A NEW KIND OF LOVE: PASTOR MENSA OTABIL – SUNDAY SERVICE, FEBRUARY 14TH, 2021
SUNDAY SERVICE BY DR. MENSAH OTABIL (GENERAL OVERSEER INTERNATIONAL CENTRAL GOSPEL CHURCH (ICGC) ACCRA, GHANA)
TOPIC: A NEW KIND OF LOVE
DATE: 14TH FEBRUARY, 2021
TEXT: MATTHEW 22:34-40
AMEN! Let’s rise up together, as we make our DECLARATION OF FRUITFULNESS in this Year of Fruitfulness:
Are you ready? Say with me:
The Eternal God is our refuge. He opens rivers in desolate heights.The Lord makes the wilderness a Pool of water.
The LORD God is my sun and shield; The LORD gives Grace and Glory.
Therefore, I delight myself in Him. Those who are Planted in the House of the LORD
shall be fresh and flourishing.
Though the Earth be shaken; the Name of the Lord is my Strong Tower. By Faith I affirm that: In Christ alone is my Salvation. In Him I live, And move And have my being.
It is written: The Righteous are like trees Planted by the waters; bearing fruits in its Season.
So I boldly declare: As for me, my God has made me EXCEEDINGLY FRUITFUL;
In this Season, my Spirit bears fruits of Righteousness, my Talents make way for me. With my hands, I will Plant, I will Build, I will Harvest – Day by day, Step by step.
In Jesus’ Name – Amen!
Today is Valentine’s Day! And it’s a day that is set aside for the Celebration of Love. And People do all kinds of stuff.
I was checking my Christian Calendar, and I realised that the Greek Orthodox Church today is also ‘Zacheous Sunday’.
So, you can actually call it Valentine or Zacheous Sunday – depending on how you look at it.
But I’m going to focus on the Valentine aspect of it!
So I have Titled my Message for today: “A NEW KIND OF LOVE.”
Love of is one those words that is used very, very frequently but also misunderstood and many times, misapplied.
The Christian Faith is based on LOVE – From its beginning to the end. And much of our lives, we all aspire to love People or to have People to love us.
But in the Process of living this Love, many times we get disappointed, we get hurt. And something that is supposed to make us better, ends up sometimes, making our lives worse.
… So, ‘A NEW KIND OF LOVE’ is what we are talking about.
Let’s start with a question that was asked Jesus. In Matthew 22:34-40:
And I will read Matthew 22:34-40 – Let us hear the reading of God’s Word:
34 But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.
35 Then one of them, a Lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying,
36 “Teacher, which is the Great Commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your Soul, and with all your Mind.’
38 This is the First and Great Commandment.
39 And the Second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
40 On these two Commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
Before we go into the Text to work on it, first let’s Define LOVE very quickly:
And I will define LOVE very, very simply, as: INTENSE affection and Loyalty.
You may have different definitions for it. I tried looking up so difficult to settle on one. So this I thought, captures the idea quite well.
So, when we say we love somebody or we love something; it means that we have an intense affection or a deep affection for it. We care for it, and we are committed to it!
… And this is how I would define LOVE, in my Message today.
Now let’s look at the Text – Mathew 22:34-40:
… Then one of them, a Lawyer, asked Him a Question:
So this is a question coming from a Lawyer. It’s quite a serious question. It’s not a simple question.
And the Passage says: “The Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees.”
If you read before the Text, the Sadducees came to Jesus asking Him a question relating to Ressurrection.
And they asked about the woman who ended up marrying Seven (7) brothers. And they asked: “In the Ressurrection, who would be the husband?” And Jesus answered that question.
By the way, the Saducees didn’t believe in the Ressurrection – So this was a Test Question!
When they finished and Jesus had disposed of them; the Pharisees also came, and the elected a Lawyer among them; to ask Jesus a very tough question.
They asked Jesus, they said: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Now I want you to understand the question: “The Greatest Commandment in the Law?”
… And the ‘LAW’ there, is “The Law of Moses.
So Jesus answered the question, and He talks about the Law and Prophet in Mathew 22:37-40.
He said that: “This is the basis of the answer”.
He spoke about Two (2) Things: Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your Soul, and with all your Mind.”
Note how we are to Love the Lord – We are to Love the Lord with ALL – Not Part!
All of our heart, Soul and Mind; totally and completely.
And this Love is absolute – It is Love that doesn’t hold back!
And so Jesus says: If you want to know the Great Commandment of the Law; “You shall love the Lord your God with everything you have in your heart, in your mind, in your Soul”.
And Jesus calls it: “The First and Great Commandment.”
In other words: “This is the Big One.”
If you really want to love the Lord, this is Big One – You love the Lord with everything you have; everything you have got!
Then He mentioned a Second One: LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOUR.
And He qualifies: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’
So this Love is relative: The First One is: “Love the Lord your God with everything you have.”
And the Second One is: “Love your neighbour – Relative to the way you Love yourself.
That implies that the First (1st) step is: You love God, you love yourself, and you love your neighbour as yourself.
… Basically, that is the Progression!
This is what the question was: “Lord, what is the greatest in all the Commandments?”
… Or, what is the Greatest Commandment?
“You love the Lord your God with everything you have; you love your neighbour as yourself.”
Remember, Jesus is answering a Particular Question – ‘The greatest in the Law.’ Not in the World, not everywhere – but in the Law.
So He is answering, according to the question!
The Question then that we would ask is: ‘What if a Person doesn’t love himself?’
Because, if I’m supposed to love People as Myself; and I hate Myself. It means I’m going to hate People. If I destroy Myself, I’m going to destroy People.
But Jesus says, this is what the Law says: ‘You love the Lord, you love your neighbour as yourself.’
Now, Jesus didn’t make up this Rules; because the answer He gave is found in the Law.
Deuteronomony 6:4-5:
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your Soul, and with all your Strength.”
This is what Jesus was quoting. He didn’t make it up! He was quoting the Law: Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with everything you have.
… This is the Foundation of the Law!
And then in Leviticus 19:17-18; the Bible says: “You shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall surely rebuke your neighbor, and not bear sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your People, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.”
So this is the Law!
In the Law God says: you love the Lord your God, and you love your neighbour as yourself.
… And that is how Jesus answered the Question!
And it’s important that as we try then to understand Love; there are different kinds of Love.
And I will talk about THREE (3) DIFFERENT KINDS.
- The first (1st) kind of Love is “The Love that SEEKS to fulfil its own Need.”
Or what you call SELF LOVE – Love for yourself;
It is the Love that seeks to be happy for itself
It is the kind of love you have when you eat your favourite meal and you say: “Oh, I love this Meal.”
You are not showing love to the Meal because you are eating it; but when you say ‘I love this meal’. You just mean ‘I love myself because I’m the one enjoying this Meal.
Or you listen to a Piece of Music and you say “Oh, I love this Music!”
You are not showing love to the Music; you are showing love to yourself.
You are just saying that this ‘Music satisfies me; so I love it!’
When we express this kind of Love, it is the benefit we get that makes us love it.
So in reality, it is SELF LOVE.
Sometimes, People express that even in Worship – They say “Oh, I love God.”
And the reason why they say they love God is because: ‘This God is too Good ooooo.’
So what if He is not Good, are you going to love Him? He does Good stuff for us!
So that’s the First (1st) Kind of Love – It is not towards somebody else, it is towards YOU.
When you show that to God; you are not loving Him with all your heart, with all your Soul, with everything in you;
You are loving Him because He makes you feel Good.
Alright? That’s the first (1st) Kind!
- The Second Kind of LOVE: Is Love that fulfils EACH OTHER’S NEEDS.
It involves Obligation; it requires that you reciprocate in an act of Love.
In the first (1st) kind of Love, if you love your food – Your food doesn’t love you back. If you love the Music – It doesn’t love you back.
But in this kind of Love, it is Love that you GIVE and you GET loved back!
… It fulfils each other Needs!
It is a kind of Love that you would call “Scratch my back, I scratch your back!” “Hand go, hand come!”
And most Human Relationships are based on this Love – “You do me, I do you!”
It is love that says: “If you want me to be nice to you; be nice to me!” “If you want me to treat you well; treat me well.”
In most human organizations; even among a Band of Thieves; there is that kind of Love!
If you would study the Mafia, it is there! If you study every society, it is there!
You do me, I do you; you treat me well, I treat you well; you are faithful to me, I’m faithful to you; you are loyal to me, I’m loyal to you!
This is the kind of Love that is based on RECIPROCITY.
So the first one, you are getting the BENEFITS – You don’t really care about the other Person.
Second one, you are GETTING the Benefits and you GIVE the Benefits to somebody else.
- The Third (3rd) Kind of LOVE Is the Love that SEEKS to fulfil THE NEED OF OTHERS.
… It seems to fulfil the Needs of others!
It does not love because it wants a Reward; it is Love that reaches out to other People.
It is Love that goes beyond itself; it is on the instinct of “Self Preservation”.
So, when we read for example in John 3:16, where it says: “For God so LOVED the world that He GAVE …” It is referring to this kind of Love!
“Whilst we were yet sinners, Christ Died for us.” – Romans 5:8. It is referring to this kind of Love!
… The Great Love with which God loved us!
So, three (3) kind of Love:
- The first one: You love it because it makes you feel Good;
- Second kind: You love it because it LOVES you back;
- Third kind: You love it because you WANT to love it. And it is not coming to you, it is GOING OUT OF YOU.
It is a Love that goes out of you to something, and there is no guarantee that you will get it back.
So we have to really figure out which kind of Love we are operating in:
- Is it the first one – Where we are satisfied?
- Or the second one – Where we make somebody happy, somwbody makes us happy?
- Or the one – Where we are only FOCUS on making the other person happy?
And which one of these three (3) is God’s Love?
Is it the first, the second or the third?
… I suggest to you it’s the Third (3rd); but I’m going to go to the Scriptures to look at it.
Remember, when Jesus answered the question of the Pharisees, He said: ‘You shall love your neighbour as YOURSELF.”
How many of you really believed that you love your neighbour as yourself?
How many of you really think that: ‘Loving your neighbour as yourself’ is the highest Kind of Love?
Many People would say well, that’s the highest Kind of Love.
Remember I asked a question – If you are supposed to love your neighbour as yourself, “What if you hate yourself?”
Then you will hate everybody because you love your neighbour as yourself!
Is there any Love Higher than Loving your neighbour as yourself?
Let us listen to Jesus again – Jesus gave what He called ‘A NEW COMMANDMENT.’
The first answer He gave to the Pharisees was related to the Law. But then, He gave a NEW COMMANDMENT.
And this New Commandment is in John’s Gospel 13:34-35.
Listen to Jesus: A NEW commandment I give to you.
… Now if He is giving a NEW One, it means there is an OLD Commandment.
The Old Commandment says: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.”
He is about to define the New Commandment.
“A New Commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My Disciples, if you have love for one another.”
What is the difference between the Old Commandment and the New Commandment?
The Old Commandment says: “You love your neighbour as yourself”
The New Commandment says: ‘You Love one another as i have loved you.’ – Not as yourself!
The Old Commandment is ‘you Love your neighbour as yourself.’
So if you hate yourself, you are going to throw hatred to the world!
The New Commandment says: Your love is not even dependent on you! You are not the Example of Love, you are not the Standard of Love.
JESUS IS THE EXAMPLE OF OUR LOVE; Christ is the MEASURE of our Love!
You love as I HAVE LOVED YOU. – That is a Big One!
So, if you think to love your neighbour as yourself is the highest; Jesus says this is the New one; You don’t love your neighbour as yourself, because I DON’T TRUST YOU.
If you hate yourself you are going to spread hatred; if you are insecure you will spread insecurity; if you are mistreated, you will mistreat People.
If you love your neighbour as yourself, then if your neighbour slaps you, you are going to slap him back.
… Yes, Equal Love!
Love your neighbour as yourself – Slap me I will slap you back! – Same I do you!
Hit me I hit you!
… “Love your neighbour as yourself.”
Jesus says, you don’t love your neighbour as yourself; you love your neighbour as I have loved you.
So, He is the measure of our Love; and He is the Model of our Love – He is the Example!
… You love as I have loved you.
So, those who do not love themselves have no excuse here – You cannot say: ‘Nobody showed me love, so I cannot show any love.’
Jesus didn’t say you should love your neighbour as yourself – that’s the Old Law.
But the New Commandment says: “You love your neighbour as I have loved you.”
So, even if you don’t have the capacity for Love, your Standard has been set – And Christ is the Standard!
So, How do we Love as Christ loved?
Ephesians 5:1-2 says: “Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in LOVE, as Christ also has LOVED us and given HIMSELF for US, an offering and a Sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.”
So how did Christ Love us?
Well, according to this Passage: “As Christ also has LOVED us and given HIMSELF for US, an offering and a Sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.”
So the Love of Christ is in two (2) Ways:
- First, it Surrenders – “Christ gave Himself for us.”
When Christ Prayed to the Father: ‘Not my Will, but Yours be done’ – He was surrendering Himself.
So when He says: ‘You are to love as I love’; then it means that our love must be a love of SURRENDER.
… Not your Will, not my Will, not what I want – It is not Self Preservation!
Jesus actually surrendered for People who would later spit on Him, mock Him, reject Him, brutally wound Him, Crucify Him.
That’s His Love!
Did they Reapond kindly? – No!
What did they do?
They insulted Him! And they Nailed Him.
And as they were nailing Him, He demonstrated that Love by saying: “Father forgive them, for they don’t know what they do.”
This is not Love your neighbour as yourself.
If it is love your neighbour as yourself, Jesus would have said: “Father remember them and Crucify them too.”
“… As they have done to me, so must it be done to them!”
But the New Law is higher than the Old one that says: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’
The New Law says: You are to Love your neighbour as Christ has loved you.
That means that you are going to love People who are spitting on you!
I know you are all going to say: ‘Hey, I’m not a door mat oooo.’ ‘You can’t treat me like that oooo’. ‘If you face me I will face you oooo.’
That’s the OLD Law!
The New Law is: LOVE AS I LOVED YOU.
You see, it’s easy for me to Preach this (Laugher)!
Do you think my Natural Feelings is to Preach such a Message? – No!
That is not my Natural Feelings.
My Natural Feelings is: ‘If you do me, I double do you (laughing).’ If you slap me, well, you get Double Slap!
But when we become Christians, we don’t live for ourselves any longer.
We live for the One Who died for us!
And He says: LOVE AS I HAVE LOVED YOU.
So it means that you are going to love People who are Crucifying you!
Do I like that? I don’t like it. Do I wish God would change His mind? I wished so!
Would He? – No!
I have no option but to ask for His help, and for His Grace to help me to Love as Christ loved.
It is a Love that SURRENDERS.
But not only that:
- It is a Love that is SACRIFICIAL.
“By Offering and a Sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.”
Christ made Himself a Sacrifice to God.
He bore the Punishment for a sin He did not commit; He died a Death He didn’t deserved; so that the Just Demand of our Redemption would be met!
He made Himself a Sacrifice – Woooow!
You know, this Christianity is not easy oooo! It’s not just singing and dancing and going about saying: ‘I am now Born Again.”
That is not what Christianity is all about!
This is it: Jesus says: “By this, they would know you are my Disciples.’
And I’m just Preaching the Bible. If I wrote the Bible, I would not put this in.
… Guaranteed, it would not appear.
I would say – The world is a dark Place; People are bad. And when they ‘bad you’ you ‘bad them!’
But I didn’t write the Bible! This is God saying: This is His Standard!
So, be imitators of God – You love as Christ loved.
How? – Surrender and Sacrifice. This is in Ephesians 5:1-2.
Now, with that in mind; in Ephesians 5:1-2; then you can understand the whole of Ephesians Chapter 5.
Because when you go down in Ephesians Chapter 5, you would read words like:
“HUSBANDS, LOVE YOUR WIVES, AS CHRIST LOVED…
Not as your father loves, not as your friend loves
“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the Church and gave Himself for her, that He might Sanctify and Cleanse her with the washing of water by the Word” – Ephesians 5:15-26
So by the time men are insisting on: “My wife MUST SUBMIT” according to Ephesians 5:22-24.
Read Ephesians 5:1-2!
It is SURRENDER and SACRIFICE, before SUBMISSION.
By the time a man is saying: “My wife MUST SUBMIT to me”; he should have learned to LOVE AS CHRIST LOVED THE CHURCH.
How? – By Surrender and Sacrifice.
Let me guarantee you this:
“If you Surrender and Sacrifice, SUBMISSION will be a Natural consequences.”
The Bible never told men to DEMAND that their wives submit to them – The Bible told men to love their wives as Christ LOVED and gave HIMSELF.
I don’t see your face Properly, but I’m looking at your face! I can’t tell whether you are angry with me or smiling. So I’m trying to go beyond the look on your face!
It’s a NEW KIND OF LOVE.
And if we really ask God for help and Grace to love as Christ wants us to; I believed that every Christian Marriage would succeed. And every Christian Relationship would work.
The reason why it is not working is because we operating in the Law: “Love me I love you, you don’t love me, I don’t love you! Hit me I hit you. Do me I do you.”
But that’s the Law!
Jesus says: ‘A New Commandment I give to you; you shall love as I have loved you.” And you shall love your neighbours as I have loved you.
Somebody had the audacity to ask Jesus: “WHO THEN IS MY NEIGHBOUR?”
And the way Jesus answered the Question – He started with a long Story;
“A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a certain Priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he Passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the Place, came and looked, and Passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion.”
Then He asked: “So which of these three (3) do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?” – Luke 10:30-37
Now when you hear that, it may not sound strange to you!
But you see, in the Jewish world, your Neighbour is your Tribe’s man; your neighbour is a Jew. Nobody else outside your Community could be your neighbour.
… Your neighbour is somebody who is in your ‘GROUP.’
And Jesus in the Good Samaritan Story shows – Your Neighbour can be outside of your GROUP.
In other words, in Christianity, we don’t love People because we belong to the same Group with them; we love People, even those who are Outside our Group.
And when we love them,we love them as Christ has loved us.
HOW DID HE DO IT?
He SURRENDERED and He SACRIFICED.
Now I know that this Valentine’s Day there will be all kinds of Messages on Marriage, Love and Sex (all of that)!
And how to buy chocolates for your spouse, how to buy Flowers and how to dress nicely and make each other happy. Decorations! They we not dealing with the reality.
This is all movie Decorations – Hollywood and Nollywood and what have you. Decorations!
The Real Love that sustains everything, from Marriage to every other relationship is this one – The New Commandment that you shall love as I have loved you.
Is that easy? – No!
Is that Possible? – Yes!
How is it Possible? – ONLY through dependence on the Holy Spirit.
Constant Dependence on the Holy Spirit, Trusting God, asking God for Grace!
*When you are faced with People you would rather knock than Love – “You say Father, I will tell you my feelings: I think he deserves a Double Slap.”
And I’m about to give him a slap! But You say I shouldn’t! I didn’t say it, You said it Lord – SO HELP ME. Because if You leave me alone, this guy would suffer!
That is what it means to SURRENDER: “Not my Will, but YOUR Will be done!”
When nothing in us wants to love; but because the Master says it; we Surrender..
And we ask for His Help, and we ask for His Grace. And the Holy Spirit comes; He floods our hearts, and He lifts us up!
And He gives us capacity to do something that is beyond us Naturally.
Because this Kind of Love is not human. It is Divine. And it is only Possible through the Power of the Holy Spirit.
So why don’t we talk to the Lord and ask Him to help us to LOVE AS HE LOVES.
Just Pray for a moment, talk to the Lord in Prayer: In your Marriage, in your relationships – Wherever you are.
… That you would Love AS CHRIST HAS LOVED US.
CLOSING PRAYER
Heavenly Father we come to You today, knowing that in our own Self, we don’t have what it takes.
We don’t have the Strength, we don’t have the ability, we don’t even have the Capacity!
We don’t have the Example, we don’t have the Temperament, we don’t have anything in us that would make us Love as You want us to.
So, we Surrender to You Lord today; that You would help us by Your Holy Spirit:
Pour Grace into our heart, Pour Your Love into us and give us the Capacity and the Ability to Love as Christ has loved us.
In all our relationships, let Christ be Glorified; Let Him be Honoured; Let Him be Magnified, Lord!
In Jesus’ Name we Pray – AMEN!
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