The Foundation for Love Revealed

Sermon Series

Ten Truths that Show Us How to Love – Part 1

"The Foundation for Love Revealed"

Pastor Jerry

Matthew 22:35-40 (NLT); Exodus 20:2 (NLT)

 

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We begin a new series today concerning, "Truth!" The death of George Floyd and the Pandemic outbreak and the political fighting, all of these have brought to our attention the dishonesty and the deception being played out in our culture. We are living in a period of time called “The Post-Truth Era.”  Deception and truth twisting has become commonplace at all levels of authority in contemporary life. You could say we are living in the Age of Dishonesty. All of this has caused me to question: “What is truth?” So, in response to those questions, I want to take a stand today on truth! And first I must present several important things I believe concerning truth that you should know. The first is, “Truth is discovered, not invented. Another fact is that truth is transcultural. Truth is unchanging, even though our beliefs about truth change. And all real truths are absolute. Truth is still truth. But, truth is living in a much different world today called Postmodern. Its description says, “Truth does not exist objectively; it is a product of a person’s culture.” The culture’s situation in which we live today as Christians is “The New Tolerance” which is “to recognize and respect others’ beliefs, practices, etc., without sharing them” & “to bear or put up with someone or with something not especially liked.” For years we have been living in a changing and permissive society where basically, anything goes and we are supposed to tolerate it, even if it causes us harm. It certainly is time to begin asking, “What’s the Truth?” Thousands of years ago God gave ten truths for living; they're called The Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments, at their heart and core, are all about love. In Matt. 22 we read about a lawyer who asked Jesus, “Which is the greatest commandment in the law?”  Jesus answered, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment.” Jesus was simply quoting what had already been revealed hundreds of years earlier through Moses: The overall intent of the 10 Commandments is to teach us truth on how to show love. The first and great commandment is to love God with all our being. Jesus then went on to say, “And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” The commandments define love! Years later, the apostle Paul wrote, “Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law” (Romans 13:10). As Jesus stood before Pontius Pilate in John 18:38, the Roman governor asked this exact same question. “WHAT IS TRUTH?” Jesus Himself reminds us that truth is more than a mere set of facts. Truth is a Person. Simply put, you can’t know truth without knowing Jesus. He told his closest followers, “I am the way, the TRUTH, and the life….” (John 14:6). As a Christian I guess I can say, we must get back to the basics. We must become students of the Bible. Jesus said, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the TRUTH, and the TRUTH shall make you free” (John 8:31b–32). Freedom comes from getting into the Word and letting the Word get into us. So for the next ten weeks we're going to look at the Ten Commandments, these ten truths, and how they can make a difference in your life and why God gave them. Deut. 6:6-7 says, "Never forget these commands that I am giving you. Teach them to your children." Why did God give the Ten Commandments? He gave them not to hurt us but to help us. Not to punish us but to protect us. We need to know what's right and what's wrong -- what are the parameters in life. The overall intent of the 10 Commandments is to teach us truth on how to show love.   I. THE FOUNDATION FOR LOVE REVEALED Today we're going to look at the foundation of that truth for Love Revealed, the very first command. Truth number one! Exodus 20:2 "You shall have no other gods before ME." What's the principle?  Put God first; in my life and in my family, and in society. He deserves to be number one in your life because He made you. Everything you have in life is from God because He's given it to you. What does it mean to "have no other gods before Me"?  What is a god? A god is anything that dominates your life, anything that controls your life. Even good things that God has created for us to enjoy, become gods when you give them first place in your life. God says, "I deserve first place in your life."  Here is the foundation for a knowing the truth -- put God first.   II. HOW DO I PUT GOD FIRST? How do I do that? What does it mean to put God first? I took the acrostic F-I-R-S-T and I'm going to give you five ways to put God first in your life and your family. 1.Now we start with the letter F - FINANCES Put God first in your finances. Let's start with the most difficult one. Proverbs 3:9-10 "Honor the Lord by giving Him the first part of all your income, and He will fill your barns to overflow." God says give ME the first part back and I'll bless all the rest. God has said that money is the number one test of your priorities. The way we spend our money says what's first in my life. Deut. 14:23 "The purpose of tithing is to teach you to put God first in your lives." What's tithing? God says that the first 10% of all I make goes back to Him. The purpose is simply to teach us to put God first. Tithing is an act of worship. 2. Second, in the acrostic F-I-R-S-T is the letter I - INTEREST If God's really going to be number one, you put Him first in your interests. That means in my fun times, my play times, my amusements, recreation, hobbies, pass times. I Corinthians 10:31 "Whatever you do, do it all for God's glory." How do you do that? In everything you do, you put God first. Do it with an attitude of gratitude. In  Eph. 5:19 says, "Talk with each other much about the Lord."  If He's first in your life you're going to make God a part of your conversation. You won't be ashamed to talk about Him because He's first. 3. Third, in the acrostic is the letter R - RELATIONSHIPS If you want God first in your life you're going to have to choose your friends carefully. Prov. 27:19 "What a man is really like is shown by the kind of friends he chooses." Why is that? What does who my friends are have to do with God being first in my life? Because you become like the people you spend the most time with. It seems our kids and many adults are getting models of behavior from TV, Social Media-Facebook, & Youtube. Often in those environments you don’t see a lot of men and women who love God. Perhaps some programing changes are needed. Put God first in your relationships. 4. Next in the acrostic is the letter S - SCHEDULE Put God first in your schedule, in your time. Eph. 5:16-17 says, "Make the most of your time… grasp firmly what you know to be the will of the Lord." How do I put God first in my schedule? When God made you, He has a plan for your life. If you find yourself having more things to do than you have time to do, it means you're doing some things that aren't God's will. They may be good things. But God never puts more on you than He puts in you to bear it up. He doesn't ask you to do more than you have time to do. Make a daily appointment with God. Ten, fifteen minutes. You read your Bible and pray and talk to God about all the things you've got to do. You set aside a meditation time! "You have a quiet time.” 5. Finally, the last letter in the acrostic is the letter T - TROUBLES When you face unexpected problems and pressures, when you have a crisis, who do you turn to?  God says, "Turn to Me first when you've got a problem." Many people, when they're in a tight situation do everything they can physically to try to correct the problem then they say, "I guess now all we can do is pray."  Prayer should not be your last resort, it should be your first option.  Psalm 50:15 "Call upon me in your day of trouble and I will deliver you and you will honor ME."  God says, “Put Me first, even in the tough times.” How do you know when God's first in your life? You stop worrying. Worry is the warning light that God is not first in my life at this particular moment. Matthew 6:33 "Seek first the kingdom of God [put Him first in every area of my life] and all these other things shall be added unto you." Put God first. If you want to build a life on truth you've got to have the right foundation.  You've got to put God first. I want to challenge you to make a commitment to do the right thing, the right thing for your own life, the right thing for your family, the right thing for our nation and that is to say:       "I'm not ashamed to say I want to build my life on God's truths, on the teachings of scripture and the Ten Commandments.. I want God to be first in my finances, interests, relationships, schedule, and troubles: believing that if I follow His truth, He'll keep His promise to bless my life in the areas that I put Him first in.”