The Most Difficult Thing God Asks Us To Do

Posted by David on June 27, 1999 under Sermons

The most difficult thing God asks us to do is to love. “David, that is an absolutely ridiculous statement! There are many, many things God asks us to do that are far more difficult than loving. One of the easiest things on earth to do is to love!”

Oh…it is? I am sorry. I did not realize how easy it is to love.

1. Consider how simple it is to love by considering the easiest people to love.
   1. First, consider the words of love.
      1. Since it is simple to love, how often do you tell the individual members of your family that you love them?
         1. Do you tell your wife every day that you love her?
         2. Do you tell your husband every day that you love him?
         3. Do you tell each of your children at home every day that you love them?
         4. Children at home, do you tell Mom and Dad every day that you love them?
      2. Oh, I feel certain that everyone one of us tell every family member every day, “I love you,” because it is such an easy thing to do, and we are only talking about using words.
   2. Second, how often do you tell your husband, your wife, each of your children, your Mom, or your Dad in specifics why you love him or her?
      1. If I asked you to write down why your husband, wife, child, Mom, or Dad said that you were loved, could you do it?
         1. Wives, could you write down three reasons that your husband told you that he loved you?
         2. Husbands, could you write down three reasons that your wife told you that she loved you?
         3. Children, could you write down three reasons that your Mom and Dad told you that he or she loved you?
         4. Moms and Dads, could you write down three reasons that your children told you that they loved you?
      2. I am sure that each of us could do that because love is so easy, and we are only talking about being truthful with the people that we love.
   3. Third, if I asked each family member to write down three things done for you this month to express love for you, could you do it?
      1. What was done this month to express love for you, wives? husbands? children? Moms? Dads?
      2. And we are only talking about expressing love for the people we should find to be the easiest people to love.
   4. Fourth, do the people living in your household know your deepest feelings for each of them?
      1. A major crises exists in our families because many family members do not feel loved.
      2. Husbands and wives in troubled marriages don’t feel loved; husbands, wives, and children caught in a divorce don’t feel loved; people who live in impersonal families or alienated families or families hiding addictions don’t feel loved.
   5. Question: if loving is so easy, so simple, why do we have so much trouble with love in our families?
2. “David, David, David, you might have a point about families, but you do not have a point about God. The most difficult thing God asks us to do cannot possibly be to love. It simply has to be something else.” Like what?
   1. “The most difficult thing that God asks us to do must be some act of obedience.”
      1. Of course! You are absolutely right! It must be obedience!
      2. Matthew 22:36-38 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 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 New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update, La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation, 1996.)
      3. Romans 13:8-10 Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For this, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. (The New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update, La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation, 1996.)
   2. “No, no, no, David! The most difficult thing God asks us to do has to be some sacrifice!”
      1. Oh, I am sorry. Your are right!
      2. John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. (The New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update, La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation, 1996.)
      3. 2 Corinthians 5:14,15 For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf. (The New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update, La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation, 1996.)
3. Why is loving the most difficult thing that God ever asked us to do?
   1. I do not think it is necessary for me to answer that question; I think that you understand all too well why it is so difficult to be a loving person.
      1. As a result of years of working with people, this is my observation: the people who declare that it is easy and simple to love are the people who do not love.
         1. They talk about love.
         2. But they don’t actually do much loving.
      2. Be honest: would you honestly say that one of the easiest, simplest things you to do in your life is to love other people, to feel love for other people, and to express love for other people?
   2. If you are honestly convinced that loving is easy and simple, would you consider the last night of Jesus’ earthly life?
      1. If Jesus knew that all of his disciples would desert him, why did Jesus take them to the garden?
         1. Have you every been deserted? Did you enjoy the experience? Would you knowingly create the experience?
         2. Then why did Jesus do that? Because of love.
      2. If Jesus knew that Peter would deny him three times, what did Jesus take Peter to the actual place he prayed and ask Peter to pray also?
         1. Have you ever been denied by your best friend? Did you enjoy the experience? Would you knowingly create the experience?
         2. Then why did Jesus do it? Because of love.
      3. With all the power and options available to Jesus, why did he surrender to the soldiers when he knew they would kill him?
         1. Would you do that?
         2. Then why did Jesus do that? Because of love.
      4. Why endure the agony of the cross? Because of love.
      5. Why pray for the forgiveness of the mob who rejoiced in his death? Because of love.
      6. Why be kind enough to save a thief who died beside him? Because of love.
   3. “Now, David, put the situation in perspective: Jesus was the son of God.”
      1. And so are you.
      2. And so am I.
4. Loving is the most difficult thing God asks us to do because all the difficult things God does for us begin with His loving us.
   1. Love breathes grace upon all it touches.
      1. It is good and kind to those who do not deserve goodness and kindness.
      2. We who love share grace for one reason: that is the way God’s love treats us.
   2. Love is an ever flowing fountain of mercy.
      1. You can show mercy only to the people who do not deserve mercy.
      2. We who love show mercy for only one reason: that is the way God’s love treats us.
   3. Love forgives failures and mistakes.
      1. You forgive people who failed you and hurt you.
      2. We forgive for only one reason: that is the way God’s love treats us.
   4. If we remove love from our lives and our motives, we remove God from our lives and our actions.
5. Among the many problems in the congregation at Corinth were the mean spirited squabbles in their worship assemblies.
   1. Many things that should not be able to exist when Christians gather to worship were there: superiority attitudes, arrogance, jealousy, rivalries, condescending attitudes.
      1. Too many members were full of their own sense of self importance.
      2. Because love did not exist, they grotesquely abused the gifts of the Spirit and the power of God.
   2. 1 Corinthians 12:31b-13:3 And I show you a still more excellent way. If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. (The New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update, La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation, 1996.)
      1. If I spoke every human language, and I even spoke the language spoken in heaven, but there was no love in me or what I did, it would only be a noise.
      2. If I by divine revelation could teach the truths of God accurately, if I could explain every spiritual mystery (the exact work of the Holy Spirit; exactly where we go when we die; exactly what we will experience when we die; exactly what will happen in the resurrection), if I personally possessed the most powerful faith on earth, but had no love, I am a spiritual nothing.
      3. If I am totally benevolent even to the point of sacrificing my life, and do not have love, there is no spiritual benefit in my benevolence.

[Project this slide on the screen during the conclusion: Matthew 5:46,47 If we love those who love us, we are no different to people who do not believe in God.]

This congregation stands on the brink of the most significant work and growth that it has ever experienced. But no matter what we do, if we are not a people who love and who are motivated by love, nothing we do will mean anything to God. If love does not rule our hearts, our minds, and our emotions, God cannot use us. Satan can, but God can’t. Satan has his greatest successes in the darkness and void where there is no love. God cannot function where there is no love.

That is true in marriage, true in the home, true in the congregation, true in the community, true in the nation, and true in the world.

Perhaps the reason so many people think that it is so easy to love is because we have never truly discovered what love is.