February 16, 2011 Real Love! 3

Love must be sincere!

Salvation Wednesday, my dear brothers and sisters. I do pray that each week, each mid-week when we have Salvation Wednesday you don't just skim over it, thinking I will let others reach out today, I am taking a break from talking to others this week about Salvation. Pray today that God will use you who are saved to reach out and talk to the unsaved. Once again I do remind you that we, you and I, cannot save a soul, only Jesus can do that, but we, however, are commissioned to help lead people to the feet of Jesus to be saved. Out of all the prayers that reach out from this line, prayers of salvation are to me, the most important. Let's look at it like this, what good is it for you to be healed from that broken bone, or that cancer if in the end you were not healed of your sins?

The Big Trip 10-3 Real Love 3: Romans 12:9 - Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil, cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12 Share with God's people who are in need. Practice Hospitality. (NIV)

Love must be sincere! Folks, do you remember back when you first had that "puppy" love for another person? Maybe you were sitting in second or third grade and your heart was flipping over another second or third grader, or you were like me, and your puppy love was already leaning toward a car or truck. Do you remember as you grew older how when you would meet a new person of the opposite sex and your heart sort of flipped and you could not sleep at night? Oh, back then we thought that this is it, I am in love. Do you remember that first pet, that little puppy or kitten or maybe even a rabbit and that love? Do you remember how that puppy loved you, kissing you and kissing you with his puppy breath (soon to be dog breath)? Do you remember all those loves that were so sincere for at least a few days?

Do you remember when you found out that it is ok to love more than one person or thing at the same time? Do you remember that very first real love? I want to make this statement to all of you today and see if anyone else sees it my way... Here it is, "until I fell in love with Jesus with that real sincere love, I did not have a clue what sincere love really was." Sad to say, those early little puppy loves were just that and they went away. But once I found out about loving Jesus and I did fall in love with Him, then and only then did I find out it is ok to love more than one person at a time. Falling in Love with Jesus made me secure in myself. Real men, I say REAL MEN love Jesus, and also we can wear pink shirts and we can cry when things are sad, or when things hurt us or others, and we can cry when things make us happy. Hey, I love another man and He loves me and neither of us are "funny". Real men who love Jesus also can hug their buddies and tell them and be sincere about it saying "I love you, brother or I love you, sister." Please note this statement. REAL LOVE, has nothing to do with Sex!!!

Let's look at the scriptures that God gave me today.

Romans 12:9 - Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil, cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12 Share with God's people who are in need. Practice Hospitality. (NIV)

Love must be sincere! Over the years we did not always know if the love of another for us was sincere or not, we just were not sure. Often we are told these little words, "I love you", but they were empty. Maybe it was you saying them to someone, "I love you." Maybe we thought they were sincere, even coming from our own mouth we thought we really loved that person. Maybe we thought the love of that other person was sincere but we just did not know. But let me tell you this, when you tell God that You love Him, you better be sincere for if we are not sincere in our love for Jesus, He will know. Folks, how many of you will join me right now, maybe even send me a short email back and just confess that love for Jesus today. It is Salvation Wednesday. You really don't need to tell me about it, so just tell Jesus. Will you join me right now, are you up to this, will you step out right now and say those four little words... Will you join me? "Jesus, I Love You." And remember Jesus knows if you are sincere... And remember this. Jesus has already said it to you. He said "I Love You" and his arms were stretched out on the cross and He died.

Now that next part of the same verse. "Hate what is evil, and cling to what is good." Does this statement make sense to any of you and this is a statement from me. "In some things, what might be evil for one, might not be evil for another." Sounds like some good old double talk, right? But think about it. What I am talking about might be a husband and wife who have gone out for a nice dinner and with the dinner they are going to enjoy a glass of wine. No evil on that one, but a person who has a drinking problem and sits down knowingly and has that drink, knowing that to them it is evil and might just kick them off the wagon, so to speak. So while there is evil we all need to hate, there are also things that can be evil to one and not the other. Does that make sense to any of you?

Now let's look at this brotherly love.

Romans 12:10 - Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. (NIV)

We are to honor one another and be devoted to one another in brotherly love. What really is brotherly love? Gosh, brotherly love, I can remember my brother, the strongest man I ever knew in my life and his brotherly love for me was to "kick my butt" (at least weekly). But that was when we were small, and I would "rat him out to mom" about all sorts of junk, sometimes I just made it up. But the real brotherly love grew and grew as we got older. He helped me with jobs, he helped me get started in business, and when he found out he had cancer and was given a time limit, he called me to talk to me about how to get into heaven. Real brotherly love with my real blood brother was walking back in our lives and then coming forward asking God to forgive us along the way and talking about what momma had told us about Jesus. I had found Jesus and Leonard came to him that day.

However, you can have real brotherly love with someone who is not your real brother as we think of a brother today. Real brotherly love might be you sitting and talking about Jesus to a total stranger... and teaching them the Good News of Jesus and leading them to the feet of Jesus. Real brotherly love is CARING ENOUGH ABOUT OTHERS THAT YOU WANT TO TELL THEM ABOUT JESUS AND SHARE REAL LOVE WITH THEM.

Real Love is just this, Jesus died for us, to give us a way into heaven... Do you have enough love in you to at least tell others of the Love Jesus had/has/and will have for us? Do you have that Real Love in you? I have real love in me, and I just again, as I have told you before, I want to tell you this... I love you, and I always seem to say it like this... Please share your blessings. I love ya, Pastor Dan. Today let me put it like this... Please share your blessings. I love ya... your brother in Christ... Danny Lehman.

Dear Father in Heaven, help us to grow deeper and deeper in Love with You and help it be real and be sincere, and Lord, I really want to work at it hard, for I want to love You, as much as You have loved me and still love me and will love me. I want to have a never-ending love with You. And Lord, help me with Brotherly love... In the name of Jesus I ask you forgive me of my sins and all others on this line as they ask... I love You Lord. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Time to go forth now, sharing your blessings... Love ya, Pastor Dan.