Embracing Authentic Love: A Call to Open Your Heart to God - Sunday Morning - October 20, 2024

Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast,

where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.

My name is Pastor Josh and I want to thank you for listening to

this podcast.

I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen

you in the word of God.

Now come along, let's look into the Bible and see what God has

for us here today.

I'd like you to turn with me, if you can, with your bibles, to

two corinthians, chapter six.

Second Corinthians, chapter six.

Last week we looked at what it means to be a faithful servant of

the Lord, an ambassador, as the Bible calls here in two corinthians.

And we looked at what it means to be characterized by faith and

endurance.

How can we be servants of God, characterized by faith and endurance

as ambassadors of God, we're called to be faithful to him in the

ups and in the downs, in the easy and in the difficult.

Sometimes it is very convenient for us to be ambassadors

for Christ when everything's going our way, when everything's

going well.

But the true test for us as christians is to stay faithful, as

the Bible says here, patient with endurance when the difficulties

come.

Now, I want you to be there in two corinthians, chapter six, and

probably just look back a few verses.

Maybe for you it's one page back, maybe for you it's on the same

page, but two Corinthians, chapter five, verse 14.

Paul explains his motivation behind all of this.

He explains his motivation as being an ambassador for Christ.

He explains his motivation for faithful servant, for service.

He explains his motivation to be patient in endurance.

He says it here in verse 14.

He says, for the love of Christ, constraineth us.

What that means is this.

He says, it's the love of Christ that compels me to do this.

It's not necessarily a fear of missing out.

It's not necessarily a fear of judgment.

But it is God's love that he has demonstrated for me that causes

me to be compelled to do this for the Lord.

And so as he lays out that new thought about being an ambassador,

he says, it's because of the love of Christ.

And then he goes through what that means to experience the love

of Christ.

In verse 17, he says, therefore, if any man be in Christ,

he is a new creature.

Old things are passed away.

Behold, all things are become new.

And so he says, hey, this is what it looks like to experience

the love of God, to be a new creation, to put your faith in the

Lord and for him to forgive you for him to free you from the

bondage of sin and for him to give you the opportunity to serve.

And then he says in verse number 20 of chapter five, now then,

we are ambassadors for Christ.

As though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead

be reconciled to God.

So he says, hey, now that you have experienced what it means to

be an ambassador for Christ and your salvation, it's your job

now to represent him so that others can become ambassadors.

And then he gets into chapter six and he starts talking about what

it means to be a faithful servant.

It means to have endurance.

It means to go through the ups and downs.

And last week we looked at, he explained some difficulties.

He says in verse five of chapter six, in stripes and imprisonments,

and even before in verse four, he says, in afflictions and necessities

and distresses.

And so he says, there's going to be some difficulties.

Remember, he gave the three groups of three.

He said, the struggles that you're going to face, that we all

face, the struggles that other people are going to bring to you,

the struggles that you bring to yourself.

But then he says, hey, there's also blessings in the difficulties.

And he says in verse six, by pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering,

by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, so he says,

by authentic love.

Then he says in verse seven, by the word of truth.

Now we're going to refer back to verse seven quite frequently in

this sermon this morning, because we have to go back to the

word of truth to trust in what God has told us in our lives when

we don't see it in front of us.

So there's going to be times in our life where we are tempted

to start to think that, hey, you know what?

Maybe God doesn't love me.

Maybe God has forgotten about me.

Maybe it's not worth it to sacrifice.

Maybe it's not worth it to preach the truth.

Maybe it's not worth it to proclaim our thanksgiving to God.

He says, no, you have to go back to the word of truth.

It's by the word of truth that you can know these things.

He says, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor

of righteousness on the right hand and on the left.

And so we left off last week.

In verse seven, he says, it must be by the word of truth.

It must be by the power of God.

It must be by the armor of righteousness that we have in our

lives, that we are able to stay faithful to the Lord.

And so in the passage we will look at this morning, we'll see how

Paul ministered with differing results, but still kept his eyes

on the truth.

He's going to say, there's going to be times where people are

going to praise you, but there's also going to be times where

people condemn you.

There's going to be times where people accept you, and there's

gonna be times where people reject you.

It doesn't mean that we quit in the difficult.

It says here that we stay faithful in all of these things.

And so Paul explains that this type of inner peace is found in what

verse seven says, by the word of truth, by the power of God, and

by the armor of righteousness.

And so Paul keeps ministering in faithfulness because he keeps

his eyes fixed on the truth, the truth of the love of goddess.

And so Paul explains that this type of satisfaction can come in

our lives when we open our hearts to the message of God and

the move of God in our lives.

And so the question is this morning, as you are serving God,

and that's the assumption, that you're serving God as an ambassador

for Christ.

The first question that I want to ask you this morning is, who do

we love the most?

The second question is, what do we love the most?

These are questions that matter.

Why?

Because the Bible says is what we love, is what we're gonna spend

time on.

What we treasure in our life is gonna be manifested by what we

do, by what we invest, by where we struggle.

Folks, if you love something, you're gonna struggle for it.

If you love something, you're willing to endure.

I love my children with all of my heart, and I know that some of

you that are parents can attest to that.

And there are days when I want to look at my children and say, you

know what?

Oh, I just don't want to be dad today.

I don't want to discipline today.

I don't want to go through this struggle today.

But it's my love for them that trumps my struggle, because I say,

you know what?

I love them so much.

I want them to be the adults that God wants them to be.

So I'm going to invest.

It's not because I feel good that day.

It's not because everything's going well.

It's because of my love for them overwhelmingly overpowers the

struggle and the distress that I face in my life.

It's the same thing when it comes to the purpose of God.

If we love God more than whatever is in the blank here, we

will be willing to go through the stresses and the struggles.

There's a passage of scripture in the book of Matthew.

Actually, it's Jesus teaching.

In Matthew, chapter six, he teaches this very same principle.

It matters what we love.

It matters what we put our affections in.

He says in Matthew, chapter six, verse 19, lay not up for yourselves

treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt and where

thieves break through and steal.

But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.

So these are things that are going to last for eternity, where

neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not

break through nor steal.

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

The Bible says that what we treasure, what we love, what we desire

for in our lives, that's where we're going to spend our time.

That's where we're going to spend our affections.

And so the truth is that as we minister in the message of the gospel,

as we minister as Christians, as ambassadors for Christ, there

are going to be some really, really good times, times where we

feel comfortable, times where we feel exalted, times where we feel

strengthened in the truth.

But then there's also going to be times where we're tempted to fall

into the trap of thinking that, you know what?

It's not worth it.

And Paul is going to list a few of those things here.

He's going to list the paradox or the contradictions of ministry.

And so I want you to look at verse number eight with me.

This is our main text here this morning.

And what Paul is going to describe for us this morning in this

passage is if our heart is not set on the love of God, the difficulties

that we face in our lives will outweigh the blessings that God gives

us in service.

So it goes back to the love, right?

If I love God enough, the difficulties are nothing.

If I don't love God, and I love the things of this world, I

love my ego, I love my flesh, I love my praise, I love my position.

When the struggles come, it's easy to say, you know what?

These struggles outweigh the blessings, and I'm going to quit.

I'm going to lose my patience.

I'm going to lose my endurance.

And so you have to remember the context of what Paul is dealing

with here.

If you go all the way back to the beginning of two corinthians,

the corinthian church was accusing Paul of not loving them.

That's where this all started.

They said, paul, you don't love us.

You say one thing and you do another.

Your ministry doesn't match your heart.

You are not the type of person that you told us you would be.

You are not a faithful minister.

And so he's facing accusations.

He's actually facing the accusation of not loving them enough

to not love them in a proper way.

And so the corinthian Christians loved themselves and the

things of this world more than the love of God and his word.

I.

And so they blame the flaws that they find in their own life

on Paul and other ministers as an excuse for the problems.

So they have some issues in their life, and they go, you know

what?

It's your fault, Paul, that we're not who we're supposed to be

because you don't love us enough.

You weren't the type of pastor that we expected you to be.

So therefore, we're in these struggles.

And so they're blaming, they're deflecting their problems

on the issues of another instead of looking into their own

hearts to see if they've received the love of God in their

lives.

And so Paul is going to address their love problem in this

passage.

Paul had no expectation of smoothness within ministry, and he

doesn't portray that to them.

And though there are blessings in ministry, there will be difficulties.

But in the end, the source of Paul's faithfulness and the source

of our faithfulness is in the truth of God and in his love.

And so let's look at verse number eight.

He says, by honor and dishonor.

He says, sometimes in ministry, you will have honor.

People will honor you.

But there will also be times where people dishonor you.

He says, by honor and dishonor by evil report and good report.

There's gonna be people that give evil news about you, news that

isn't true.

But there's also gonna be people that give the truth, he says,

as deceivers and yet true.

Some people are gonna call you a liar.

Some people are gonna call you a deceiver.

Other people are gonna call you true as unknown and yet well

known, meaning some people are going to act like you're an unknown

person, and they're going to treat you that way.

Other people are going to give you the respect of being a known

speaker or a known pastor or a known christian, he says, as dying.

And behold, we live.

And that idea of dying is always being in threat of death,

meaning there's going to be persecution around us in the threat

of death, but in the same vein, always living as chastened

and not killed as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing as poor, yet

making many rich as having nothing and yet possessing all things.

He says there's gonna be times in ministry where there's ups and

downs.

That's what he's explaining here.

He's saying, hey, there's gonna be times where people praise

you and give you honor.

There's gonna be times where they dishonor you.

There's gonna be times where you have all the things that you

ever thought you needed, and there's gonna be times where you

feel like you have nothing.

It's gonna be up and down.

There's gonna be a time where you feel like you're about to die.

There's also gonna be a time where you feel like you're living.

And there's all of this, in this contradiction of ministry.

Folks, I wanna tell you here this morning that as you serve God,

there will be difficulties.

It will not be easy.

There will be high, high blessings, but there will also be

low times.

I'm not here to tell you today that you should be like this all

the time and emotionless throughout your life.

There's gonna be shadows, and there's gonna be valleys, and there's

gonna be difficulties.

But what Paul says is that we can stay faithful to the truth of

God and we can be faithful to his love in our life, so that those

struggles and those difficulties don't define us.

We see here that there were the descriptions of how the world

defined him, and there's the descriptions of how God defined him.

You know what?

If someone comes and tells you something about yourself, it may

be true or it may not be true, but they're not the ones that are

going to be defining you.

They're not the ones that are judging you.

Ultimately, my concern is, how does God see me?

So if someone comes up to me and they're mad, then I'm preaching

the truth to them.

At the end of the day, am I concerned about their opinion of

me, or am I concerned about the opinion that God has of me?

Have I been faithful to him?

Folks, my goal is to be faithful to the church.

My goal is to be faithful to my family.

My goal is to be faithful to those around me.

But ultimately, my faithfulness should be to the one

who saved me.

And that's hard because so many times we set our affections

on the things of this world, because this is what we know.

We set our affections on the things that we can taste and we can

smell, and that we can touch and that we can see.

But what the Bible says back in two corinthians is.

That's not what we're living for.

We're not living for the things of this world.

We're living for the things that we don't see.

If you go back to second Corinthians 418, Paul has been prepping

them for this.

Paul has been explaining to them that you don't live for what

you see.

Second Corinthians, chapter four, verse 18.

He says, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at

the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are

temporal.

That's what Jesus was talking about in Matthew six.

Those things that you're living for in this world, they're

going to be corrupted.

They're going to be gone one day.

He says, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

So Paul says, in your service as an ambassador for Christ, focus

on the things that are eternal.

Focus on the souls of Mendez.

Focus on the eternal investments that are gonna last forever,

instead of the things that don't matter here on this earth,

in this world.

So he says, this is the contradiction of ministry.

Honor, dishonest, dishonor, honesty, dishonesty, evil.

Report good.

Report, deceivers yet true, unknown, yet well known.

Then he gets down to verse number eleven.

We're gonna pause here right now, because I want you to see, number

one, as a Christian, as an ambassador, you can have stability

and instability.

Stability and instability.

What do I mean by that?

There's gonna be times in your life where you have instability.

There's gonna be unforeseen circumstances.

We cannot control the circumstances that are around us.

So around us, there can be instability.

But the Bible says that as believers, as ambassadors for Christ,

in the midst of instability, we can have stability.

And that's all of what he's talking about there in verses eight

through ten.

It's the stability and instability.

Sometimes in the christian life, we will be accepted and loved,

but other times, we will be rejected and despised.

And so Paul explains that no matter how we are treated, we find

our stability in Christ, not in our surroundings.

Where do you find your stability?

Where do you find your foundation?

Where do you find that center point in your life where you say,

you know what?

Whatever happens to me, I know this to be true?

Well, if we use our circumstances for that stability,

guess what?

Our circumstances are going to be up and down.

By honor and dishonor, by the truth and by lies.

Folks, I could tell you that there are Sundays that I leave the

service, and I'm like, wow, man, that was great.

People came to Christ.

People joined the church.

People were baptized.

And I'm, you know, running out on, you know, not even touching the

ground.

Like, I'm so excited.

But there are also some days that things are difficult.

Maybe some people, you know, didn't like what I said.

Maybe there were times that, you know, the Sunday morning service

didn't go the way that I expected it to go.

Maybe I couldn't preach myself out of a wet paper bag that morning.

And I'm like, I don't know where I'm at today.

Okay?

The truth is, is that sometimes as a minister of the gospel,

I would find my satisfaction, I would find my stability.

I would find my confidence in what was going on around me, how

people reacted to my preaching.

Well, if they all said, amen, I must feel good.

And so it's a good day.

If no one said anything, you know what?

Then it's like, oh, I failed.

Do you know how much of a rollercoaster that is?

And you know how much you can be so devastated when things don't

go your way?

I think some of you know that.

I think some of you understand that in your life.

The Bible says that our stability cannot be found in our

surroundings.

Our stability has to be found in our savior Jesus Christ.

If you look at Philippians chapter four with me, Philippians

chapter four, Paul speaks to this very same principle.

He's talking in Philippians chapter four about having joyous

and rejoicing in the Lord.

And we would expect Paul to say, you know what?

Rejoice in the Lord when everything's going well.

Well, yes, but he also says, rejoice in the Lord when everything

is going on a more difficult path.

And so Paul in Philippians chapter four is explaining to us

that we should be rejoicing, that we should have joy.

Rejoice in the Lord always.

And again I say, rejoice.

That's Philippians chapter four, verse four.

But then we get down to verse number ten, and he says, but I rejoice

in the Lord greatly, that now at the last your care of me have

flourished.

So he says, hey, you guys have taken care of me, wherein ye were

also careful, but ye lacked opportunity.

Not that I speak of respect, of want.

Verse eleven.

For I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to

be content.

Folks, that's what it means to be a faithful minister.

I don't care.

I'm what my surroundings are.

I have learned that whatever situation that I have, I am content

in Christ.

He goes on to say in verse twelve, I know both how to be abased

that means to be brought low.

I know how to abound.

That means I know what it means to be lifted up everywhere.

And in all things, I am instructed both to be full and to

be hungry.

So he says, I face having a lot.

I face being hungry both to abound and to suffer need.

And then he says, verse 13, you guys are all familiar with this

verse.

I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me.

Now, he's not saying I can do whatever I want to do.

He's saying I can do anything that God has brought me to in my

life because he's equipped me to do so.

So Paul isn't talking here in verse 13 of Philippians four about,

hey, you know what?

I want to go do that.

So I'm just going to go do it and God's going to bless me.

That's not what he's saying.

He's saying God has brought this into your life in the ministry,

and therefore he's going to get you through it.

You can do all those difficulties in Christ because he

strengthens you.

That's what he's talking about here.

Now, it doesn't mean that we're hopeless and that we're helpless.

It just means that if God has brought us to a place of victory,

he's going to get us through that.

If he's brought us to a place of difficulty, he's going to get

us through that.

And so stability in our service comes from inner peace that

we find in a relationship with Christ and his word.

And so go back to second corinthians with me.

What does he say in second corinthians, chapter six, verse seven?

It's by the word of truth.

That is where we find our stability and service by the word

of truth and by the power of God.

That is where we go back to, folks.

We have to think about our life as an ambassador, as a life

based in the word.

Therefore difficulties come.

We think about it biblically.

Conflict comes.

We think about it biblically.

Loss comes.

We think about it biblically.

Folks, the greatest advice that I've ever had from a person

who was mentoring me in my life, he says, are you thinking?

He asked me this question before and after I bring them all

my struggles.

Okay, I'll call them on the phone.

I'll say, I won't say who it is, but I'll say, brother so and

so.

I'm going through this and this problem and he goes, are you

thinking about it biblically?

And I'm like, that's so mean.

Why did he say that?

He's supposed to tell me, yeah, those people are mean to me

and that this is a bad.

He doesn't say that, though.

He says, I'm sorry that you're going through that, but are you thinking

about this biblically?

And that's a question that we all have to ask ourselves, because

the truth is, is that many times we don't think about struggles

biblically.

We think about it in our flesh.

Well, that person hurt me.

That person was mean to me.

So you know what?

I just.

I'm.

Woe is me, and I can't get through this.

The bible says that thinking biblically about it doesn't mean

that I think about it in my flesh.

It doesn't mean that I think about it from the perspective of

humanity.

I think about it from the perspective of God.

And what does the word of God have to say about this?

And it could be different in different situations.

Speaking of loss, you know, what does this loss mean for me?

Well, biblically speaking, it means that ultimately God is never

gonna leave me with something that I can't handle.

You say, what does that mean?

It means this.

If God has allowed something to happen in my life, he's given

me.

This is one corinthians, chapter ten.

He's given me an opportunity to overcome this in his power and

in his grace.

And so stability in our service comes from the inner peace

that we have with a relationship with Christ and his

word.

I want you to think about that.

So how can I have stability and instability to have a deeper

relationship with Christ and his word?

And then when struggles come, we begin to think about things biblically

and believe in those things biblically.

So we have here what it means to have stability and instability.

But then I want you to see, number two, misplaced love.

Because one of the reasons why we can have instability in our life

is having our love appropriated to the wrong place.

And that's what Paul talks about here in verse number eleven.

He says, o ye corinthians.

He's pleading with them.

We're going to see later on in the next few verses that he's treating

them as his spiritual children.

It's how you speak to your child.

Come on, oh, Corinthians.

Come on, o ye Corinthians.

Our mouth is open unto you.

He says, we've preached to you the truth.

We've given you the truth, because, remember, what are they

accusing him of?

They're accusing him of not loving them.

And he says, I've told you the truth.

I'm speaking the truth in love to you.

He says, we've opened our mouth unto you.

Our heart is enlarged.

Now, that's a phrase that we don't use very frequently, but what

he's saying here is, he says, I've opened my heart to you.

Okay.

I've opened my mouth in the truth, but I've opened my heart in

love to you.

What he's saying here is, I've given you the truth in love.

I love you enough to tell you the truth.

I've opened my heart to you.

And the Bible speaks very clearly that the type of love that

God calls us to have for other believers is agape love.

A love that demonstrates.

A love that proves.

Now we know the greatest example of that is Jesus Christ.

Jesus died on the cross for our sins.

He proved his love for us.

God proved his love for us.

And so, therefore, what Paul is saying here is this, I don't care

what you feel.

I've already proven my love for you.

I've opened my heart to you.

I've enlarged my heart to you.

And that's the thought that he's giving here.

And so then he says, ye are not straitened in us.

Now, you would say, what is he talking about here?

They're telling him that they're constricted in their love

because of what Paul has done.

And so he says here, that's a word, straighten.

It means to constrict or to squeeze or to stomp out.

You're not strained in us, meaning we are not the ones holding

you back for your love.

We are not the ones that have stopped your love for God and for

others.

And for us, he says, but ye are straitened or constricted or

squeezed in your own bowels, you would say, okay, what are we

talking about here?

Bowels was a common reference to their affections, their love,

okay.

In that culture, they didn't always see the heart as the seat

of their love.

It was their bowels that, you know, you feel it in your gut, is

what they would say.

A lot of times, the reference to heart was their mind actually

different than our culture today.

Now, when people say, trust your heart, we mean trust your emotions.

But back then, when they were talking about their heart, they were

talking about their intellect.

But in this case, they're talking about the.

The affections.

And so what does he say here?

So you could say that word bowels could be affections.

And so what he's saying here is this.

Okay, in everyday English, what Paul is explaining to them is

this.

It's not our fault that you're not loving.

It's your fault that you're not loving properly because of your

own affections.

Your love has changed from a healthy love to an unhealthy love,

an unhealthy love for the wrong things.

And so what he's saying here, he's saying this, you've misplaced

your affections.

You've misplaced your love.

Your love for God has been changed to a love for this world.

Your love for others has been changed for a love for yourself.

It's misplaced love.

And so the corinthian Christians accuse Paul of not loving

them, but Paul tells them that they can't blame him for the lack

of love that they have for the Lord.

It's their own struggle, it's their own affections that have been

changed from the appropriate to the inappropriate.

Now, you would say, what did the corinthian church love?

Well, by context, we're gonna talk about it next week, they love

the world too much.

We're gonna talk next week about what it means to be unequally

yoked with the world.

And so we know by context, the corinthian church loved the world

too much.

They loved the things of this world too much.

They love themselves too much.

And so what we see here is the reason why many christians are not

where we need to be when it comes to our faithfulness to God

and our service to God is because our love has been misappropriated

away from him and to the others that he calls us to love to

ourselves and to this world.

We love ourselves too much to love others.

We love the world too much to love God.

You say, well, I don't love the world.

I love God with all my heart.

Go back to that first question that I asked you.

What do you love in this world?

What you love is what you spend time with.

What you love is what you sacrifice for.

What you love is what you're willing to suffer for.

The true test is not what you say.

The true test is what you do.

So if you want to really take an account of what you love in your

life, look into your life, inspect your life.

Well, you know what?

The first time someone comes against me, when it comes to ministry,

I'm gone.

Forget it.

They don't deserve my love.

You don't love God?

Then what if my wife came up to me and she said, you know, honey,

I think that, you know, you should wash the dishes.

You're not really helping me with anything.

Well, come on, you don't love me I'm gone.

See you later.

Do I really love her?

No.

I'm just looking for an excuse to go.

First thing comes up, problem.

All right, I'm gone.

I don't love her.

I'm not willing to do anything for her if I'm not willing to do

that same thing with God.

If we truly love him, we're willing to go through the ups and

the downs and the struggles and say, no, I'm pushing forward

for the bigger picture.

That's love.

So the reason why we love God is because of what he has done for

us.

The Bible says in one john, chapter four, we love him because

he first loved us.

We don't start loving him and then receive his love and go, wow,

that love's pretty good.

No, it's because of his love for us that we even have an opportunity

to love him and to love love others.

And so we are designed as human beings to love.

But sometimes we love the wrong things and therefore miss the

opportunity to experience the overwhelming love of God.

So go back to second corinthians, chapter six.

He says, you are not straitened in us, but ye are strained

in your own bowels or your own affections.

Now for a recompense in the same I speak as unto my children,

be ye also enlarged.

He says, open your hearts to the love of God.

And when you open your hearts to the love of God and live in the

love of God, you're able to reciprocate that love to him and

then ultimately love those around you.

And so Paul is explaining to them that your love is in the wrong

place, and Paul is showing them love by telling them the truth.

That's one of the best things that we can do to someone that we

love, is to tell them the truth.

And so Paul is right here proving his love for the corinthian

church, whether they like it or not.

Because when we do things in love, a lot of times people expect

it to be like we talked about, I think, last week.

Oh, well, it's condoning everything.

It's accepting everything.

No, the Bible says that that is not the true test of love.

The true test of love is, are we willing to tell someone the truth.

Now, sometimes we can tell people the truth without love, but

when we've proven our faithfulness to somebody, then we

can tell them the truth.

We do it in grace, we do it in patience, we do it in sacrifice.

And so he says, it is now time for you to open your hearts.

And so they blame Paul.

But the truth was, it was their responsibility to rest in the

love of God that drives us forward in our service.

And so the real problem was that the corinthian church was restricted

by their own affections.

They were held back by their own affections.

And so it wasn't that Paul, like, didn't love them or didn't

love them enough, which was the claim that they had.

It was that they loved themselves too much, that they loved

the world too much.

It was their own affections that restricted them.

I want you to see in one John, and obviously one John has a lot

to say about love, but if you go to one John, chapter two, I want

you to see something about what the Bible says about loving

the world.

The Bible says that as christians, one of the temptations

that we will have is to love the world too much.

We're in the world, but we're not of the world.

That's what should be our testimony.

Hey, I'm living in this world, but I don't love it enough.

I don't love it at all.

I shouldn't love it.

One John 215.

This is God's call for us as christians when it comes to loving

the world.

Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.

If any man loved the world, the love of the father is not in

him.

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of

the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the father, but is

of the world.

And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof.

But he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.

The Bible says here that all that is in the world is this.

The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of

life.

What feels good, what looks good, and what lifts you up, right?

Lust of the flesh, what feels good, lust of the eyes, what I want,

what I desire, and the pride of life, what lifts me up.

And so to be opposite of that would be to not go after the things

that feel good, to not seek after those things that catch my

eye in selfishness, in covetousness, and then ultimately

not what lifts me up, but what lifts the Lord up.

So what Satan does, Satan always tries to twist what God has

already created to be good.

You see that, right?

God defines something.

Satan twists it.

Satan is not a creator.

The enemy is not a creator.

He doesn't create something new.

All he tries to do is twist what has already been created.

See it from the very beginning in the garden, right?

He was just trying to twist already what was there.

Satan tries to redefine marriage.

He tries to redefine truth, he tries to redefine sexuality, he tries

to redefine all these different things, right?

He tries to redefine what the word of God says.

You see that back with Jesus in Matthew, chapter four.

Satan comes and tries to twist the word to Jesus, right?

He tries just to move it just a little bit away from the truth

so that there can be sin.

And so what we can see here in this case is that there is the opposite

of the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of

life.

And that is to exalt Christ, to worship him, to die to our flesh,

right?

What does the New Testament say that a Christian should do to

our flesh?

Die to it, mortify our members, put it on a cross, kill

it.

It's not our desires that we should follow.

The Bible says the love of money, the love of covetousness,

is the root of all evil, all kind of evil.

And so we see over and over again the opposite that the world

preaches is what God preaches.

The pride of life.

The pride of life is essentially this, worshiping yourself.

We are beings created to worship.

All of us worship something.

Some of us worship a celebrity.

Some of us worship ourselves.

Some of us worship a sports figure.

Some of us worship money.

Some of us worship whatever it is.

But the truth is, is that all of us are created to worship.

Really.

There's only one person to worship, and that is God.

That's the only person, as we sang this morning, that's worthy

of our worship and worthy of our praise.

Why do we worship him?

Well, I'll give you an analogy that I think is the case.

And I think this is something that we can say is point number three.

We had misappropriated love, and now we see authentic love.

How do we prove our love?

Why should we prove our love to God?

Well, because the Bible calls us to have authentic love.

If you go back and look with me to verse number six, what was

one of the character traits of being a faithful servant?

At the end of verse number six, in two corinthians, it says,

love unfeigned, authentic love.

And so instead of misappropriated love, there's authentic

love that we are supposed to have in our lives for God.

Now let me give you a little bit of an example about this.

I go to my son's flag football games, okay?

And Mike is out there playing flag football, and I'm sitting on

the front row.

I'm so invested, right?

Come on, Micah, get in the play, run the ball, you know, catch

the ball, tag this guy, pull the flag.

Now if Micah did not play flag football, do you think I would be

showing up on a Saturday morning and being like, I want to

watch third and fourth grade flag football?

Okay, no.

So let me give you a hint.

Third and fourth grade flag football means nothing to me.

But it's because my son, who I love, is playing.

And so I get excited at a third and fourth grade flag football

game when someone scores a touchdown because my son's involved.

It's my love for him that drives my excitement.

It's not the actual event itself that drives the excitement.

So you say, why do we worship God?

We worship God because we love him.

Everything that we do in our lives should be an excitement because

of what Jesus Christ has done for us.

We worship him because of our love for him.

We get excited for our children because of our love for

them.

We get excited for t ball games because of our love for the

person in the tee ball game.

Now, if some of you guys were like, I like to go out and watch

five year old t ball games, they're just so intrigued.

No, come on.

We do it because we love them.

And so why do we worship?

Well, we worship because we get together on Sunday mornings and

God commands us to worship.

Does God command us to worship?

Yes, but if the reason why we come in and worship is because God

commands us to worship the heart of it's not there, I guess

I gotta get up on Sunday morning and worship.

This is my 1 hour of worship today, folks.

The Bible says that we are to live lives characterized by worship.

Whatsoever you do in your life, whether you eat or drink or

whatsoever you do, do all the glory of God, we're to worship him

all the time.

Well, I gotta go ahead and pry myself out of bed, get my coffee,

get to church.

And how long is that preacher gonna preach today?

We got things we gotta get to today.

I get it.

I understand, I understand that.

But the truth is, is that if we are needing exterior motivation

to worship our God, we have an issue with our love.

We need to worship him out of a love that God has already given

us in one John, chapter four.

We love him because he first loved us.

And so Paul's call to action for these people was to open their

hearts to the love of God, to really understand the love of God,

so that we can love him by our worship and so that we can love others

as he's called us to worship.

So how do we genuinely display the love of goddess.

Well, it's ultimately this keeping our eyes fixed on him.

And the Bible says in scripture, this is not Pastor Josh's

opinion.

You can check me on this, but in many passages of scripture, it

says that loving God is proven by how we obey him.

Okay, the Bible says there's a lot of things that we can do as christians,

but the thing that shows our love for him is to hear his word,

heed his word and obey his word.

Right?

That's the true test.

Do I love God enough to be changed?

Do I love God enough to say this is what his word says?

And I'm willing, even though it's not something that I want to

do, I will do it because I love him?

That's the true test.

The true test is not.

Well, you know what?

I come every Sunday, pastor.

What else do you ask from me?

I could be out at the beach.

I could be at the ball game.

Well, yeah, this is one step of being here.

But we all know that we can be in our place on Sunday morning and

have zero love.

Just like we know that there can be marriages that a husband and

wife can be in the same room.

But there could be issues.

We know that there could be instances where, you know what?

I go to work.

Every Monday morning, I'm here at work.

But how many of us could say, hey, I can be at a job that I don't

love, right?

So we can actually, at some point in time see our christian faith

as a job that I come in and I punch my ticket and I do my stuff

and I go home and I'm not, you know what?

I got this problem and this problem and this problem, and you

know, it's that person's Fault or it's that person's fault.

Paul says it's not anybody else's fault except for you and the

fact that you have constricted your love for God because of your

own affections.

And so there must be this authentic love.

Colossians chapter three says for us to keep our eyes fixed on

the Lord, our eyes fixed on the things which are above.

I want you to go see that.

Colossians chapter three.

Colossians chapter three is talking about setting our affections

in the right place.

Now, there is going to be times in our life where we are tempted

to lose sight of this.

Like so.

For example, when I wake up in the morning as a husband, I wish

I could tell you that every morning that I wake up as a husband,

I'm like, wow, this is like sunshine and rainbows.

It's a movie.

It's a love movie every single day.

And my wife and I just get up and.

Good morning, honey.

And everything's just great.

No, there is going to be times where I wake up and because of whatever

happened this time or whatever's happening in my own life,

that there could be a strain on the love that I have with my wife.

And some of you that are perfect in your marriage go.

We've never had that problem.

Okay, well, come on out to the next marriage conference and you

could be the speaker.

Okay, but here's the thing.

As a husband and wife, because many of us know that analogy, it

doesn't mean that our love is gone.

It just means that our love can be strained for whatever reason.

And so there's things in our life as a Christian that even though

we know that God loves us and even though we have a desire to love

our lord, there can be things that strain that love.

And we could say, you know what?

My eyes are not on the right.

My eyes are on the fact that, hey, hey, that stuff in the kit,

you know, I don't know if any of you guys have ever played this

game before.

Okay, there's dirty dishes in the sink and who's going to touch

it first?

Okay, we're just going to keep walking by and go, okay.

Hopefully she saw that and we're going to do a stalemate.

We're going to see how long it's going to go.

Right now.

Some of you go, no, we never have that problem.

Okay, well, for you it might be something else, but the truth

is that there's times in our life where we can say, you know what?

I'm not going to look to the vow that I made to my spouse.

I'm not going to look to what they have done over and over and

over again by proving their love to me.

All I'm going to do is look at that very moment.

They hate me because they're not doing that.

And the truth is that there's some times in our christian life

that we don't go back to the word of truth.

We don't go back to everything that we know about God and his covenant

to us and his love for us.

We go to that very instance of that circumstance and go, no, he

must not love me because that's not what he would do if he

loves me and therefore, I'm not going to love him.

But what does colossians chapter three, verse one says?

It says, if ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which

are above, that's the eternal, where Christ sitteth on the right

hand of God.

And then here it is, verse two.

Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth,

for ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God.

When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also

appear with him in glory.

So he says this, he says, don't set your affections on the

things of this world that are pulling your attention away from

God, your affections away from God.

Set your affections, set your eyes on the things of God and the

things that are eternal.

Because you know what?

It's not going to matter what happens on the day to day.

It's not going to matter what happens in the case of the ups and

downs of life, because you're going to stay faithful to him.

And that's endurance, keeping your eyes fixed on what God has done

for you, what he's already proven to you in his love.

God has proven his love towards you.

First, John, chapter four, verse 16.

And we have known and believed the love of God hath to us.

God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God

and God in him.

I can say that that's maybe the summary verse here this morning.

And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us.

At some point in your life, if you're a believer this morning, you

have known and believed in the love of goddesse.

And we have to know and believe that God is love and that

he dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God.

He that dwelleth in love, he that is known by love, he that rests

in the love of God, is resting and dwelling in God.

And so to rest in God is to rest in love, love for God and love

for others.

And so I would tell you here this morning, the fix is not just

try really, really hard to keep loving other people and loving

God.

It's dwelling in Christ, it's dwelling in him.

It's living in that love.

It's being bathed by that love every single day.

Lord, I know that you love me.

I know what your word says.

I know what you've shown me in my life.

And so therefore, I'm not going to allow these affections of

my own flesh to pull me away from the affections that I have for

you.

I go back to the marriage situation because I know that's applicable

for many of us.

Even if it's not applicable to you, you can understand the marriage

love.

If my wife, if I go to my wife and I say, hey, I love you so much,

but all I do is spend time with other people.

I go spend time with other women.

And she goes, well, he says he loves me, but he's showing those

people love all the time.

What I'm doing is I'm loving, but I'm misappropriating that love.

That should go to her, to somebody else, right?

I'm taking the love that I should give to her, and I say, you

know what?

I'm going to give it to someone else, someone who does not

deserve that type of love.

That's the exact same thing we do to God.

The love that we are to have in worship, the love that we are

to have in devotion and sacrifice and service should all

go to him.

But what do we do?

We take little parts of that love.

We might not take all of it, but we might take portions of that

love and appropriate it to someone else or something else in

our lives.

So what do we say?

We say, well, God, I love you.

I give you this much.

You should be thankful with this much.

He doesn't want part of us.

He doesn't want a little bit.

He wants everything.

He wants us all.

He wants us to be completely committed to him in every way.

And that is what it means to dwell in him.

And so Paul says, that is endurance.

That is patience, that is sacrifice.

That is what it means to be an ambassador for Jesus Christ, to love

him completely and to dwell in him and allow the love of God to

compel us to service and to sacrifice.

Folks, I'm gonna tell you here this morning, you can set your affections

on other things.

You have the freedom to do that.

God's not gonna strike you dead here this morning.

If you love something else, it doesn't make him happy.

It doesn't give him joy in your life, but you have the freedom

to love whatever you wanna love.

But why would we set our affections on anything else outside

of the truth of Jesus Christ?

That's what Paul was telling the corinthian church.

You guys are constricting yourselves because of your affections.

Now we're gonna look next week at what their affections really were.

It was essentially they were yoking up with the things of this

world too much.

They were loving the things of this world too much, and they were

trying to meld together the world and their faith, and they wanted

the best of both worlds.

And what the Lord's going to tell us in this passage is that you

can't love the world and love God at the same time.

It's not going to work.

And so next week, I want you to come back because we're going

to talk about what it means to be unequally yoked.

Some of you might say, well, I know what that means.

That means when a husband and wife are not christians, like one

is a believer and one's not a believer.

That's one instance of that.

Yes, we will talk about that, but we're also going to talk about

the deeper understanding of what it means to be unequally yoked

with this world.

And it ties right together with that last phrase that Paul gave.

Your affections.

You're constricted by your own affections, the love for this world.

Now, you would say, well, pastor, do you completely love God

and never love this world?

No, folks, these are things that we're going to struggle with

for the rest of our lives.

Why?

Because the world is attractive.

The world is what we see.

The world is what we know.

And therefore, that is why we as christians are so attached to

this world.

But the more we love God and the more we spend time with him and

the more we appreciate his love for us, our grip on this world

becomes less and less.

And eventually that grip hopefully is released, and hopefully

we can cling on to him more and more, and those things of earth

will go strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.

And so I want you to think about those three things here this

morning, starting out with that idea of stability and instability,

and then what missed a place love looks like.

And ultimately God's call for us to have authentic love for him

and for others.

I'm gonna ask if you're able to stand with me, every head bowed,

every eye closed, as the music plays.

This morning, we're gonna have an opportunity to respond to him.

I hope that that very first question that I asked you this morning

is something you've been thinking about.

Who or what are you setting your affections on?

Who do you love the most in this world?

Many of us, if we were honest, at some point in our lives, we would

say, man, I love me more than anything else.

I'm willing to do anything to protect me.

The truth is, the Bible says that's the pride of life.

So I would ask you this morning, who do you love?

Who do you love most?

The second question is, what do you love most?

What things are you loving in your life?

What are you spending the most time on?

The Bible says it is the word of God that we should base our faith

off of, not circumstances.

I know it's easy to love those things.

But the Bible says that we have to have that stability and instability

by having authentic love instead of misplaced love.

Maybe you've been misplacing your love here today.

Maybe you've been misplacing your love when it comes to your family,

when it comes to the Lord, when it comes to your service.

Maybe you've been so focused on the things of this world that

it's been stealing your love from the things that it should be

going to.

Maybe you're allowing the world to steal your love from your

spouse.

Maybe you're allowing the world to steal your love for your

children.

Maybe you're allowing, most importantly, the love of this world

to steal your love away from God and his word.

There's no shame in that other than the fact that, hey, I need to

get that right.

I need to respond right now.

I don't want to be like the corinthian christians who have been

so constricted by my own affections that I'm not able to open

and enlarge my heart to the truth of God.

The title of the sermon this morning was essentially this, open

your hearts to the love of God.

Open your hearts.

Be willing to be used by God and allow his love to compel you.

Maybe you need to go back to say, Lord, it is your love that drives

me to serve.

It is your love that drives me to study.

It is your love that drives me to sacrifice.

It is your love that drives me to a place of submission.

To you.

Lord, I pray that you be in this time of invitation.

Pray that you work in hearts and lives.

Pray if there's someone here this morning who does not know you

as savior, maybe they have not tasted the love of forgiveness and

truth, that today can be the day of salvation, that today can

be the day of forgiveness.

We thank you for loving us so much that you sent your only begotten

son.

We thank you for the hope that we can have that when we trust in

you, in faith, that we can know you and to live and dwell in

you and ultimately know that we have eternal life with you in

heaven forever.

Because of your forgiveness of our sins and because of your sacrifice.

We thank you for conquering death and giving us hope in life.

Pray that you be in this time of invitation.

Pray that you work in hearts and lives in Jesus name.

Amen.

As the music plays, come here, the altar this morning set your affections

on the things above, not the things which are of this earth.

If you need Jesus Christ as your savior this morning, we have

some folks standing up here.

We can show you in the word of God, what it means to know him and

to trust in him.

Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church

podcast.

I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.

If you would like to find out more information about our church

or this sermon, you can find [email protected] or

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Thank you so much.

God bless.

Have a wonderful day.