Love the Lord Your God Above All Else

Tonight, we want to ask and answer the question, do you truly love the Lord? Because loving the Lord is the key component to your marriage and family. If you love the Lord with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength, you will have a great marriage, no matter what your spouse does. And you'll have a great family, no matter what your children do. It all stems from your relationship with the living God. And the question is, do you love him with all that you have? You know, we live in the end times, and Paul tells us in 2 Timothy chapter three, that in the latter days, men will be lovers of self, rather than lovers of God.

Lovers of pleasure, rather than lovers of God. So man loves something or someone, but we are designed to truly love the one true God, the Lord Jesus. And the question comes, do you love him? And how well do you know you love him? 300 years ago, Thomas Vincent, a great Puritan preacher and writer, said these words about how you recognize what a lack of love to Christ represents. This is what he says. He says, the life of Christianity consists very much in our love of Christ. Without love to Christ, we are as much without spiritual life as a carcass when the soul is fled from it, is without natural life.

Faith without love to Christ is a dead faith, and a Christian without love to Christ is a dead Christian, dead in sins and trespasses. Without love to Christ, we may have the name of Christians, but we are holy without the nature. We may have the form of godliness, but are holy without the power. So true. The Church of Ephesus was a church that had lost its first love.

It lost its passion for the Lord. And the Lord was against that church. I have this one thing against you. It was only one, but it was the main one. It was the big one, because you really don't love me. So Thomas Vincent, on the other hand, tells us how a true Christian is evident by his consuming love for Christ. And let's see how you measure up to this. He says, if he, that is the Lord, has your love, their love, their desires will be chiefly after him. Their delights will be chiefly in him. Their hopes and expectations will be chiefly from him.

Their hatred, fear, grief, anger will be carried forth chiefly unto sin, as it is offense unto him. He knows that love will engage and employ for him all the powers and faculties of their souls. Their thoughts will be brought into captivity and obedience unto him. Their understandings will be employed in seeking and finding out his truths. Their memories will be receptacles to retain them. Their consciences will be ready to accuse and excuse as his faithful deputies. Their wills will choose and refuse according to his direction and reveal pleasure.

All their senses and the members of their bodies will be his servants. Their eyes will see for him. Their ears will hear for him. Their tongues will speak for him. Their hands will work for him. Their feet will walk for him. All their gifts and talents will be at his devotion and service. If he has their love, they will be ready to do for him what he requires. They will suffer for him, whatever he calls them to. If they have much love to him, they will not think much of denying themselves, taking up his cross and following him wherever he leads them.

The question comes is, is that what's characterizes our lives? The Bible is filled with exhortations about loving the Lord. In fact, if you go all the way back to the great Shema in Hebrews Deuteronomy 6, right? Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one, and you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind, with all of your strength. In other words, the love for God is an all-consuming kind of love. Israel's problem was that they began to fall so in love with themselves and the land of Canaan and all that the Canaanites had to offer, their purity and devotion was swept away.

But they didn't love the Lord. The question is, do you truly love the Lord? The last question asked of our Lord in the book of Matthew, the 22nd chapter, in the week of Passion Week, the last question asked of him publicly was, teacher, what is the foremost commandment? What is the greatest commandment? And of course, Christ answered, you should love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. And no one dared ask him any more questions because that's the end of all things.

Question is, do you love the Lord? And the Pharisees and the Sadducees, they were consumed with themselves and their love for their religion and their love for their sets of rules, but they didn't really truly love the Lord. Peter said in 1 Peter 1.8, whom have you not seen, you love. Paul would say in 1 Corinthians 16.22, he who does not love the Christ is to be cursed. And so there's so much in the Bible about loving the Lord, but I wanna take you to a very familiar passage because it was the Lord who asked Peter three times, do you love me?

So if you have your Bible, turn with me to John chapter 21. John chapter 21 is the last chapter of the gospel of John. Our Lord has been crucified, dead, buried. He's risen again. He's appeared to his men. He's in the business of restoring Peter because he knows the hearts of man. He knows that Peter loves him. And so he's gonna go and he's gonna have Peter come face to face with the reality of his relationship with the Lord. And so the Lord says in verse 15 of John 21, so when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to him, Simon Peter, said to Simon Peter, Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?

Now we can always speculate what the these are. Maybe it's the nets. Maybe it's the boats. Maybe it's the fishing business itself. Maybe it's the other disciples. The question is, do you love me more than anything else? That's the question. Do you love me more than your job? Do you love me more than your friends? Do you love me more than your family? Do you love me more than anything else? That's the question. And he uses the word agapao, which is speaking of the sacrificial kind of love, the genuine deep love that you give yourself away unconditionally for.

That's the question Christ asked Peter. Do you love me unconditionally? Do you love me genuinely? Do you love me without any strings attached? Will you do anything for me? Peter's response was simple. He says to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. But he doesn't respond with agapao. He responds with falao, which is a tender affection for. Because he knows he couldn't respond by saying, yes, I genuinely am willing to sacrifice everything for you because he didn't. He ran away, like the other disciples did.

He denied the Lord. So he knew he couldn't respond with the same kind of answer that Christ asked him because he would be seen as a hypocrite. And the Lord knows everything. So he says, yes, Lord, you know, I have a tender affection for you. See, the question is, do you love me supremely? Do you love me singularly? And do you love me sincerely? Is your love for me unparalleled? Is your love for me undivided? Is your love for me unhypocritical? That's the question. Peter's response was, you know I have a tender affection for you, Lord.

And so the Lord says, tend my lambs. Now, we don't know how long there was between verse number 15 and verse number 16. We don't know if it was a few seconds, a few minutes, a while. We don't know. All we know is what John records. And so he says to him again a second time, Simon, son of John, do you love me?

Same question, same word. Do you love me unconditionally, unhypocritically? Is your love for me undivided? And is it everything, Peter? And Peter responds, you know that I love you, he says. You know I have a tender affection for you. So again, is there a pause? I don't know. Is there a awkward silence between Jesus and Peter? You ever been in this conversation where you're talking to somebody and you look at them, you ask them a question, they respond, and there's this kind of awkward silence between you and them?

There's no response? So you gotta think of something to say? We don't know if that's the case. But Jesus does ask a third time.

He says, Simon, son of John, do you love me? But he doesn't use agapado. He uses the same word that Peter uses. Peter, do you really have a tender affection for me? That's the question. He's not asking, Peter, do you love me unconditionally? Are you willing to sacrifice for me? Are you willing to give everything away just for me? No, he says, do you really have a tender affection for me? Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, do you love me?

He wasn't grieved because of the repetition. He was grieved because Jesus questioned the love that Peter thought was sufficient. That's why he was grieved. You see, if Christ came to ask you the question, do you love me, how would you respond? If he came and said, do you love me unconditionally, without any reservation, are you willing to give everything for me? Are you willing to die for me? Would you be able to say to him, say to him, yes, Lord, I will die for you. Now, remember, he knows everything.

So Peter says these words, Lord, you know all things. Because he does, right? He knows your heart. We can come to church on Sunday. We can sit here and we can sing songs to Jesus and we can go to our service ministry and we can be involved in the church and everybody thinks we love Jesus. But the Lord knows your heart. The people around you don't know your heart, but the Lord does. He says to him, Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you. And Jesus said to him, tend to my sheep. The question is for us, do we love the Lord?

Because you see, the key component to any relationship is not my relationship with you, but my relationship with the Lord. The ability for me to love my wife happens because I love the Lord. The Bible tells us in Romans 5, 5, that the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. It's all over the place. Why? Because God dwells within us and he's the God of love. So it's shed abroad in our hearts. And so he can say to us, love your enemies and expect us to do that because he did. And the love of God was shed abroad in our hearts.

Therefore, we have the ability to love our enemies. And he expects that to happen because that's the way his love is. And so the question comes for you and me in terms of how it is we function in our marriages. It all stems from, am I so committed to the Lord? Do I love him so much that the love I have for me dictates everything else I do? Because I truly love the Lord. Loving my spouse is fairly simple. Loving my spouse is very difficult if I do not love the Lord because one flows from the other.

We love him because he first loved us, right? So because he first loved us, we respond to him in love.

But the opportunity I have to minister to my wife or to my husband stems from the fact that I really love the Lord. And that's just a great thing. So the key component to your marriage, the key component to your family is, do I love the Lord? If I love the Lord, right, right, I love my parents. Why do I have a difficulty with my parents? Not because of my parents' rules. It's not because my parents are ornery and nasty. It's because I don't really truly love the Lord. Because if I love the Lord, I'll love my mom and dad.

So everything stems from my relationship with the true and living God. So let's ask and answer, do you love the Lord? We're gonna give you seven principles, okay? Some of them you might be well aware of, others you might not. But this will dictate to you as to whether or not you love the Lord. Now these are not all the principles. These are just seven of them, okay? I could give you probably a whole lot more. But tonight we're just gonna give you seven. How do I know I love the Lord? Number one, true love for the Lord meditates daily on the law of the Lord.

Now already we've lost some of you. Because you don't meditate daily on the law of the Lord. You might at best meditate weekly, once a week. Maybe Sunday morning, maybe Wednesday night. But do you meditate daily on the law of the Lord? Psalm 119, 97, oh how I love thy law. It is my meditation all day long. There you go. See, if you love the Lord, you love his word, right? You can't separate the two. You can't say I love the Lord but I don't love what he says. No, you love what he says because that's who he is.

And the word of God, the inspired word of God is equal to the incarnate word of God. So when God speaks, I listen.

I wanna hear what he has to say. Oh how I love thy law, it is my meditation all the day. He couldn't get enough of the law of God. God told Joshua, remember? That in order for him to be successful and to be courageous, he had to meditate on the word of the Lord all day. You should meditate on the word of the Lord and then it will make you a prosperous, then you will have good success. But you must meditate daily on the word of the Lord. And Joshua had a huge responsibility, leading two million disgruntled Jews into the promised land.

And so he could not stop listening to what God said. If you go back to Psalm 119, the psalmist says in verse number 47 of Psalm 119, I shall delight in your commandments which I love. And I shall lift up my hands to your commandments which I love and I will meditate on your statutes. The Bible says in Psalm 119, verse number 47, 127, therefore I love your commandments above gold, yes, above fine gold.

Verse 163, I hate and despise falsehood, but I love your law. Seven times a day I praise you because of your righteous ordinances. And those who love your law have great peace and nothing causes them to stumble. You see, there's something about the law of God that causes the person who loves the Lord to love his law. You just can't wait to hear what he has to say. You know, back in the olden days, we used to write letters to people. We don't do that anymore. We send emails, we'll send a text, we'll communicate through some kind of social media platform.

We don't write letters anymore. We used to, that's the only way we could communicate. And we would long to receive a letter from the person that you loved. You couldn't wait to open it. Couldn't wait to read it and to hear the words on the page as they were being read, simply because you wanted to hear from them. Our Lord has given us his letter and speaks to us. And therefore, I want to meditate on what God says.

I wanna hear what God says. I wanna know what God says. Why? Simply because I can't know him any other way. And so to know him, I must meditate on the law of the Lord. When was the last time you meditated upon the law of the Lord? Do you do it daily? Do you do it weekly? Monthly? How often are you in the word? You know, AJ in youth ministry sends out these devotionals to all the students and their parents. And if you're a parent of a person in our youth ministry, you'll get the summation of Sunday and the summation of Wednesday.

And with that summation comes some questions. And with those questions comes some correlating verses. And so as he sums up what they taught on Sunday and what they taught on Wednesday, parents get this email. And of course, all your names are there, see? This is an opportunity for you to challenge your student to be in the word. And I wonder how many of you use these, take advantage of them, that you might sit down with your student and go through, hey, let's talk about what you learned on Sunday.

Let's talk about what you learned on Wednesday. Here are some questions that go along with that. And then some coordinating verses. The opportunity to think long and hard about what was learned and what you can learn is so important. You see, we can't do everything for you, but we wanna stimulate within you the opportunities to be involved in the lives of your students. And you see, if you love the Lord, you love his word. And everything about his word stimulates you. You're saved by his word, right?

So you got saved. Faith comes by hearing, hearing about a word concerning the Christ, Romans 10, 17. So we know we're saved by the word of God. We also know that the word of God convicts me of my sin. And the word of God, it soothes my soul because it's my comfort and my affliction is the word of God. So I wanna spend time in the word. I wanna encourage my son or daughter to do the same because it is life giving. So the person who truly loves the Lord meditates daily on the law of the Lord. Number two, the person who loves the Lord hates fully what God hates.

The person who loves the Lord hates fully what God hates. This is very, very important. Psalm 97, verse number 10. Hate evil, you who love the Lord. It doesn't get any more basic and simple than that. Hate evil, you who love the Lord. Psalm 139, verse number 20. For they speak against you wickedly and your enemies take your name in vain. Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with the utmost hatred. They have become my enemies. Wow.

The psalmist wasn't going to engage with those who hated the Lord. No, those who were his enemies. Romans 12, verse number nine. Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor evil, cling to that which is good. In other words, what does unhypocritical love look like? It looks like this. You hate evil and you cling to that which is good because the Lord said, love not the world. Neither are the things that are in the world, right? Because there's the love God hates. What's the love God hates? Love for the world because the world's passing away and the lusts are up, but he who does the will of God abides forever.

And the Lord said, love not the world because all that's in the world, if any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. So you hate love for the world because God hates love for the world. You see, we think we love the Lord until we have to hate fully what God hates. Then we're not so sure we love the Lord as much because then it requires that we turn our back on those things that maybe might strike an interest in our hearts. The Bible is very clear in Proverbs 8, verse number 13.

Proverbs 8, verse number 13, Solomon says these words. He says, the fear of the Lord is to hate evil, pride, arrogance, and the evil way and the perverted mouth I hate. See, hatred's a good thing, not a bad thing, as long as you're hating the things that God hates. He says in Proverbs chapter six, there are six things which the Lord hates. Yes, seven, which are an abomination to him, haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that run rapidly to evil, a false witness who utters lies, and the one who spreads strife among brothers.

So, how do you know you love the Lord? You meditate daily on the law of the Lord. You hate fully the things that God himself hates. Number three, you love the Lord because you imitate authentically the character of Christ.

You imitate authentically the character of Christ. Ephesians chapter five, verse number one, therefore be imitators of God.

Imitate him as beloved children and walk in love. Just as Christ loved you and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. In other words, you imitate in a very real genuine way, Christ, you imitate Christ. Christ walks in love, Christ is love. So, we as followers imitate him by walking in love. Now, if you go back up to chapter four, verse number 31, it says, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.

Those are the opposite characteristics of love. And then it gives you the obvious characteristics of love. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you therefore.

Therefore, be imitators of God. In other words, if you wanna be an imitator of God and walk in love, you are a forgiving person. You can't wait to forgive. Why? Because God is a God of forgiveness. And he forgives because he's a God of love. And so, it's so important because in two weeks, we pick this up, we're gonna talk about what it means to model Christ. And in modeling Christ, you model his forgiveness, right? You model his holiness. You model his faithfulness. You model his truthfulness. Why?

Because you wanna imitate him. You wanna be just like him. You wanna pattern your life after Christ's life. He says he abides in him, ought himself to walk, even as he himself walks, 1 John 2, 6. And so we walk as he walked. How did he walk? He walked in truth. So we walk in truth. Because there is no greater joy than my children walk in truth. 3 John 1, number four. And so we walk as he walks. So if I am going to love the Lord, then I'm going to imitate authentically the characteristics that magnify my God.

I'm going to walk in love. And then, number four, note this, that those who love the Lord demonstrate freely their obedience to Christ. They demonstrate freely their obedience to Christ. Listen to what John says in John chapter 14. He who has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my father. And I will love him and will disclose myself to him. Verse 23 of John 14. If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my father will love him. We will come to him and make our abode with him.

He who does not love me does not keep my words. Now, that is so basic, right? How do I know I love the Lord? I demonstrate his word. I live out his words. I demonstrate freely my obedience to him. I don't just obey in some areas. I obey in all areas. I love how John says it. First John chapter two, verse number one.

By this we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments. The one who says I have come to know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar. And the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in him. How do we know we are in Christ? How do we know that we are children of Christ? We keep his commandments. He says these words. First John chapter three, verse 16.

We know love by this that he laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has the world's goods and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. Chapter four, verse number 19. We love because he first loved us.

If someone says I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar. For the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also. Chapter five, verse number two.

By this we know that we love the children of God. When we love God and observe his commandments. For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not burdensome. So simple. Those who love the Lord just do what he says. Thomas Vincent, again, says this. Your love to Christ is known by your obedience unto Christ. If Christ is your beloved, he is also your Lord. If you have true affection for him, you will yield subjection unto him. If you love Christ, you are careful to please Christ.

You are not the servants of the flesh to take care to please the flesh, but you are the servants of Christ to take care above all persons and all things to please Christ. If you love Christ, you are fearful of giving just occasion of offense unto men. But above all, you are fearful of displeasing and defending your God. Do you labor so to walk that you may please Christ in the way of sincere and universal obedience? Are you hardy in your obedience unto Christ? Have you a respect to all his commandments?

Is it your grief that you fall short in your obedience unto Christ? If you can say in the presence of the Lord and your hearts that you do not live and allow yourselves in the practice of any known sin, which Christ forbids, nor in the neglect of any known duty, which Christ commands, this is sure evidence of true love to Jesus Christ. There are a lot of people who say they love Jesus, but they will not do what he says. They won't forgive their brother who sinned against them. They won't repay good for evil.

They'll repay evil for good. They seek vengeance. They hold bitter feelings and attitudes toward others. They will not let things go. And if you love the Lord, you just simply do what he says. You subject your life to him. Those who love the Lord, meditate daily on the law of the Lord, hate fully what God hates, imitate authentically the character of Christ, demonstrate freely their obedience to Christ. And number five, anticipate longingly the coming of Christ. Anticipate longingly the coming of Christ.

You can't wait to see him. Listen, if you love the Lord, you cannot wait to see his face. Don't tell me you love the Lord and fear death, because you don't. If you love the Lord, you don't fear death. Death is a doorway to his presence. If you love the Lord, you can't wait for him to return. Paul talks about it in 2 Timothy 4, verse number eight. All those who love his appearing, what awaits them? The crown of righteousness, right? Looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and savior, Jesus Christ.

There's this excitement, there's this anticipation, a growing anticipation that Christ could come at any moment and I will see his face and behold his glory. And those who love the Lord can't wait to see him. Told you this a couple of weeks ago on Sunday morning. I've never met a bride who didn't long for the arrival of the bridegroom. Never met one. If she doesn't, she probably shouldn't be married to the guy. But she's longing for that day, longing for that opportunity to be face-to-face. The number six, if you love the Lord, you elevate consistently prayer to his presence.

For the peace of Jerusalem. Psalm 122, verse number six. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, all you who love the Lord. Wow. If you love the Lord, you pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Why? Because Psalm 89 tells us that the Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. That's why. I love what it says over in Psalm, or excuse me, Isaiah 66, verse number 10. Be joyful with Jerusalem and rejoice for her, all you who love her. Be exceedingly glad with her, all you who mourn over her.

You pray for the peace of Jerusalem because in praying for the peace of Jerusalem, you are praying Matthew chapter six, verse number 10, thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. You're praying for the glorious kingdom of God to come because the promise given to Abraham was that new covenant promise. And with that new covenant promise came an Abrahamic covenant and a Davidic covenant and all that surrounds the land of Israel. And so you're praying for God's kingdom to come to earth.

And so in praying for the peace of Jerusalem, you are praying for the prince of peace to arrive and establish his kingdom and rule as the prince of peace. So if you love the Lord, you elevate consistently personal prayer for the peace of Jerusalem. And number seven, if you love the Lord, you consecrate wholly your life to God above everything else. You consecrate wholly your life to God above everything and everyone else. Christ says in Matthew chapter 10, he who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.

And he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. Who has found his life will lose it. And he who has lost his life for my sake will find it. In Luke's gospel in the 14th chapter, Christ says, if you love your life more than me, you're not worthy of me.

In other words, Christ says, you can't love anything else more than me or you are not worthy of me. You must love me wholly, unconditionally. This is what he asked Peter. Peter, do you love me? Are you willing to consecrate your life fully to me? So that my life is your life. That everything that you dream about is about me, not you. All your aspirations, all your anticipations, center on me. Do you love me that much? You see, for the most part, all of us fall short of loving God as we need to love him.

That's the whole sanctification process of our lives. Learning to grow in love with the Lord every single moment of every single day. And when I meditate upon the law of God, that happens. When I begin hating what God hates, it happens. When I begin demonstrating my obedience to Christ, it happens. When I do the things he tells me to do, it happens. And so, the conversation in John 21, Christ says this to Peter in verse number 18.

Truly, truly I say to you, when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you and bring you where you do not wish to go. Now this, he said, signifying but what kind of death he would glorify God. And when he had said this or spoken this, he said to him, follow me. Peter, do you have tender affection for me? I want you to love me unconditionally. So I wanna let you know something. I'm gonna test your love and see how consecrated you are to me.

For when you get old, you will stretch out your hands, signifying crucifixion, and you will die for me, Peter, because that's where your life's going. You're gonna live out denying yourself, taking up your cross, and following me. So Peter, follow me. Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved, that's John, following them, the one who had also leaned back on his bosom at the supper and said, Lord, who is the one who betrays you? So Peter, seeing him, said to Jesus, Lord, and what about this man?

What about John? He's already said he loves you. That's how John's described in John's gospel, the disciple whom Jesus loved. Well, but John, remember, was at the foot of the cross, and he was the one who was to take in the mother of Jesus, Mary. Woman, behold your son. Behold your mother, he says to John. So how about John? Is he gonna die, too? Is he gonna stretch out his hands? Is he gonna be crucified, too? Are you gonna ask him to follow you, too? And Jesus said to him, if I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you, you follow?

That question's asked by us every day. Well, what about my husband? Are you gonna tell him to love the Lord, too? Are you gonna tell him to follow the Lord, too? I'm not speaking to your husband, I'm speaking to you. Just like I'm not speaking to your wife, I'm speaking to you. But we wanna pass it off to somebody else. Are you gonna tell, what about them? Do they have to do what I do? Do they have to love you like I love you? As if it matters. It doesn't. The only thing that matters is your walk with the Lord.

That's all that matters. So the question always comes back, do you really love the Lord more than anything else? Because if you do, everything about your relationship changes. Why? Because you're so consumed with the Lord. You're not consumed about the response of your spouse. You're not preoccupied with whether or not they're doing this or doing that. You're preoccupied with the Christ. You've set your affections on things above it, not things below. And so everything is focused on the Christ. And all of a sudden you are freed up to minister in ways you've never ministered before.

Because now you can really love others because you love the Lord. But that love will wane from day to day, from week to week. So you have to go back and begin to, once again, meditate daily on the law of the Lord. Go back and ask yourself, am I hating everything that God hates? Is there something that God hates that I kinda like? Am I willing to hate it enough to turn away from it? Am I willing to imitate authentically the character of Christ? Because He is love, that I will imitate His love for others?

Am I willing to demonstrate fully and freely my obedience to Christ? Am I really anticipating the coming of Christ? Am I looking forward to His arrival? Do I pray for the peace of Jerusalem? And is my life totally consecrated to the Christ? If so, you are beginning to fall greater in love with the Lord. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for tonight, the chance to be together, the things that you teach us. Lord, so much to say, so little time to cover it all. But yet, Lord, our prayer is that you would cause us all to love you all the more, that we might serve you fully.

I pray for those in the room tonight that might be struggling, struggling with their husband or their wife, their children, that, Lord, you would cause them to see only the Christ and realize, Lord, that their relationship with you is the relationship that matters the most. That all the other relationships are secondary. But the one with you, that matters the most. May they cultivate that relationship. May they grow in that relationship. For the glory of your name, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.