What’s Love Got To Do With It?

ROMANS 12-16:
Putting Your Faith into Action

What’s Love Got To Do With It?

Rough Transcript

Khayree Pender

Khayree Pender:

Hello, Man in the Mirror. Welcome back to another men’s Bible study. I’ll be continuing our teaching from the book of Romans. And we’ve been talking about putting your faith into action. I’ll be coming from Romans the 12th chapter verses nine through 21. So if you have your Bibles, how about you read along with me? Verse nine. It says this, “Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, but be fervent in spirit. Serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another, do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly, never be wise in your own site.

“Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God. For it is written, vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. To the contrary, if the enemy is hungry, feed him. If he’s thirsty, give him something to drink. For by so doing, you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” So today I’ll be talking from the topic, “What’s love got to do with it?” “What’s love got to do with it?” So as we begin to look at the book of Romans and we begin to look at this scripture, we’ve been diving into it and it’s been great teaching and giving us some great knowledge and surfacing some things for us as well.

But here, we’re just talking about it. And one of these key words that come up within the teaching, is love. And when we hear love, I’m pretty sure that we focus on and think about the cherubim coming to shoot you with the arrow when love… And what love looks like. What love looks like, and then it’s been connected to something that shows you as being… Let’s just use the word, I guess, soft or gooey, or something like that. Or if you’re loving or showing, or displaying love, it’s drawn away from the man. Well, I’m here to tell you that’s not true because we all have that love that we display, whether it’s to our family, to our favorite sports team, to our favorite food, love is an equation. And let’s just be honest, love is a word that just gets thrown around so much.

It’s so casual that when it comes to it to be presented, people don’t really put any type of trust or put any type of belief into it, because it just gets you so casual. It’s like, oh, I love this, I love that. Oh man, I love it, I love it. And we just use it. And I think we get so caught up on using the word love rather than showing the word love, showing the word love. So, as we begin to look at this, let’s just think about what the verses are saying to us. So as we begin to look at verses nine through 13, it says, let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. And then here’s a great challenge. It says, outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful and zeal, be fervent in spirit. Serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope. Be patient in tribulation. Be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

SIGHT

So what does love do for us? What does love do for us? So the first thing I want us to understand and know which we’re going to our first bubble, our first point, it says this, that love, it gives us sight. Love gives us sight. I know we’ve heard that phrase when it tells us that love is blind. Pretty much when things are thrown around saying that, you know what? They’re not really seeing right now, because love is blind in them. And Oh my goodness, why would they do this? We blame it on love and call it love blind. But as we begin to look at these verses, it’s showing us here, that love has given us sight.

And it’s not only just given us sight, but a great insight. It’s given us a sight and it’s showing us examples. So it seeks, it seeks and shows us, and gives us sight to what it is that we need to do. That’s what love does. Love serves as a great vision for us, as we begin to look at those things. It tells us, let it be genuine. You have to see that. And then it says, abhor what is evil. So, hold fast to what is good. So it’s showing us some things. It’s given us a great sight to what we need to see, for us to even to start to progress in where we are. And it’ll help us resolve some issues too, as well, for things that we may even start to face. It says, do not be slothful and zeal. And it says, be fervent in spirit. It says, serve the Lord.

Well, here’s another thing that it shows us when it’s given us insight. It’s telling us not to be slothful, but then it’s also telling us, hey, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. It’s given us a great sight for us to be able to see certain things that we would never see if love wasn’t in the equation. So what do you mean? Well, you may be dealing with a situation that cause you to get upset or get really feud or heated or hot headed, but it tells us this, hey, be patient, be constant in prayer. What does love do? How does it integrate itself within the things that we may be dealing with or what we’re seeing? So it shows us this. And here it is.

I have a question for you in a day. We’ve heard the phrase that love is blind. And how are you able to let love, help you see the good in things that may present itself as bad? Well, you’ve heard the phrase that love is blind, how were you able to let love, help you see the good things, when it’s present, showing itself, that may be bad? How was it? How did you do that? How do you let love help you? Because when we begin to think about it, we look at love, we think it gooey, we think it’s soft. But what if I told you that love was 6’8 and 250 pounds, and packed with muscle and chiseled like a Greek god? What if I told you love looked like that? Would you begin to let love help you then?

There’s a great question. We often like to let things or get things on our side because of the way that it may look. Love can be able to be choreographed in a way that you want it to be, be fitting for every situation. So, which brings me to my Big Idea. The Big Idea is this, let love be a part of every equation. Let love be a part of every equation. So let’s continue to go on with this. So as we begin to look at it, we begin to look at the Bible verses, let’s look at verses 14 through 17. 14 through 17 says this. It says, bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. And here’s a good one. Repay no evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.

STRENGTH

So, which brings us to our next bubble. Our next point. Love gives us strength. It gives us strength. When we begin to look at it, it gives us strength. And if you don’t believe me, verse 14 alone tells you and it shows a sign of strength. And the only way you can do that, is if you have some type of love being choreographed in that situation, because it tells us this, bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse them. Come on now. It has to be some type of love displayed in there or in you, that you can begin to activate, because I’m going to tell you right now, if somebody does wrongdoing to you, the first thing you want to do is repay them. Why? Because you don’t want them to feel a love in that situation. You want them to feel that same pain that you felt, or the same disappointment that you felt. However they let you down, or however they crossed you. But love gives us strength as it’s telling us, hey, bless those who persecute you. Don’t persecute the ones who persecute you, bless them.

And you know what? Don’t curse them either. Now, I don’t wish anything bad on you for what you did, but here it is. And it gives us some more strength than things like this, because you need strength to do these things. It says, rejoice with those who rejoice. Let’s be honest. Sometimes we don’t want to rejoice with the people that rejoice, because it mean that idle time in your mind may begin to get you into a place to say, you know what? Why it didn’t happen to me? Why isn’t things alternate for me? Why am I virgin? No, you got to love. You got to be happy for people that’s happy. And then here’s another phrase force. It says, weep with those who weep. You have to be strong to do that. You have to have some type of compassion to be able to understand where they are. Have loved taking you to that place, to where they are, so you can reach to where they are.

Get to that level with them, to show them compassion. Hey, I don’t know to the full extent of what you’re going through, but I can only imagine. Love will take you down to a lowest place, to get down to where a person is, so you can meet them where they are. Live in harmony with one another. You have to. You got to have love. We can think about the times right now in the world that we’re living in right now. We have to have love to live in harmony, because if not, there’ll be a lot of retaliation and things going on that we’ll be participating in, that does not display and show love. Do not be haughty but associated with the lowly. Listen, we’re not pushing people away. We’re not counting people out, but love will draw us to those people as well. Never be wise in your own sight.

It takes a lot of strength to do that. Because if you think about it, when we put our mind in things and we begin to focus on certain things, we think we’re right. I’m telling you right now, 10 times out of 10, when we open up that mouth of ours and we begin to speak about certain things, in our own sight, we’re right. How about you let love guide you a little bit? Let love guide you, and then let love begin to show you where your flaws are. That’s a tough one right there, men. Let love show you where your flaws are. How about that? Let love begin to speak to you. And I told you don’t look at love as being soft or some type of teddy bear. I just told you love was 6’8, 275 pounds. So let love begin to speak to you and your situation to where you may be.

Let us show you your flaws, so you can begin to accept those things. And I promise you to help you get to a whole nother area, and level, and capacity of life. And here it is in verse 17, where strength lies again, all covered from love. Something that we may have thought was so soft and gushy. It says, rejoice and never repay, no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. I can’t do it. My payment to you for you doing me wrong is not evil. It’s not hurt. It’s not pain, but I’m sorry. It’s love. And I will tell you this. When you’ve repay somebody with love, it confuses them and you don’t even have to do nothing.

It causes them to backtrack and start to look at some of the things that they’ve done wrong to say, you know what? Maybe I shouldn’t do that. And I promise you love will draw an apology from people. It’s done it from me a lot. I promise you in the bank of apologies, love has more withdrawals than deposits. I’m telling you, it will withdraw apologies in those situations. So I can’t repay you. If you looking for me to get you back, you’re in the wrong line of business. I’m sorry, because it’s not going to come from me. I’m not going to do it. I’m not going to repay you back for something that you did, but in return, I’ll repay it back with love. So I have another question for you right now, since we’re talking about love. We’re talking about strength. Is there a time that life has proven you wrong? What is stronger than your personal abilities? And then again, let me rephrase it. Is there a time that love has proven you wrong? What was stronger? The love, or your personal abilities?

That’s our question. Is there a time that love has proven you wrong? What was stronger? Love, or your person abilities? And it brings me back once again, right around that corner, to our Big Idea. Our Big Idea is this, let love be a part of every equation. Let love be a part of every equation. No matter how the circumstances look, how the trial look or the thing you may be facing, I promise you there’s a little bit of space. All it needs is a little space for love to fit in, and I promise you it’ll begin to saturate whatever it is that may be in there. So instead of thinking that we have to retaliate with pain or hurt or vengeance, let’s let love take its place and do what needs to be done. Now, let’s begin to look at our last few verses, men. And those verses are 18 through 21. It says this… In our last few verses, as we begin to really break it down and look at it, it says, if possible… This is verse 18. So far as it depends on you live peaceably with all.

Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink, for by doing so, you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. That’s the only way to do it. So what else does love do for us?

SOLVE

Which brings me to our next point. What else does love do? It solves, it solves issues. It solves things for us. Love will solve it. It will solve the issue. And if you don’t believe me, it’s nothing that Kharyee is saying to you, but it’s what the Bible is really depicted and showing us in verses 19 through 21. It says beloved… Verse 18. It says if possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. And I love it. And I started to laugh at that because it says, if possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. If possible.

And they had to put that, if possible, because after, if possible, it says this, so far as it depends on you. Because we know that some limits will get broken, if it’s left all the way up to us. We can probably do the 60-40, and I’m going to tell you right now, the 40% would probably be the love, and the 60 would probably be our own possibilities or abilities added into it. But I love what it says. It says if possible… I love when the Bible gives us challenges. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. I’m going to tell you right now, man, you may leave from this Bible study today, go to work, and you’ve probably been working with somebody or somewhere else that you just don’t get along with.

They’re just not cut from your cloth. You just… They may get you upset. But what is love saying? Live peaceably. And I’m going to tell you why it tells you to live peaceably, and you want to incorporate love in it, because if you’ve ever been around something or someone that made you angry or upset, it takes away everything. It ruins your day. But what does love do? Love brings out balance and it keeps your joy intact. It keeps your smile intact. It keeps your happiness and it keeps everything intact. When you come across something that you don’t have peace with, it’ll destroy your day and keep you upset. But it’s telling you if possible, if possible now, because they know sometimes we may fail.

Sometimes it may just get the best of us. Let’s just be honest. Sometimes we’re not thinking about them. It may get the best of us. And then from there it says, beloved never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance is mine. Let me tell you something. If you have some things that you’re thinking about paying back or what you’re doing, let love handle it, take your hands off it, because it doesn’t belong to you. And I found out that when you take something that doesn’t belong to you, that’s called stealing. And if they’re saying vengeance is mine, that means you’re… And you taking it upon yourself to do it, you’re stealing something. You’re dealing with something. So, that’s a double whammy. You don’t even want to deal with that right now. Vengeance is mine, to take your hands off of it, leave it alone.

After all, what are we doing? We’re letting that 6’8, 275 pounds love Greek god, come through and just take care of what needs to be done. Let’s leave that alone. Vengeance is mine. It says, I will repay, says the Lord. And it says this. This is what you can do for me. Don’t take care of vengeance because I can take care of vengeance. Listen, it’s solving the problem. Don’t worry about vengeance because in that vengeance, you may get hurt. So take your hands off the vengeance and do this for me. To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry feed him. That’s love. If He is thirsty, give him something to drink. Don’t worry about getting vengeance, because they know they did you wrong.

They know things are wrong. They know they crossed you, but you know what? It’s not up to you to handle vengeance. It’s up to you to take care of that enemy. Even at that point. Why? Here’s the turnaround for it, which is so funny because it says this, by you feeding your enemy when he’s hungry, by you giving your enemy something to drink when he’s thirsty, it says this, it’s like you’re putting hot coals on their head. Listen, you’re destroying them by not even doing anything. By just loving them, by loving them, because they’re so confused, they don’t know what’s going on. And I promise you they’re reflecting on what they did, and they just like, oh my gosh, I can’t believe I did this to this loving, kind, wonderful person, and I treated them acting like a crazy person, which I shouldn’t have done. And now they’re reflecting on it. But what did you do? In return, you love them. Why? Because I’m not stealing vengeance. I’m not putting my hands on that. It belongs to God. I let him do it. On the contrary, here it is.

You hungry? I got you. You Thirsty? I’ll take care of it. No worries. And doing so, you are winning without even doing nothing. Why? By applying love, and this is what it does for you. And it says this, at the end, it’s letting us know again. Verse 21, do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Do not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Men, I have a question for you. What are some areas in your life that needs a touch of love? Are you willing to let it work? There’s some areas in our life, there’s some things we’re dealing with. Some things we’re going to face. Some things we haven’t even seen surface yet. What are some areas in your life that needs a touch of love? Let’s just be honest. It’s a vulnerable moment. Sometimes we may not want to talk about it. Are you willing to let it work? That’s the question. And here it is. Follow up with support by the Big Idea, let love be a part of every equation. Let love be a part of every equation.

So men, we followed up, we found out what love does. Love, it help us see, it gives us sight. It gives us strength and then it solves our problems. It solves our issues. So here it is men. You may want to know, and I asked a question today, when we talked about this lesson, what’s love got to do with it? This is what it has to do with it, once a day. So men, if you don’t mind, let’s go ahead and bow our heads for a word of prayer.

Dear Lord, we thank you for this day. We thank you for blessing each and every one of us. Father, sometimes we hear that word love, and we understand and we think that it’s tied to gushy things and things like that, but we thank you for showing us and opening us up to focus on love, to see what it really looks like right now, in a present time. Father we ask right now, God, that even though we have this and we have the outline about it, Lord, show us how they apply it in our daily lives. God, we don’t want to take it upon our own sight. We don’t want to look wise in our own eyes, but Father, we want to be led by you and the love that you’ve given us, as a tool to work in our everyday lives. Father, we thank you for everything that you’ve done for us in our lives and everything that you’re going to do for us. In your name we pray, Jesus. Amen. Amen.