FOUNDATION STATEMENT: As believers to be successful in our endeavors we have to live in divine order. We can’t do things out of order then expect to get the results that God has promised us. To get the result that God wants us to get, we have to lay the foundation first and the foundation to everything that we do, as believers, is the love of God. Without the foundation of love in place, nothing else works the way it is supposed to work. – Psalm 11:3
I. The operation of every word and every promise in that Bible is hanging and dependent upon the commandment of love (Matthew 22:40)
A. All of the law and all of the prophets
1. The Law and The Prophets
a. Law – First five books in the Bible
b. Prophets – The prophetic books in the Old Testament
2. When Jesus said this the New Testament wasn’t written yet, but I have to believe if all of that hangs on this, then the New Testament included hangs on this
a. Parts of the New Testament where prophesied in the Old Testament
1) Isaiah 53-54 – Prophesies about the coming of Jesus and the plan of redemption
2) The plan of redemption and everything that came as a result of it is depending upon the commandment of love
b. Every promise in the New Testament came through the plan of redemption consequently every promise in this book depends upon the commandment of love to work
3. Every other scripture in this Bible hangs and depends upon Matthew 22:40
a. Imagine the rod in your closet being the commandment of love (Matthew 22:36:40). Then see every other scripture hanging off of that like hangers and clothes. If that rod fails what happens to everything that is hanging from that rod? It fails.
1) Believers have tried to hang healing up without the rod of love up and don’t get healed. They’ve wondered why the peace of God isn’t working in their lives, but the rod of love isn’t up. They’ve wondered why the joy of the Lord is absent from their lives, while the rod of love is sitting on the floor.
2) PUT THE ROD BACK UP
B. Every promise in this Bible, depends upon love the commandment of love to work
1. If the operation of the commandment of love is not working in your life then this Bible cannot work for you
2. EXAMPLE: The way the car depends on the gas to work, every promise in this book depends on love to work. Without the gas you can have the best, prettiest, finest automobile on the planet, and it’s useless without gas.
a. Without love working in my life, the Word of God is useless to me
C. God is the Word and God is Love (John 1:1-5, 1 John 4:16)
1. The Word is Love and Love is the Word
a. 1+1 = 2, 2+0 =2 – “1+1 and 2+0” look different, but when you add them up they are the same thing “2”
1) Love and the Word may look different, but when you add them up they are the same
b. If this commandment of Love is not working, then the Word (which is Love himself) isn’t working either
1) The Word will work in your life as far as your love walk will allow it to
2. You cannot be in disagreement with Love and be in agreement with Word
a. This Word is Love and until you renew your mind to that you’ll continue to be deceived into thinking that you can be careless with the commandment of love and still see the Word of God come to pass in your life
1) The moment you disagreed with the love of God is the moment that you disagreed with the Word of God
2) You can’t be in disagreement with love and in agreement with healing, prosperity, victory
a) The healing that you’re trying to agree with is 1 Peter 2:24, but when you violated Matthew 22:37-40, you disagreed with 1 Peter 2:24 because it hangs on that
3) Christians have desired for years and years to see the promises of God manifest in their lives, but they continue to oppose the very promises they want to see by opposing the very thing that those promises depend upon
b. To violate the commandment of love is to disagree with and oppose healing, prosperity, victory, deliverance, the anointing
1) To disagree with love is to agree with sickness, lack, poverty, defeat, depressing, stress, and death (James 3:16)
2) When you walk in a direction (strife) that opposes everything good, don’t be surprised when you get everything that is bad
3) To violate the commandment of love is to agree with and welcome the curse
D. Love is the power in the Word that makes all of the Word work, and if love is not working in your life, then nothing else works (1 Corinthians 13:1-3)
1. 2-Faith works by love (Galatians 5:6, Mark 11:22-25)
2. 3-You sowing out of love will not produce a harvest (Matthew 5:23-24)
3. The love of God is what makes the armor of God work (Eph 6:10)
a. That armor is useless without love
1) Ex: The soldier whose armor doesn’t like it’s supposed to work
b. You look like a soldier because you’re out on the battlefield and you’re fighting, but you’re never getting the results that a soldier should get. You have the form, but no power. (2 Timothy 3:1-5)
II. Until the Love of God is primary in your life you will continue to live your Christian life with spotted results always having form, but constantly lacking the power
A. When you neglect the commandment of love you deny the power to get results (2 Timothy 3:1-5)
1. People have form but no power because they neglect what’s primary
a. These people loved themselves, loved pleasures, but they didn’t love God; they didn’t keep the commandment
2. Love is the power that makes all of this Word work, and when you neglect love, you have a whole lot of form, but never see any genuine results
a. You can’t neglect the thing that makes all of this work and then be surprised when it doesn’t work for you
1) Love is the power in prayer that makes prayer work; Love is the power if faith that makes faith work, ECT.
2) When you neglect the love, you deny the power
3) EXAMPLE: It’s like having house all wired up with the light switches in, the light bulbs in, but not having your house connected to the power company. You know when turn the light switch up with your light bulb is supposed to come on and you have form, but the light doesn’t come on because you don’t have power.
b. We’ve had a church that gets spotted results and then blame their failures on God because they’ve tried to work the principles without the foundation in place that causes all the principles to work and it is the Love of God.
1) Pray and no results, sow and no result, stand in faith and no result
3. Christian people should be getting results (Deuteronomy 7:14, Genesis 1:28)
a. I don’t want to have the facade of a Christian only to look at the results in my life and see little to do difference between me and the world.
b. My life is my witness and the more of God’s “love and goodness” that is showing in my life, the more people will I draw (Matthew 5:14)
1) People follow winners
III. The love of God must be primary if you want results
A. Matthew 22:38 – (AMP) – Principal (main, primary, prime, major, most important, key) command
1. First – Chronologically or in order of importance, best, chief, or beginning
a. Nothing is better or more important than this
2. Great – (Mega) of position, important – positionally there’s nothing greater than this
B. The commandment of love is the beginning of everything that we do as believers – You always start with this
1. The way laying the foundation is the beginning of building a house, this commandment of love is the beginning of everything we build as believers
a. If I start with something other than the foundation then what I’m building will never succeed
C. Laying the foundation
1. Before you start building your financial prosperity you lay the foundation by asking yourself:
a. Am I loving the Father with all of my heart? Do I constantly spend time listening to wrong word seeds and allow those word seeds to be sown into my spirit? Do I keep my heart with all diligence and only sow God’s Word in there?
b. Am I loving the Father with all of my mind? Is this commandment on my mind? Do I think on things and take thoughts that don’t line up with the Word without casting them down?
c. Am I loving the Father all my will? Do I do things and make decisions that don’t please the Father?
d. Am I loving the Father with all my emotions? Do I control my emotions are do my emotions control me?
e. Am I love the Father with all of my resources? With all of my time and all of my money, and everything that I have?
f. Am I loving my neighbor as myself?
g. Is this commandment priority one in my life? Is it on me mind? Am I doing my best to grow in it? Do I acknowledge when I violate it and repent of it?
2. Then you love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength where your financially prosperity is concerned.
a. I’m going to love God with all of my heart where my financially prosperity is concerned by only sowing His Word in there on finical prosperity and by guarding my heart from word seeds that oppose him.
b. I’m going to love God with all of my mind, by only thinking on what His Word Says where my financial prosperity is concerned.
c. I’m going to love God with all of my will, by making the decisions that he would have me to make where my finically prosperity is concerned.
d. I’m going to love God with all my emotions by keeping my emotions in line with his Word where my financial prosperity is concerned.
e. I’m going to love my neighbor as myself where my financial prosperity is concerned.
D. The preeminence of love
1. Colossians 3:14 – Love is the binding factor that holds all of this together making it usable
2. 1 Peter 4:8 – Above ALL THINGS put on love
3. 1 Corinthians 12:31 – A gift that is better and higher than them all
a. AMP-But earnestly desire and zealously cultivate the greatest and best gifts and graces (the higher gifts and the choicest graces). And yet I will show you a still more excellent way [one that is better by far and the highest of them all—love].
b. 1 Corinthians 13:13 – The greatest is love
4. 1 Corinthians 14:1 – Make love your aim and great quest
a. AMP EAGERLY PURSUE and seek to acquire [this] love [make it your aim, your great quest];
b. Follow after – pursue, pursuing a person on foot in a chase, striving and pressing on to a goal with intensity, press on
E. Love will bring results (John 14:21)