“A Portrait of Love” | Sunday AM | Pastor David K. Caruthers

1 John chapter 5, verse 2 and 3 says, But this we know that we by this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments.

1 John 5:2

For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous.

Lord, we thank you for your presence and power that we have felt in this house already, and for every person that has joined together with us today, we pray that you would speak to us through your word.

Help us to receive and embrace your word in our hearts and help us to follow after you today and respond to your word.

I pray your blessings, your grace, your anointing would rest upon each one of us.

In the name of Jesus, we pray.

Everybody say in Jesus' name, you may be seated.

Thank you.

You've been standing, so I'm trying to keep you from standing even longer.

So, Christianity is not a list of compelled rules.

There are rules, but it's that's not what it's about.

There are commandments, there are principles, there are rules that we follow, but those rules grow out of God's best design and purpose for our lives.

So consequently, uh Christianity is not measured simply by how well you keep the rules.

It's about our relationship with God, it's about following the instructions and the patterns that Jesus gave us.

It's about being like Jesus.

Now, I'm old, and you don't have to amen that part.

I'm old, and so uh I remember growing up in church, we used to sing songs.

I remember a course we used to sing, it was to be like Jesus.

Now, I've seen several versions of the words of that song, which is common among those kind of songs.

But basically, to be like Jesus, to be like Jesus, all I ask is to be like him all through life's journey from earth to glory.

I only ask to be like him.

And there's different versions again of those words.

But I remember that singing that course, and I thought of that course while I was preparing for this for this message today, and so I looked it up thanks to the wonders of the internet.

I looked up the words of the song, found out I was singing some of the words incorrectly, apparently.

But I also uh found out that that that's not the only stanza.

There's other stanzas.

This isn't just a single course.

One is uh to love like Jesus.

So it's the same course, but it's instead of to be like Jesus, it's to love like Jesus.

One is to pray like Jesus, one is to serve like Jesus.

Well that adds more dimensions.

Of course, it's all being like Jesus, but it adds some dimensions to that.

And that's our heart is to follow after him.

It's to be like Jesus, to follow his example, and to live his example.

And so today I'm preaching to you for a few moments that obedience is a portrait of love.

John chapter 14, verse number 15 says, Jesus said, If you love me, keep my commandments.

John 14 · chapter mention

If you love me, keep my commandments.

John chapter 14, verse 21, a few verses later, he says, He that hath my commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves me.

John 14:21

And he that loves me shall be loved of my father, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him.

Further, in the book of John, chapter 15, verse 10, it says, If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love.

John 15:10

All of these scriptures remind us that our obedience to God is a result of his love to us and our love to him.

It's built on that relationship we have with God.

He didn't say, Jesus didn't say, keep my commandments or be punished.

He didn't say, if you're afraid of hell, keep my commandments.

It's based on our love and our relationship with God.

It's not based on impressing other people.

It's not based on I'm looking holy and you're not.

It's I'm looking godly and you're not.

It's not based on any of those things.

It's based on you and I loving God and Him loving us.

Do you love God today?

And the more we love God, the more we are, we desire, we want to walk in His instructions, to walk in His commandments, to walk in His way.

Because it comes from our heart.

The danger comes when obedience becomes detached from love.

Jesus confronted the religious leaders of the day because they had reduced their relationship with God to a set of rules, to a system of rules.

And they were neglecting the condition of their own heart.

They were simply following rules.

In Isaiah chapter 29 and verse 13, the word of the Lord says, Wherefore the Lord said, For as much as this people draw near me with their mouth and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear towards me is taught by precepts of men.

Isaiah 29 · chapter mention

So they're doing the things they're supposed to be doing, but they're doing them out of just following rules and following a system of religion.

And in Matthew chapter 15 and Mark chapter 7, in both cases, we read the story of Jesus confronting the scribes and the Pharisees, the religious leaders of the day, and confronting them and saying or quoting these verses from Isaiah.

Matthew 15 · chapter mention Mark 7 · chapter mention

This people draws near to me with their mouth, honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

Jesus rebuked these religious leaders not for obeying, but for not having their heart in the relationship.

Not following their heart, not pursuing a relationship with God, but simply following rules, building religion, but not relationship.

Building institutions, but not God ministering to each one of us individually.

They were constructing a system, a man-made system with traditions that were above the genuine relationship with God.

And Jesus rebuked them because of this rigid system that they had built, this rigid religious system.

You can read it over and over again, in fact, in the New Testament, where Jesus confronts them on this basis, not because they were following the rules, but because they were making the rules the point rather than God the point.

In Matthew chapter 23, also in Luke 11, it says, Woe unto you, scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites.

Matthew 23 · chapter mention

Now, if you study the Bible at all, you're going to recognize these familiar phrases as I read this to you.

For you pay tithes of mint and anise and cumin, or cumin, you may say, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law.

And what are those weightier matters?

Judgment, mercy, and faith.

These ought to be done and not leave the others undone.

You blind guides which strain at a gnat and swallow a camel.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.

Thou blind Pharisees, cleanse first that which is within the cup and the platter, and the outside of them may be clean also.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are full of dead men's bone and of bones and of all uncleanliness.

Those are harsh words coming from Jesus as he confronts these religious leaders.

He makes it clear.

But you forgot even more important things, which are the spiritual matters of the heart.

You should be obeying, but you're obeying out of a rote system of obedience to earn the recognition of others and the acknowledgement of others.

You become a rule-keeping community, but not a God-following community.

You become a religious system, hoping for some favor outcome or some favorable outcome, hoping to leverage something from God, to get some recognition from others, but your system has failed because you left the heart out of it, you left the relationship out of it, you didn't include God's care and love for you as an individual.

God wants us to be devoted to Him, not the rules.

Because when the heart is right, obedience becomes meaningful.

I'm gonna say that again.

When the heart is right, obedience becomes meaningful.

But when the heart is empty, the religion is empty.

Your heart has to be in it to have the value of the obedience.

And when your heart's in it, it transforms obedience to something that you embrace, to something that you understand is significant to you, and an exercise of faith and trust and confidence in God.

When you love God, you trust for Him to know what's best for you, to lead you into what is best for your life, and thus you obey Him, and that obedience is an act of faith.

Faith is not an abstract concept that's simply a mental decision.

Faith is the obedience to God's word.

Faith always leads to action.

It leads to obedient action in God.

It's because you trust God that you obey God.

It's because you love God that you obey God, and that adds a great amount of significance, a great amount of value, a great amount of death, depth to your obedience.

Love always seeks more than the minimum.

A healthy relationship is never sustained by minimum requirements.

Love seeks to please, love seeks to listen, love seeks to follow, love seeks to obey.

It would be terribly insulting, if you're a married person, it would be terribly insulting to your spouse to ask, what is the minimum requirements to keep us from getting divorced?

I mean, if your spouse asks you that question, obviously, you know, seriously ask you that question, not just tongue in cheek.

If your spouse seriously asks you that question, you would know that your relationship is in big trouble.

Because they're only wanting to know what is absolutely the minimum requirements.

Let me pull out my vows and see what I actually committed to.

That's all I have to do to stay married.

And if you're married, you know better than that.

The heart, because of the love relationship, the heart wants to embrace each other.

When you're married, you want to do what the other person enjoys.

You want to do what the other person likes.

You want to do and work together with the other person because you love them.

It's not a burden, it's not a difficulty, it's not a struggle, it's a relationship that you have built, and you want to give your heart and your focus to that relationship.

And if you just focus on the obligations, then you'll be storming out of the house because you had to take out the trash.

Because it's obligatory, somebody's got to take out the trash.

If you're like our house, I always feel like uh how do we create so much trash?

Where did all this come from?

Obviously, when we go to the grocery store, we're buying a lot of packaging and not much groceries.

Because we have all this packaging left, and somebody's got to take all this stuff out.

Somebody's got to throw this away.

I mean, you can go to war over things like taking the trash out.

But that's not a trash problem.

That's a love problem.

And our relationship with God is not built on whether we follow a rule or not.

Our relationship with God is built on our love for Him, our embracing of Him, and wanting to know what is it that He would like from us?

What does He want us to do?

How does He want us to live?

So we're not focused on the obligations, and we're certainly not asking God what's the minimum we can do to avoid hell?

We want to know what we need to do to go to heaven, but the question is not the minimum we can do to avoid hell.

That's the wrong question because our our whole point is to pursue God, is to seek God.

And love always goes beyond the minimum.

Love always goes beyond the minimum.

Say that out loud with me.

Love always goes beyond the minimum.

We're not worried about what is the minimum.

We want to give our hearts and our lives to God.

We live in this culture where so many relationships are transactional.

So many of our relationships are transactional.

The depth of people's relationship is about like going to the coffee store and changing money for coffee and they're, you know, greeting you and maybe giving some pleasantries because you're buying something.

They wouldn't know you if they saw you on the street and probably wouldn't speak to you.

Oh, I'm sorry, it wouldn't speak to me, maybe you.

Because the relationship's based on the transaction.

In so much of our culture, relationships are based on transactions.

They're based on an exchange.

They're based on what am I gonna get out of this?

Listen to our music.

Listen to modern music.

It's all about transaction.

It's what am I gonna get?

What am I gonna gain?

What's gonna be a benefit for me?

We become completely self-centered.

And so we end up with a lot of empty relationships.

It's part of the culture, part of human nature that we end up in this place.

But love always reaches beyond the minimum, it reaches to the person, to the individual, to who they are, to the very depth in the core of that person.

When you love someone, it's not about all the peripheral, it's about that person that you love and embrace.

And when you love Jesus, it's not about all the peripherals of religion, but it's about you and me and our hearts being attached to God and us following God with all of our hearts.

And we have an obedience to his word, and that obedience represents the love, demonstrates the love, shows the love, reveals the love that we have for him.

In 1 John chapter 5, verse 2 and 3.

1 John 5:2

As we read, by this, we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments.

For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous.

The scriptural pattern consistently presents obedience as a natural expression of a heart of love to God.

We don't obey in order to earn God's love.

We obey because we love God and because he loves us.

And John makes that connection clear in this, in these verses, as well as those that I've read, but in this verse.

We love God and we keep his commandments.

There's something inseparable about the two.

Obedience is that love put in action in our lives.

I'm saying that to you today because, again, it's difficult for us sometimes to kind of wrap our minds around that kind of mindset because of the culture we live in.

It seems contrary that I would obey, that I would be submissive, that I would voluntarily obey God.

But it's because we love God that we keep his commandments.

And because of that, his commandments aren't grievous.

They're not difficult, they're not burdensome.

It's interesting when I get cold in heart that living for God becomes difficult.

Obeying God becomes difficult.

It's just our human nature that starts warring against us because our heart is not quite right with God, not quite in tune with God.

Other things have come in, and God has slipped down the list of priorities.

And then living for God is difficult.

I want to tell you folks, living for God is not a sacrifice.

Serving God, obeying God, that's not a sacrifice.

That's not a burden, that's not a weight in our life.

Does it make us different from maybe some other people?

Yes, it does.

Yes, it does.

And if you're married, you should be living different from people that aren't married.

Of course, it makes us different.

Our love relationship with God, though, is what is the driving force.

And that love changes how we view submission.

1 Peter 5 and 6, humble yourself, therefore, into the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.

Submission isn't losing, submission is trusting.

Submission is having faith in God.

It's understanding that I that God knows what is best for my life.

It's it's I get to live and walk in the power and purpose of God rather than my own.

And that's always greater than my own.

You never rise above what you serve.

You never rise above what you serve.

Whatever you're serving is as high as you can go.

If you're serving sin, you never rise above that sin.

If you're serving self, you never rise above self.

If you're serving material possessions, you never rise above those material possessions.

Whatever it is you're submitting yourself to, whatever it is you're serving, puts a lid on what you are capable of doing, what you're able to do.

When you serve God, when you submit to God, you don't become less.

You become more.

Your potential is expanded.

Your potential is greater.

You're walking in the power of God.

You're walking in the glory of God.

You're walking in the strength of God in your life.

Proverbs chapter 3, verse 5 and 6 says, Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not to thy own understanding.

Proverbs 3:5

In all thy ways, acknowledge him, and he will direct your path.

Because we trust him, we follow him.

We love him.

We obey him.

Because we know his heart is good, and we gladly submit our hearts to him.

So obedience is not simply keeping rules, it's the outward expression of our inward heart for God.

So my question for you today, my my question I want to I want to conclude with today.

That doesn't mean I'm finished.

That means I'm almost finished.

Are you just going through the motions?

Are you just doing the stuff that has to be done?

Or is your heart in it?

Is your heart given to God?

Are you just going through the routine of things?

Are you just going through the motion of things?

Are you just going through the rules of things?

The Pharisees had lots of religious activity.

But their hearts were far from God.

Jesus is not looking for just mere outward compliance.

He's seeking your heart.

He's drawing your heart.

He's opening the door for you to surrender your heart to Him.

For you to say, God, here I am.

I'm just going to surrender to you.

Whatever you have for me, whatever you want to do in my life, here I am to surrender to you.

Because I love you enough to trust you.

I love you enough to trust you.

Maybe there's some areas of your life where God has been speaking to your heart, where God has been drawing, where you God has been calling you, where you sense, you sense his calling and drawing, maybe a commitment or a step forward, or something he wants you to commit to him.

You're sensing it, you know it, you feel it, but you're hesitant, you're reluctant.

I want to challenge you today to love God and just embrace what he's calling you to.

Just embrace it.

Well, you know, Pastor, you know, I've done a theological research and dissertation, and I believe and I think, and I don't think that's necessary.

I don't really know if that's necessary.

I don't know what we're talking about here.

But I do know the question is love.

Not theology.

It's really about whether you love God enough to say, God, whatever you want, here I am.

Whatever you want to do in my life, here I am.

So I've not come today to talk about necessarily the things you're doing or not doing.

What I'm challenging you about today is, would you love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind?

Would you just say, God, I just want to love you with all I have?

And I want my heart to be examined, and I want you to draw me close.

And I want to step into your command.

If I love you, I'll keep your commandments.

Would you stand?

So today I'm just calling you to ask you, are you where you need to be in your love for God?

Do you really sense that love, that desire, that heart for God that's burning in your heart that says, you know, God, whatever it is, just I want to do anything.

I want to do anything.

I want to give anything.

I want to put myself in your hands completely.

And you may say today, that seems rather simplistic.

Well, Jesus said, We come like little children in honesty, in simplicity, and we give ourselves to him, and he will receive us.

We come like little children.

Now I'm not calling you a child, I'm not saying you are a child, I'm not even saying you're childish, but we come with just an open heart to say, God, we want you to receive our lives and touch our hearts.

And we want you to do your work in our lives today.