Do You Love Me More Than This?

Well, for the last few weeks, I've been talking about agape. We talked about truth thing and love. Last week, if you recall, we went through the sermon and defined agape from the Bible. Agape is one of those words, a Greek word, that you can't look into any dictionary, you can't look into any concordance, and really get a complete meaning of what the word agape in the Bible is.

And the only way you can understand agape is if you go through the Bible and let God in the Bible his word to find a force. That's what we did last week, if you recall. So we went through a number of scriptures. Remember, we put those scriptures up even on a PowerPoint. I went a little long in Jacksonville this morning, so I'm not going to recount all those points to you, but I'll just kind of mention a few. And if you would like to refresh your memory of what there is, I know that sermon is online and our YouTube channel, you can look at it then.

But you remember that agape is a choice in what we do. It's a selective choice commitment. Not a commitment, but an action that we take that doesn't always have to be something that we feel like doing. In fact, a lot of times it's not what we feel like doing. It's what Jesus Christ is the perfect example of agape did for us. He came. He sacrificed literally everything. Came to earth, lived as a human being. Gave his life that we might have eternal life.

We talked about the Good Samaritan and the examples that we learned from the Good Samaritan there. How it was a selfless act. The Good Samaritan wasn't looking for anything in return. He saw a need. He filled it, and he simply did it. He didn't have any emotional or relationship ties to the man who was laying by the side of the street.

He simply did it out of the goodness of his heart. We know that agape is a requirement that God has for his people. It's an identifying characteristic for us. John 1334 says, when people see us and they see us gather together, our identifying characteristic is we have agape for one another. And we went through Scripture showing that simply God looks for us and is expecting that we are going to develop agape in our lives. There's nothing you can ever show in the Bible that says, agape isn't anything but an all-pervasive, all-encompassing, 100% of our life needs to be devoted to it. 100% of our life needs to be committed to that calling that God has given us.

To become like him, and God is agape. Jesus Christ is agape, and so our calling is to become agape as well. Doesn't happen overnight. Doesn't happen in five years, ten years. It takes the rest of our lives to become what God wants us to be and develop that trait, that nature of him that we can only have if we have his Holy Spirit.

One scripture from last week I do want to turn to as we begin here today and take this another step down the road is Romans 5. So if you'll turn with me to Romans 5. I mentioned that you cannot look into a dictionary and find what the definition of agape is.

I don't think you can even understand what the definition of agape is without God's Holy Spirit. Here in Romans 5 verse 5, God inspired Paul to write, "...Now hope doesn't disappoint because the agape of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which was given to us." It's given to us by his Holy Spirit, poured into our hearts. Notice the word heart.

It's not something that we just kind of do and forget. It become, we become agape. We become, that's the nature that we become to be that way that God has to find for us that we talked about last night.

Not last night, last week. That's why I don't look at my notes because I see something and think of something else. But, you know, as we talked last week and I gave a couple definitions, there is one definition I want to give you because I thought it was a pretty good way that the cognate word studies put it. And I'll repeat this. I think this is probably the third week that I've said this definition, but there's a part of it that I want us to think about today in addition to remembering that it's the Holy Spirit that gives us the agape. Remembering to 2 Timothy 1.7, God says He gives us the spirit of power of agape and a sound mind.

Anyway, cognate word study. Agape means actively doing what God prefers. Actively doing what God prefers. And I think that's a good way, it's a good way to understand part of what agape is. No years ago there was a, remember, what would Jesus do? People had a little WWJD bracelets and whatever that was supposed to remind them to, I guess, stop and think before they did something. Is this what the Bible would say? Is this what God would have us do? It's kind of a short-lived fad. But what agape is, is us choosing to do what God prefers us to do.

Now what He prefers us to do, He commands in the Bible. He makes it perfectly clear in the Bible what our job is and what our responsibilities are when we're called and when we yield to Him. But I want you to keep that phrase in mind. And as we go through this, because today we're going to talk about how do you develop agape?

What can you do to do that? Because it's so important to God, what can we do? What can we do? How do we make that happen in our lives? So it's agape actively doing what God prefers. They go on, they say true agape is always defined as a discriminating affection which involves choice and selection. It's an affection that involves choice and selection. It's kind of where our heart is. This is kind of what we want to do.

This is where we're led to do it. We're gonna see, you know, agape throughout the Bible. We're gonna see agape in ways that the secular Greeks used it to because when they used it in their literature, it's different than what the Bible says. And when you look it up in the encyclopedias, they did use the word, excuse me, sparingly, mostly used in the Bible.

But agape had a meaning for them as well, not the biblical meaning, just a part of the biblical meaning. But we'll get to that in a little bit here. To show you how pervasive agape is to be in our lives, turn with me to Matthew 22. Jesus Christ highlights how important it is. As a lawyer comes up to him, asks him a question. In verse 36, he says, asks Christ, which is the great commandment in the law?

And Jesus said to him, you shall agape the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. That's pretty pervasive, isn't it? You shall agape him. You shall do what God prefers. You shall make that decision and that selection of what you do, the choices you make, the decisions you make, how you act with God in mind, doing what he prefers, and that needs to become all of our hearts, minds, and soul. That doesn't leave any of our areas of our lives out.

There's nothing that is left out of that. That's everything. That's what we're called to. That's the end result of our calling, of our yielding to the Holy Spirit, of learning to obey God. Just like we read in the Bible study last week in Romans 10.4, Christ, where it said, is the end of the law. Agape is the end of what our lives are to be. That's what we are developing throughout our lives. At the end of our lives, when Jesus Christ returns, we should have gone a long way in developing that fruit of the Holy Spirit. Remember, the fruits of the Holy Spirit aren't just dropped into us at the time we're baptized.

The seeds are there, but like any fruit, they have to grow. It takes patience. It takes time. It takes working at it. And agape is not going to grow, agape, unless we practice, unless we're devoted to it, unless we're thinking about it, and we're letting God lead us, and we're actively asking God to lead us to develop what he wants us to become. So in verse 37, Christ answers, what's the great commandment of the law?

The lawyer probably thought, well, are you gonna ask? They're gonna talk about killing? You need to talk about adultery? You're gonna talk about putting God first? Jesus Christ answers him with something, a word, you know, that maybe he didn't expect to hear. You shall agape the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul. And then Christ says, this is the first and great commandment, and the second is like it.

You shall agape your neighbor as yourself. No choice, no option there. You shall agape your neighbor as yourself. There's a way you will show your love to me. We'll talk about some of those today, and there's this overriding one, too. How you show your love to me is how you treat each other as well. We'll talk about that more at another time. But since Christ gave two commandments, two commandments here, we're going to talk about one of them today and how we develop in the course of our lives loving or agapeing God with all our heart, mind, and soul.

When the world looks at those verses, there's many people out there that look at it and say, oh, we'll see Jesus Christ. He never mentioned that we had to, you know, do those first four commandments, never mentioned that we had to keep a Sabbath day, didn't mention the last six commandments at all.

He said, just love God. Just love God and just love each other. It's one of the confusions of that English word or that Greek word that's been mistranslated, if you will, in English, agape. Because agape isn't the warm, fuzzy, you know, fuzzy feeling that we have for each other. We have friends. That's philia in Greek. We love our wives, love our husbands, right? That's eros. It's those relationships. That's those warm feelings that we have for one another. God expects that we will develop those for one another, but agape does nothing to do with that.

Agape is a conscious choice that we make. Remember the Good Samaritan? He had absolutely no relationship to that man lying on the road. It wasn't, oh, here's my friend. I need to stop and help him. I see a need. I'm stopping. It'll be at my complete cost. I'd expect nothing in return, and I will make sure he's taken care of going forward. That was in his heart. That's the agape that God wants us to develop.

Now, from agape, often, and we'll see this another time, from agape comes filia. That's part of what the God's plan for us is. If we agape one another, we're gonna end up loving one another. That's what God wants to see in the church. When he calls us his family, his children, he wants to see the warm family feelings between each of us. Sometimes that happens by the agape.

Sometimes in marriage, no, not sometimes in marriage. A lot of times in marriage, marriage can be strengthened when added to eros, which brings a man and woman together, when the agape is added to it. Because all those things happen and we are looking out for one another.

When agape is missing from a friendship, when agape is missing from a marriage, problems can result. Problems can result, and big problems can result. With God's Holy Spirit, they can be resolved. So Christ gave these two commandments, and the world would say, well look, all we have to do is love one another, right? All we have to do is say, I love Jesus Christ. I had this warm feeling for Jesus Christ. He didn't do anything that would upset me or anything.

Is that what Jesus Christ was saying? No, that isn't what he was saying. When you understand the agape, the way the Bible defines agape, you realize what Jesus Christ is doing is validating those ten commandments. Those ten commandments show us how to love God. Those ten commandments show us how to love each other. Those are the things we practice, and over time, they become us. It's just what we do. We don't have to think, oh, I can give an extreme example. I don't have to think that I'm not going to kill that person. It's just us.

We wouldn't do it, no matter what the problem or what the offense was. It's just what we become and what we do. I want to go back to another scripture we've read. I think at least the last two times I was here, but I want to look at it one more time here in John 21, because the more I look at it and the more I go back to this verse, the more I think about it.

I see some things in it that I want to bring out as we begin this a little bit more in depth here. In verse 15, we have the very famous interlude between Peter and Jesus Christ, where Christ asks him three times in English, do you love me? Well, let's read it in chapter 15 or verse 15, because we see these three questions that he gives.

They're all a little different, especially when we look at all the words and, of course, the Greek words. Verse 15. When they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonah, do you agape me more than these? Peter answered, yes, Lord, you know that I love you.

Using the word filia, yes, Lord, you know that I filia you. Christ said to him, feed my lambs. Christ asks him again, but he doesn't ask the question in the same way the second time. He uses the word agape again, but he phrases the question, or it's a little different than the first time. Christ said to him again a second time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you agape me? Now, this time he didn't say, do you agape me more than these?

Just do you agape me? And, of course, the third time then he just asks him, Simon Peter, do you filia me? Do you have that? Are we friends? Do you love me in that way? And Peter can answer yes at that time. I just have to wonder when Jesus Christ inspired those to be, and those are very similar things. Of course, in English, when we dissect them a little bit and look at the Greek, the first time he asked, do you love me Peter more than these?

Do you love me? Do you agape me more than these people? Or whatever it is he was referring to. Peter said, well, I do have the brotherly love for you. The next time he just said, well, Peter, do you love me? Do you agape me? I wonder, just wonder, if Christ was giving us a clue on how we develop agape for God. And when we ask the question of ourselves, as Christ asked it to Peter, do you love me more than this or that or that person or that?

Do you love me more? Because if we love God more, it affects the decisions we make. If we love God more, then we will do what he said every single time, no matter if it hurts a family member's feelings, no matter if we have to forego an occasion that really kind of looks fun but isn't appropriate for Sabbath. If we have to do something that's honesty may cost us money and may hurt us in some way, we would still do the right thing.

Do you love me more, God would ask. Do you love me more than them, this, that? Do you love me more? And will you do what I prefer as opposed to them, this, that? If we asked that question of ourselves when we were faced with situations and if we took the time to think through some of the things that we do, I think we might come up with different answers and different choices than we do.

You know, we're all programmed to respond pretty quickly to the things that happen in our lives, whether it be financial, whether it be health, whether it be a relationship. We can take knee-jerk reactions. They would are, you know, and oftentimes just what our human nature tells us. But we know that when we yield to our human nature, it's usually not going to turn out right, right? Not going to turn out well. Our human nature is faulty. We usually will make the wrong decisions if we just kind of do something.

But if we stop and realize and remember who we are, what we're called to, we know the Bible, we've talked about it, you read it, you know what God's Word is. If we stopped and thought before we just marched into action, is this what God would prefer? When I make this decision, am I showing that I agape this more than God? Am I showing that what I do, that I agape this in my life more than God?

Because when we come to that conclusion, our only answer should be, I can't do that. I can't choose that. I have to choose God. And that takes the power of the Holy Spirit. That's part of the power that God gives us in His Holy Spirit and the agape that's part of His Holy Spirit to give us the strength to do that and make that choice. But to do that, we have to stop sometimes and think about what we're doing. And look at it through God's eyes, look at it through the Bible's eyes, and not through our filters, but through His filter, through His Holy Spirit, through, who do I love more?

What am I showing when I make this choice? What is God hearing from me? Is it this, that, them? Who am I yielding myself to? Whose preferences am I giving myself to here? So perhaps Jesus Christ is showing us a pattern here. Peter, do you love me more than these? And then when we live that pattern, when we practice it, and it becomes us, so that we have retrained our minds, as it says in Romans 12, 1 and 2, that we have renewed our minds with the power of God's Holy Spirit, and it becomes, oh, okay, I have a choice between this and that.

This is God's way. I automatically do it because it becomes us. God's way is in our hearts. It is who we are. It is what we do. And over time, as that fruit of the Spirit grows, it will be, it will be evident. It will happen. But if we don't ever take the time to practice it, if we just keep doing knee-jerk reactions and doing what the world wants us to, or what we've been always programmed to, that we will never become what God wants us to do.

So maybe, just maybe, Christ is saying, Peter, you're going to have to make some choices. Who do you love more? And when that becomes part of you, you will agape me, and you will filia me too, because that agape will grow into filia.

Now, as I was thinking in the last couple of Bible studies, we've talked about Paul. And as he was on his journey that we've been talking about, where he went over to Greece, and then he's coming back, and he wants to come to Jerusalem for Pentecost there in Acts 20 and 21. You remember, as Paul was making that journey, and we discussed it, people along the way, people in the Church, people with the Holy Spirit, would tell Paul, don't go. Don't go to Jerusalem. Harm awaits you there. You're going to be—remember, Agabus even came out, and he acted out what's going to happen to him. You're going to be bound and changed. This is going to happen. And Paul heard all those things, and none of us want to hear, especially as we hear it over and over and over, don't go. Don't go. Harm awaits you there. But Paul was determined, I'm going to Jerusalem anyway. He believed it was what God's will was. Paul practiced agape. In spite of the fact of the threat of danger, of what was going on, the harm that was going to come, he chose to do what God said first. It's a powerful lesson, and he was getting this from friends and people in the church who were telling him, don't. So he could have, like any of us, who might say, well, you know what, maybe I didn't need to listen. Maybe I need to listen to their opinions and not do that. Paul knew what God's will was. Paul did it anyway. He went there anyway. And it's quite a powerful lesson that Paul teaches us about agape and where he was in his progress. You know, I won't even turn to the Scriptures. We know the Scriptures that talk about, if you love mother and father, brother and sister, children more than me, when Christ says, I'm not, you're not worthy of me. It doesn't mean don't love them. But when you put them in front of what God's will is, when you choose what they want, when you know that that's not what God wants. And the thing, of course, that comes to mind are Sabbath conflicts and other things like that that would come to mind. When we choose them, who are we agape-ing? Is that what God prefers? Or is God looking that maybe we would sacrifice that, remember an element of agape that we saw well was sacrifice Jesus Christ. You can't look at his example without knowing sacrifice and putting our own desires and safety and comfort aside cannot be discounted.

It's part of agape from time to time. What are we doing? Let me turn to just one example there. Let's go back to 1 Samuel. You know, when Jesus Christ, you know, I didn't read the rest of Matthew 22, 37 to 39. The next verse after 39 that talks about the second is like it, you shall agape your number as yourself.

Jesus Christ said, on these two commandments hang all the law and prophets. Everything you read, it all hangs on agape, is what he was saying. That's how pervasive it is. That's how important it is for you and me to develop. Okay, 1 Samuel 2. Just one example here, you know, the high priest, his name was Eli. And he had a couple of sons, and if you remember the story, the sons are wicked. They're just playing wicked. They play games with the offerings.

They play games with the women. They are just, you know, throwing it in God's face. Eli knew about it. He even cautioned him about it and said, don't do this. But Eli never took them out of the office that they were in. He continued to let it go.

And God watched what he was doing, and he pretty much said exactly how God would look at those situations. Let's pick it up in verse 28 of 1 Samuel 2. God sends someone to Eli to let him know what God's... how God looks at this. Verse 20 says, didn't I choose him, speaking of Eli, out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to offer upon my altar, to burn incense, and to wear an ephod before me?

And didn't I give to the house of your father all the offerings of the children of Israel made by fire? Didn't I give you enough? Why do you kick at my sacrifice and my offering, which I have commanded in my dwelling place? And why do you honor your sons more than me?

Why do you give in to them? You know well what I prefer. You know well if you loved me more what you would do, but by your actions, or in this case your refusal to take some actions, you're saying, I favor, I prefer, I agape my sons more than you, God. Why do you honor your sons more than me? To make yourselves fat with the best of all the offerings of my... of Israel, my people. And then you know the rest of the story.

Eli, the sons die. God remained... God takes them from their office. Pretty powerful. Who do you love more? God? Or this person, or that person, or group of people? Let's look at Luke 11. As you turn to Luke 11, I know we don't need to turn to any scriptures about humility. We know that humility must be a mark of God's people as well. The Bible tells us over and over again, it is the humble one to whom God will look. We know that pride is something that can well up in any of us, and we have to be a constant guard about that.

Always remembering and acknowledging God and realizing whatever we have, whatever we do, whatever we accomplish in life, it's because he's given us abilities, gifts, strengths, whatever it is. It's not ever about us, it's about what he's given us to do. And as we remember that, something you remember that Satan didn't remember, he forgot, or put it out of his mind, that was God who gave him all the gifts that he had.

You and I need to remember that. God looks to the humble person, not to the proud. Well, here in Luke 11, we see Jesus Christ using the word agape in verse 43 a little differently than what we might be accustomed to. But first, let's look at verse 42.

Christ is speaking to the Pharisees. We know the Pharisees well. They didn't do God's will. They added to God's law. They taught, Christ said, the traditions of men more than the commandments of God. They loved their traditions, their laws, even more than God's commands, is what he's saying. In verse 42 of chapter 11, it says, Woe to you, Pharisees! For you tithe, mint, and rue, in all manner of herbs. They were doing what they should do.

Tithing is a principle of God. They kept Sabbath days. They kept holy days. They did the things of God. But, but, he says, you pass by justice and you pass by the agape of God. There's key things. Some of the things you do are right, but the way you do your things, justice, mercy, faith, the agape of God, doing what God prefers. And when you see what God prefers, and it's different than what you're doing, the answer is stop what you're doing, turn to God, and do it his way, only his way. So that's what he's telling them in that in that verse there. They didn't have the agape of God. A big omission in their religion in their walk with God. Verse 43, he says, what are you Pharisees? For you agape, the best seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the marketplaces. Well, how can you agape the best seats? If we're talking about true agape, how could you possibly agape the chief seats? And this is where the Greek word agape comes into play. True agape, we learned from the Bible. We see when it talks about the agape of God, the agape brothers and sisters. That's what God is talking about. All those things we talked about last week that defined it, that's the agape of God. But there was a word agape that the Greek writers, not writers of the Bible, also had in their language, rarely used according to the New World Encyclopedia. What it simply meant was it was the thing that they loved doing. They made the choice and they would do what they loved the best. And so when you read it in a regular or secular Greek literature, agape was, oh, it wasn't love, it wasn't like warm, fuzzy feelings, it wasn't, oh, you're my best friend, or you're a good friend, or you're my husband or wife or family member. It was, that's what they loved doing. That's what they made their decisions on. What was important to them? That's where they made their decisions. And what is Christ saying there, then? When you look at agape that way, again, it's a choice, it's a selection. Remember part of what cognates said? It was showing the, how they put it, a discriminating affection, which leads to choice and selection. Where was their affection? It was on chief seats. It was on who do people think I am? What's my position? What am I doing? How are people seeing me? Is there any humility in that? No. None at all. Jesus Christ derides that. So we might ask ourselves, time to time, as we examine ourselves, what do I love more? Do I love God more? If everything I had, whatever position at work, whatever position anywhere at all, if it disappeared, would I still be okay with God? What do I make my decisions on? To serve God in the workplace, in school, in the neighborhood, in church, based on what does it show about me, or what do people look at me, or as a pure actless act of service? Because if we're doing it for position, it's not the agape of God, it's exactly what God is talking to the Pharisees here. They had an agape for the chief seats. They had an agape for that's what we do. We've kind of covered it with church. We've kind of covered it with our religion, but really what was behind it was pride of life, pride of life and station that they would have. If we go over to 1 John, 1 John this time, 1 John 2, you know, sometimes when we see a word in the Bible, God gives us where the opposite of it is, and sometimes we learn how to agape when we see the things that we shouldn't agape. And that's the case in 1 John 2.

1 John 2 and verse 15. There, John, remember John wrote this sometime in the 80s, 90s AD. He lived longer than the other Apostles. He had a lot of time to think and practice agape. And so when you read his writings, and I think I mentioned before, 1 John is a pretty good treatise in agape and what it means.

You want to look at agape, read through that and look at all the times that John uses it and how he describes it. But here in verse 15 he uses the negative thing. He says, do not, do not agape the world or the things in the world. Don't agape that. Don't let your affection for the world drive your decisions. Don't do that. That's not of God. Your affection for God, your loyalty to God, your commitment to God drives your decisions, not your commitment to the world.

Right? That's what he's saying here. Do not agape the world or the things in the world. There's an awfully lot of things in the world. There's people in the world. We talked about them a little bit, but there's things in the world. There's money in the world. There's possessions in the world. There's jobs in the world. There's activities in the world. There's all these things that we can count on and have our confidence in. They're all in the world. We all live in it. We all participate in it. We all understand what it is. Nothing wrong with any of it. Nothing wrong with any of it unless our affection for the world supersedes our desire and our affection to choose what God prefers.

He might look at some of the decisions that we make and say, do you love me more than that? Do you love me more than this thing? Do you love me more than—we'll talk about some of them in a minute—do not agape the world or the things in the world. If anyone agape is the world, the agape of the Father is not in him. That's a pretty clear statement, isn't it? If anyone agape is the things in the world, that's where your preference is.

I have this activity I need to do. This is what I like to do. This is how I want to spend my time. This is where my mind goes. I'll make decisions based on, well, any number of things. Verse 16, all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh. We know what that is. The lust of the eyes and the pride of life—we talked about that a little bit with the Pharisees—isn't of the Father, but it is of the world.

All those things in the world. Now, you could take the time and list the things in the world that you count on, because I dare say, if we were to sit down and list, where my confidence is, you know, I'm really happy with my financial status right now. I'm really happy with my health status right now, or maybe I'm not so happy with my health status right now.

I'm happy with my relationship status with others or my wife, family members, or maybe I'm not so happy with it right now. Where do we turn? What becomes most important? God's way? Our way? We do automatically what we think is best, rather than stopping, thinking, pausing, and asking, what does God prefer? Maybe even taking the time to ask Him before we jump to a conclusion. What do you prefer? Teach me how to do the things you prefer. Teach me to stop before I do something and make me think.

Almost nothing requires a split-second decision, but we're so programmed. Make a split-second decision, and when we do that, it's usually the wrong decision where God is concerned. We either rationalize it and think it's okay, not a big problem, or we make it because that's what we've been accustomed to do. We live in the world, and this is the way the world does it. That's the way we're going to do it, too. So I got a relationship problem.

Boom, this is what I do. I got a health problem. Boom, this is what I do. Rather than stopping and thinking, what would God have me do? What does God say to do? Which do I love more? When He lets me know, or when I look in the Bible and see what He loves more, do I have the strength to do that? Can I say no to self? Can I say no to someone else and do what God says, even though all society might say, no, this is the better decision. This is the better decision. This is the way the world does it. So when Christ says, don't agape the world, that tells us, you know, it's okay to live in the world.

Christ wanted us to live in the world. Let's go back and look at an example here in 2 Chronicles.

This is an account that I look at every so often because it's very instructive. Where am I going? 2 Chronicles 16, if I remember right. 2 Chronicles 16.

But it warns me what I could become like. It should warn all of us what we can become like. You know, we live in a world where, to show the importance of agape and what God counts it as, we live in a world of lawlessness. We've talked about that. We live in a world of plenty. Christ said, as it was in the days of Noah, as it was in the days of Lot, so shall it be. In the days when the coming of the Son of Man, they had plenty. In Noah's day, they weren't looking for anything. They had plenty. They weren't looking for things. Lot was a very comfortable place, or Sodom was a very comfortable place to live, we're told, in Ezekiel 16. And so we live in a time where there's plenty. There's a time that we're entering into that lawlessness, and it'll become more and more prevalent. And the danger God says is, when a lawlessness abounds, the love, the agape of many, wax cold. Can be red-hot. Red-hot when we come into the church. Red-hot through some of the trials that we have. But in the age of lawlessness, in an age where we have plenty, agape can grow cold. When agape grows cold, you and I have spiritual problems. You and I have things that we have to look at and look, and we have to make sure we don't get to that point where God looks at us. Anyway, here in 2nd Chronicles 16, we have the king Asa. We've talked about Asa before. When he started off as king, he did everything. He completely relied on God. He was like Solomon. If you remember Solomon, God said, I'll give you anything you want. And Solomon said, just give me wisdom so I can rule your people well. God gave Solomon wisdom. He also gave him a lot of wealth. The wealth caused a lot of problems for Solomon. He departed from God in just about every way. Asa, the story is similar. Asa, you know, he becomes king of Israel, and he has met with the challenge. The Ethiopians come. They're going to challenge him. There's war there, and whatever. The Ethiopians have a huge army. Israel's armady is not so big.

He doesn't do what the way of the world would be. Think, well, I can't possibly beat this army. I mean, they have so many more people than so many more men than I do. He doesn't go out and try to sign treaties with anyone else and say, let's let's make this all happen. Let's, you know, hedge our bets. Let's get all these forces. No, he completely relies on God. He looks to God and he says, I know that you're God. You can deliver anything in your hands, in my hands. And he completely trusts in God. No wavering, no doubt. And God delivers him. God delivers him. And then, Asa has several years of peace. Plenty in Israel. When we come to 1st chapter 16, now we're in the 36th year of the reign of Asa. He started off very well. Agape of God, he had it. He had it there. He demonstrated, I will choose to trust God against this enemy rather than go out to the world to kind of to help me and put things together, right? In the 36th year, verse 1, of the reign of Asa, Beshia, king of Israel, came up against Judah and built Ramah, that he might let none go out or come in to Asa, king of Judah. And so Asa brought silver and gold from the treasuries of the house of the eternal and of the king's house, and he sent it to Ben Heydad, king of Saria, who dwelt in Damascus, saying, Let there be a treaty between you and me, as there was between my father and your father. See, I've sent you silver and gold. Come, break your treaty with Beyeshu, king of Israel, so that he will withdraw from me. No mention of God. Let's do things the way the world does it. The way the world does it is, oh, we got an enemy who's pretty powerful. Let's go out and sign some treaties. Let's get some allies together so we can combat them as the world does. Completely different than what Asa did several years before. Verse 7 tells us that, at that time, Hanani the seer came to Asa, king of Judah, and said to him, Because you've relied on the king of Saria and have not relied on the Lord your God, you loved the world more than you loved God. You trusted in the world more than you trusted in God, is what he's saying to Asa. Do you see what you did, Asa? You have disrespected God. You have relied on the king of Saria. You haven't relied on the eternal your God. Therefore, the army of the king of Asa has escaped from your hand. And then he asks the questions, reminding him, Remember how you were back decades ago where the Ethiopians and the Lubim, not a huge army with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet because you relied on God, he delivered them into your hand. For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to him.

Does God respond to the decisions that we make? Does God respond favorably when we agape God and when we make the choice, love him more? Do what he prefers more. Do what he prefers always. Forget treaties. Forget reliance on the world. Forget the way the world does things. How does God do it? What does God tell us? It's not magic. It's not hidden. It's there in God's world. Just about every single occasion we come up with in life, if we stop and pause, what would God prefer? In this case, we can find it, but then the choice is ours. Do we do it or do we just go on with our own way and say, nah, later, nah, not that big a difference. Ah, God understands. Well, Asa, if you go on, you can kind of see what Asa, how he was with this. He was angry with the seer. He puts him in prison. Later on, Asa has a health problem diseased in his feet, never calls on God, relies on the physician, the physicians, the way of the world, relies on them rather than God, and he ends up dying. Who did Asa love more?

What questions could we ask ourselves when we are in their situations? We're not going to make all the right decisions. None of us are strong enough today in Agape to make all the right decisions, but God does give us time to practice. You know, he doesn't throw us into the Great Tribulation the minute that we're baptized.

He gives us time to grow, just like fruit has to have time to grow. God is preparing us for whatever it is down the road, but if we ignore the opportunities we have to grow in choosing him, in practicing Agape, when the time comes, when it's a really stern test, it's going to be tough. It's going to be tough if we didn't let the fruit grow all during that time. It won't be ripe. It won't be ready. It'll still be puny.

It'll be just worthy of being thrown away. You know, Abraham, I've mentioned him several times, it seems. Abraham had a supreme test. God was asking and looking to Abraham, who do you love more, Abraham? Do you love Isaac more or do you love me more? Do you Agape me more or Isaac? God said, put him to death. Sacrifice him. You don't see Abraham wavering. You don't see Abraham justifying. You don't see Abraham saying, okay, I can't possibly mean this. You don't see Abraham screaming at God or crying to God and weeping before God and saying, no, please, don't do this, please, don't do this, please, don't do this.

Abraham simply did it. He simply marched forward and God saw it was in his heart. Agape was in his heart. Whatever God says, I will do. I trust him completely. Wherever God says to go, I will go. I trust him completely. Whatever is in my way, whatever he tells me, that's what I will do. That comes over time. That's why God gives us time to grow, time to bear the fruit, time to develop the Agape.

So that when the time comes, and God, whatever it might be for us, but now, so when he tells us, now I know, now I know that you love me more than this. I know you love me more than this. I know you love me more than that because you will choose what I prefer.

You will choose that the sacrifice of your own convenience wants. You will sacrifice, even if your family gets a little mad at you or a spouse gets a little mad at you, you will do and you will choose what I want. That's what God is looking for us. I don't think any of us are there today, but we can be and we should be. You know, if we look at another example of Jesus Christ in Matthew 10, this is where he's sending 12 disciples out.

12 disciples out, two by two. He tells them, I'm gonna give you the power to heal diseases. I'm gonna give you the power to cast out demons. I want you to go to the lost, the lost sheep of the house of Israel, Matthew 10. In verse 7, he says, as you go, preach, saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons.

Freely you have received, freely give. Don't worry about money, don't look for payment. Guy gave it to you, you give it to others, I will take care of everything you need. Could they have said, well, wait a minute, you're gonna give me the power to heal?

You're gonna give me the power to cast out demons? They just believed Christ. They've been walking with them for, I don't know, several months, several years at this point, less than three and a half years, but I believe you. If you've given the power, we have enough faith and we believe in you completely. If you said it, we know it. It was that part of their heart. And they did. They went out and did exactly what God said.

But he did tell some physical things as well. He says, verse 9, provide neither gold nor silver nor copper in your money belts. Don't provide a bag for your journey. Don't take two tunics or sandals nor staffs, for a worker is worthy of his food. Don't do any preparation. Just go. Just go. Just do it.

Now, can you imagine if next year we said for the Feast of Tabernacles, you know what? We don't want anyone to do any preparations. I don't want you to pack. I don't want you to save tithe. I don't want you to go to the bank and take any tithe. I just want you to go wherever God says, and everything will be taken care of. Would we do it? Could we do it? I mean, if God is the one who said do it? Or would we think, well, wait, that doesn't make any sense. I've got to have some money if I go there. I can't wear the same clothes for eight days in a row.

I have a feeling all of us would be like, well, wait a minute. Wait a minute. These disciples didn't do that. They just did it. When Christ asked them later, did you lack for anything? They said no. They completely believed Him. They completely had faith in Him. They completely chose and did what He had to do. You know, maybe in today's day and age, one of these disciples would have thought, well, you know what?

On the way out of town, there's a Chase ATM over there. God won't know what I'm doing, and He'll, it'll be okay. I've got to have plan B just in case, just in case God won't do what He promises to do. None of them did that. You and I might be tempted to do that, right? No one knows whatever, but God knows. There is no plan B with God. What we grow to, the end of our growth with God, is there doesn't have to be a plan B. He says He'll do it. We believe He does it. We love Him so much that we completely trust Him and do what He has to say, and He will do it.

It takes time to get to that point, but God expects that we're growing toward that time, and as we live these lives, that agape grows and grows and grows in us to the point that when God says it, fine, whatever you say, I'll do. Whatever you, wherever you say to go, I'll go. Whatever you want, I'll do it. Takes time, but we'll never get there if we don't think about it.

We'll never get there. We'll never get there if we don't take the time to stop and think and ask when I'm making a decision, and a lot of the times when we stop and make a decision, we know there's God's way and there's our way. How often do we choose our way, the way we're comfortable with? And if we stop and analyze when we choose our way, it's because it's what we want, it's our comfort, it's what someone else wants, or it maybe enriches us in some way.

But whatever it is, if we would just stop and think about these, about these things. You know, Joseph and Daniel are two good examples. You all know Joseph and Daniel, the examples they showed in the world.

Both young men found themselves in situations that you and I have never been in. Joseph found himself as a slave in a strange land, the only one who knew who the God of Israel was. What did he do the whole time that he was there? He had got paid God. He loved God more than what Egypt could have to offer him. He loved God more than the appeal of Potiphar's wife throwing herself at him.

He loved God more. He chose it every step of the way, and there were times along the way where it didn't look like things were gonna work out so well, but he never lost faith in God. He continued to have faith in God and agape God every step of the way. Daniel did the same thing as he came over into Babylon. One of the first things he says, I'm not eating that.

I'm not going to eat those foods. They weren't unclean foods that he was saying, I won't eat. I won't eat the king's delicacies. That's not what I do. I'm going to eat what God has determined for us to do. He took a stand. He loved God's ways more. Throughout his life, then, you can see the trials he went through, the Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego went through.

They took stands. They did things God's way. They made conscious choices. I will do it God's way. I don't care what child says. I don't care what husband says. I don't care what wife says. I don't care what mom says. I don't care what dad says.

I don't care what my best friends say. I don't care what the entire group of people say. I will do it God's way. Takes courage. Takes commitment. Takes the spirit of power and agape and a love mind or a silent mind to do that. A couple chapters back in Matthew 6.

In verse 24, Christ talks about two masters that we have. Really, he isolates it pretty well when we're in the world. He says, no one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and agape the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You can't serve God and Mammon.

Mammon is not just money. Mammon is not just wealth. Mammon is all the possessions, all those material things in the world. You can't serve them both. It's either God or the world. Which would you follow more? Where is your attention going to lie? Where do you put the bulk of your time? Where do your real interests lie? I remember back years ago, when I worked out in the world and in the areas that I did, there were people all around.

We get the Wall Street Journal in, and these guys, we get together and they talk about all the stocks that they owned, and what this CEO did, and what this forecast was, and whatever. A few times I invested, and I thought, man, but after a while I thought, what am I doing? I don't want to do this. I don't want to know what every CEO is doing. I don't want to know what the forecast is. I don't want my time consumed on that. I'll spend it on something else. So I got rid of all of it.

But there are people who are just absolutely tied to the world. Everything that goes on financially, everything that's there, that consumes their life. How do I make more money? You know, you can name some of the rich people in the world. I'm not going to do that. They've dedicated themselves to Mammon. You and I are supposed to dedicate ourselves to God. Nothing wrong with wealth, nothing wrong with having bank accounts, nothing wrong with making a good salary, having a nice home, having nice possessions, nothing wrong with that.

God gives blessings when we work hard. Abraham was a very rich man. Joseph was a very rich man. God gives blessings. But if that's what our motive is, is that's where our attention is. If all we do is, how do I get ahead? How do I do this? How do we make more money? What about this scheme? What about that? I'm telling you, we are looking, we're barking up the wrong tree. Where do our affections lie? What is it that we prefer? When we have off time, what do we do?

What is it that we do? Nothing wrong, nothing wrong with looking at some of those things. What becomes the obsession? What becomes the affection? When the affection is there, what choices do you make when one affection contradicts the other affection? When it's God or something that you hold so dearly, what would you choose? What would you give up? What would you give up? Well, it's a question we can all ask. There was a young man, the Christ encounter, that had to make that very same decision here in Matthew 19.

Christ gives us a very powerful lesson on what he's looking for us, you know, between what we look and the ways that we live in the world and what we have and what he provides for us. In Matthew 19, we have the encounter, the story of the young rich man, and he's asking a question that maybe you and I have asked, maybe still ask, as we examine ourselves, look at ourselves, where do our affections lie? What do we love more than God? Is there something we do that we would love God more? In verse 16 of Matthew 19, you know, the account is as behold one came and said to Christ, good teacher, what good things shall I do that I may have eternal life?

Christ answered, why do you call me good? No one is good, but one. That's God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments. Which commandments? Agape the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul, and your neighbor as yourself? Yes. Commandments 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10?

Yes. They are equal. They are talking about the same thing. Christ gave two commandments that summarize the other two, telling us what our goal is. Agape him and agape each other. So if you want to enter into life, he says, keep the commandments. The only young man says, which ones?

Jesus said, you shall not murder, shall not commit adultery, shall not steal, shall not bear fault with witness, honor your father and your mother, and you shall agape your neighbor as yourself. The young man answers, I've done all these things.

I've been raised in the church. I do all these things. What more do I lack? Christ shows him you're lacking something, or is going to test that he's lacking something. Christ said, if you want to be perfect, that is, if you want to be spiritually mature, if you want to become what I want you to become, go sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me.

What do you love more? He was asking the young man, get rid of that and follow me. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions, he couldn't say, I agape you more. I can't demonstrate that I agape you more. Jesus Christ, I can't give it up. That's more important to me yet than I can do right now. I say yet because I hope this young man, as time went on, and he thought about that that encounter with Jesus Christ, that he grew and that he came to the point where he could say, I would give it all up if you asked me to.

I don't know that he did. I don't know that he didn't. I hope he did. I hope all of us, when we are faced with things and we say, I just can't, I just can't choose you, God, over what this person wants.

I can't choose you, God, over this job that promises so much. I can't choose you over this activity that I really want to do. I know it contradicts with what you say, but I really want to do that more than please you.

When you put in those things, it becomes kind of shallow, doesn't it, when we choose the things of the world, of things that we like or want to do more than what God would prefer us to do. The young man went away sorrowful. He simply couldn't do it.

Jesus Christ, I'm not going to turn to John 14-15. You know what Jesus Christ said in John 14-15. We just read it. It is a concept. If you love me, if you agape me, he says, keep the commandments. Keep the commandments. Obey me. In Acts 5, and we talked about it when we were in Acts 5, Peter, you remember that he was there, and as a Sanhedrin was threatening to put them in jail, to beat them, to do everything they could to stop the gospel of Jesus Christ going forth, Peter looked at the Sanhedrin in the face of all those threats, and he said, we ought to obey God rather than men. Our job is to agape God. We choose to obey him. Obeying is part of the agape. We have to choose to obey God in exactly the way he says to do it. Just a few verses past Acts 5, 29, it says, God puts his Holy Spirit into those who obey him. So we have the Holy Spirit that God, through his Holy Spirit, he pours agape into our hearts when we obey him, when we pay attention to what God says to do and do it, even when it contradicts what we naturally want to do, or what our people around us want us to do. When we obey, God looks. They made the right decision. They chose me. They chose me. How powerful is that? How powerful is that for us when we make those choices and not just continue doing things? So when God says obey in Jesus Christ, you know, we know that the first four commandments help us to understand how to agape God with all our heart, minds, and soul. Let's just spend a few minutes here as we wrap this up for today looking at those first four commandments. If you need to refresh your mind on them, they're listed in Deuteronomy 5, Exodus 20, but I think you all know them. So let's just briefly talk about them, and we'll look at one verse, keeping agape in mind and what God, when he asks us and tells us, keep these commandments. If you agape me, do these things. First commandment, I am the Lord your God, you will have no other gods before me. That means no other gods besides me. I want you to trust me. I want you to have faith in me. Remember, in Hebrews 11 6, it says, without faith, without faith, it's impossible to please God. Simply can't do it. I want you to trust me. I want you to obey me. I want you to do everything I say. I want you to grow into the point where, when I say it, you just say, yes, sir, like Abraham did, like Noah did, like Joseph did, like Daniel did, certainly like Jesus Christ did, like Paul did when he was converted. That's a pretty powerful commandment that we need to have. We need to learn to take God at his word when he says, I will do something. Gotta believe he'll do it. He might not do it that second. He's not housed up in a little genie bottle where we can rub it and say, okay, God, you know, heal me. Fix this. No. Time to build faith. Let's look at what scripture in relation to the first commandment in Jeremiah. Jeremiah 17.

Jeremiah 17. We'll pick it up in verse 5. Verse 5. Thus says the eternal Jeremiah 17. Cursed or cursed is the man who trusts in man. Cursed is the man who trusts in man. Well, that would be the things of the world, the men in the world, the governments of the world, the financiers of the world, the healthcare providers of the world. Trust. Cursed is the man who trusts in man over God and makes flesh his strength. God is our strength. God is our rock. God is our fortress. Cursed is the man who would trust in man and make flesh his strength. How silly is that? Knowing what we know. And notice what happens if we do that. His heart departs from the eternal. Just like Asa. He trusted in treaties. He trusted in the king of Syria. Or he trusted in the king of Israel. What happened? His heart departed from God. He stopped making the right choices. He chose the world and the agape of the world over the agape and making the choice to follow God. He shall be, verse 6, like a shrub in the desert. She shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in the salt land which is not inhabited. Well, that's the man who agape's the world. Doesn't have God preeminent to the priority in his life. On the other hand, verse 7, blessed is the man who trusts in the eternal, whose hope is in him. He shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river and will not fear when heat comes. Boy, fear is all around us today. All you got to do is turn on the TV. Any given time of the day, any given time of the night, you want a healthy dose of fear? It's all over. It's all over the place. And I have a feeling the heat's going to turn up in the years ahead. Plus, as the man who trusts in God, he will not fear when heat comes, but its leaf will be green and will not be anxious in the year of drought. Not when God doesn't answer immediately, saying, well, wait, maybe I made the wrong decision. Maybe I should have trusted in this. Maybe I should have trusted in that man. Maybe I should have trusted in that thing of the world. No. Not in anxious. Always having faith in God. Sometimes waiting for God provides that faith in him, even when he doesn't answer. Even if the answer isn't what we want. Continuing to have faith in him will not be anxious. Not, I made the wrong decision. God didn't want me to do it that way. Yes, God wanted you to do it that way when you choose what he wants. Will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit. You're in my job. What is God pleased with? When we produce much fruit. Doing things his way. So you can keep that in mind when you think of the first commandment. The second commandment is, you shall make no graven images of anything on earth. You shall not bow down to them. When we bow down to something, we're yielding to it. We choose it over God. When Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, when they were told, bow down to this idol, bow down to this statue, bow down to Nebuchadnezzar, bow down to all these things, they said, no, we will not yield to anyone but God. We will do his way. We will follow what he says to do. He is the only one we will bow down to. You and I need to only bow down to God. You and I need to yield and learn to yield. None of us are there perfectly yet to yield to God. One verse on that is Luke 4. Luke 4.

Verse 8, Jesus Christ says, he is in the great temptation. Satan is doing everything he can to lure Jesus Christ to say, okay, fine, you know what? If you'll give me that, I will bow down to you. If that's what you'll do, then I'll do it. Verse 8, Christ answers Satan and says, get behind me. It is written, you shall worship the Lord your God and him only, him only, you shall serve.

Just remember, idols don't have to be made of stone. Idols don't have to be made of silver or gold. Idols don't have to be made of bank account papers. Anything we yield to instead of God or in place of God that we trust in more, that has become an idol. When we choose our way, when we choose the world's way, when we look at the things that God has said to do and we choose another way, that's what we're yielding to.

That's what we're bowing down to. It takes a long life and a lot of practice to get to the point and even recognize those things that we may be yielding to. None of us keep the first commandment perfectly. None of us keep the second commandment perfectly. Certainly none of us keep the third commandment perfectly, where God says, don't take my name in vain.

We know that that is a spoken name, that we don't take God's name in vain. We don't make it common. We don't use the euphemisms. We don't cheapen the name of Jesus Christ. We don't cheapen the name of God by using it for every expression and every emotion that you can possibly think of like the world around us. We don't use euphemisms thinking we're fooling God. What's in our heart is what God is looking at. We simply, if our letter yes be yes and our no be no.

But there's that other part of taking God's name in vain because when we take his name when we're baptized and he puts his name in us and we're baptized in the name of the Father and Son and the Holy Spirit, people look at us. What are we doing? How do we handle ourselves? How do we handle ourselves? You know, do we do what God says?

When we're telling our player, when we tell our school personnel, when we tell our bosses, when we tell our family, oh we believe in the Church of God, we believe in the Bible, we do everything the Bible says, we put God first, we keep the Sabbath day, we keep the Holy Days, da da da da da da. They look and think, oh, okay, how do you keep your religion? How do you do those things? It's imperative on all of us to be aware of what our calling is and to be doing God's will daily.

None of us are perfect. We make mistakes. God understands. When we make a mistake, we simply repent and we ask God, please give us the strength not to make that mistake again. As we look at ourselves and as we go back in our lives and even at the end of the day think, oh, you know what? I think that I chose me over God.

I think I chose this over God. Do we give up? No. We go before God and say, I get it. I yielded to this instead of you. I showed you that I love this more than I love you. God doesn't cast us away and say, that's it, one strike and you're out. He repents, or we repent, and he forgives. But we have to keep going and we have to purpose in our mind not to do that again. And that takes the process to weed some of those things out.

Romans 2, I'm gonna have you write down verses 17 to 24. I'm just gonna read verses 23 and 24 for lack of time here. Romans 2, 23. He's speaking to the Jews there who, of course, called themselves, hey, look who we are. We're the people of God.

He goes through this thing about, well, you say, don't do this, but do you? And in verse 23 it says, you who make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God through making the law? Are you really putting God first? Are you really agape-ing God? Or are you agape-ing your own commandments? Are you own traditions? Your own interpretation of what you want it to be? What do you agape more? What you want? And then just kind of put God's name on it? Or what he really says in his law? You who make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God through breaking the law? For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.

They look at it and say, well, they say that's what they believe, but they don't really. I mean, they say this, but then they do something different. Now, people are always looking to see, what don't we do, as opposed to some other things.

Maybe some of your family members would say, well, they did that. They did that. Are they really Christians? It might be a time for us to think, oh, did we dishonor God? Did we choose us over God when we did that? Hmm. You might want to begin thinking in that way, if we're really determining to build the agape that God wants us to.

And then, of course, there's the fourth commandment. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Do any of us really keep the Sabbath fully the way that God wants us to? I doubt it. I doubt it. I think every time, if we looked at our the way we did some things on the Sabbath, God would look at it and say, you got some growing to do in that. I set this time aside.

I created the seventh day. I blessed the seventh day. I sanctified the seventh day. I said, keep the world away from you. Close your gates. Have everything prepared ahead of time. Keep the Sabbath, because it's between you and me. Keep the world out. How good are we at keeping the world out? And when we choose to let the world in, whether it's in our houses with our teenagers or ourselves or whatever and all the little instruments we have, who are we choosing? We choosing God? Will we make the tough decision? No, not going to do that. No, not going to go there. No, not going to turn that on.

Twenty-four hours, God said, and He said it'll be a blessing when we learn and we practice throughout our lives keeping the Sabbath holy the way that God said to keep it holy. It takes practice. It takes examination. It takes thinking about it. Might have to actually reflect and ask, what did I love more? God? Or doing this activity? When I thought about that on the Sabbath, did I say, oh, no, God wouldn't want me to do that? And so I said, no, even though I want to do that, and I kind of went in my mind thinking, ah, it's not that big a deal, but I chose God.

What character does that build? That's the character God is looking at or looking for. Back in Ezekiel, one verse on that, and of course you can reference Isaiah 58. It's a pretty good treatise from God on keeping the Sabbath as well as the commandments in Deuteronomy 5 and Exodus 20 and, of course, Leviticus 23.

But in Exodus 20, God takes Israel to task. Israel was a complete disappointment to God. Even though He gave them everything, promised them the land, even though He gave them the commandments to live by, they always agape the world more than God. They didn't have God's Holy Spirit. They always agape the world more than God.

They never chose God. They always did that, and we will always do the same thing if we don't stop and think, who are we honoring more? Who do we love more? Are we doing what God prefers? But in Ezekiel 20—I'm certainly not going to read it. I'm going to read two verses in Ezekiel 20, but you might take some time and seeing how many times God talks about the failures of Israel. And He comes back to Sabbath-keeping and idols— two things that are still prevalent among us.

Doesn't count that we just don't go to our physical workplaces on the Sabbath day. That doesn't—I mean, that counts. That's a good thing. We all need to do that. None of us work on the Sabbath, but it's a whole 24-hour period that God has asked us to keep. As you'll read through Ezekiel 20, He keeps talking about things. And when we read about Israel, those were His people back then.

The same thing applies to us today. Don't just look at the Old Testament and say, oh, that was for them. That's not us. No, it's for us. Remember, God puts these things in the Bible for you and I to learn from. In verse 15 of Ezekiel 20, He says, He says, I raised my hand in an oath to them—talking about His people Israel—in the wilderness, that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, flowing with milk and honey, the glory of all lands.

I told them I would, but they never honored me. They never chose me over everything else. They didn't honor me more. They didn't love me more. God says the same thing to us. I'll bring you into the kingdom. I will lead you into the kingdom. You have to agape me with all your heart, mind, and soul. You have to develop that over time. So I told them I wouldn't. I wouldn't bring them there. Why? Verse 16? Because they despise my judgments. They did not walk in my statutes, but they profaned my Sabbath's, for their heart went after their idols. Whatever we put before God, whenever we choose it over what God prefers, it's become an idol.

Our job is get rid of the idols. It takes the rest of our life. I'm going to end there, but I'm going to remind you that Christ—I'm telling you I could give another four or five sermons on agape and loving God more than ourselves. I'm not going to do it, right? Okay? You now have seen some things you can go back, and as you look in the Bible, look at it through the eyes of agape, and I would ask you, think about the things you do.

Ask yourself, do I prefer God? Do I prefer—am I doing what God prefers? Do I love Him more when I make this choice? What am I showing? But there were two commandments. Jesus Christ said, agape the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul, and agape your neighbor as yourself. So next week, or the next time I'm here, we will talk about how we can practice building that agape that is supposed to be your and my identifying characteristic.