"For The Love of God Pt. 2" Willie B. Williams III

[Music] we're so blessed that you have the opportunity to be with us on here tonight uh as we study god's word this is part two uh for the love of god we'll begin on this evening in matthew chapter 22 and we'll look at verse 36 matthew chapter 22 and we'll look at verse 36 and the bible reads master which is the great commandment in the law jesus responds in verse 37 and jesus said you shall love the lord thy god with all your heart with all of your soul and with all of your mind the emphasis that i want to focus on is in verse 38 and in verse 38 the bible says this is the first and this is the great commandment and so one of the things that jesus lets them know is i'm not only answering your question but also at the same time i'm letting you know what is the principle thing and the principle thing is love and so there are many subjects that we can talk about there are many subjects that we can study there are many things that we can examine but one of the things that need to be clear and that jesus is stating is that out of all of the laws out of all 613 laws that are in uh the old testament are in the law at this time there is a uh there is a law that goes above and in front of them all and so if you've never thought about this many times we approach the word of god we approach the bible as i have to obey all of the bible and so what i want to do is i want to present a different perspective on how you should approach the word of god uh especially in the perspective of love and so what jesus lets us know is that if i had the opportunity to line up all of the uh uh all of the laws all of the things that god has caused us to do uh matter of fact it's against the law the bible says thou shall not lie thou shall not steal thou shall not kill thou shalt not commit adultery thou shall not covet all of these laws are important and so if i was going to approach the word of god an individual might say okay i'm gonna focus on not coveting coveting is sinful coveting is wrong i'm gonna i'm gonna focus on not coveting i will tell you that you're out of order there's somebody who say you know what i i need to i need to work on not lying i need to i need to work on my tongue i need to work on my speech i need to work on uh speaking right uh the wonderful words of god i will tell you that you're out of order somebody says you know what i need to um i i need to serve i need to i need to serve those who are in need i need to take care of the sick i need to watch out for the widows as the bible is telling me to do i would tell you that you're out of order and so what jesus is doing to these pharisees as he's addressing this question he's not only telling them what is the greatest commandment uh what is the most important commandment but he's also giving structure and he's also giving order so jesus says to love god with all your heart soul and mind is not only the greatest commandment it's the first when jesus says it's the first the thing that should come into your mind is order there are a lot of people who are frustrated with church and christianity they're frustrated with god is because they're spending all of their time doing all of these things and they say this thing isn't working matter of fact um it's it's his wife's birthday it's his wife's birthday and so what he does is he gets up in the morning and he cuts the grass he goes to work he pays the light bill he comes home he vacuums the floor uh he washes the dishes he he makes the bed uh he he um you know he cleans the bathroom uh he cleans the tub he does all of those things and then at the end of the day he's exhausted he's tired his wife comes home and he forgot to give her a gift and she says where's my gift he says you don't understand i got up this morning i went to work i paid the bills i cut the grass i cleaned the bathroom i washed the dishes i washed her clothes i did all of those things but she said yeah but today is my birthday and what he didn't understand is he got up that morning and he did a lot of important things they are very important things the problem is he forgot the very greatest and the first thing the first thing is today is his wife's birthday and because he neglected to focus on and because his his priorities were out of place he did a bunch of good things but now there is sadness in the house because he forgot the first thing see doing a lot of good things in the kingdom are very important as a matter of fact it is what god wants us to do but you're not supposed to put work over loving god uh somebody says i need to work on my speech that's great you need to work on your speech you need to clean up your language but you're not supposed to focus on that over loving god when jesus says listen it's not only the greatest it's the first thing which means somebody says let me tell you all of the sins that i don't do that's great but if you neglect to do the first thing so what if right now you needed a jump start in your christian walk if i was to encourage you to stop doing everything and all of us at this time we need to focus on the number one thing brother williams what is the number one thing the number one thing is not coming to worship the number one thing is not taking communion brother williams is taking communion important yes taking communion is important but it's not the first thing it's not it's not the number one thing in our churches one of the things that we need to explain is all of the laws in the bible are not weighed the same all of all of the commandments of jesus are not way the same the bible tells you not to envy but i'm telling you right now not envying is not the greatest commandment there there is something that is greater and there is something that goes ahead of that it becomes very difficult when you're trying to obey everything that jesus has asked you to do but you forget the very first thing he tells you to do because on judgment day on judgment day you're going to be judged by the greatest and the first commandment how is it that you did all of the other things that i've asked you to do but you forgot to love god somebody says well we need to love our neighbor loving your neighbor is not the greatest commandment the greatest commandment over how i treat you and how you treat me the greatest commandment is what is my relationship with god brother williams we need to preach sound doctrine we need to preach sound doctrine we need to stand on the truth we need to preach what or what the bible preaches what if we're going to really preach sound doctrine do you know what sound doctrine starts with sound doctrine actually starts with loving god i don't care about your degrees i don't care of how much you studied i don't care about your academic uh um uh accolades if if you failed to love god then it doesn't mean anything matter of fact the bible says in first corinthians chapter 13 that without love it means nothing it means no you can give all of your your uh your possessions to the poor but the bible says in verse 23 without love it literally means nothing which means this it's not as if you do number four number five on the list and then then god uh will give you a grade from there he'll you know you know he'll take some points off it doesn't work that way sometimes at the beginning of the school year the teacher will give certain assignments and if and uh depending on how many assignments that you turned in uh you get graded on on those and if there was any assignments that you didn't get graded uh they would give you a zero and upon giving you that zero it didn't mean that you failed the class it just means that you have to do good in the other areas to make up for the assignments that you didn't turn in so a a teacher may give you five homework assignments but if you fail to do the first two you could still pass if you do the other three christianity is not graded that way so christianity is like this uh matter of fact in math there there was an element uh in in multiplication called the zero and that element it did not matter what number you put with it zero would always cancel it out you would always come up with nothing so a thousand times zero 500 times zero 700 million times zero always came up with the same answer it no matter what here's what the scripture is saying in first corinthians chapter 13 what the scripture is saying is if you fail to do the first one the very greatest and the first commandment which is your relationship and you loving god with everything that's in you if you fail to do that you can be a good father you can be a good husband a good wife you could be a good mother you could be a good friend or a daughter or a sister or a brother you could be good in the community you can serve in the church you can do many many wonderful works you can do many many wonderful works and how the grading goes is when god goes and he looks at the first assignment that he gives you if you fail to do the first assignment you don't get credit for anything else it zeroed out what what what did first corinthians say without love without love it's nothing think about that matter of fact for a few moments i want to read that real quick first corinthians chapter 13 uh and i want to begin at verse 1. though i speak with the tongues of men and of angels and i have not charity and i have not love he says i have i am become as a sounding brass or a tinkling symbol what he's saying is i can speak the angelic words of heaven let's say i have the gift and i have the ability to do what the average man are not able to do and i'm able to speak with the angels he says but if i'm if i'm speaking with the angels without love it's nothing he says i become like an instrument that make that gives no understanding and then verse two and though i have the gift of prophecy and i understand all mysteries let's say you come to me and i can explain to you all of the mysteries in the world and i have all knowledge and though i have all faith that i can remove mountains i have that jesus taught faith where i can be able to walk on water and move mountains he says but if i have not love notice what it says in verse 2 i am nothing the reason why it's so important to study this particular commandment which is number one the greatest and also the first because if you don't get if you don't get the first one right if you don't get the first one right then you become nothing if you don't obey the first commandment what actually happens to you is you lose value you lose value to such a point where you literally become nothing because you don't have love oh you know so many scriptures and you can you can quote from genesis to revelation and you can break down concepts and you can do this and you can say hey listen i don't bother nobody i don't hurt anybody i'm respectable uh uh i'm good i love my family my family loves me all of that's wonderful but if you don't love god with all of you all of that means nothing somebody says how can that mean nothing i've spent a lot of time and i've spent a lot of energy building up this life where people in my family can be proud of me yes but when god looks down and you don't have god's love for god it doesn't mean anything it doesn't matter how you go in your company it doesn't matter how uh what what accomplishments that you have in this world without you loving god with all that's within you you don't get credit for anything else and oh how sad that you spent all of that time and you put all of that energy into things and you don't get credit for it you know what that's like that's like me going into a classroom right now and doing all of the assignments and doing everything that the teacher has asked me to do and at the end of the semester i'm waiting for my grade and my teacher doesn't give me a grade so i go up to the teacher and i say listen i've done all of the i've never missed a class i've done all of the homework i've took i've taken every test i've studied hard i've worked hard i need my grade and the teacher says listen i never graded your papers and i said wow i did the work i labored i did every i did everything that the rest of the students did they said yeah but accept one thing you failed to enroll and so because you didn't enroll in class you don't get credit for anything that you did in class oh how sad that would be you spent all that time in church doing all the good works and and showing up and you have perfect attendance and you sang every song and and you followed along and you did all the assignments you was at every home coming you was at every festival you did all that all that work and you spent all that time and the number one thing that god was waiting on you that causes you to enroll he says you didn't love you never loved me with all of you and because you didn't love me and you didn't have the love of god in you to love me then you don't get credit matter of fact very quickly i want you to uh read uh revelation revelation chapter two this is jesus talking to the church at ephesus and in revelation chapter two uh and beginning at verse one there's an order to this thing there's an order to this thing and you got some people there are focusing on number five on the list and they're focusing on number 10 on the list and they're really trying to get number number 55 the the commandment of number 55 down they're really trying to work around they're really good at fasting and they're really good at prayer they say we need to really focus on prayer we need to really build up our prayer life but what good is a prayer life if you haven't got the love of god you don't get credit god god doesn't give you credit for the work that you do if you if you don't have any love he says this in in revelation chapter two in verse two i know your works he says i know your labor i know your patience and how you cannot bear them which are evil and you have tried them which say they are apostles and are not and you have found them to be liars if you look at the church at ephesus jesus says i know your works i know how you labor i know how you put uh that time for it i know how you can't stand false doctrine and false teaching uh he says i see that you have found them to be lies verse 3 and has borne and has patience for my name's sake and have labored and you have not fainted he says i know what kind of church you are you're the type of church you keep going you keep fighting you keep pushing you don't let nothing stop you verse 4 nevertheless nevertheless i have somewhat against thee he says this because you have left your first love he commends them for the work that they do in the kingdom but one of the things he reminds them of is hey listen there's an order to this thing it's not about just picking up the bible and let me find out what commandments and then let me just try to be an overall good person what the bible is trying to say is listen what jesus is trying to say what what the scriptures are trying to teach is that there is a structure and there's an order to this thing and by this order and by this structure you can actually be focusing on a good thing at the wrong time if you're familiar with the story of mary and martha and the bible says with the story of mary and martha that jesus was traveling along and as he was traveling along martha saw jesus and as martha saw jesus she decided that she wanted to bring jesus into the house and that she wanted to um she wanted to put on a meal for him and as in putting on the meal for him the bible says that while she was in the kitchen and the bible said she was in the kitchen and as she was preparing the food and she was praying herself she looked and she looked at her sister and as she looked at her sister her sister was not helping her she got so frustrated now jesus is in the house don't miss this point jesus is in the house and martha's in the kitchen and her sister mary who she invited is sitting at the feet of jesus listening to jesus teach so now you have this scene where martha has put on this get together martha is in the kitchen jesus is teaching and mary the the sister of martha is sitting at the feet of jesus receiving the teaching of jesus christ martha is working hard in the kitchen but the bible says that while she's working while martha is working she's frustrated she gets so frustrated the scripture says she goes to jesus and as she goes to jesus she says jesus tell my sister to come help me and jesus's response to martha is this he says martha martha you are encumbered another translation says you are distracted you are distracted by many things do you know one of the things that jesus told martha i'm not saying that what you're doing is not good what i'm saying is you're distracted jesus is in the house and the only thing that martha can think about is mary i want you to think about that jesus is in the house and the only thing that martha is consumed with is mary do you know how many people come to worship and they're not thinking about jesus they're not thinking about that god is in the house the only thing that's on their mind is another church member did you see what somebody else had on or did you see this you're so consumed with the mary that's in the house that you forget that jesus is in the house and when jesus has to water jesus is in the middle of teaching mary is listening to jesus and martha interrupts jesus's teaching so that jesus can come up with a new command command my sister to come help me martha you're focused on the wrong commandment it's not about martha coming to help you i'm here i'm not always here jesus is in the house and you're focused on everybody else but jesus in your life is out of order then you won't understand why things are not working you can have everything that you need it's almost like uh god giving you all the ingredients and so i can take uh i can take flour and i can take eggs and i can put the flour in the eggs in the oven and i let it sit in there for 20 minutes and then i take the pan out and then i put milk in you know what you would tell me for those who know uh at this point how to cook uh what you would tell me is you got the right ingredients but you did things at the wrong time some of us are looking for breakthroughs some of us we're looking for god to do certain things in our lives but you're out of order he told you what the greatest and he told you what the first you sit there trying to bring god in your situation you're trying to bring god and say god i need you to bless my job and god i need you to bless my home and god i need you to bless my children and you're so focused on god helping you with this situation what you don't realize is what affects everything that's going on in your life right now is this one question are you loving god or are you like martha and are you distracted you're distracted about all the good stuff and you forgot the greatest the pharisees were trying to trap jesus and jesus not only answered their question but he also put structure to it it's not only the greatest commandment it is the first commandment and if you don't do the first commandment it cancels out everything else that you've done there are some people who literally believe that they're going to heaven because they have fed they have physically fed millions of people there are some people they believe that they're going to heaven because they have given millions and millions of their dollars to help the poor and in the back of their mind they say surely god's gonna god's gonna bring me into those pearly gates because look at look at all of the people that i have blessed look look at all of the good service that i there are people who have literally traveled across the world and going to foreign countries and they're in the jungle and they're in indigenous places and they're out there and they're they're trying to spread the gospel and tell people about god and spreading the gospel is a wonderful work but it ain't the greatest and it ain't the first there are there are people who are literally trying to get to heaven by focusing on number 10 on the list or you think your whole family gonna be saved because you do you do number 77 really well and because your family and i'm not like those other christians because those other christians they don't do number three right and they don't do number seven right and there's a whole bunch of them that don't do that don't do 22 uh uh through 99 right that may be true but i know it is when you do number one right you get grace and mercy over everything else but if you miss number one the apostle paul said it in first corinthians it's like nothing you become nothing you lose value when you don't operate in love so he tells his church here in revelation chapter two he tells the church in ephesus he says nevertheless i have someone against you because you have left your first love remember therefore from which you are fallen repent and repentance means to stop so what what jesus is telling the church at ephesus is listen you're doing a lot of good works i know your works i know your patience all of those things but the one thing that you need to do right now is you need to stop and turn around and go back to number one you need to stop and turn around and go back up to the top of the list you neglecting your first love what is what are the consequences of neglecting your first love the bible says here uh to them here at ephesus he says remember therefore from which you are fallen repent and do the first works he says or else i will come unto thee quickly and i will remove your candlestick out of his place except you repent he says jesus says if you don't go back and do those first works i'm going to come and i'm going to remove the light out of your church my presence won't be there anymore i won't operate with you any longer what if a lot of the problems that we have it's not due to that that we're waiting on god what if god is waiting on us to get back to loving him oh we have done a good job of doing these other things and even looking the part and even maybe trying to act apart but one of the things that we're missing is the first commandment what if as a church we are guilty of the first commandment we don't love god somebody said we need to be better to ourselves scratch that the first commandment do we even love god because if you don't love god then you've missed the greatest if you don't love god you've missed the most important thing as we go through the furtherance of this week the question that we have to ask ourselves what is god calling us to do god wants a personal relationship with us and when you don't put god first you know what the problem is you're putting your job ahead of god here's what god would do god is number one on the list but if you don't put god as number one on the list god will remove himself from the list all together god will never be your number two god will never be on number five god does not fit in any other place on that list for god the number one thing and the number one place that he needs to be is at the top spot if you if you love me right then we'll work all this other stuff out the bible says all things work together all things work together for good to those who love think about that it's all gonna work out i don't care what's going on in your life it's all gonna work out only if you're a lover of god and god has to be your number one stop putting relationships ahead of god stop putting your children ahead of god stop putting your job ahead of god stop stop putting people you admire ahead of god and then expect god to come in and bless your life god could be looking at your life right now and say you are you're out of order you're out of order and when something is out of order they normally put a sign in front of it and it and which lets everybody know stay away from it because this isn't working properly when you are not loving god in his proper place you are not working properly you are out of order my prayer for you instead of you trying to fix your life and you trying to figure out what the what the ingredients are so you can have your happy life what if god is withholding your happiness your joy and your blessings because he's not first in your life and i don't care if you say that god is first you can't lie i can tell by how you spend your money how you spend your time and where you're affectionate of whether or not god is number one when you put god in his rightful place then all these things will start to fit all these things will be laid out when something's not working out the first thing that you need to check is am i loving god the way he wants me to love him not the way you want to love him or are you loving god the way he wants you to love him and when you put god in his rightful place your candlestick will always burn and god's presence will stay in your life when you when you make god the number one priority in your life i pray that you're blessed by this message i pray that you rearrange your priorities you may have to back away from some people you may have to move some stuff around you may have to change your schedule but whatever you do i pray that you put god in his rightful place and by putting god in his rightful place then all these things will work out [Music]

Channel: North Colony Church of Christ

Views: 1,251

Rating: 4.9411764 out of 5

Keywords: Church of Christ, Gospel, Acapella, North Colony Church of Christ, Willie Williams, Preaching

Id: fi9f5i4BDQk

Length: 32min 28sec (1948 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 22 2021