First Love Test

Welcome to Sharper Sword, the publication ministry of Lighthouse Baptist Church in Lemon Grove, California.

Lighthouse believes that individuals can reach their potential for the Lord as they grow in Christ.

We want to hear our Lord say, Well done, thou good and faithful servant.

Let's join Pastor Doug Fisher as he preaches another important biblical message from the Word of God.

Take your Bible.

Let's look at Genesis 22.

Thank you for the good music, your good spirits.

Genesis chapter number 22.

And if you're able to do that, Genesis 22, then pick up John, the Gospel of John, chapter 21, please.

John 21 · chapter mention

So Genesis 22 and the Gospel of John, chapter number 21.

And thanks for following along a little bit this morning.

It's something that uh the Lord has been working with me a little bit on.

I'd like to uh put it out there with the idea that possibly the Holy Ghost would use it in your life in some way, shape, or form.

In Genesis chapter 22, and you're holding your place in John 21, look at verse number 11.

Genesis 22 · chapter mention

Verse number 11.

The Bible says, and the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham.

And he said, Here am I.

The angel says, and he said, Lay not thine hand unto the lad, upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him, for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing that thou hast not withheld thy son, thy only son, from me.

I want you to stop there and just think with me.

And if you know the story, uh Abraham was asked by the Lord to go up, and God told Abraham to sacrifice his son, whose name was Isaac.

If you know about Isaac, uh Abraham and Sarah had for a long time wanted a child of their own, especially a male child to carry on, be the heir, and they had not had that child, and they became in the hundred-year-old category.

Abraham, it said he was as good as dead.

Sarah was beyond ability to bear a child naturally, although God can do things supernaturally.

Now I hope nobody here thinks, are you talking about having a child in the old age?

The idea was it's in the Bible.

Come on.

The idea was God supernaturally gave them a son, and his name was Isaac.

And it was miraculous that God did that for Abraham and Sarah.

Notice verse number two.

Verse number two.

He said, Take now thy son, thine only son.

We know biblically he had another son whose name was Ishmael, but God says, This is your only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest.

So what God asked Abraham to do was take this son of his old age that he had longed for, take that son up and sacrifice that son.

And what's depicted here is Abraham, I want you to take that which you love up and don't withhold him from me, give him to me.

Once in a while, God asks for something that we love.

He asked for us to give it up.

He has something once in a while in our lives that something we love.

Maybe a person, maybe a career, maybe a uh you name it, and God says, I want you to sacrifice that which you love, don't withhold that from me.

Why?

Because God says, I want you to love me above everything and everybody that's in your life.

I want you to love me with the kind of first love that there's nothing in your life that you love more than me.

I'll say it again: there's nothing in your life that you love more than me.

And if I want you to give that to me, I'm gonna ask you for that.

And because you have me as your first priority and your first love, that you would be willing to give that up, trusting me.

And don't withhold it.

And the Bible says that, verse number five, please look at it, verse five.

And Abraham said to his young man, Abide ye here with the ass, stay down here with the donkey.

And notice what he says, and I and the lad, my son Isaac, I and the lad will go yonder and, would you underline the next word, and do what?

Worship.

We're gonna go yonder and worship and come again to you.

No doubt Abraham believed that God was able to raise him from the dead, but I want you to see that God wrote in the Bible that Abraham and his son were going up the mountain to worship.

Now, worship means this: extravagant love, extreme love that causes submission.

And that submission allows sacrificial actions.

And what that meant was that Abraham was going up to take that son, his only son, at God's request and lay that son out on an altar and sacrifice him unto the Lord as God requested.

And he was extremely submitted and trusting the one that he loved.

That God would take care of the situation and work it all out.

Brethren, sometimes, please listen, we don't need to understand what God is doing.

All we can do is just obey.

God doesn't explain everything all the time, but he wants our obedience and our submission and our love towards him.

And brethren, sometimes love must be demonstrated.

Love takes on actions.

And this action was for his son to go up, you say, I read the end of the story, God stops him.

I know God stops him, but notice if you would, verse number 16.

Verse number 16, you're doing well.

Chapter 22, verse 16.

And he said, By myself have I sworn unto the Lord.

For because thou hast done this thing, hast not withheld thy son, thine only son.

Because you didn't withhold him.

In verse number 18 it says, He obeyed.

Because he didn't withhold him, he said in verse 17 that in blessing I will bless thee.

And in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven.

And as the sand which is upon the seashore, thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies.

What he says is, I'm gonna multiply your family.

I'm gonna bless your family, I'm gonna bless who you are and what you are, I'm gonna bless your offspring.

Because you have not withheld that which you loved on earth the most, but trusted in me.

I'm gonna bless you in such a way that nobody's gonna understand the multiplication that I'm gonna do for you.

Brethren, I'm saying to you, once in a while, God may ask of us to give up something that we love.

And he doesn't have to tell us why.

You say, why do you say that?

We're the clay, he's the potter.

He shapes us, he forms us, he owns us, he bought us, and everything we have he's given to us.

Doesn't he have the right to say, now I want that back?

Miraculously, he gave them that son, Isaac.

And if he asked for it back, Abraham was wise enough to say, I'm not gonna withhold him.

I'm not gonna be stubborn, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna reason with you, Lord.

I'm just gonna say, okay.

And we'll go up and we'll worship together.

And then he said, and we'll come back again.

The idea, brethren, is Abraham believed God, loved God, believed in his miracles, knew that he didn't, he didn't of his own self produce this child, but God miraculously had done it.

Statement: when we know God gave it to us in the first place, then we ought to be willing to give it back if he wants it.

No matter what it is, and I say that I'm a human too, but when God gave it to us in the first place, we ought to look at it as all I'm doing is stewarding over what he owns.

When we get to the place where we realize that he owns it anyways, and he's asking for it back, and I'm gonna give it back if he wants it, and he knows what he's doing, and when we do that and obey, he blesses in such a way.

Look at John chapter 21.

John 21 · chapter mention

You're doing well, John chapter 21.

John 21 · chapter mention

Stay right with me, please.

Just four scriptures I'm gonna ask you to turn to in reference today, John chapter 21, the second one.

John 21 · chapter mention

We'll keep going quickly.

John chapter 21.

John 21 · chapter mention

Thank you for turning there.

This is Peter.

Peter was a fisherman.

If you know anything about Peter, everything he did, it was all or nothing.

Peter was all out.

Peter was one of those guys that uh, if Peter was driving a car, he would drive fast.

Come on, is that right?

He's just that way.

And I know he's not driving a car, but Peter was all out in whatever he did.

And Peter, if you would, was given the opportunity to catch a great, great drought of fishes, draw of fishes with his his apostle friends, if you would.

Notice verse 5, verse 6 of John 21.

Jesus says unto them, they had fished, children, have ye any meat?

Did you catch anything?

They said, No.

Then Jesus said, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, ye shall find.

They cast, therefore, and now there was not a, they were not able to draw it, that net, for the multitude of fishes.

They had fished all night, caught nothing.

And now they had caught this huge multitude of fishes.

In fact, the detail is given in verse number 11.

Please look at verse 11.

Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land full of, notice what it says, great fishes.

These were not small, little, if you would, these weren't little bluegills.

These were great fishes.

It would be the dream of every fisherman, commercial fisherman, to draw that load of fish in, that, that, that, that quantity, if you would, those great fishes.

And notice, and for all that, they were so many the net wasn't broken.

So they bring this big haul of fish in.

And then Peter is asked by something of the Lord.

Look at verse 15.

After they had dined, after they had eaten fish, Jesus said unto Simon, Peter, Simon, son of Jodas.

Notice what he says, lovest thou me more than these?

Peter, do you love me more than what I just gave you?

Do you love me more than that great catch of fish?

And you may not be a fisherman, but if you could just put yourselves in the mind of a commercial fisherman, and I mean the net was full of great fishes, it was the mother load.

It was what you longed for.

And here was this great net full of fishes, and the Lord says, Hey Peter, do you love me more than you love these?

Do you love me more than what you longed for?

More than what you worked for?

More than what you all your experience and what you trained for.

Now the Lord could have said, by the way, the night before you didn't catch anything, and I told you where to put the net, Peter already knew who put the fish in the net.

This wasn't Peter's first rodeo, this was the second time this happened.

And Peter knew who put the fish in the net.

And the Lord said to Peter, Peter, do you love me more than in your professional fishing career?

Do you love me more than what you trained for?

Do you love me more than what you wanted to be as a human?

Do you love me more than that?

Am I still your first love?

Am I still the one that you you think about more than you think about fishes?

Come on, are you still with me?

Just like Abraham and Sarah were given a son by God, Peter was given these fish, and I know it's not the same, but miraculously Peter was given these fish.

And God says, now.

In the next verses, he's gonna say this, look if you would, in verse number, uh, look at verse number uh 19, and you'll see right at the end of verse number 19, he says to Peter, now, follow me.

Leave that off, leave that net, don't worry about that net anymore.

Don't worry about your commercial fishing anymore.

It's time for you to follow me.

And he wasn't saying that like a negative because Peter had been following along, but this was a specific calling.

This was Peter, I'm gonna make you a leader now.

Peter, now you've experienced that success.

Are you ready to walk away from that success?

That which you train for, that's what you hope for, that which you you work towards, that which you and your your buddies talked about, the the fishing fleet there, the four of you, the two ships.

Are you ready?

Are you ready to walk away from that great success you just had?

And brethren, isn't it something that once in a while God will say to us, hey, do you love me more than this?

Even though you've had great success, even though I've blessed you, even though I've prospered you, can you walk away from that and follow me?

Can you can you give that up?

Am I still your first love?

The idea was, Abraham, you've not withheld your son.

And by the way, Peter said, You know I love you, Lord.

You know I do.

He's gonna say it three times, but only once is he gonna say, Lovest thou me more than these.

And what he's asking Peter to do is obey.

Walk away from it, leave it alone, and move on and follow me, not knowing exactly where you're gonna go, Peter.

Not knowing exactly what you're gonna do.

I'm gonna carry you places that you never thought of.

Now, please listen to you.

I'm not telling you today to leave your career.

I'm just preaching something that I'm supposed to preach this morning.

It may not be a career you're walking away from, but it may be something that you long for.

Maybe God has given it to you, maybe he hasn't, and God may say, now be done with it.

That's enough.

You had the opportunity, you worked at it, it's fine, but I want to see if you'll not withhold it from me.

I want to make sure you won't withhold that that multitude of fishes.

I want to make sure you won't withhold that son.

I want to make sure that I'm more important than anything.

I want to make sure I have the first love.

I want I want to make sure that you don't just call me God, but you make me the Lord.

Make me the Lord in your life where where I still have control of everything.

Anything and everything you have, and if I decide you no longer have it, that you'll not withhold it from me and you'll have a good spirit about it.

You have a good attitude about it.

Two more scriptures, please, quickly look at Job chapter 1, please, in Mark 10.

Job 1 · chapter mention

Last two scriptures.

Job chapter 1 and Mark chapter 10.

Job 1 · chapter mention Mark 10 · chapter mention

Thanks for listening to the word of God this morning.

Job chapter 1 and Mark chapter number 10.

Job 1 · chapter mention

So now we have Abraham not withholding.

We have Peter not withholding and following and giving over that great success to the Lord.

And no doubt God blessed Peter in such a miraculous way.

He became one of the leaders in the church of Jerusalem, took the gospel to the Gentiles.

So many things that Peter did, became the apostle, if you would, in a certain in a wonderful way.

Notice Job chapter 1.

Job 1 · chapter mention

Here's a different scenario.

Stay with me.

If you know anything about the book of Job, you'll know that in one day all his children died, and he lost all his business and wealth.

He was the greatest man of the east in wealth.

He had multiple children.

And in one day all those children died, and in one day he lost all that wealth and all his business.

And here was his statement.

Stay with me, verse 20.

Job chapter 1, verse 20.

Job 1:20

Then Job arose.

His children have all died.

His business is all gone.

He arose and rent his mantle.

His mantle is his coat, if you would.

It was a cultural thing, shaved his head and fell down on the ground.

And what?

Say it.

Worshiped.

He worshipped in great trauma.

He worshiped in great mental anguish.

He worshipped.

What does worship mean?

It means extravagant love through extreme submission, which causes the right actions, and in this case, it caused the right attitude.

And here is Job still worshiping the Lord and said, Naked came out of my mother's womb.

And naked shall I return thither.

The Lord gave.

The Lord hath taken away.

Blessed be the name of the Lord.

What is he saying?

The Lord gave me that family.

The Lord gave me all those children.

The Lord gave me all that business.

The Lord gave me all that wealth.

I came out with nothing.

God gave that all to me.

And now if he wants to take it back, I am not going to charge him foolishly.

I'm going to not withhold it.

I'm not going to have a bad attitude here.

Why?

Because he's God.

And if he's decided to do that, I just need to accept it.

Brother, I'm not saying there wasn't trauma and tears and amazement and wonderment and what's going on, I'm sure, but the Bible said he worshiped.

He submitted himself.

And then you know in the next chapter, he his health, his health goes very, very poorly, being attacked by Satan.

And notice what he says in verse 10.

Stay with me, verse 10.

His wife said, Why don't you just curse God and die?

And he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speak.

What?

Shall we receive good at the hand of the God?

And shall we not receive evil?

And all this did not Job sin with his lips.

Please listen.

Abraham was asked to sacrifice his son, and he went up and was not going to withhold.

Peter brought in this great bit of fishes and this great draught of fishes.

163 great fishes, and the net didn't break.

And God says, Do you love me more than these?

There was choice with Abraham.

There was choice with Peter.

With Job, he just had to accept God's choice.

What do you mean?

Peter, it was explained to him.

Abraham, it was explained to him.

For Job, Job really didn't get an explanation.

Please listen, it just happened.

There was no explanation.

God didn't sit Job down and explain what just happened.

He didn't explain why his children died.

He didn't explain why he lost his business.

He didn't explain why his health.

He didn't explain that Satan was trying and testing him.

God didn't explain that.

I think Job's a great man.

I think God knew Job's character because Satan came and said, you know, actually it was God who said, Have you concerted my servant Job?

God chose Job for this because he knew and knew Job's integrity, his character.

And even though he didn't explain this to Job, it was all taken away.

And Job, please listen, Job mentally didn't withhold it.

He worshiped.

I'm going to say it again.

Job did not mentally withhold it, he worshiped.

Which means he accepted it not without tears and trauma, not without amazement and astonishment and wondering.

But he accepted it and he did not charge God foolishly and he gave it over to God.

And the end of it was God blessed Job.

The latter end was greater than the beginning.

Come on, is that right?

God blessed Abraham when he didn't withhold, and God blessed Peter when he was willing to walk away from great success.

And God blessed Job even though Job didn't understand it all.

And God blessed him in the latter end because he worshiped and did not withhold.

Now I want to make this statement kind of blanket statement.

It may be something real small in our life that God says, give that up.

Let me say it again.

It might be something real small.

Oh, I don't know.

15 years or so ago, God asked me to give up a hobby I had.

What was it?

It doesn't matter.

Something I was putting a little time into.

And God says, you don't have time for that anymore.

And I said, yay, Lord.

And I gave it up.

Brethren, that's nothing compared to what we just read.

I mean, that's so, that's so elementary school compared to what we just read.

But God might say that little thing there, I want you to, I want you to, I want you to give it up.

Well, why?

I don't see anything wrong with it.

It's not sin.

And God may say it's not about sin, it's about withholding or giving it to me.

It's about submission, it's about worship.

I didn't say it was sin.

Well, everybody else does it.

I didn't say everybody else doesn't do it.

Well, but but why do I have to give it up?

Brother, I've got to tell you something.

When he asks you to give something up, it's better just to go, all right.

Lord, please help thy servant to give it up.

Just help me to have a good spirit and attitude and just give it up.

You say, well, why would he do that?

I don't know the mind of the Lord.

I'm not his counselor.

I'm a piece of clay, too.

Come on, is that right?

I'm just saying if he's asking you and dealing with you about something, uh, a something, a someone, uh, a situation, a memory, uh, uh, a past, uh, uh, some a vision, uh whatever it is you say.

But but would God do that?

I don't know what God would do.

I'm just supposed to preach this message.

May the Holy Ghost tutor us.

What do you mean?

May the Holy Spirit tell you what he's talking to you about.

And and please listen to me.

I got this in my notes.

Don't judge someone else and say, well, they should give this up.

This is not about someone else.

This is about you.

This is about me.

This is about me looking in the mirror and saying, God, if you have something in my life that you want me to submit to and give that to you, then I need to do it.

Whether it be fishes, which by the way, I could have no problem giving up fishes.

Come on, you still with me?

No problem with that.

A son?

A family?

Why?

My mind can't even go that far.

I can't even fathom that.

One last scripture.

Look at Mark 10, and we're done.

Mark 10 and we're done.

So we have Abraham who didn't withhold his son, his only son, of his old age.

We have Peter who gave back the success of the fishes, we have Job who accepted and retained his integrity.

But now I want to show you one more.

Mark 10, and we're done with this, and thank you for looking.

Mark 10, verse 20.

Mark 10:20

Mark 10, verse 20.

Mark 10:20

We finish with this, thank you.

And he answered and said unto him, Master, Mark 10, verse 20, all these have I observed from my youth.

Mark 10:20

Then Jesus, beholding him, did what?

Say it, everybody, loved him.

Say it again, loved him.

I got that underlined.

I hope you have that underlined in your Bible.

Then Jesus, beholding him, loved him and said unto him, one thing that thou lackest.

Go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, give it to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven.

And come, take up the cross and follow me.

That was love.

He loved him.

He said, Here, here's what I want you to do.

I want you to go sell everything you have.

I want you to give it to the poor, and you're gonna have a lot of treasure.

I want you to take up your cross, leave all that behind, and follow me.

And he was sad at that saying and went away grieved.

For he had great possessions.

He missed out.

You say, but he was asking to do something so much.

Brother, I want to tell you something.

God knows what we love the most and he might test us.

What I love and what you love might be something totally different.

What I love in this world and what you love in this world might be totally different.

And God might say, Yeah, I know what you love because I can see your heart and your thoughts, and I'm gonna tell you, I want to see if you're gonna give this up.

Well, but then you didn't ask pastor to give that up.

But but but but pastor loves something else.

I deal with him as pastor, not I I deal, I deal with individuals on an individual tutorial basis.

You say, is there context to this?

Yes, there is, because notice verse number 28, verse 28.

Then Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all and have followed thee.

Jesus answered and said, Verily, truly I say unto you, there's no man that's left house or brother or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my sake in the gospels.

But he shall now receive a hundredfold now in this time houses, brother and sisters, mother, children, lands, with persecution and in the world to come eternal life.

What is he saying?

Hey, you know what?

Whatever I ask you to give up, I can replace it with much more.

I can restore it.

I I can give you much more, even on that earth that you live on.

You you give it up for me.

You say, but but I like this one.

I like where you raise the knife and he stops you.

And says, that's good enough.

I like that.

Lord, I'll raise the knife and I'm gonna wait until you stop me.

Waiting.

Waiting.

Come on, this has got to be like Abraham.

I don't really want to do it, but I want to act like I want to do it.

And the Lord can see our hearts.

He wants worship.

He wants to have everything we are and everything we have, and if he wants it back, then I gotta make the statement to you.

He might ask from some something seemingly small.

But I want to tell you, when he asks, we want to worship.

We want to worship.

We want to love him with extravagant love.

Submit ourselves to him and act upon that.

And please, please, listen, please, listen.

I'll I'll think bad of myself if I don't say this.

Whatever God asks for, it's not unfair.

It's not unfair.

It's not a human asking another human, it's the Holy Ghost of God putting in our hearts something.

And it's a private thing with God, and we don't have to tell everybody.

You say you just told me about a hobby.

I didn't tell you what the hobby was.

I just said God from time to time has asked us to give something up.

And he's asked for more than that, but the point of it is, brother, listen, he knows what he's doing.

He knows what he's doing.

And may God help us to have an attitude that we can follow him.

Follow him after he's asked for the sun, follow him after he's asked to walk away from great success.

Follow him, Job, and get closer to him.

One of you don't even understand why.

And not be like the one who God loved and said, I'll tell you what you do.

Sell everything, give it to the poor, and follow me.

And your your your treasures will be rich in heaven.

Perhaps God would deal with us this year in some way, shape, or form, to relinquish something that He's given us.

Maybe He just wants to test us.

Maybe it's the real thing.

Maybe He wants us to walk away from it.

I don't know what it is, but I pray the Holy Ghost would use these thoughts today.

And and if you come to me and say, Well, Pastor, were you talking about this in my life?

Look, look at me.

I don't know what I'm talking about.

I just know the principle I'm supposed to preach.

I'm not God, and nor is anybody else to anybody else in here.

Sometimes it's a husband and wife because not only did Abraham have to do that, but if you would, Sarah would have had to give that up also.

That son.

But I guarantee you, it was so nice when Abraham lifted it up and there was a ram in the thicket, and God says, just wanted to see if you would you would withhold.

Here, sacrifice that ram in the place of your son, a type of the Lord Jesus Christ and what he did for us.

He was sacrificed in our stead.

Come on, is that right?

He was sacrificed instead of us.

The wrath of God was upon him, Jesus Christ, instead of us.

He suffered our persecution instead of us.

And brethren, by receiving Christ as Savior, we can be raised again from the dead and never say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

That was already done by Jesus Christ upon the cross.

This morning, I pray that we just ponder.

Not like me in your face and not like that, but just what the Holy Ghost might be doing in our lives, what Jesus Christ might want that we love.

And to make sure we don't love it, whatever it is, more than it.

Thank you for listening to this message by Pastor Doug Fisher of Lighthouse Baptist Church in Lemon Grove, California.

To learn more about Lighthouse Baptist Church, visit our website at www.lighthousebaptist.com or call 619-461-5561.