What’s Love Got to Do with It
By Steve Williams
Mitchell County
What’s Happened To The Church? That question is asked a lot today throughout all our Churches. We live in a day where the church seems to have little or no effect on this world we are living in. People say the Church has lost its power. Others say the church has lost its burden for the lost. Some say the church has become comfortable. Some even say the church has lost its vision. And still, others say the church has lost its commitment. Do you remember what the church used to be like? Do you remember how the church played such an important role in the lives of believers and how even non-believers respected the church’s values? Now people laugh at the church and Christians could care less.
See there’s a war that’s been waging for thousands of years. Satan has been attacking the church and hearts of believers as hard as he can. Satan has convinced many believers today it is not important to Pray, Read God’s Word, or even believe what the Word of God says. Satan convinced many that the church is not important. Satan has distorted man’s thinking, by getting him to be more focused on himself and the desires of his heart than God and what God wants. How has he done this you may ask? Simple, Satan has been able to get Christians and the Churches they are serving, to fail to see and remember what God is seeking, and what God is expecting from each of us. I hate to say it, but if Christians today don’t make a drastic change and turn back and remember what God expects from them, we are headed for disaster. (If we’re not already on our way)
So preacher what is it Going to take to get on track? What’s it going to take to get Christians and Church Jump started again? It’s simple, it’s elementary, and it’s a 4 letter word. A lot of people say it but few fail to show it. LOVE.
- The reason the church has lost its Power is that it has lost its first love for God.
- The reason the church has lost its Burden for the lost is that it has lost its first love for God.
- The reason the church has become Comfortable is that it has lost its first love for God.
- The reason the church has lost its Vision is that it lost its first love for God.
Many people try to say what’s happened to the church is people have just failed to be committed to God. Well, I’m here to tell you, I’ve even been one to say that before: but God has shown me, that Commitment is not it. The reason I say that is because if your Truly Love God You Will Be Committed! People don’t Love God today the way they think they do. I just think they Like Him.
That the problem with Christians and the Church today is not our Commitment, but it is our Love toward an Almighty God. Remember I said a War has been waging for thousands of years. This War is a War about Love. God’s Love for mankind has never changed. But man’s Love for God has surely changed. All we have to do is just look around and we can see how man’s love toward God has changed. People’s priorities have changed. It’s now if I have time to go to church, If I have time to serve God, or If I have time to do what God wants me to do. That’s not Love, that is self-centeredness and we have been overtaken by it.
So what do we do to take care of the problem? How can we turn the tide in this war? We are going to have to fall in love with God once again. Let’s see what the Bible tells us Matthew 22:37-40 “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” See that is what Love has to do with it, EVERYTHING. True Love for God is the only thing that is going to change this world that we are living in. We as Christians have to fall in Love with God whole heartedly and not with ourselves.
Pastor Steve Williams
Words of Wisdom
- You can’t blame gravity on falling in love or out of love. N/A
- Faith makes all things possible… love makes all things easy. Dwight L. Moody
- Love doesn’t make the world go ’round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile. Franklin P. Jones
- The love we give away is the only love we keep. Elbert Hubbard
- God proved His love on the Cross. When Christ hung, bled, and died, it was God saying to the world, ‘I love you.’ Billy Graham
The Bible says in 1 Cor 13:4-7 “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not [a]puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, [b]thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
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Steve Williams is the pastor of Berry Chapel Baptist Church in Spruce Pine, North Carolina. You can read more good Christian news from Steve HERE.
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