Are You Willing To Pay The Price?
FOUNDATION STATEMENT: Violating the commandment of love is not free and it is not cheap, it
costs you something. You have to
ask yourself am I willing to pay the price to violate the commandment of love?
Because the price is this: It will cost you the Word, the anointing, and the
victory in your life. (Matthew
22:36, 1 John 4:18)
I.
What is the cost of
violating the Commandment of Love?
A. If love’s not working,
then the Word isn’t working
1.
The
Word depends on this commandment to work (Matthew 22:36-40)
2.
1
step outside of love (one negative comment, one act of disobedience, one
negative thought not dealt with) is 1 step into the Word not working in your
life
a. Prosperity, healing, the
anointing, protection, the blessing, none of these things can work for you b/c
you are outside of the boundary where these things work
b. All of those things work
inside the boundary of love and outside that boundary things don’t work the way
they’re supposed to work
c. When you stepped out of
love you had to leave all the promises and blessings in love because those
things don’t go and work outside of love
3.
That
was the cost; it cost you every promise, every blessing, and every empowerment
that was bestowed upon you the day you got born again
B. When love is not being
perfected fear is present (1 John 4:18)
1.
Fear
will connect you to oppression (Isaiah 54:14)
a. When you are oppressed
you are being overpowered or conquered by the devil. He’s taking things from you that he has
no right to take, but he’s doing it to you through your violation of the
commandment of love
b. You can’t have fear w/o
the oppression and you can’t have oppression w/o fear
1)
Satan’s
way into your life is through the avenue of you violating the commandment of
love
c. In order to be oppressed
you have to operate in fear, if you do not operate in fear you cannot be
oppressed
2.
Perfected
love casts out fear
a. AMP There is no fear in love [dread does not exist], but
full-grown (complete, perfect) love turns fear out of doors and expels
every trace of terror! For fear brings with it the thought of punishment and
[so] he who is afraid has not reached the full maturity of love [is not yet
grown into love’s complete perfection].
b. Cast (ballo) – to
throw out, put out, set out, sent out,
1)
The
love of God throws fear out, puts fear out, sets fear out and sends fear out
and consequently the love of God throws the oppression out
c. The Love of God is
working in my life to keep me out of fear and to keep me from being oppressed
(Psalm 91, 1 John 5:18)
3.
The
moment love stops being perfected fear begins to work and you immediately
become accessible to be oppressed
a. Perfected love is love
that is growing, developing, and maturing on a daily basis
b. We are constantly in the
process of perfecting love and it’s a commitment to the process that will keep
us out of fear and away from oppression
4.
That’s
the cost: One step out of love is one step into fear and one step into fear is
one step into oppression
C. Renew your mind to what
it costs you to violate the commandment of love because if you know the costs,
you probably won’t be willing to pay the price
II. Set the boundary of love and absolutely refuse to cross it (2
Corinthians 5:14)
A. As a believer you have to
set up a love line boundary for your life and make a decision to absolutely
refuse to cross that line come hell or high water. (2 Corinthians 5:14)
1.
Constrains
(synecho) – to cover, to crowd against, to guard, to hold in custody, to
compel, to urge on, held, keep in, stops, throngs
a. The love of God covers me
and guards me
1)
It
keeps the word working, it keeps me out of fear, and it keeps me away from the
oppression
b. The love of God holds me
in custody
1)
Sometimes
I would like to get out, but love is holding me in custody
c. The love of God crowds me
1)
Like
a car that is crowded in a traffic jam can’t go anywhere, love has me crowded
so I can’t go anywhere
d. The love of God compels
me
1)
It
forces me to stay in love because of its functions; It has left you no choice
e. The love of God urges me
on
1)
It
urges me to stay in love and not violate that commandment of love
f. The love of God stops me
1)
It
stops me from saying things I shouldn’t say, thinking things I shouldn’t think,
and doing things I shouldn’t do
2.
The
Apostle Paul is saying there’s a love fence that I’ve established in my life
and it keeps me from thinking things that I shouldn’t think,
saying things that I shouldn’t say, and doing things that I shouldn’t do
a. To think that or say that
or do that I would have to cross the love fence and get out there where nothing
works
b. There’s a toll to cross
that love fence that I’m not willing to play – You cannot cross the toll
way if you don’t pay the price
c. The Love of God works in
my mind like a filter and if it’s not love I don’t think it, say it, or do it
because it’s a love filter that filters anything that’s not love
B. Everything that we do we
do in love (1 Corinthians 16:14)
1.
(AMP)
Let everything you do be done in love (true love to God and man as inspired by
God’s love for us).
2.
Everything I do is done in the sphere of love b/c outside that
sphere nothing works
a. I do all my
talking in love. I do all my
thinking in love. I do all my
acting in love. I do all my faith
in love. I put on the armor of God
in love. I sow my seed in
love. I drive in love. I eat in love. I pray in the spirit in love.
3.
Philippians 2:3 – Do nothing outside of love
C. You got to root yourself,
ground yourself, and take your stance in the Love of God and absolutely refuse
to come out (Ephesians 3:14)
1.
I’m
rooted in this and I ain’t coming out of it
III. God’s commandment was a love letter from Heaven
A. God gave us a commandment
and said, “Look now I’m commanding you do
to this. I want you to do
regardless of how you feel and regardless of how you’re treated. This commandment is going to keep the Word
working in your life and it’s going to keep you from being oppressed. So do it
don’t violate it and you’ll experience life on the highest level.”
B. The purpose of the God’s
command
1.
God
never does anything without purpose
a. He is the most purposeful
being to ever & everything He does has purpose
b. God does not give us
commandments to keep us from having fun or to usurp authority over us
2.
This
is the creator of life in His overwhelming desire to see us get the most out of
life, giving us instructions (love letters) that if you do this you’ll
experience life better than you’ve ever imagined
a. EXAMPLE: Ford knows how
to get the most out of Ford Trucks because they created the truck, so they
wrote a manual of instruction so that you could get the most out of the product
that you paid for. For best results
do these things.
b. God the creator of life
knows how to get the most out of this product of life that he created. So He wrote a manual of instruction so
that you could get the most out of the product of life that Jesus paid for and
gave you.
3.
Do
you want to experience the best life?
Do you want the Word to work for you? Do you want to live free from
oppression?
a. Then keep the commandment
of love. It’s got nothing to do
with your feelings and everything to do with the result that you want to
get.
b. Work backwards: Chose
your harvest and then sow the appropriate seed
4.
God
gave you the commandment of love to keep you from being oppressed and to keep
the Word working in your life, so shut your mouth and do it.
a. The operation of every
benefit obtained for us by Jesus Christ on the cross at Calvary hangs on this
commandment of love.
IV. The way of love will lead you to a life that is absolutely
greater than anything you could have ever imagined or dreamed
A. The love commandment is
the pathway to the abundant life (Mark 10:17)
1.
Life
(Zoe) – live that is filled with vitality, the God-kind of life,
unrivaled, unequaled, matchless, incomparable, richly loaded, and overflowing
life
a. The life force that
removes all evil. It flowed out of
Peter’s shadow, Jesus’ hem, and in Jesus’ words with the fish and bread.
2.
Luke
10:25 – Same question, Same answer
a. To inherit zoe and walk
in it, you have to keep the commandment of love
b. The lawyer was tempting
Jesus and Jesus knew it, so he gave him little to no time
c. The rich young ruler fell
on his face and was great desiring with all of his heart to walk in zoe and
Jesus knew it, so He was going to show this guy specifically where he is
missing it where the commandment of love is concerned
1)
The
rich young ruler loved money and things, more than he loved God
3.
The
whole idea of the commandment of love is this: When you walk in that
commandment you are totally sowing yourself and your life to God and the
harvest off of the seed of your life is the God-kind of abundant life
B. Keeping the commandment
of love is the key to seeing manifestations of the way, the Word, and Zoe in your life
(John 14:21)
1.
Jesus
is the Word, Jesus is Zoe (John 14:6)
a. You might have these
things, but if you’re not seeing manifestations of them in your life the
commandment of love will bring about manifestations
2.
Getting
rid of form, but no results and now we’re getting manifestation of the Word and
Zoe and love got us there
a. Manifesting Zoe
3.
When
the Word and Zoe is manifested in your life, you’re in a good place
C. Keeping the commandment
of love will bring Heaven to the Earth (Deut 11:13-21)
1.
To
live a life submitted to this commandment is to live as the ultimate sower
– you’re constantly sowing towards the prosperity of others
a. You can’t be in the
commandment of love and not be sowing towards the prosperity of others
b. It’s to live a life in
constant sowing mode and when you are constantly sowing, you’ll be constantly
reaping
2.
When
you are constantly sowing towards the prosperity of others, you will reap 100
times that sowing towards your prosperity
D. It’s a big fat set up;
I’ll command them to love and I’ll make it the first and great commandment so
that they’ll keep it. Because I’m
commanded it surely they won’t argue with me about it or give me an excuse of
why they are not keeping it.
Because it’s a commandment they’ll just do it. And surely if a say it’s the first and
great commandment it will be important to them and they won’t violate it. I’ll even reveal to them that all the
law is fulfilled in that commandment and simplify it for them so they only have
to be conscious of this one. And
I’ll command them to do it and surely they keep my command because they love me
and have submitted to me. And in
that will come the best life that my children could have ever possibly gotten
and that’s my hearts desire.
1.
You
can hear the heartbeat of God in this