Day 9 of 10 Days of Prayer
Day 9 of 10 Days of Prayer
By: Pastor Karl Thomas
Love Love Love
John 13:34 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”
Love :– Sacrificially ascribing infinite worth to another.
I John 3:23 “And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment.”
Two Core Commandments:
1 Believe on the Name of Jesus Christ.
2 Love one another as I have loved you.
Great Commission
Matthew 28:19-20
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, (1) baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, (2) teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you;…”
It was the pattern for church planting … their goal!
1 Thessalonians 3:6
“…and brought us good news of your faith and love,”
2 Thessalonians 1:3
“…because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of every one of you all abounds toward each other,…”
After the first generation church they did not protect the command of Christ “Love one another as I have loved you.”
Orthodoxy:– (orthos) right (doxeia) belief.
Orthopraxy:– (orthos) right (praxis) action or practice
We have been more concerned with right belief than right action.
Matthew 24:12
“And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.”
Not choirs are gone … not churches are gone … not sermons are gone … not believers are gone
In tough times people can still have passionate beliefs. Jesus is saying our concern should be the loss of genuine love.
The Old Covenant
Deuteronomy 10:12
“…what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul,…”
The New Covenant
1 John 10-11
“In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
The Old Covenant didn’t work!
My finite ability to love God and others was hopeless.
The New Covenant works!
God’s infinite love for me flows through me to others.
We strangely link N. C. truth with O.C. practice. It doesn’t work
OLD COVENANT IN THE GOSPELS!!!
Luke 10:25-28
25And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
26He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou?
27And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.
28And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live.
Prophet declared the new thing coming
This would have caused those under the law to erupt!!!!
Isaiah 43:18-19,25
“Do not remember the former things, Nor consider the things of old.
Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it?
“I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake;
And I will not remember your sins.
Ezekiel 36: 25-27
Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.
Jeremiah 31:31-34
31 “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— 32 not according to (it will not be like) the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
I John 3:14-24 (The Message)
14-15The way we know we’ve been transferred from death to life is that we love our brothers and sisters. Anyone who doesn’t love is as good as dead. Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know very well that eternal life and murder don’t go together.
16-17This is how we’ve come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves. If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God’s love? It disappears. And you made it disappear.
PRAYER DIRECTIVES:
- Thank God for the New Covenant with the New Commandment!
- Pray that His love would be manifest in the hearts of believers. This is real evangelism!
- Pray for God to begin and complete the work in yourself first.
- Thank God that He has been manifesting LOVE in our community at IMPACT!
- Pray in the Harvest that will be caused by this Loving Community.
- LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!!
Thank you Jesus for loving me … I am so secure in your love that I can freely serve others … Let a baptism of love be upon your church … Love is the perfect way … Love wins and live never fails … Love Love Love!!!!
Lord we do thank you for a baptism of love upon each one of us. May your love for us be the motivation, the force behind everything we do and say. Fill any gap within us with this love, remove anything that hinders this love. John 13:35….”they will know we are Christians by our love for one another”. May we see others as you do, and speak to each other as you would. Mature our love Lord and encounter us with MORE of your love for us. Amen…
Ephesians 3:17-19 (NLT) “Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.” Amen! Praying those directives today!
Kelly, Ephesians 3:17-19 is one of my most favourite verses. It gives me shivers every time I read it or hear it out loud. . I can think of many times where God’s love was spread forth unto me from other Christians. When I was a new Christian, very new….in Sarnia – someone came to me with $50.00 and said we feel that God has impressed it upon us to give this to you. Oh my oh my — little did they know that even though I was working full-time, I had a big plumbing bill that I had to pay and that left me short. A prayer to God alone for either food or money resulted in someone listening to the still small voice of God. This is how much God loves us and the memory of that lovin gesture from these fine people still ringsvery clearly. Lord, help me to listen to your God appointments where I can show forth your love to others.
Thank you, Lord, for the uncontainable width, length, height and depth of Your amazing Love–a Love that never fails, never gives up and never runs out on me.
Love the Passion Translation’s depiction of “this extravagant love (that) pours into you until you are filled to overflowing with the fullness of God!”
Ephesians 3 — 17 Then, by constantly using your faith, the life of Christ will be released deep inside you, and the resting place of his love will become the very source and root of your life, providing you with a secure foundation that grows and grows.
18-19Then, as your spiritual strength increases, you will be empowered to discover what every holy one experiences—the great magnitude of the astonishing love of Christ in all its dimensions. How deeply intimate and far-reaching is his love! How enduring and inclusive it is! Endless love beyond measurement, beyond academic knowledge—this extravagant love pours into you until you are filled to overflowing with the fullness of God!
I pray that the Love that God feels for me would flow through me and even more that other people would feel it. I also pray the the Love in our church would increase and flow into our community even more. I also pray that the Love that I feel from God, and which has changed me so much would flow into other people in the city of London into other Churches, and into all people so that there is real change. Thank-you so much Jesus for your Great Love for me…especially what you did on Calvary….