Las Vegas Faith Center - Gods Word, Faith Messages, Spiritual Coaching and Religion Studies

What Is This Thing Called Love?

The Las Vegas Faith Center
What Is This Thing Called Love?

by Tiger Todd

What is this thing called love? I had to look back at my prior messages data base and scan through the messages I’ve taught over the years to see which ones I had done. I thought this one looked familiar, until I realized there was this “mystery”. “Just who can solve its mystery”....So today, we’re going to solve this mystery.

I’m going to read out of the message translation of 1 Corinthians Chapter 13 in what we have come to know as the “love scripture”:

If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy, but don’t love, I am nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God’s Word of power revealing all of His mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that it says to a mountain “Jump”, and it jumps, but I don’t love, I am nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor, and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I have gotten nowhere. So no matter what I say, no matter what I believe, and what I do, I am bankrupt without love. Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. Love doesn’t strut, doesn’t have a swelled head, doesn’t force itself on others, isn’t always “me first”, doesn’t fly off the handle, doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, doesn’t revel when others grovel, takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, puts up with anything, trusts God always, always looks for the best, never looks back, but keeps going to the end. Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over someday, praying in tongues will end, understanding will reach its limit. We know only a part of the truth, but what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled. When I was an infant at my mother’s breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up I left those infant ways for good. We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist, but it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright. We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us. Knowing Him directly just as He knows us. But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God. Hope unswervingly. Love extravagantly. And the best of these three is love.

If you don’t have a message translation, I encourage you to get one. It’s a faith- building, wonderful translation. It’s not necessarily a study tool, but it’s a wonderful translation of the scripture.

1 Corinthians 13. If you ask someone what love is, they would say, “love is patient, love is kind, love is not easily puffed up”.....the King James version. We’d get all these things regarding the outward appearances of love. But I saw a little blurb concerning something Josh McDowell, a minister whose show was on TBN, had observed that no one has ever really defined love. People have tried to define it as,” God is love”. Well, if you don’t understand what love really is, and what its definition is, then you can’t really know God, can you? The Bible says, “He is love”.

The world has all these ideas about what love is, and I’ve written down a few of them. I’ve said this because we’ve set out to find out more about the God of the Holy Bible, not the God of this church, not the God of this religion, not the God of this people, not the God of whomever, but the God of the Holy Bible. This is about finding out what the Holy Bible says about the author, God. So, we’ve got, “God is love”. I mean, not the Teen Magazine, ”I’m in love with Brad Pitt” kind of love. No. It can’t be that love. It’s not the love of the movies. Who does a good Cary Grant? “I love you, darling”. It’s not the love of the commercials.

Did you ever seen the commercial about, well, I hate watching TV, but there was one for Bud Light where this guy is proposing to this girl, and he can’t quite say the words, so she’s waiting for him to say the words, and he kind of says, “I loooooove yoooou”. And he tries and tries, but he can’t do it. So it can’t be that kind of love, either, or he would have been able to say it. How about the NBA fans saying,”I love this game”. That’s not the love of the Bible. Then there’s the love of the old west. Any cowboys in here? “Out in the west Texas town of El Paso, I fell in love with a Mexican girl”. And it’s not the love of Forrest Gump. “I may not be a smart man, but I know what love is”. He was probably the only one that really did know what love was. So we’ve got a lot of different types of love, but turn to 1 John Chapter 4, and let’s deal with a couple of scriptures there before we move on.

Remember, we’re talking about the God of the Bible. Look at verse 6 of 1 John Chapter 4.

We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error. Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

Knowing the definition of love is seemingly going to be very, very important. And just because you know it, (or maybe you don’t), doesn’t mean you’ve walked in it. Because Forrest Gump in his naivete walked in just about everything that was right.. He just understood things, and he prospered, because he just flat out worked, and he was just, “OK”. And the God of the Holy Bible is the God of the unusual response. He’s not the God of the usual response. He’s not the God of doing it the same way you did it yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that. If things are not working, then you’ve got to do them a different way to get different results. So Forrest Gump was into the unusual response. Shrimping is down at an all time low in Louisiana, but Forrest sticks to his shrimping, even though everyone laughs him to scorn. We touched a little bit on this on the reproach for Christ.

When it comes to the love of the Bible, it’s going to be different than the other kinds of love. And when you see it, you’ll see that every mother, in her naivete, did it. But, we’ve had trouble with the men, because men need to be taught certain things. Mothers get these things. My wife sometimes says, “Oh, so you’re saying there’s a double standard”...and there are two rest rooms, and….there is a Women’s Department and a Men’s Department. We are different! But there are some things that women know about men that they would change if they should ever marry them.

Ephesians Chapter 5. This is where Josh McDowell said he found the only definition in the Bible for what the God of the Bible’s type of love is. We’ve been on a study of “The Christ”, and how to understand things about Christ, but God interrupted that the other night…late, and then early in the morning, and then…so let’s pick up here verse 25 of Ephesians Chapter 5.

Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church. and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.

Notice here that this is talking about the man’s responsibility. I have dealt with this before. I’ve said to God, “How do you know we’ve got to do it that way? You were never married! What do you know about what this is talking about?” Paul was never married. We do understand that some people are not meant to be married. We saw that with a few of the prophets in the Old Testament. They were never supposed to be married, but they did it anyway, and most of the tragedy in Israel was caused because of their kids. We understand that. We understand that there are fixes for everything where we make a mistake. Thank God! But in the relationship, even if you’re not married, even if you do or don’t have a good marriage, if you’re four years old, whatever the deal, we were supposed to learn this principle first before we could ever understand the relationship Christ has with the church.

It was supposed to be a parable. It was kind of like when we talked about the Kingdom of God. Everything under God is compared to the planting of a seed. So we look at all the parables Jesus taught, and there was seed time and harvest. Seed time and harvest. Seed time and harvest. So once we understood seed time and harvest, all of a sudden our faith would work. Once we could understand more about faith, our harvest got better in the spiritual realm. Well, God just hands us this thing about husbands and wives, and he’s expecting us to understand the mystery of Christ because he’s given us this parallel of husbands and wives.. and He’s.thinking all the while that it was the fathers who were raising their sons, (and that hasn’t happened a lot in this country). The women are going to understand this.

I was thinking of Eli’s wife.She’s a new mother, and ever since, she’s just added another hemisphere of knowledge. All of a sudden, there’s this information she didn’t know was “in there”, but now she just has it. It’s the guys that need to be taught. The Bible explains why God chose Abram to be the father of many nations. It wasn’t because he was physically capable; actually he was around 85 years old, but he was chosen because God knew he would teach and train his children in the ways of righteousness. God could fix Abram’s body, but He was looking for someone who would teach and train his children in the ways of righteousness. I didn’t learn things about fathering without having natural kids, so God gave me a mess of spiritual kids to father. And I’ll tell you what, the first few times through, I was as dumb as a stump. But I’m learning. We’re getting there.

The son ordained by God for David was Solomon, and David taught Solomon all the ways of righteousness. Solomon, who authored the Book of Proverbs, begins by describing how a man instructs his children in the ways of righteousness. And we’re starting to see why Jesus was born to that family. Even though Jesus didn’t come from Joseph, physically, he was from the lineage of David…from a line of people that teach and train their sons in the ways of righteousness. Well, Jesus needed to know some things, didn’t he, and he was obviously a good learner. He didn’t just come out of the womb quoting scripture. He learned it just like we learned it. Jesus couldn’t be my sacrifice if his knowledge was given him at birth. What was it he said? Hebrews Chapter 4 said that, He was tempted like as we are, yet without sin. He went through that same garbage and more, except he went through the cumulative garbage.

We’re supposed to understand this relationship, but we didn’t understand that men needed something from the outside. Women could “get it” from the inside. We’re talking about love, but we need to understand the parable before we can know what love is. Women, by and large, treated the men properly before they married them. Again, I’m not referring to the women in this room. It’s just the message. So let’s keep going, and get down to our definition. Verse 28 of Ephesians Chapter 5.

So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. Now wait, there’s something interesting!

I want to read some information that came from God….Love starts with the male of the species. Well, that makes sense. God made the man first, so of course, love would start there first. The male has some responsibilities. That’s why women have been slighted for so long, because when the men didn’t step up and take their place throughout history, well…where’s the love? Bible love starts with the male first loving himself. The man has to love himself, and it says here,

so ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.

If a man does not love himself, he cannot love his wife. Let’s put it another way. A man can only love his wife to the same level at which he loves himself.

Bible love starts with the male loving himself, recognizing who he is, and what gifts he has been given, and what his purpose is in God. Who is he in Christ? He needs to love that! I mean, if he is called to be chief apostle, or if he is called to be the lawn mower man for the chief apostle, he has got to love himself, or he has no business finding a woman. Because truly, that woman’s only hope of being loved is if that man loves himself.

Now wait, this is really new news, even though it’s been in the Bible. Why? Because fathers didn’t teach it to their sons. If you went out and did something stupid, Romans Chapter 10 says that the ultimate responsibility of your sin, where the buck actually stops, is with the preacher. We find out that it ultimately starts with the father training the son in the way he should go. So when God is talking about love, He’s trying to understand where we’ve missed it, and make adjustments. I’ll tell you what. There is a plan here to make adjustments, and it’s so simple.

All the men stand up for a moment, would you please? I want you to smile and say this after me, “I love myself. I’m great.” And do like James Brown, and say, “I kiss myself”. DO IT MEN! The wives lives are in danger. Men, sit down, and ladies, let’s give the men a hand.

And now it’s the ladies turn. Ladies, picture some Italian stallion down at 24 Hour Fitness, gold chains woven throughout that massive hair on his chest, and way too busy looking at himself in the mirror to notice you for the first week, all because he was mesmerized by his own posing. And you might say, “YUCK”. Hmmmm. Ephesians 5 says, that’s the type of man you should have married. Now wait, most women do marry a man like that, that appeals to them in that manner. Or they at least go after a man like that. But when they get him home, this other idea comes into their mind. They’ll tell the man, “Bow down and worship me, love slave”. Ephesians Chapter 5 actually says that type of guy would love his wife better than the guy whose whole existence was based upon YOU. Why is it that’s what you want him to be when you’re dating, but once you get married, you feel the need to kill his ego. And everyone said, “Hmmmm”. This happened throughout the Bible. Most women, certainly not the ones in this room, think they need a man who will worship them, so they spend most of their time, unknowingly, destroying that ego to the point where that man likes himself less than his job, less than his car, less than his friends, and worst of all, he likes himself less than his wife. And all the while, by unknowingly destroying his ego, his wife is also destroying his ability to love her.

Remember, we’re learning a parable. This is not about us. It’s about how we can have the relationship with God the Father that we are supposed to have. How can we ever know God to the capacity we are supposed to know Him? There has got to be something we’re still missing. I believe in marriages, and I believe in friendship in the Body of Christ. I believe there is still the 100-fold that comes from sowing seed in good ground. Everything in the Kingdom of God is compared to the planting of a seed, so therefore, if you work this principle… I mean, who wouldn’t like to have a 100 times better marriage? Even if you’re not married, who wouldn’t like to have a marriage that is 100-fold better than the ones you know of? OK. Bring it on.

All the ladies stand up, please. Turn and look to another woman and say, “Girlfriend, it’s time for a change. My man is a real stud muffin”. Now I don’t know what the word “stud muffin” means, but it sounded good. A lot of you had trouble saying it, so I figured it had to be from God… and it was the unusual response.

The truth of this parable is this. Men were supposed to be heroes, but a lot of times, heroism got confused with egoism. What would be the root of that? Why wouldn’t you want your man to be a hero, or why would someone say something about your man that caused you, all of a sudden, to think it was his ego? Well, let’s go to 1 Samuel Chapter 18, and begin reading in verse 5. This is after David has whipped up on Goliath and all the Philistines have hauled Goliath’s monstrous head back to his tent. When he got done, verse 5,

And David went out whithersoever Saul sent him, (he was obedient, David was just the kind of guy you want working for you) and behaved himself wisely: and Saul set him over the men of war, and he was accepted in the sight of all the people, and also in the sight of Saul’s servants.

OK, we’ve got this young guy, this Hebrew stallion who’s everybody’s hero. All the men of war, all the generals have no trouble putting this young boy at the head of their army. They aren’t having any trouble with hero vs. ego. If you remember the story of David and Goliath, when David first ran out and said, “Hey what do I get if I beat up this Philistine”, it was his brothers, his family, the people that lived with him that did confuse it with ego. So there is something there. ....

Let’s go on here, verse 6

And it came to pass as they came, when David was returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women came out of all cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet king Saul, with tabrets, with joy, and with instruments of music, And the women answered one another as they played, and said, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands. And Saul was very wroth, and the saying displeased him; and he said, They have ascribed unto David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed but thousands: and what can he have more but the kingdom?

Fear. Now fear is the root to something called jealousy. Like anything, the Bible kind of love also has an antonym. I always thought it was love/hate. Faith/doubt. But really, it looks like perverted love is jealousy. Jealousy causes you to see things wrongly. You see things incorrectly. Jesus said about sin, when you were blind you had no sin, but because you say you see, your sin remains. So we can be blinded. The Hebrew cross reference says there was evil in Saul’s eyes. Something happened to his eyesight.

And Saul eyed David from that day and forward. And it came to pass on the morrow, that the evil spirit from God came upon Saul, and he prophesied in the midst of the house: and David played with his hand, as at other times: and there was a javelin in Saul’s hand.

All of a sudden, this boy whom Saul loved has become his enemy. And we know the story; he pursued him, and pursued him, and pursued him, and it was all over this jealousy that developed.

Jealousy is perverted love. Being jealous of his or her success will not work in any relationship between male and female, or the jealousy of others that love him or her. What their eyes perceive is more than they love him or her. When women find out that they can only be loved by their husband as much as their husband loves himself, the way in which any woman is actually going to get more love, is if more love comes on to the man. It is then that he can love himself more. This is twisted in the world. If you do not have God in your life, if you are your own island, if you are the total resting place of all the worship and praise in your life, then you are going to have a problem. But if you’ve got a man that can understand this, I mean, most men are designed to be heroes.

Hold your place and go to 11 Peter Chapter 1. This is the way men were designed, and women, it’s time you knew it! It says

Simon Peter, a servant an an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, (that’s the God of the Bible) and of Jesus our Lord.

It is key that you must have said, “Jesus is Lord of my life”. That’s the only way to keep this thing operating. We’ve had men that said “Jesus is Lord”, but then we didn’t turn them loose like we should have in order that they could operate in their “heroism”. Verse 3, According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: He’s called these men to glory and virtue. Virtue equals heroism. He’s called them to be a hero. They’re designed to be heroes in whatever they do. They could be the hero of doing their job better than anyone else, whatever that job might be. That’s not to be judged between men.

Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature…

If you keep him down, he’ll never end up in the fullness of Christ. Men, if you don’t start making Jesus your Lord, you’ll never be able to love your wife. Just forget about it. What I’m talking about is a MUST!

I learned about seed time and harvest. I go to these Believers Conventions, and heard that message by Jesse duPlantis of “Name your Seed”. I planted seed for the perfect wife. It was about the third day of the Convention, and I had been spending about 14 hours a day just getting inundated with God, and I’m being conscious of planting more seed. I mean, I didn’t have much money, but I’m planting that seed and naming the perfect wife. I’m telling God, “God, it’s the third day, and I’m planting seed for that perfect wife”, and God brought up a good point, “Well, when are you going to be the perfect man?” So I realized that most of the work needed to happen within me. Because it is actually the man in a marriage that has the greater responsibility where God is concerned. He is to keep her, sanctify her, separate her, know what’s best for her….well, we’ll get there, and we’ll understand, too, what Jesus’ position is.

Turn to 1 John Chapter 4:17. It says,

Herein is our love made perfect,

and I wanted to read another half verse here in 1 Peter…

Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises. (they are just promises until you do your part) that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

Ladies, if you don’t turn him into a man of god, into a godly man, if you don’t allow him be that hero, you can’t escape the corruption that is in the world. You can’t. And it would be like Job, who says, “That which I have so greatly feared has come upon me”. His wife probably said, “Why don’t you just curse God and die”. See, that’s why I don’t translate Bibles!

Continuing with 1 John Chapter 4, verse 17.

Herein is our love made perfect, (your love needs to be perfected, completed) that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as he is, so are we in this world.

We’re talking to men and women, but I’m not sure we’re not talking about men. Men are supposed to be the heroes. We know that. We preach these messages every Sunday…that we’re moving from glory to glory into his marvelous image. Well, I can see why we haven’t made it to his marvelous image yet. There is no fear in love. Wasn’t that Saul’s problem? He feared. He was afraid of what, my kingdom? Fear. But there is no fear in the Bible kind of love…. but perfect (Bible kind of) love casteth out fear because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.

Turn to Ephesians Chapter 5 again.

So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but (NOW HERE’S YOUR DEFINITION) nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:

The Bible definition for the God kind of love. Do I love you? Yes. Then, if I love you by the Bible kind of love, the God kind of love, then I will nourish you and cherish you. If you love me, I will know you love me because you are nourishing me and cherishing me.

Now here is the difference between nourishing and cherishing, and let’s deal with this concerning kids. First, the definition of nourish from the literal Greek word that was translated for ”nourish” actually means, “ to provide nutrients or nutrition…to be the source of their needs”. In the 60’s, we had this mind void of judgment- thinking where every woman wanted to be a man, and then, all of a sudden, every man wanted to be a woman. YUCK! “I am woman, hear me roar.” Because of that, we thought we could be independent operators. Well, we learned in our Thursday night message that you were never designed by God to be an independent operator. The only reason why your situation is in lack right now is because you were taught by the world that you could be independent and succeed. And I believe, too, in the marriage 100-fold, finances 100-fold, health and healing 100-fold, because as we teach this principle of the Kingdom of God, it will begin to happen right where we’re at. We just want it to happen where you’re at. And we want it to happen where your family is at.

It’s very easy to get a heathen off the street, born again and into the Kingdom, when he’s broke and you fix him. We’re supposed to establish our ministry by the greater works, not by our programs and our “lovely little policies” or our outreaches, or whatever. Do you love me? If you love me, I know you’ll supply what I need. I love you! Now here’s the difference where children are concerned. Do you love your kids? What do you feed them? That’s nourishing. You will know how much you love your kids by what you nourish them with. You will also know how much you love your kids by what you let them eat, what you let them watch, and what you let them do. That’s cherish. Nourish is to supply their nutrients. Cherish is to protect them from what could harm them. Now you can see why when women because mothers, it is just automatically in them. The love of God was in there! That’s why God didn’t make Joseph pregnant to have Jesus. Just thought I’d let you know. It could happen. All things are possible to him that believes, but there was a good reason.

Do you love your man of God? He loves you. How do you know he loves you? By what he gives you to do, and what he makes you eat. And…..what he allows you to do and eat. When one of us comes up, and we say something where our words might be against what you really want, but we still say it, we are actually cherishing you, even though it might not seem so. OK? That’s cherish. The people you don’t love, you could just walk right past.

Do you love him? Do you nourish him by providing for him what he needs? We’ve discussed the natural relationship. Now let’s read this verse again.

For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: for we are members of his body,of his flesh…

I thought about this when Pastor Ron had a Steward Tip. It occurred to me that the only ailment the Body of Christ hasn’t had since the resurrection was a headache. We’ve had broken arms, we’ve had growths on the toes of the Body of Christ, but Jesus is the HEAD, and we’ve never had a headache. How many of you don’t function well when your head hurts? See? Because we’re a Body. Well, we’re part of this Body, and this is the analogy he is getting into. It says,

For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother.

Now we are back to the parable. Husbands, you can’t serve your wife and serve your mother. You Can’t. Amen. Can’t do it Cannot. Should not. That’s not what marriage is. All these people are getting married, saying, “I don’t believe in God”. Well then, you’re not married. Sorry. Marriage came from this book. If you don’t believe this book, you aren’t married.

For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, (and now your bone of bone, and flesh of flesh, and you each have requirements for each other) and the two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery (NO KIDDING!) but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless, let everyone of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.

That sounds fair. In church we’ve heard, “Submit to the man”. That was the easy part. It’s what the man has got to do that he was never really trained to do. The only time a woman has trouble submitting to a man is when the woman wants to be a man. True, a lot of men are not worth your submission, but it says, do it as Christ submitted to the church. Was the church worthy of Jesus’ submission? No! That ought to help you sleep at night until this thing turns around here. Jesus submitted anyway.

The question is, how can I love more? I want to take you to the Gospel of John in Chapter 10 verse 17.

Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have the power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.

The mothers intrinsically knew how to love, intrinsically had something planted. But with men, you’ve got to choose to do it. It didn’t come naturally, it wasn’t a hormonal deal. It was a choice. So you’ve got to choose to do it. John said, your life is yours to pick up and lay down. Men have a serious responsibility, and so it is in the church. That’s why the church is predominantly women-based. They’ve got love, and they know what love is. Men diverted their treasure.

Turn to Matthew Chapter 6. How do you love more? Here’s the answer. With the God kind of love. 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, 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.

I’m so glad we can get into this, because, where is your heart? You’ll know exactly where your heart is if you just go track down where your treasure is. Because your treasure doesn’t follow your heart, your heart follows your treasure. This is another one of those magnificent truths in the Bible that shows that the natural does lead the supernatural. Your spirit-man goes where your physical treasures go. So the advice is, Don’t take your treasure and put it where moth and rust doth corrupt. If you don’t have enough of your wife in your heart, you need to divert some treasure from the things where moth and rust doth corrupt, and divert it into her life. If you don’t have enough love for your husband, you need to go divert some treasure out of some natural things where moth and rust doth corrupt, and put it into your husband.

It’s the same way with your kids. See, this is where kids start out getting all the treasures. I had a chip on my shoulder for a long time, oh, toys, toys, toys…parents needed help feeding their kids, but the kids still got toys. Well, I didn’t get toys. But parents love their kids, because they put their treasure in them. What happens is, their hearts are in that kid, and they can’t get their hearts out of that kid. That kid can go steal, and they’ll say, “My kid did NOT steal”. Look at how love is. Isn’t this how God IS love? Isn’t this how God is when the devil comes up and accuses the brethren, and the Father says, “I don’t see anything. Take a look at that form again” and notice that the handwriting on the ordinances against you were blotted out? That’s love, because He put His treasure, He put His only begotten son, His treasure, where moth nor rust doth not corrupt, His treasure was in heavenly places. He IS love. He couldn’t help it. He had to do it

That’s how people are when they’re in love. Isn’t that how it is when you’re dating? You’re doing everything to please…you’ve got your treasure in her! But then, all of a sudden, you get married and pretty soon, you’ve got your treasure over here, and he’s got his bass boat, and she’s got her new carpet, and it gets so you can’t walk through her house anymore without taking your shoes off. You go to sit down, and she says, “Wait!” You’re walking around with a drink, and she’s following you around with a coaster. She doesn’t care about you anymore, she cares about the furniture, because her treasure is there. Her heart can’t help it, because she’s built that way. You’re built that way. God’s built that way. So we can’t change, we’ve just got to work within the system. Because we’re not going to change God, right? He’s built that way. He made us in His image, in His likeness. That’s why it’s down to a choice.

How do I know I love my God? My treasure goes there. How do I know I love my wife? My treasure goes there. How do I know I love my church? My treasure goes there. How do I know I love my kids? My treasure goes there. If I need to love my wife more, I need to get more treasure in her. If I need to love my church more, I need to get more treasure there. If I need to love my kids more, I need to get more treasure in them. What if you don’t have any more treasure left to put there? Repent and divert. If you don’t write anything else down today, write down repent and divert! Because God provides seed, He always gives seed to the sower, and He’s real good…If you say, “I don’t have anything left, I’ve got it all in the boat, or the carpet, or whatever it is”, more seed can be provided

This is what happens. Your hearts drift apart, and then we’ve got one more statistic in the church. We’re praying for people that sang Christian songs for 16 years. So “spiritual” must not have been as important as these little natural things that we now know we could do. We’ve got to find out how the system works, and just do it. Are you guys going to do it?

Turn to 2 Corinthians, Chapter 4. We’ll read verse 3, I want to plant this into you.

But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world (the one where moth and rust doth corrupt) hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels…

It DOES matter what you do with your body. Men, if we are ever going to love a woman to the capacity she needs to be loved, we are going to need to cherish and nourish ourselves better. It needs to be more critical in what we put in our bodies. what we put in front of our eyes, the words we put into our ears. Women, you’re going to have to put up with a lot of change. ..and just keep saying, “Yes, I love you”, and then one day, Whoa! I LOVE YOU!!!

Parents, how many of you know that one of the most valuable treasures you have is something that your child made of stuff that he or she has found? You might not have any money right now, you might not have the treasure to do something with right now, but kids come up with their own treasures all the time. Remember how much you loved that cow pie with the two sticks poking out of it? “Oh, look what he made!” These things are precious. Start with what you’ve got.

We’ll close with 1 Corinthians Chapter 13 verse 9.

For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

We thought we knew what love was. But now we know that love is not what we thought, it is something you do. You’ve got to nourish and protect. When you leave here today, name the people that you love this Valentines Day. Then run the test whether you are nourishing them by supplying them with what they need, and cherishing them by protecting them from the very things that can harm them. And then take this very same brand of Bible love, wherewith the Father has loved us, and love HIM back with it. God didn’t expect you to be able to love Him off the bat. “Oh Glory to God”. Well, the Glory to God people are having trouble right now. We needed to be learning the parable in the natural, and we’ve got men and women to practice on. We’ve got all kinds of levels of relationship: fathers, sons, friends, co-workers. Then we’ll be able to understand how this thing truly works, where we could truly love our Father as He loves us. It says, “As He is, so are we in this world”.

I think we should pray. Heavenly Father, show us where we need to repent and divert. We thank you for honoring saints and giving us days to celebrate saints, those who are obedient and have obeyed you. I expect everyone in this room to be obedient and obey what they have seen in their Bibles today. Give us the boost, the extra, we now understand that sometimes we need to be saved first before the stuff we know to do works. But you said whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, so I just say it now, “Jesus is Lord”, and I expect salvation to flow freely so that we can go forward, so that we can move up in our relationships, and move up in learning how to truly love…and then start walking in the 100-fold in this area, also. We thank you God in Jesus’ name. Amen