"LOVE, WHICH IS THE BOND OF PERFECTION"
“…LOVE WHICH IS THE BOND OF PERFECTION”
(Col. 3:14)
Sunday, February 8, 2015, the Year of Our Lord
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Hebrews 6:1: “…Let us go on to perfection…”
God willing let us go on to maturity and put away childish things
“When trouble comes and Satan moves in, people become anxious, distressed and miserable. We live in a hostile world. We are surrounded by enemies of God inside and out.” (Maranatha Family).
What is an enemy? One who is hateful, hostile, wishes you harm and not good. In the larger sense, it is the devil who is the bitter enemy of the divine government of the Lord.
The Lord has given the Church authority over “terror” and over all our enemies. However, we have to defeat our enemies within before we can defeat the devils of the nations without.
If people get overly upset over a situation, that is a measurement that something is wrong with their spiritual thermometer which should be set on “rest” and “peace”
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” This means don’t worry about a thing.
Soul pain hurts as much as physical pain. Pain warns us when the body is in trouble. Without pain we would ruin these bodies in a very short time. It is absolutely essential for the survival of the physical body. (A hot fire will burn. A knife will cut. You jump off a high building, you break bones, etc.)
Emotional pain consists of such things as fear, anxiety, apprehension, loss of people or things, doubt, etc. Soul pain is as necessary as physical pain. We need soul pain to warn us when the soul is in spiritual danger.
If you ever find yourself worrying, frustrated, uneasy, fretful, depressed, or desperate, this is a warning that something is wrong within the soul.
If you let it go on and do nothing about it, you can damage yourself spiritually. If we continue to allow it, everything that happens to us has to do with our growth and maturity or immaturity in Christ.
Here are five questions we can ask ourselves. These questions are for you individually, not your spouse, your children, your friends, or your extended family.
- How quickly do you get your eyes on the Lord when something goes wrong? This is our measuring stick. Do we look for a quick exit plan? Lord help me right now; or Lord where are you in this and have you allowed it for a reason? Do we seek the Lord and His Kingdom purpose in the situation or do we just scream and kick demanding He rearrange our circumstances? Or perhaps asking him to rearrange a person He may be using to bring an attitude adjustment to us.
- How quickly can you bring yourself to the place where you thank him for the situation? It is one thing to be able to see God’s hand in a situation, another to be able to thank Him for it.
- How quickly are we able to relax in the Lord and let Him do what he wants with us? It is a real rest and test to keep our eyes on the Lord and thankfully let Him have his way. It helps to rest in God when we realize the Lord is making a real masterpiece out of us. He’s sculpting away, under the canvas of flesh.
- How quickly do we forgive when someone hurts us, abuses or takes advantage of us? When we truly forgive, then we actually forget the wounding. If you don’t forget, you haven’t forgiven. The quicker we remember all the Lord has forgiven us, the quicker we have the grace to forgive the other person.
- How slowly do we react when we don’t get our way or something doesn’t set well with us; or a person says the wrong thing? The longer you can hold your peace when that happens the more mature you are.
We can use a measuring stick to measure our spiritual maturity.
If it takes 4 to 5 days to get the victory, rate yourself 0-2. If it takes 4 to 5 seconds, you’re up to 8 or 9. If you do it instantly, you rate a 10. If you do it automatically---that’s mature.
If it takes weeks or months, then you are sub-zero and falling fast. If your flesh is demanding the offender be penalized and punished, you’re in danger of hell fire.
This week if you get upset over a situation, check yourself. The moment your mind goes to the Lord instead of your own feelings, you will get relief, and watch yourself grow in Christ. If your temper goes from zero to 100 in two seconds flat, you have a soul problem and need a spiritual over haul.
Col. 3:13-15: “Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man has a quarrel against any; even as Christ forgave you, so also do you. Above all things put on love, which is the bond of perfectness (maturity). And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which you are called in one body; and be you, thankful.”
In a normal, functional family, relationship and unity of the Body of Christ, there is a bond of mutual love, respect and genuine friendship.
Our love is flawed. Jesus’ love is perfect. Ours has limits. His does not. Carnal love depends on the response we receive. Jesus acts in our bests interests whether we require His love or not. No individual has the power to make another person happy. Only the love of Jesus will make us happy. He is the ultimate source of nurturing and our fulfillment.
Under the best case scenario, parents receive His love freely and give it freely to the child. Unless parents are keeping each other’s love tanks replenished, they cannot adequately pass a filled love tank to their child.
Without realizing it, one or both parents may reverse the flow. To meet their own innate needs they draw from the child’s tank what little he or she has, leaving the child with less than nothing.
The hunger for love is as much a part of us as breathing. It cannot be satisfied by substitutes; it must be met. A person with significant unmet emotional needs walks about as a half-person, constantly seeking another person to provide the missing half. This half-ness, this less-than-wholeness is the root of many tragic problems in marriage.
These seem obvious. Why not simply identify the problem and take steps to resolve it. Who wouldn’t want to have their soul free of pain and live a pain free life? There are huge stumbling blocks to being healed.
(1) Denial. People with significant unmet emotional needs are masters of denial. It comes built in. For their whole lives, these people have been living a lie---pretending--wishing, yearning that their lives were lovely when in realty they were unbearably painful.
They can’t stop lying now. If reality sinks in, the wracking past will surface with all its open sores, its pockets of pus and filth. They have spent a lifetime burying that mess. Denial, therefore, becomes a major hurdle to healing. In fact healing cannot begin until denial is dealt with properly.
Another aspect of denial that needs examination is the dimension regarding wifely submission found in certain conservative churches. The Christian wife is taught that the husband is the head of house, as Christ heads the church. The result is often physical and emotional abuse.
Because of her erroneous concept of submission and her strong abhorrence of divorce of separation, the Christian wife may have little recourse but to take refuge in terrible denial.
An abusive husband will almost certainly reflect the onus of his actions back upon his victim. You realize dear, says the husband, “that you make me do these things”. “You make me hit you.” The codependent believes it because codependents are certain they are responsible for others’ thoughts and deeds.
“If you were in perfect submission, I wouldn’t have to discipline you.” The codependent believes it, because the codependent lacking a good self-image is too often willing to accept a big unhealthy dose of blame for just about anything.
“You drive me to drink?” and the codependent agrees.
“It’s your fault!” and the codependent buys the whole bolt regardless how shoddy it may be.
Paul prays for believers, that Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith, that we may be rooted and grounded in love, and rooted, built up and established. Christians are just as subject to soul pain as the world. However, through the inward working of the Holy Spirit and our thermometer of pain, believers flourish and grow strong by feeding on the Word of God and become vessels of healing within and without.
When we cross over to become ministers of the gospel, it is no longer personal, it is how can we minister life, light and love to whom we are sent for the purposes of the Kingdom of God. If we make it personal, we will surely fall into a trap of co-dependency.
Let us obey the Law of Love, “to love the Lord our God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our strength, and with all our mind; and our neighbor as ourselves.”
Isa. 54: 4-5: “Fear not; for you shall not be ashamed.” Neither will you be confounded. You shall not be put to shame. You shall forget the shame of your youth and shall not remember the reproach of your widowhood any more. For your Maker is your husband; the Lord of hosts is His name; and your Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; the God of the whole earth shall He be called.
“UP THEN DESPONDING ONES! Trust the unfailing Jehovah. If the covenant rested with us, there could be nothing but insecurity. But its promises depend on the word of Him who cannot lie. Go ever forward living a life of faith in loving confidence, pitching, wherever He calls you, your pilgrim tent; not downcast though your tent pegs be moved and the ropes strained by sudden storms.’
The church is subjected to great fights of afflictions; the allurements of the world, corruption of our hearts, trials and sorrows, tempted to misinterpret God’s dealings, imaginings of dejection and despondency. He assures us he is ready to pity, forgive, love pardon, welcome and save.
Today we will receive of the communion of the Lord’s body.
1 Cor. 11:23-31: “…the Lord Jesus the same night in which He was betrayed took the bread; and when He had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “take, eat; this is My body, which is broken for you; this do in remembrance of Me. After the same manner He took the cup, when He had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in My blood; this do you, as oft as you drink it, in remembrance of Me. For as often as you eat this bread, and drink this cup, you do show the Lord’s death until he come. Whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.”
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries Church
Scripture from K.J.V. – I entered into the labors of C. S. Lovett’s Maranatha Family AND Love is a Choice by Hemfelt, Minirth and Meier. Comments and conclusions are my own and not meant to reflect the views of those from whom I gleaned.