And I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep
his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply,
and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land which thou goest to possess it.
And then jump down to verse 20, the Bible reads again, that thou mayest love the Lord
thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him.
For he is thy life, and the length of thy days, that thou mayest dwell in the land which
the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.
Now if we turn to 2 Timothy chapter 3, and what I want to preach about this morning is
loving the Lord thy God, loving God.
And this is something that's emphasized in the Bible in many places.
Here over and over again in Deuteronomy chapter 30, he's emphasizing that we ought to love
the Lord God with all of our heart, with all of our soul, with all our might.
He says he's commanding us to love him.
He's saying we may love him, so that we'll be blessed, so that we'll keep his commandments
and live the right kind of life.
Look at 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 1, the Bible reads, this know also that in the last days
perilous times shall come, perilous means dangerous, for men shall be lovers of their
own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despises
of those that are good.
And that's what we see around us today.
We can see all of these things exemplified.
We see children who are disobedient to their parents, who have no respect for their parents,
who don't care what their parents say, who don't care what their parents say, mainly
because they're raised in the public school, a different institution, giving them different
values than what their parents have.
And we have children today who don't respect their parents.
We see the pride of man, the self-love, the covetousness, the boasting, the blasphemy
that comes out of man's mouth.
The Bible tells us that people in the last days will be without natural affection.
Look at the unnatural affection that people have today, the sodomy and the fact that people
don't even love their own kids in many cases.
They have a child and they abort it, they kill their child or they drop it off somewhere
and don't want it.
They don't want to be around their own children.
They don't have a natural affection toward their own blood and their own family.
The Bible talks about those that are incontinent, fierce, despisers or haters of those that
are good.
Traitors, heavy high-minded.
And look at the last phrase there in verse number 4, lovers of pleasures more than lovers
of God.
So he starts out this big list of what people are going to be like in the last days with,
hey, they're going to be lovers of their own selves.
That's the first thing he says.
Then he lists all these other sins that they're going to be involved in and then he finishes
it out saying, they're lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, he says, having a
form of godliness but denying the power thereof from such turn away.
Even among those who have a form of godliness, there are those who are even Christians who
love pleasures more than they love God.
And God's commanding us to love Him.
He's commanding us to love Him with all our heart, with all our soul and all our might.
You know why I go to church?
I go to church because I love going to church.
And the Bible says in Psalm 122, I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the
house of the Lord.
Now when they said to me, let's go into the house of the Lord, I said, well, I guess if
we have to, you know, well, I guess there's nothing else going on.
Let's go down there.
No, he said, I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord.
We have to love church.
We have to love God.
We have to love God's house and not love pleasure more than we love God.
You know, let me just break it down to you.
When it comes around time for church and the choices between fulfilling your pleasure somewhere,
some kind of a little pleasure cruise out on a boat somewhere or a little pleasure ride
out on a dirt bike somewhere or a pleasure drive out through the country or a pleasure
trip here and a pleasure trip there, you know, I would prefer to go to God's house on Sunday
morning.
You know, there are other days of the week to enjoy pleasure and the Bible tells us it's
okay to enjoy pleasure.
God gives us the capacity in our life to enjoy the fruits of our labors and to eat and drink
and to rejoice in the wife of our youth and to enjoy pleasure and this is the portion
that God has given unto man under the sun, but we have not loved those pleasures more
than we love God.
Nothing wrong with riding that dirt bike.
Nothing wrong with going on that pleasure cruise.
Nothing wrong with having some fun in your life, but do you love that more than you love
God?
Is that what you live for?
Do you live for vacations?
Do you live for fun and games?
Now, when you're a little child, that might be what you live for.
I remember when I was a little child, you know, you sit in school eight hours a day
and bore your brains out and you're just waiting until the weekend and doing something fun
and it's just all about ice cream and candy and playing games and going swimming and,
you know, but when I became a man, I couldn't reach all these things and I'm not against
having fun and doing fun things, but you know what, that's not just what I live for anymore.
When you're a little kid, that's what you live for, games, fun, toys, but when you become
an adult and you're 40 years old and you're 50 years old and you're still just living
for toys and maybe your toys are bigger now and your games are different, but it's still
just fun, games, toys, pleasure.
How can I please myself?
You know, the Bible teaches us that we ought to choose the things of God over just the
pleasures of this life and to love Him more than we love pleasure.
The Bible says lovers of pleasure is more than lovers of God.
Let me give you a couple of other verses out of the book of Deuteronomy about loving God
and I hope I can help you to understand a little bit what it means to love God.
You don't have to turn there, but Deuteronomy 11.1 says, Therefore, thou shalt love the
Lord thy God, and keep His charge and His statutes and His judgments and His commandments
always.
Part of loving God is keeping His commandments.
Most of the verses that mention loving God in Deuteronomy, they are also tied in with
keeping His commandments.
Jesus said, If you love Me, keep My commandments.
He said in Deuteronomy 11.13, It shall come to pass if ye shall hearken diligently unto
My commandments, which I command you to state, to love the Lord your God, and to serve Him
with all your heart and with all your soul.
He said, If ye shall diligently keep all these commandments, which I command you to do them,
to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, and to cleave unto Him, Deuteronomy
10.12 says, And now, Israel, what does the Lord require of thee but to fear the Lord
thy God, to walk in all His ways, and to love them, and to serve the Lord thy God with all
thy heart and with all thy soul.
And you know, I can go on and on, there's so many scriptures in Deuteronomy, in the
book of Joshua.
I'll just give you one verse from Joshua, chapter 23 verse 11 says, Take good heed therefore
unto yourselves that you love the Lord your God.
He says over and over again, Love God, love God, love God.
Now what does it mean to love God?
Well, we know that of course, the outward expression of our love for God is our obedience
to His commandments.
But that is not necessarily what it means to love God.
That's the result of loving God.
If we love Him, we're going to keep His commandments.
That's the outward expression of how we show our love for God.
But you know, I think sometimes we just lose sight of just the basic meaning of what it
means to love God.
And I've noticed that sometimes the simplest things in the Bible are the things that people
misunderstand the most.
A lot of times people are so busy looking for a deep meaning in the Bible.
You know, they're looking for some deep symbolic meaning or some kind of a typology or something
that they miss just the surface of what God is just saying on the surface.
And if we just, and sometimes I've noticed this too, sometimes people who are new to
church who just got saved, sometimes they understand things in the Bible better than
the people who've been in church their whole life because they haven't gotten things overcomplicated
in their mind by a bunch of man's theology and man's teaching.
They just kind of see things on the surface, what they say.
What does it mean to love God?
What does it mean to love the Lord with all my heart?
Well stop and think about it.
What does it mean to love my wife?
Or what does it mean for you to love your friend?
Or what does it mean when you love anything in life?
You know if you love skiing, I mean what does that mean?
Well if I love my wife that means that I look at who my wife is and I prefer her.
I love her.
I want to be around her.
And really the word love can be related to the word like.
I like her.
And the Bible uses the word like of course.
But you see a lot of people today they don't love God.
Let me give you an example.
We were out so many on Monday in Superior, Arizona and we were not in New York with Garrett
and I.
And we get to this guy, he's like this burned out old hippie.
You know what I mean?
And we get to this guy and he's sitting on his porch and I asked the guy if I can, you
know I asked him if he knew for sure he was going to heaven and he just kind of laughed
that off.
And I asked him, I said well can I show you from the Bible how to be saved?
You know can I show you from the Bible how to know for sure you're going to heaven?
And he said yeah sure.
I said I'm just waiting for somebody to pick me up so I got time and I think he's having
a cigarette or something.
So he figured yeah I'm just sitting out here waiting, go ahead sit down.
So I sat down with him and I started to give him the gospel and I showed him a couple of
verses and he just, he started just kind of, he was listening but he just kept criticizing
God for me.
You know what I mean?
He just kept interrupting me.
He just kind of like well that's not very nice.
You know I showed him something about like hell or you know that we're all sinners and
then he's just criticizing.
Yeah well you know it would be nice if God said a better example and he said you know
well God you know he's a racist and God you know kills people and God this and you know
and he's just criticizing God over and over.
And he said a few things to me like that and it made me really upset and I told the guy
I said I just closed my Bible I said you know what I said I'm not going to sit here and
listen to you blaspheme God.
You know you're sitting here and you're criticizing God, you're blaspheming God.
I'm not going to sit here and listen to that you know I said I'm not going to waste my
time with you.
I don't even want to talk to you and I said yeah I said see you later and you know we
just went to the next door and it offended me personally that somebody's going to criticize
the Bible to me and criticize God to me.
Why?
Because I love God.
I love the Bible and it hurts my feelings if somebody's going to talk bad about God
I find that offensive if you like if somebody walked up to me and started criticizing my
wife to me and started saying bad things about my wife I love my wife no I don't you know
if they say oh she's this she's that no I don't think that she's those things I love
my wife I want to be around her and I love God I love the Bible and today there are so
many atheists today that are in control of our society and they're in control of the
school system they're in control of the media and therefore because they control the schools
and the media and the music they control the minds and because they control the mind
of people they've got people brainwashed into calling good evil and evil good and therefore
when they're confronted with God and let me tell you something in the beginning was the
Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God you confront them with who God is
and you know what their reaction is I don't like God I don't like him because he doesn't
he doesn't fit in with what I think he should be you know he didn't do things in the Bible
the way I think he should have done he shouldn't have killed those people or he shouldn't have
commanded that he shouldn't be so homophobic or you know whatever he is and they say no
I don't like God and and the thing is I love God and I hope you love God and and today
because atheism has so surrounded us and and brainwashed us that today even Christians
are ashamed of God and they're ashamed of any passages of scripture and they're ashamed
of God's Word and they say well and I've even seen Christians it seems that they shy away
from certain portions of scripture and they they're not comfortable with certain portions
of scripture you know they don't know what to do with it because you know it just doesn't
fit in with our sight but you know what we ought to embrace who God is we ought to love
him because you know what he really is a great God and here's the thing it's not like we
wake up in this world that we live in and choose who God's going to be I mean he created
us we didn't create him and here we are there's only one God you don't pick which God you
like I mean there's only one and you know we could have been stuck with a mean God but
thanks be to God we have a God that's merciful he's loving he's just he's righteous I mean
I'm glad that with God you don't have to wonder where he's at or what he's doing you don't
have to wonder if he's going to change his mind is he going to send me to hell at any
moment or is he going to take away my salvation hey he's given us his word and he's always
true to his word and his word is perfect it's righteous it's good and he gives us salvation
and the bible says in hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie promised before
the world began you know God is such a loving God and he promises us eternal life he's never
going to break that promise he didn't leave us in the dark he gave us the bible to teach
us everything and I love the bible I love reading the bible and I don't I don't share
the attitude of people who have this attitude of well you know God is just so mean and he's
just so you know whatever doesn't fit in with their stupid society now think about David
in the bible and you don't have to turn to these but I'm going to go through a bunch of books
verses and psalms starting chapter 18 because remember David is the man after God's own heart
and you know you ever wonder why David's called the man after God's own heart
when you stop and look at it more than anybody else in the bible by far David expressed the
fact more than anyone hands down that he loved God I mean he loved God he said over and over again
like in the book of Psalms he said in Psalm 18 1 I love thee oh Lord my strength Psalm 26 8 he said
Lord I have loved the habitation of thine house and the place where thine honor dwelleth
chapter 31 verse 23 he said oh love the Lord all ye is saints for the Lord preserveth the faithful
and plentifully rewarded the proud doer Psalm 116 1 I love the Lord because he had heard my voice
in my supplications Psalm 119 47 I will delight myself in thy commandments which I have loved
verse 48 my hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments which I have loved
and I will meditate in thy statutes verse 97 oh how love I thy law it is my meditation
all the day verse 113 I hate vague thoughts but thy law do I love on and on and on verse
119 thou putest away all the wicked of the earth like gloss therefore I love thy testimonies verse
127 therefore I love thy commandments above gold ye above final this is David
tired he loved the bible he loved God he tells himself he says in verse 140 thy word is very
pure therefore thy servant loveth it verse 159 consider how I love thy precepts quicken me oh
Lord according to thy loving kindness verse 163 I hate and a poor lie but thy law do I love verse
165 great peace have they which love thy law and nothing shall offend them verse 167 my soul and
kept thy testimonies and I love them exceedingly and on and on David is saying over there I love
the bible I love the bible I love God's commandments I love his righteous judgments I love
what he does I love who he is I love God and God looked out at that and he doesn't see a perfect
man he sees a man who had his faults but he said man that's a man after my own heart because he
loves me I mean what does a husband want more than anything but that his wife would love him
and what does the wife want more than anything that her husband would love her okay and that's
what God wants from us he wants us to love him somebody asked Jesus what is the greatest
commandment in all the world and he said the greatest commandment is this thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might and he said of course
the second commandment is like it thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself you see when we choose or
prefer other things over God's word or other people's opinions over God's opinions you know
that's that's what God is saying when he says he wants us to love him and when you look around at
the world's opinions and the world's philosophy ask yourself what do you love more the world or
do you love God you know do you love what tv says is the way we should live our lives or do you love
the way that God tells us that we should live our lives do you love the way that the school system
has educated your children or do you love the way that the bible educates our children and teaches
us to educate ourselves I mean which one do you like better do you like promiscuity do you like
fornication do you like adultery do you like lasciviousness or do you love purity and cleanliness
and godliness and marriage and family which do you love do you love God or do you love the world
and you say I love both well the bible says if any man loved the world the love of the father is not
in it I said love not the world neither the things that are in the world if any man loves the world
the love of the father is not in it it shouldn't just be like well I guess we have to go to church
it should be I love going to church it shouldn't be well I guess we have to see these tired old
hymns you know because Patrick Harrison doesn't want rock and roll and world is and and we don't
we're not having christian rap or whatever but you know what we have a delight in singing the praises
of God we have a delight in what pleases God we have to choose and prefer those things it would
be like if I just always chose to hang around with some other woman than my wife that's not love
I mean if I love my wife that means that she's the one that I want to choose to hang around with
and spend my time with because I love her and if I love God it means I want to go to his house
I want to read his word I want to sing praises to him it's not a drudgery to me I mean can you
imagine if it was just this drudgery like well I guess I gotta go home with my wife
every once in a while you know I mean it's part of being married I guess right
gotta spend a little time with my wife now the old ball and chain I mean you say well you don't
love your wife if I just say well I don't ever want to be around her but I just feel like it's
my duty you know because I'm married you'd say you don't love your wife why don't you love your wife
why don't you want to be with your wife wouldn't you say that that's the same thing with God well
I guess I gotta read the bible I guess I gotta go to church you know I guess I have to keep
these commandments I guess I gotta follow these rules why don't you love God he loves you he loves
you more than anybody else is loving so why don't you love God why do you love pleasure more than
you love God why don't you suffer for a while and learn what it's like to love God and not just love
yourself all the time and to love him he is the one who deserves our love more than anyone more
than I love my wife I love God more than I love my children I love God more than I love my parents
I love God more than I love my friends I love God that's what the bible tells us he said he that
loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me that's what Jesus said and he don't
love his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of you and he didn't take it down his
cross and fall without me is not worthy of me God demands us to love him more than we love anyone
else to love his word more than we love any other book to love him with all the heart with all the
soul and with all the strength and he told us you know that it was better than all burnt offerings
and sacrifice was just to love him more than putting all your money in the offering plate
more than than sacrificing everything you have more than bestowing all your goods to feed the
poor and giving your body to be burned he said the greatest thing you can do is just to love God
just love him love his word love who he is be and don't be ashamed of him you know can you imagine
if uh and I use the illustration of husband and wife just because it's just easy to understand
it just helps us to understand this and the bible does relate it you know he says you know husbands
love your wives even as Christ loved the church so there is a similarity there and the love between
a husband and wife and the love that we should have for Christ that he has for us
well think about this can you imagine if uh if uh basically let's say I were going to some kind
of a gathering with with friends or maybe it was a business gathering so I'm going somewhere and
I'm seeing a lot of co-workers and stuff and what if I told my wife I said honey I want you to stay
home and the reason that I wanted her to stay home is because I didn't want people to meet her
and to see this is my wife now wouldn't that be terrible like if I was ashamed of my wife I could
I don't want to bring her along because I'm ashamed of her I'd rather just show up on my own
now you say why are you using that illustration you're going to hurt your wife's feelings well
the reason I'm not going to hurt my wife's feelings is because usually it's the other way around
because here's the thing I have no reason to be ashamed of my wife my wife is a wonderful lady
she's beautiful she's you know intelligent she's charming you know I have no reason to be ashamed
to this my wife but you know what there are a lot of people who are ashamed of me
now thank god my wife is not ashamed of me but can you imagine how I would feel if she were
because let me tell you something there are a lot of people who really like my wife
and they really love my wife and they hate my guts that's a fact there are because she's got
different she's got different friends and and people that she associates with that that don't
think that I'm the coolest guy in the world and you know it what if she was just like well honey
can you just be gone you know at that time or can you just stay behind because you know these
people don't like you and so you know I'd rather you just weren't there you know that would hurt
my feelings and you know if you look at that you'd say well you don't love your husband
you're choosing these other people over your husband wouldn't you say that you'd say like
hey what's the deal here who do you love where's your love is it with your husband or is it with
you know the haters you know the crowd that hates your husband because anytime you do what's right
people they're going to be people who hate you marvel not my brethren if the world hates you
if they hate you you know that they hated me before they hated you that's what Jesus said
and so there could be an opportunity for my wife to be ashamed of me and there may be men who might
be ashamed of their wife for whatever reason or wives that's not love you know love says hey
my wife is more important than what these other people think or my husband is more important
than what these other people think because I love him more than I love them and if I have to
alienate him or alienate them I'll alienate them well now transfer that to our relationship with
God with the fact that we love God and he loves us you know what is more important to us what
our friends think about us or standing true to our friend the Lord Jesus Christ and loving him
do we love him more or do we love the people that that don't love him more and we want to fit in
with them at school or fit in with them at work you know the Bible talks about there were people
in the days of Jesus Christ that they believed on the Lord Jesus Christ but it says they would not
confess him openly for fear of the Jews and here's what it says because they loved the praise of men
more than the praise of God more than their love for God more than their love and desire
to please God and to be acceptable in his sight they wanted to be acceptable in the sight of those
around them because they love those people more than they love God they'd rather be accepted of
them than to be accepted by God you know when you if you love your parents you know you want them to
be proud of you right if you're a child or a young person and you're growing up and you love
your parents you want them to be proud of you you don't want to make them ashamed of you you know
you want to do what you don't want to do what's right and make them proud and please them and you
know we as children of God I don't want to please God and make God proud of us and not be so
concerned with what other people think that that's more important to us than what God thinks that
means we love them more than we love God if we're more ashamed of God then we are ashamed of them
you know we ought to be ashamed you ought to be ashamed of your your worldly stinking friends
instead of being ashamed of God instead of being ashamed of the word of God you know and I hope
that my wife and I know that and I used my wife's example because obviously you know this isn't
something that we have a problem with but you know what if somebody came up my wife oh your
your husband's that pastor that that hates homosexuals you know he hates gay people you
know and then what if she said like oh yeah I guess you know we don't agree on everything
wouldn't that be ridiculous so she's siding she'd be basically siding with a bunch of perverts
siding with disgusting disease-filled perverts and that's what they are read your Bible
and don't you know what if you have if you don't like what I just said don't come and tell me after
I'll tell you to shut up come and tell me after you know I'm sick of it I'm fed up with it this
Bible is the truth it says much harsher things than what I just said and if you can't handle
that you need to go somewhere else because I'm tired of this limp-wristed Christianity
that accepts perversion that accepts filth that accepts what's disgusting and violent
reprobate the side of God I don't accept it and you say well you know I don't I think you're just
too mean well then you've never read the Bible so just get out of here and go to your limp-wristed
little sissified baptist church down the street because I'm not going to put up with somebody
coming to me and defending sodomy to me I won't do it I will not have someone defend sodomy in my
face and if somebody comes to my wife and starts defending sodomy defending disgusting things and
then and then she just is embarrassed of me and embarrassed to be married to me no they ought to
be embarrassed a bunch of herds that's a very I mean if I had some fag as my relative I'd be
embarrassed yeah yeah that's right I wouldn't go around saying oh here here's my uncle here's my
sister she's a son I say man I don't even know who this is
I'm serious I'd say you know what I don't even know who this is I know they're you know
this person that's saying they're my relative I don't even know who to get this person away from
me I'm serious but you know if I came into some Bible believing preacher who preaches actually
what the Bible says I'm not going to be ashamed of him you know except some preacher who's in prison
somewhere I'm not going to be ashamed of him I'll say yeah that's my brother in Christ somebody
who's hated and attacked or or misused by the media or misused by by their friends or somebody
who's persecuted for the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ I'll stand tall and say yes that's my
friend yes I know him yes he's my brother in Christ but if I had a physical relative that
was some disgusting pervert man I'd be ashamed of them I wouldn't be ashamed of God's word
and today we got it all backwards we want to accept everybody but we won't accept God's word
we want to love everybody except God and God's sitting there looking at all these Christians
who say they're so loving and they have so much love oozing out of every pore and love coming out
of every speaker of the sound system of their church and the one person they don't love is God
because they won't preach his word if they love his word why won't they preach it
why won't they stand up if they love God's law I mean David said I love your law God
he said I love it he said I love your judgments I love it if they loved it wouldn't they be talking
about it but no they talk about the parts that they like and then the other parts they don't
love David said I love it all and you know David only had part of it David didn't have the whole
Bible in his hand David had the gnarliest part of the Bible in his hand Genesis through Deuteronomy
yeah he came to the story of Sodom and Gomorrah and said I love it he came to the story of where
God lays out the rules and the laws and he tells you to be pure until you're married he said I love
it he got to the part where the Bible tells us not to steal not to lie to be honest he said I love
that I love it he got to the part where it said don't covet be content with such things as you
have and he said I love that I love it he got to the part where it said you know all things
whatsoever you would that men should do unto you do ye even so to them he said I love that I love
it I love God's laws I love God's word it all makes such great sense and we can live our life
by it we can anchor our soul to it we can anchor our life our business our family everything to the
Bible it's great I love it but go ahead choose your little sodomite tv show I mean can you
imagine how heartbreaking it would be if if my wife left me or if your wife left you think about
that right your wife left you and you know what what if my wife left me just for some really just
derelict of a guy I mean what if my wife said honey I'm leaving you to be with this this
homeless person okay what if she said honey I'm leaving you to be with a punk rock singer
and he's got he's got a blue mohawk and he's his face looks like he fell out of a fishing
tackle box and she said honey I'm sorry I'm choosing this guy over you this punk rock
singer sagging his pants with a blue mohawk or I'm leaving you for this dirty smelly homeless
person like this is who I'm leaving before he's also a drug addict okay and I mean it's insanity
isn't it but think about that that's what when you compare God to the stuff that we trade God for
it's like we'll trade reading God's work for watching some tv show that's put out by by
you know sodomites or put out by adulterers or mongers or put out by sorcerers and put out by
you know it's like uh sorry God I'm too busy reading the twilight series to read your word
I mean think about that how must God feel how offended how hurt God I knew I was going to go
to church but instead I'm going to hang out with my friend who's a long-haired burned out hippie
God that's how I'm choosing to spend time with instead of spending time with you
or I'm going to go hang around with this promiscuous girl in a nightclub you know
rather than hang out with you God I mean how offensive how must God be hurt and injured by
that I mean think about that you're choosing all this other stuff you're choosing all these other
people instead of wanting to be with me you know why do we love God why do we love his word why
don't we love who he is and not just a lip service of saying oh I love God as we embrace every
philosophy that's contrary to God's word as we go everywhere except church as we read every book
except the bible you know God ties in loving him he says I'll know when you love me it's when you
keep my commandments it's when you're coming to my house when you're reading my work it's always
tied in like that so many scriptures we have we could go on all day but let's go to another point
here look at Luke chapter number seven Luke chapter number seven because my question is
why don't you love God you know if you don't and I hope you do and I believe most people here
probably you love God that's why you're here that's why you read the Bible that's why you
come to church you do love God you do delight in his word you delight in his laws you delight in
who he is now we could go on and on about loving other people loving your wife loving your husband
loving your pastor loving your church member loving your friends there's a lot of people we
should love you know loving our brothers and sisters in Christ you know I hope that you don't
come to this church and say and say well I come to this church because it's the only church I can
find you know what I mean I don't love it I tolerate it now there are a lot of people who
go to a church and they don't love it they just tolerate it it's like it's okay now maybe that's
the best they can find and I feel sorry for them but man I would hate to be your pastor if that's
how you feel you know well you know we tried everything else you know what I mean and we've
chosen the the one that we like we we dislike this one the least you know it's okay man I hope you
love this church I love this church I love you I don't think you're just an okay church member
well depends on who you are but no I'm just kidding go to Luke 7 and look at verse uh let's start let's
see where everyone start reading let's start reading in verse 37 this is where Jesus is over
at the home of a Pharisee friend and in uh luke 7 37 he's at this Pharisee's house says behold a
woman in the city which was a sinner when she knew that Jesus sat at need in the Pharisee's house
brought an alabaster box of orbit now of course we know everybody's a sinner but when it says she's
a sinner it means she's a serious sinner she's actually been like a harlot okay so she's done
some serious bad stuff it says in verse 38 and stood at his feet so this lady stood his feet
behind him weeping and began to wash his feet with tears and then wiped them with the hairs of her
hand and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment now when the Pharisee which had
bitten him saw it he spake within himself saying this man if he were a prophet would have known
who and what manner a woman this is that touch with him she is a sinner so basically this
Pharisee is just thinking in his mind of course Jesus knows his thoughts but he looks at this
woman who's washing Jesus's feet with her own tears and he says you know what I don't think
Jesus is really who he says he is because if Jesus were really a prophet he would know
that this woman is a really bad woman that's washing his feet and he wouldn't he wouldn't
even want her to touch him like that you know he wouldn't want her to even be washing his feet
and it says in verse number uh 40 and Jesus answering said to him Simon I have somewhat to
say unto thee and he saith master say on there was a certain creditor which had two debtors the one
owed 500 pence and the other 50 and when they had nothing to pay he frankly forgave them both
tell me therefore which of them will love him most Simon answered and said I suppose that he to whom
he forgave most and he said unto him thou is rightly judged and he turned to the woman and
said unto Simon seest thou this woman I entered into thine house thou gavest me no water for my
feet but she had washed my feet with tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head
thou gavest me no kiss but this woman since the time I came in had not ceased to kiss my feet
my head with oil thou it's not annoying but this woman has anointed my feet with ointment
wherefore I say to thee her sins which are many are forgiven for she loved much but to whom little
is forgiven the same loveth little and he said there thy sins are forgiven and they that sat
and meet with him began to say within themselves who is this that forgives sins also and he said
to the woman thy faith hath saved thee go with peace so what is going on in the story this woman
she believed on the lord jesus christ they looked at jesus and said well who is this guy that
forgives sins also and you know his response to that is to look at her and say well thy faith is
safety you know anybody who believes on jesus christ can be saved the bible says that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life what must I do to be saved they
said believe on the lord jesus christ and thou shalt be saved in thy house this woman was saved
yeah she's done a lot of bad stuff in her past yeah she's been uh an ungodly woman in the past
okay and i'm sure she's going to continue to sin on some level hopefully she had given up the
lifestyle of being a prostitute but basically maybe she had maybe she had but the point is
she believed on jesus christ she had faith in him and he said to her thy faith is saving and
he explained to the pharisee he said look if a person owed 50 bucks and another person owed 500
bucks and the creditor forgave them both who's gonna love him more and he said obviously the
one who was forgiven the 500 dead is gonna love him more and he said you're exactly right and he
said this woman because she had many sins which were forgiven she loves me more than you do
because you know you've been forgiven of your sins but you didn't have as many sins so therefore you
don't have as much love toward him now why is that it doesn't necessarily have to be so
i mean somebody could be forgiven the 50 bucks and be a very appreciative grateful person
but chances are the one who's forgiven more is gonna love her why is that because they would
they would have a greater appreciation they would have a greater understanding
of of the the magnanimity that was shown and think about this okay if we would really realize
what jesus has done for us we would love him more that's what i take from this story if we realize
what he has done for us we would love him more i mean if somebody gave you 500 right
just out of the goodness of the heart they knew that you had a great need
they knew you were suffering they knew you didn't have any money they knew you needed
to pay a bill and and that person gave you 500 you'd love that person and you know people have
given me money in my life when i remember uh many many years ago there were times when people put
just a little bit of money into my hand when i was going through a time of need and you know what
that meant a lot to me and i loved that person was very thankful for what they had done for me
and people who helped me out in my time of need man i love those people and i and you know i
and then later you'll hear people talk about you'll say wait a minute that's my friend you
know i love that guy i love her why because they did something for you and you've been grateful
now other people you can do things for them and they just forget about it they don't care
they're not grateful they're not appreciative right they're unthinkable but many people who
start in the right place like if you do something good for them they're going to remember that
they're going to remember that 10 years from now they're going to love you for that
and they're going to be thankful for that well it's the same thing with with with jesus
some people they're just not as thankful as others for what he did for them and therefore
they just don't love them that much i mean if somebody uh sacrificed for you if somebody gave
you 500 bucks that's not really that big of a deal though is it i mean in the scheme of things
as eternity 500 bucks is not really the biggest thing in the whole world is it it's not like they
died for you but what if somebody died for you what if somebody died for your child what if
somebody really uh sacrificed for you in a great way and they and they sacrifice their reputation
or they sacrifice uh their family or they sacrifice everything for you and you just didn't
care stop and think about that and if you look at what jesus did and there are two kinds of people
there are going to be the people who have fully comprehended what jesus did for us and those who
just blow it up like well he died on the cross for our sins and you know yeah i believe him so i'm
saying but hold on a second have you really stopped and think about what he did have you
stopped to think about the fact that he came to this earth he left you know the glories of heaven
where he has every comfort he lives in a perfect place he has no need of anything he has everything
he needs he came down to this earth and lived as a human being for 33 some odd years he never
sinned but he was tempted in all points like as we are yet without sin he was hungry he was thirsty
he was tired he stayed up all night many times and was very tired but he persevered and stayed
up praying through the night uh he arose early he he worked hard he went through the death of
his loved ones and friends with with lazarus and he wept and cried and then after living a perfect
life and he was alone you know he wasn't married he didn't have a wife he went through you know
he knows what it was to be single he knew what it was to to be uh hated by his own family his
four brethren they hated him he knew what it was like to be disrespected he knew what it was to be
marked he had people trying to kill him he was sleeping outside and had no place to sleep in
many cases he was in trouble with the law there's a warrant out for his arrest he was arrested and
he went through all that and then at the end of it all he's at the garden of gethsemane and he's
praying and weeping and the bible says he began to be very heavy he was down he was gloomy he was
crying he was begging the father if it be possible let this cup pass from me he didn't want to face
the cross he said if there's any other way he i mean let this cup pass from me and the bible says
that as he prayed great drops of sweat were dropping from his brow like drops of blood
he was in agony the bible says he was in pain and suffering even just dreading what was coming
on the following day and on the following day of course he's beaten 39 times and the bible says
he received stripes which means that the lash of the whip actually left a bloody stripe in its wake
and he was beaten he was spat upon and the bible says he despised the shame he didn't like being
spat on he didn't like him nobody likes being made fun of nobody likes being mocked and ridiculed
and spat upon they spat in his face they made fun of him they laughed at him they punched him in
the face the bible says they smote him with their hands they hit him in the head with a stick they
shoved a crown of thorns on his head and the blood gushed down his face from the wounds they
nailed him to the cross and as he hung on the cross he said father forgive them for they know
not what they do why did he go through all that why was he beaten why was he hated why was he
marked he could have been a hero he had the power to heal people he could have just showed up and
healed everybody he could have been given all the nicest clothes he could have gold and silver
and precious stones he could have lived like a king on this earth if he had so chosen think
about it he could have come down from heaven and just been a king had everyone to love him and
carry him around on their shoulders but no he was hated he was despised he was rejected of men
why did he do it why was he beaten why was he spat upon and then as he was on the cross the
bible says that he his own self there are sins in his own body on the tree every sin you've
ever done or i've ever done and even people worse than anybody in this room every sin was placed
upon him and as he took upon him the sins of the whole world it became dark across the face of the
earth and he said my god my god why hast thou forsaken me i mean he felt what it was to have the
wrath of god abiding on him i mean to to basically all of god's anger towards sin
all of god's punishment that sin deserves directed on himself taking our punishment for us taking the
blame for our sin the bible says that he died on the cross his body was buried in a tomb the
bible is clear his soul went to hell for three days and three nights acts 231 matthew 1240
adhesives chapter four many other places he suffered the pain the suffering the agony the
shame the reproach hell its torment the agony of everything that our sin deserves everything i
deserve everything you deserve everything anyone who's ever sinned in the history of man has ever
deserved he took that punishment he received the punishment that we deserve why and of course he
rose again three days later triumphantly having conquered hell and death and having the keys of
hell and death he arose victorious and he's now of course glorified at the right hand of the father
jesus christ of course was god in the flesh we believe in the father of the son and the holy
ghost these three are one but why did he do it he did it because he loves you because listen to this
verse it's in galatians shepherd 2 he said in galatians 2 20 i am crucified with christ
nevertheless i live yet not i but christ live within me and the life which i now live in the
flesh i live by the faith of the son of god and listen who loved me now a lot of times in the
bible read it just says you know he loved us he died for us he died for the world but paul said
no he loved me and he gave himself for me he said you know what jesus christ died for me
he loved me he died for me he went to the cross that he might save me he sacrificed himself for
me and some burned out hippie in superior arizona will tell you he's not a loving god
ah he's a bad god you know i mean that's what they you know why because they don't understand
what he did they don't believe in what he did they don't believe that he did that they don't
even understand or comprehend what it means paul understood it and he said you know what
i'm going to live for him he's my life i'm going to live a life by the faith of the son of god
he said because i know he gave himself for me he loved me he died for me hey hereby perceive we
the love of god he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the
brethren you know we love him because he first loved us and until we realize and comprehend his
love for us until we comprehend his love for us that he would sacrifice himself i mean look let's
face it if a human being and obviously i know jesus was a human being he was god and he was man
both but it's just an average human being today in 2011 did that for you how would you feel about
that person what if somebody today in 2011 was crucified for you your friend died for you or
what if somebody took a bullet for you what if somebody jumped if somebody was aiming a gun at
you and they jumped in front of you and formed a human shield and took a bullet for you and fell
down dead how would you feel about that person would you would you dishonor their memory or would
you love them i mean think about somebody jumps in front of you takes a bullet for you falls down
dead and lifeless at your feet and then a few weeks later somebody's making fun of that person
how would you feel oh yeah that geek oh yeah that idiot you'd say wait a minute he died for
me don't you understand don't you understand that that person loved me more than anyone has ever
loved me and you're gonna mock them and ridicule them you'd be offended you'd be hurt by it and
you know what jesus christ has done that for us and more than just even just taking a bullet
for us i mean he did so much more than that if we would comprehend it if we would understand it
so why don't we love him you know if you don't love him i think i don't know if you just do you
just not understand what the bible has said that he did for us do you just not believe it i mean
how can you not love him how can you not love his word when everything he's ever said was right
every commandment he ever gave you if you did it it'll be great for you
and everything they told you not to do is a stupid thing to do anyway
when he told you not to commit adultery he knows it's going to mess up your life
he knows you're going to get disease he knows that you're going to ruin your marriage he knows
you're going to be miserable if you're if you go out and commit a bunch of fornication and go out
and get drunk and you the alcoholics are the happiest people in the world right they're all
really happy wonderful people he knows that all that stuff is just going to mess he's not trying
to punish you with that stuff he loves you he's giving you commandments that are good for you that
are right for you that are going to help you and you turn around and won't love him and you love
everything else you know and you choose everybody else and you choose the worldly friends and you
choose the nightclub and you choose the movie theater and you choose a bunch of sodomites
and you choose sin and you choose some liberal church that makes you feel good but they won't
preach his word they won't tell you they won't tell you that the bible says that that sodomites
should be stoned with stones and put to death because they don't love that i love that verse
say oh what's wrong with you you love that verse i love all of it because it's who god is and if
you don't love that verse your heart isn't right you know and there's stuff in the bottom and
that's just one example and the reason i bring up that example is because that seems to be the big
thing today every time you turn around right everybody's trying to cram that down your throat
being a homo is good or something you know that's just one example i mean we could take any example
you know we take the example of the of creation you know i don't walk around embarrassed to the
fact that god created the earth 6000 some odd years ago you know i don't walk around hanging
my head because i don't believe in the big bang i don't walk around hanging my head because i don't
believe i evolved from an ape you know i mean it's just stupid to be ashamed of the bible and you know
the politicians do it they ask politicians like hey do you believe in creation oh well um i don't
really know i'm not really a scientist um you know that's not really what i'm talking about
what do you think about the homos oh well you know i mean uh i don't know what do you think
about this issue you know what do you think about the bible the bible god's word oh well i mean it's
definitely a wonderful book but you know what they're politicians they're paid to be a liar
they're paid to be a deceiver that's what they are but that's not what we are we're christians
we're god's people we're the saints we ought to stand tall and say yes i believe the bible amen
yes i'll bring it in my lunchbox to work into school yes i'll wear it as a badge everywhere
i go and say jesus loves me this i know for the bible tells me so yes i'll sing the hymns at the
top of my lungs yes i'll read the bible yes i'll sing the hymns yes i go to church yes i'm a baptist
yes i love the bible does the bible really say yes it says that let me show you where it says
that isn't that great but you know what the world we live in today we are kowtowing to the world and
we're ashamed of jesus you know what jesus is my friend jesus died for me jesus loves me and you
know what i love him and i love this book and this is the book i want to read this is the book i want
to talk about the place i want to be is god's house my best friends are my brothers and sisters
in christ i'd rather hang around with them than a bunch of worldly unsaved ungodly people that's who
i want to hang around with god's people that's who i love the brethren the brotherhood that's who i
love the most that's who i delighted that's where i want to be you want to play video games all day
no i don't want to play video games all day with you i want to read the bible i want to go soul
winning i want to love god i want to pray i want to think about him hey you want to talk
sports sometime it's like no let's talk about this and i'm not saying that those things are
bad i'm just saying is that what life is about no choose god first love him supremely put him first
please him foremost first and foremost you know in your marriage your spouse ought to be first
above other women you know or other men respectively but you know what our love
for god should even go way beyond that way beyond that he should be number one he's our friend he's
the one that we wake up with and talk to it and when we go to bed at night we're singing his praises
on our lips as we as we fall asleep at night that is what he wants from us and look you know do i
love god as much as i should i'm sure i do you know hopefully the longer to just as a marriage
you know you grow in love for your spouse as we grow in grace and the knowledge of our lord and
savior jesus christ we should love him more as we understand him more as we get to know him more
i'm not perfect you're not perfect but you know what i can honestly say i love him do i love him
as much as i should probably not but i do love him i love the bible i hope you love him i hope
you don't just think well he's the one we're stuck with you know he created the world so what are we
going to do say we don't like him and go to hell because we don't believe in him yeah we do have to
you know i mean i have to stay married to my wife too i mean you know that's not an option just
switching lives but you know what i also love her though and you know what it's the same thing with
god there's plenty of reasons to love my wife and there's plenty of reasons to love god and you know
what we ought to stay you know what how often do i have to go to church you know once a week enough
or does it have to be three times a week you know that's what some people's mentality is like
is once a week enough sunday morning or is three times a month or three times a week or christmas
and easter you know what do i have to do you know what to be honest it doesn't matter you should
want to be here that's the way i feel about it you know and if you don't want to be it find a church
that you do want to be at but you you should want to be at church and if you don't want to be a
paperwork Baptist church and i encourage you go find a church that you want to be at but you
should want to be somewhere where god's word is preached some church you should want to be there
and say man let's go i'm glad to go i mean some people travel a long way to come to church you
know they want to be there and you know what that's and then some people don't even want to
cross the street to go to church so think about that love the lord it's the greatest commandment
it's the greatest thing i could be preaching on this morning is loving him that's the biggest
thing love him let's borrow that word of prayer father we thank you so much for your word dear
god and we thank you so much for dying on the cross for us and sacrificing yourself for us
i don't even think i fully understand it dear god and the more i understand and the more i think
about it the more i love you and and i thank you so much for your word dear god and i i'm not
embarrassed about anything that you said in the bible and i'll publicly stand with everything in
that book and father i pray that everybody is here to love you and help me to love you
more and help us all to love you more and thank you for loving us first and in jesus name we pray