Sermon Tone Analysis

*Preparing to Live*

*Living Requires a Foundation of Love (2)*

(Ephesians 3:17)

 

A man was standing on the bathroom scale clearly sucking in his stomach.

His helpful wife, thinking he was trying to weigh less, said, “John, I don’t think that’s going to help.”

He replied, “Sure it is.

It’s the only way I can see the numbers.”

The point is – if we are going to live a truly /Christian /life, rooted and grounded in love – we have */to get self out of the way/*.

To help with that, we’re in a series entitled “Preparing to Live” – so named because it is a study of that great prayer by Paul at the end of Ephesians 3 given in anticipation of the practical exhortations he is about to lay on them in chapters 4-6 aimed at bringing their practice into comformity with their position.

He wants their conduct to reflect their calling which will require /spiritual preparation.

/So – he makes audacious petition for five elements – five rungs to a ladder -- that will take them from their old worldly, pre-Christ lifestyle to living a heavenly existence right here on earth.

He prays for inner strength to be able to bear all that their Lord will ask.

They he prays that Christ be comfortably settled in their hearts – free to move about at will */removing all that is sinful, selfish or extraneous to make room for His will/*.

Last week we began to look at the third rung found in the latter half of verse 17, “that you, being rooted and grounded in love.”

“Rooted” makes us think of that which is fundamental and basic.

“Grounded” reminds us of the Empire State Building – standing high and mighty because of its 5-story foundation.

Paul’s point – you must have a strong foundation and the foundation for Christian living is one simple but profound thing – it is love.

I heard of one longtime basketball coach who became a track coach.

“It’s the easiest job of all,” he said.

“All you have to do is tell them to turn left and get back as quick as they can.”

The exercise of self-giving /agape /love brings this same kind of */fundamental simplicity/* to our lives.

*/How is love foundational?/*

We saw first that love is */strong/* – defining every other Christian discipline.

Without love, no spiritual gift, no methodology, no ministry, no effort of any kind can succeed.

Love is primary; it’s strong!

Second we saw that love is */sustaining/*; it nourishes our souls.

Without love we will become gnarly, shriveled up vestiges of what the Lord intended for us.

Love nourishes.

Now today, two more elements of love’s foundation.

*III.

** Love is Selfless*

* *

Next, we see that love is selfless.

A foundation is unseen.

You don’t even know that it’s there.

So Christian love is selfless.

It’s focus is twofold – God and others.

Jesus answered a question from one of the Pharisees in Matthew 22:36-40:  “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37) And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

38) This is the great and first commandment.

39) And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

40) On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Most of us have heard this statement since we were children and we believe it.

But isn’t it true that even as Christians */we are much closer to loving ourselves with all of our heart, soul and mind than we are God?/*

In all honesty, how much time did we devote in the past week to communing with God, as compared to say, the amount we spent watching TV or browsing the internet or pursuing our own hobbies, interests, work and concerns?

/God can be in any of those with us, but *the question is, was He*/?

The foundation of selfless love focuses on God and it focuses on others.

Let’s examine more closely.

*A.

**It Focuses on God*

* *

A four-year-old girl, hugging a doll in each of her pudgy little arms, looked wistfully up at her mother and said, “Mama, I love them and love them and love them, but they never love me back.”

I sometimes wonder – does God ever feel that way?

We have no higher calling than to love God, but so often we are AWOL.

*/Got better things to do; worlds to conquer; money to be made, perhaps even ministries to perform/*.

See you on Sunday morning, God.

May I say – that’s not being rooted and grounded in love.

So, how do we love God?

How do we /know/ that we are loving Him?  Let me give you five ways this morning taken right out of His Word.

*1.

**Love spends time with Him.*

When you love someone, you desire to be with them, and with God that certainly means a devotional time of Bible reading and prayer.

If that is not happening, we cannot really be claiming to love God.

At the very least our love has grown cold.

Devotions are critical – but they are just the start.

Allow me to get radical this morning.

The time to spend with God is -- */all the time/*/.

/That’s the wonder of God.

We can take Him with us anywhere, anytime.

I used to travel a lot and what I hated most was it took me away from my wife.

She joined me for one, maybe two trips in 30 years and several million miles of business travel.

*/But God is different./*

When our young adult group studied /Don’t Waste Your Life, /we came upon a section in I Corinthians 7 where Paul is urging that people incorporate God into their daily lives.

He says in verse 17, “Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him.

We all think of pastors and missionaries as called, but did you know that your life is equally a calling from God?  It truly is, and he is urging you to lead the life that He has assigned to you.

Bu the clincher is in verse 24, “24) So, brothers, in whatever condition each was called, there */let him remain with God/.*”

Isn’t that good?

Whatever you are doing, wherever you go, */remain with God./*  Truth is God is always there.

Question is, are we remaining with Him.?  Is He in our mind?

Are we checking signals with Him?  Committing our way to Him?  Looking for guidance from Him?  Are we */sinking deep roots into this foundation of selfless love by being with Him? /*/If not – probably don’t love Him.  /

*/ /*

*2.      **Love Gladly Keeps His Commandments*

Don’t miss the word /gladly.

/It is crucial.

Listen to Jesus in John 14:15, “15) “If you love me, you */will/* [not might, not could, not sometimes, but will] you will keep my commandments.

Now skip down to verse 21, “21) Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me.

Now skip down to verse 23, “23) Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he */will/* keep my word.”

Those who love God */will naturally/*/ *keep* /His commandments and His precepts.

Those who love God /love/ His words.

It’s not a matter of saying, “Oh man, I really want to paint the town tonight, but I can’t because then I wouldn’t be loving God.

But, boy, I sure want to.”

Listen, you might as well paint the town because in your attitude and in your heart you already have.

See – we miss the point.

We think that we love God *by* keeping his commandments.

That’s what I grew up thinking.

But that’s backwards.

*/Frontwards is, We keep His commandments because we love Him./*  That’s why we’re glad about it.

Keeping God’s commandments out a sense of obligation and legalism is an affront to Him and to us.

We */gladly/* obey because we love.

Love is first; obedience follows.

That’s the only way it can ever work.

I saw a cartoon one time showing Moses, on Mount Sinai, looking upward:  “Maybe I should deliver just the first five now and see how it goes down.”

That’s not a true believer.

A true believer loves God’s law because he loves God.

The soldier in Iraq gets a letter from his beloved.