Pastor Leon Seaton

What Is This Thing Called Love?

One my favorite ways to develop a message is to ask leading questions of friends and acquaintances. Roberta left early Friday for a meeting in Tulsa, so I spent time asking three of the men in a restaurant if they thought it was possible to love the Lord with all our hearts – and to love our neighbors as ourselves. One of the men is a preacher, one a retired educator and the other man is a Kingfisher business man. It was a fun discussion. The preacher got so philosophical about learning even more about God when we get to heaven that he ignored the question entirely.

The retired educator asked, “Well, do you like me?”

“More than that,” I responded, “I love you.” Bless his heart, he is older than I am, and apparently isn’t rooted in the Word of God. He looked shocked and moved away from me and said, “Now, I don’t know about that!”

I had been standing across the table from the men, so I sat down, took off my cap and coat and said, “I think we need to talk about what love means! Love and sex are not necessarily related except in a marriage; otherwise sex is just lust. True love, in this scripture is accepting people as they are and wanting the best for them.”

“But,” he responded, “some of us are not very good looking – our bodies have blemishes on them.”

This man had served God as a child, but had gotten away from the Lord. Recently he returned to church, so he is not yet grounded in God’s Word. I explained that we are spiritual beings; we live in bodies; we have souls (mind, will and emotions). We can love a person no matter how unattractive they are if we focus on their spirit being.

At this point he smiled and reached across the table for a hand shake and introduced himself by name.

I was having fun, so I dropped by the office where I have a part-time job. The four ladies agreed that we can and should love God and everybody else, but sometimes it is more fun to gossip about everybody. However one of them said, “I pray every day that God will forgive me for being selfish. I should help my neighbors more, but sometimes I just stay home and paint to relax.”

This is a good point for a word of caution. We have to take time to rest and relax so we can refresh ourselves spiritually, emotionally and physically. Otherwise we will burn ourselves out, and it takes a long time to recover from that – if we ever do. I went through a major burnout between 1978 and 1980. This church helped me recover when you allowed me to be your interim pastor in 1989. I will be forever grateful.

What is love, and why is it such a precious commodity?

Matthew 22:37-40 - Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

Becoming your pastor 14 years ago was very stressful for me simply because I did not understand your traditions and, quite frankly, did not feel like I deserved to be your pastor. Thank you for loving me and being patient with me while I learned how you do things.

During my 40 years in ministry in a variety of settings I have discovered a wonderful way to drop our stress levels. It sounds simple, but can be very difficult at times. “All” we have to do is make the decision to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and love our neighbor as ourselves. Doing that eliminates gossip and takes away our fear of people.

When we truly love someone we will hear out their ideas and not be threatened by different opinions. When they seem inappropriate we will realize that they are under stresses that we may know nothing about.

Why is that? Generally we expect others to do what we would do in the same situation. When I truly love you I anticipate that you either love me or will learn to love me. If I truly love you I will listen to your ideas and concerns, knowing that you are sincerely want to help me.

Problems come when I am threatened by opinions that are different than mine. Why? Different opinions threaten us when they hit on our insecurities. If you told me that my wife was cheating on me I would not be disturbed because of my love for and my trust in her.

In one of my previous pastorates we had a deacon that sincerely believed it was his personal responsibility to keep the pastor under his thumb. And he did it very well. Rather than buck him I let him in on every decision. Of course this called for a lot of board meetings. Once he was satisfied that he could trust me he made the following motion. “I move that we let the pastor spend up to $200 per month without prior approval.”

Let’s move it up a level. If I truly love God and totally accept His love for me, I will relax in His care, knowing that He cares for me. If I truly know that pastoring this church is God’s assignment for me at this time in my life, then I am secure in knowing that He will make things work out if I keep a sweet, teachable spirit… each of us need to keep a sweet spirit.

How does God manifest His love for us? Certainly through the daily blessings we receive. But there has to be a way that we can be assured of His constant love for us. He does that through his Covenant with us. We call them the Old and New Testaments.

Although there are a lot of rules in the OT, the Covenant was actually based on love. When we recognize that, it is easier to be obedient.

Deuteronomy 5:33-6:12 - "Walk in all the way that the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess. These are the commands, decrees and laws the LORD your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the LORD your God as long as you live by keeping all His decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. Hear, O Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, promised you.

"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.

"Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

"These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates.

"When the LORD your God brings you into the land He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you--a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant--then when you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery."

If you look past the words “command” and “commandments” you can see and feel God’s love. It was awesome.

The New Covenant (New Testament) is build solidly on the sacrifice of Jesus for your sins and mine – and the infilling of God’s Spirit so that we have the divine help we need to accomplish God’s call on our lives.

My friend, God totally loves you!

Jesus Christ is your Best Friend – your Elder Brother.

Some people have a problem seeing God as a father because their earthly father was a failure. Please remember that God is the ideal father, not men who live on earth.

What, then is this thing called love?

• A commandment

• A choice

• Accepting others as they are

• The manifestation of God in our lives

  • Consider the Fruit of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22, 23) - “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”

  • “Love” is beautifully described in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a - “Love is patient; kind; does not envy; does not boast; is not proud; not rude; not self-seeking; not easily angered; keeps no record of wrongs; does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres. Love never fails.” (Please remember that Jesus is the only One who is fully able to meet this standard of perfection.)

Simply put, love is God living out His power in and through our lives. Today let's tell God, “Lord, sign me up!”

February 22, 2009