ground and the good ground.
The stuff that was sown, the seed that was sown on the thorny ground, the problem was
not that it was hard packed, it was on the wayside.
The problem was not that it was full of stones and they couldn't get any depth of root.
The problem was is that there were thorns there.
There were other things growing in that soil.
That tells me that that soil and that ground that was bearing thorns is good soil to some
degree.
It's capable of bearing life.
It's capable of supporting life.
It was just supporting the wrong thing.
If we just let thorns grow up in our lives they'll choke the word and make them unfruitful.
They will steal our affections for God away.
That's what the world does.
That's how we have to keep our love for the Lord protected.
That's how you keep it constant.
And I'll remind you again just as I reminded you earlier that God showed us His love through
what He did, through what He did purposefully.
But also God shows us that His love is constant.
God's love for us does not go away.
It doesn't wane.
It doesn't dip.
God doesn't love us less.
God may or may not be pleased with us to some degree but God is always going to love
us.
That's why I said in Romans 8, for I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor
principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor
any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord.
Nothing can separate us from that.
That love is kept constant by God.
It can't be changed.
But you know, we're not God.
And our love, if we're not careful, can be supplanted.
It can be replaced by something else if we don't protect it.
If you look at 1 John chapter 5 verse 3, 1 John chapter 5 verse 3, for this is the love
of God that we keep as commandments and His commandments are not grievous.
Oh, God's rules are so hard.
Oh really?
Thou shall not commit adultery.
Oh, what a drag.
Because everyone knows how great adultery is.
This is the will of God, even your sanctification, that every one of you abstain from fornication.
Look I get it, there's pleasures and sin for a season, but you know what?
Fornication is just going to rob you.
It's going to, you know, it could fill you with disease.
Oh, what a drag.
I don't get to sleep with a bunch of strangers.
Ugh.
Oh, you know, God tells us not to be drunks.
Oh, what a drag, I don't have to go out and get psoriasis of the liver.
Is it psoriasis?
Psoriasis, thank you.
Psoriasis is something else, I don't know where that came from.
Good thing it doesn't happen to your liver though, right?
Because your liver's already got other problems.
The scissors of the liver, I don't know.
It's one of those S words.
But what a drag, right?
Oh, I don't get to go out and disease myself with drugs and alcohol.
Oh, what a drag, I don't, you know, I'm not waking up on Sunday morning, you know,
making a bloody merry trying to sleep, you know, sleep one off.
Trying to get over the night before.
Isn't it a drag this morning you all don't have splitting headaches from drinking too
much last night?
What a drag, huh?
Look, the commandments of the Lord are not grievous.
When you sit there and think, oh, commandments of God are so grievous, you don't love God.
If you think God's commandments are grievous, there I said it.
That's what he's saying, 1 John, for this is the love of God that we keep as commandments.
If you love God, you keep his commandments.
You do the things that are commanded you.
And his commandments are not grievous.
That just tells me if people go, just think that living the Christian life is so, just
such a drag.
I'm not going to say it's not without its difficulties, but it's just such a drag
and it's just so grievous, I question whether or not you really love God.
So don't let your love, you know, be supplanted, don't let it be taken away by, you know, either
exterior influences, right, the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, the lust
of other things entering in, choking the word, making it unfruitful.
Not only just the things that are without, but also, probably more importantly, your
interior attitudes.
You need to protect the love of God in your life, not just from exterior influence, but
also from interior attitudes.
That's why he said, and if you keep something in 1 John, go to Matthew 22.
This is an important verse.
If you remember in Matthew chapter number 22, one came to him and said, Lord, what,
you know, and I'm paraphrasing because I don't have it in my notes, but he said, what is
the first and great commandment?
And Jesus responds in verse 37, where he already says this, thou shalt love the Lord thy God
with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, for this is the first
and great commandment.
What is the first and greatest commandment, Jesus?
Love the Lord thy God.
That's it.
Why preach an entire series on loving the Lord?
Because it's the greatest commandment, and hopefully you can begin to see that.
How much is contingent upon whether or not we love God.
We need to learn to love the Lord first.
It is the first and greatest commandment.
We need to love the Lord first because he first loved us.
Let's go ahead and pray.