Sermons

← back to list

Sep 01, 2019

The Voice of Love

The Voice of Love

Speaker: James Gallaher

Category: Sunday Morning

Prophecy begins and ends with love – loving people the way God loves us.

Matthew 22:37-40 And He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”

Psalm 119:9-11 How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to Your word. With all my heart I have sought You; do not let me wander from Your commandments. Your word I have treasured in my heart, That I may not sin against You.

How do we move beyond the places that we are at? In Psalm 119, David asks, How can I? Jesus is saying to pursue God with all of our lives and then love our neighbor as we love our self. And also in John 13:34, A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

God wants to work in His church – to move marked by the prophetic – speaking through His people. But first, we must love God and then love those around us. Then we will fulfill the call of God and fulfill what the prophets proclaimed.

Prophecy is one of the most loving ways God communicates to His people - from God to our hearts. God intends for His voice to be heard and remain in us but also for us to be a conduit for His voice to the people around us. What is prophecy or the prophetic? It is a word! It is God speaking to His people. It is hearing the voice of God. What is its purpose? It is given so that we can give encouragement and build up those around us. It communicates that God loves people and that God desires a relationship with each person. 

People are searching for significance. We want to know how to hear God’s voice. If prophecy is hearing God speak to me, then how do we hear it? Prophecy comes forth when we love God and love other people. Pursue a relationship with God, pour out His love to others, be a conduit of His love, then God will speak into my life about my life and also about others around me. Prophecy begins and ends with love – loving people the way God loves us.

The church has become a consumer of religion instead of a conduit of grace. The church has exchanged authenticity in favor of relevance. As a result, we become unfruitful and ineffective in bringing people to salvation. Relevance is about adaptation and manipulation of the truth. Authenticity is about transparency and love. Authenticity calls out value in brokenness. One is built on knowledge and the other is built on relationship. Just like Adam and Eve sacrificed being known by God in an effort to know about what was around them, putting a wedge between them and God.

Mark 4:14-20 The parable of the sower. Where is the church in this story? It falls into the category of the thorns. Verse 18-19 And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.

Do you have worries? About your job, marriage, kids? Do you get caught up in the deceitfulness of riches? These things do not sustain us. Jesus says that what sustains us is the understanding of who He is and what He thinks about us!

The people in the world do not need our information, they need our love. Worry puts a barrier between us and God. Experience His love and then you'll know how to love others. Love believes that God has the best for us and also believes God’s best for humanity. “Prophecy is calling out the gold in the midst of a dirt pile.”  

In Acts 9, God was speaking to Saul, a persecutor of God’s church before his conversion and was even preparing Ananias to be used in that situation. In the same way, God is also preparing others before I speak to them. God desires to use the prophetic to set people free. God is speaking to me and also preparing the hearts of those who will receive.

Everyone is worthy of God’s love. There is a fulfillment in Matthew 22 – on these two commandments depend the whole law. God wants to speak to His church to change the world around us. It starts with us having a deep love for the people He loves. Why would God share about someone to me that I don’t love first? What people has God placed in your life? Do you have compassion for them? Can He trust you with loving them?

Matthew 22:40 On these 2 pegs - loving God and loving people - hang the fulfillment of the law.

Jeremiah 33:3 Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know. God is not withholding His voice; He is looking for people He can trust. He is looking for those who will love the people He is speaking to. Put away tactics and have authentic love, then true relationship begins to take place.

No one can meet the depth of relationship that God can meet. Proverb 13:12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick. Are you desiring for God to speak? to fulfill promises He made? Have you given up hope? Sick hearts are searching for what will make them well. Have you stopped anticipating God speaking to you or using you because of past failures? God sees us and His call is strong today. He wants to use us to speak to others – to use us as a conduit of His grace.

Let’s hear His voice and speak into the lives of others. Love those around and let God reveal to me for others. Let’s go and take a chance of being wrong. God is not done with us. He still speaks to His people!

How can the church be a conduit of God's grace instead of a consumer of relevance? What is the difference in authenticity and relevance? 

What is the prophetic? How do we hear the voice of God? 

What are the two pegs that all the law and commandments hang on?