The Principle of Love

Welcome to Worship in the Word with Pastor Robert Morris. Thank you for joining us. Pastor Robert is about halfway through his relationship series about how the Ten Commandments gives us a way to have a relationship with God, and it's been an amazing series so far.

I'm your host, Janae, and I'm here with my co-host, Patrick. Hey, everybody. Well, in today's message, Pastor Robert is exploring the sixth commandment, which is, You Shall Not Murder. This is the commandment that everybody should know.

Yeah, I would hope so. Well, that doesn't mean there isn't something incredibly powerful to learn. Pastor Robert titled this message, The Principle of Love, and he's going to talk about anger, expectations, and forgiveness, and I can't wait to get started. Me too, so let's get to it. We are in a series called Relationship through God's Top Ten. So we're talking about that God gave us the Ten Commandments, but I believe there's a principle behind every commandment, and it's a principle of relationship. And so this week, I want to talk to you about the Principle of Love. And we are now on the seventh commandment. The sixth commandment, and the sixth commandment in Exodus 20, verse 13, You shall not murder. And the reason I'm calling it the Principle of Love is because love is the opposite of murder, because the Bible links murder to hate.

And I'm going to show you that, all right? So I'll get to Luke 7 in a moment, show you a couple of scriptures. 1 John 3.15, Whoever hates his brother is a murderer. Then to show you how it links the opposite of these principles here of murder, the opposite to love, it lists the last five commandments, which we're on for now, starting the sixth through the tenth in Romans 13, verse nine. For the commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not covet. Those are six through ten there. And if there's any other commandment, they're all summed up in this saying, namely, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I have three points. I have a rhythm kind of that I go through, but I have five points today.

But I'm going to have to move kind of quickly through the first three to set up a foundation for the last two. All right? So you shall not murder. I'm really not worried about someone in our congregation murdering someone. I know, I heard this one lady, she said they should be married for 60 years. Her husband passed away. And someone asked her, did you ever think about divorce? She said, no, I never thought about divorce. Murder, yes, but not divorce.

But she was just joking. So I'm not worried about you committing murder. I'm worried, though, and concerned about the things that lead to murder, such as hate and unforgiveness and some things like that.

That's what Satan's trying to do. There's a path. So I'm going to show you the path.

All right? So here's point number one. Hate precedes murder. Hate precedes, goes before, murder. This is a story of Joseph, Genesis 37 verses four and five.

Even more. So they hated him. Then you look down at verse 18. Now, when they saw him afar off, even before he came near them, they conspired against him to kill him. Okay, so why did they conspire to murder him?

Because they hated him. Let me show it to you in the law. Deuteronomy 19 verses 11 and 12. But if anyone hates his neighbor, lies in wait for him, rises against him and strikes him mortally so that he dies, and then he flees to one of these cities, then the elders of his city shall send and bring him from there and deliver him over to the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die. Capital punishment for murder. That is a person, so it shows he hated him and we murdered.

And here's what it's saying. We know he murdered him because he hated him. Watch how it shows, again, hate and murder.

Joshua 20, verse five. One, because he struck his neighbor unintentionally, but did not hate him beforehand. See, the way they knew if you murdered someone was if you hated him or if it was an accident and you struck him and he died unintentionally. So hate precedes murder. So what precedes hate? Number two, anger precedes hate.

Before you hate someone, you get angry at them. Murder in the Bible was because of anger. Cain and Abel. Genesis chapter four, verse three. And his countenance fell. And then in verse eight, Cain talked with Abel his brother. It came to pass when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. He was angry, so he killed him. See?

Now, let me explain something to you. Anger is an emotion. And you can actually be angry and not sin. As a matter of fact, there's a verse that says, be angry and do not sin.

So it's not that anger's a sin, it's what you do with the anger. Have you ever known someone that has a tendency to just kind of blow up at people? Don't punch anyone in the ribs right now. Or, well, let's just do it this way. Or have you ever blown up?

Hello? You don't want to say amen right now, do you? Which is, remember, this is true. All right, so we've all blown up. Let me tell you why you blow up or why a person has a tendency to blow up a lot. Because the person has anger that's unresolved. It's unresolved anger that's just sitting in you that causes you to explode. If we can get that anger out, then even when you go through a tough time, you won't blow up.

Because there's not any anger in there for you to blow up. So we have to resolve it. For more information on our relationship series, be sure to check out our podcast at pastorrobert.com or call 833-933-WORD to get a copy. Today, Pastor Robert is talking about the sixth commandment, thou shall not murder, and how it's really a principle about love. Yeah, and you know, Jenae, I think a lot of us have experienced times when we're angry or someone is angry with us. And that's why I've just really loved how Pastor Robert reminded us that anger itself is not a sin. It's what we actually do with the anger. Right. And someone once told me that there's not much we can do to stop a feeling from flying around in our head, but we can stop it from nesting there. Wow, that's good.

Well, I know Pastor Robert has more insight and revelation for us. So let's jump back in. Here's number three. What precedes anger? An offense precedes anger. An offense precedes anger. Cain was offended at God and at Abel.

That's why he got angry. It offended him that God accepted Abel's offering, not Cain's. Let me show you a couple of scriptures.

Matthew 24, 10. And then many will be offended and betray one another and will hate one another. They're offended, so now they hate people. We read last week where Jesus talked about a prophet is not without honor, except his own family, his own country. And they were offended.

Let me read a little bit of that again and pick up on one of the words that we need to talk about. Mark chapter six, verses two and three. And when the Sabbath had come, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many hearing him were astonished. I actually said last weekend, now that's not a good word, astonished. That's not what you think as amazed. It's not amazed.

It's a bad word, actually. And I had no clue I was going to use it this week, but I'm going to explain to you what astonished means. Many were astonished saying, where did this man get these things? And what wisdom is this which is given to him that such mighty works are performed by his hands?

Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon are not his sisters here with us? So they were offended at him. They were offended.

Okay, this word astonished. I'm going to give you the actual definition from the Strongton Accordance. Here's what it means.

It means to strike, in other words, to hit someone, to strike someone, to expel by a blow, to drive out or away. As he began to teach and had wisdom, they got angry. You want to know why? Because he was just a carpenter that grew up in their town. And it offended them that this guy had so many popular, so many people following him, and that he had such wisdom, and he's just a carpenter. And they got offended so much so, listen to this, that they were, it says they were astonished. And this is what it means, that they wanted to hit him. They wanted to strike him.

They wanted to drive him out with blows. This happened another time, same word astonished. I don't have time to read the whole chapter. You can read it. But in Luke chapter four, if you remember, he goes to his hometown, and he goes in the synagogue, and he takes the scriptures, and he reads from Isaiah. And this is what he reads. He reads a passage about the Messiah. And he reads, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he's anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, to open the blind eyes, to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Everyone knew that was about the Messiah.

Here was the problem. It says that he closed the book, and he sat down, and he said, and then he closed the book, and he said, today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. So here's what he was saying. I'm him. I'm the Messiah. And you know what they said?

The exact same thing. They were astonished, and they said, isn't this the carpenter? Isn't this the guy that built a patio for me? He thinks he's the Messiah, and he wears a tool belt? And now watch Luke chapter four, verses 28, 29. So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things were filled with wrath, remember anger, and they rose up and thrust him out of the city, and they led him to the brow of the hill in which their city was built, that they might throw him down over the cliff. Anger.

Why? They were offended. Why were they offended? Because he didn't meet their expectations.

He was saying something that they didn't understand. And that brings me to the fourth point. This is one we're going to really kind of drill down on. So we've got hate precedes murder. So hopefully no one's ever going to get to the point of murder, but you might hate someone. But what causes hate? Anger does. You get angry at someone and you don't resolve it correctly.

So now you hate them. But what causes hate? An offense. But what causes an offense? So number four, unfulfilled expectations precede offenses.

Unfulfilled expectations precede offenses. Now this is why I ask you to turn to Luke 7, because this to me is one of the strangest passages in the Bible and one of the most enlightening. Luke 7, verse 18. Then the disciples of John reported to him, that's John the Baptist, reported to him concerning all these things. And John, calling two of his disciples to him, sent them to Jesus, saying, Are you the coming one?

Or do we look for another? I want you to think about this really well for just a moment. John the Baptist, who's Jesus's cousin. John the Baptist was filled with the spirit in his mother's womb, Elizabeth's womb, when Mary, Jesus's mother, walked in the room when Jesus was in the womb. John the Baptist is the one that when Jesus came to be baptized by him, said, No, I shouldn't baptize you. You should baptize me. Right?

What was he saying? You're the one. You're the one. There's the one. The Lamb of God.

There's the one. Jesus didn't baptize me. No, you're the one. They came to John later, after Jesus began his ministry, and they said, You remember that guy you baptized?

He started a church down the road, and he's baptized more people than you are. You remember what John's answer was? I told you I'm not the one.

That's what he said. I told you I'm not the one. I told you he's the one.

Let me put it another way. John's in prison for saying he's the one. And then he comes to his city to have a revival.

And he doesn't even have time to visit his cousin in jail. And John's sitting there and he could have got him out. He's the Messiah. He's the one.

Everybody knows he's the one. And John's sitting there and he's saying, Now, how long has Jesus been here? Seven days now.

Seven days. Did y'all mention to him I was in jail? Yeah, we told him. You go ask Jesus that John, cousin John, wants to know if he's the one. Jesus said, You go tell cousin John that the blind see, the lame walk, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to him, and blessed is he who doesn't get his feelings hurt. Who doesn't get offended because of me. Pretty strong, isn't it?

It's kind of a cool passage, isn't it? I'm sure one day I get to heaven, John the Baptist will say, Why did you tell everybody that? That's why I was upset about. Unfulfilled expectations cause offenses. He had an expectation that Jesus would come get him out of jail or come at least see him. So when that expectation wasn't fulfilled, this what?

Listen, listen, I'm going to help you. We have an expectation that our friend's going to do something. He doesn't do it. We're offended.

We have an expectation that our employer is going to do something. He doesn't do it. Now we're offended. We have an expectation that, you know, some spiritual leader is going to do something.

He doesn't do it. Now we're offended. And we can get offended sometimes over silly things, you know? I mean, you know, like, I mean, you know, all of a sudden your wife's upset and you say, What's wrong?

Well, what's wrong? Jenny did not say one thing about the cake that I took to the party. Well, maybe she just had her hands full and she just forgot. She knows better.

She knows better. All of a sudden we're offended. Are you all following me? It's amazing what gets us offended. Did you know that someone in the Bible is actually called, a person is actually called a stumbling stone and a rock of offense?

Anyone know who it is? Jesus. Romans 933, as it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense. And, and the word and is a conjunction in the Greek could be translated, but, but whoever believes in him in the stumbling stone or the rock of offense will not be put to shame.

Let me put it another way. Jesus is either going to be in your life, a stone you stumble over or a rock you build your house on. That's tweetable. Jesus, and I don't care if you tweet, I just tell you, I just like to say, that's a good statement.

And I get excited because you think he's bragging on himself. No, I was studying and the Lord gave me that statement. And I think, Lord, that's good. And that's going to make me look smart.

All right. So Jesus, Jesus will either be for you a stumbling stone or a rock that you build your house on. He's one of the other. People either stumble over him or they build on him.

You're listening to Worship in the Word with Pastor Robert Morris. Janae, you know, how different would relationships with family and friends in between spouses be if we all chose to step over those offenses and move on instead of letting those rocks build up and cause walls of anger between people? It would solve so many problems. Absolutely. Right.

Which is probably why the enemy deals so heavily in offenses. Well, there's still a little bit more of this message remaining. So let's continue with Pastor Robert.

Here's number five. Forgiveness precedes love. Forgiveness precedes love.

Matthew 5, 43, 344. Jesus said, You've heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies. Bless those who curse you. Do good to those who hate you. And pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you. So how in the world can you love someone that hates you or that is your enemy?

Simple. Forgiveness. You have to forgive them. I'll tell you what the Greek word for forgive means in a moment. But let me show you how hate leads to murder and how forgiveness leads to love.

Everyone follow that? I'm about to wrap up the whole message with one story from the Bible. How hate leads to murder, but forgiveness leads to love. Jacob and Esau. Jacob steals the birthright and the blessing.

Genesis 27, 41. So Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him. And Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand. Then, in other words, when they're over, I will kill my brother Jacob. He hated him, so he was going to kill him. Hate leads to murder.

Watch how forgiveness leads to love. Years later, as a matter of fact, it's 20 years later. 20 years go by.

20 years. Genesis 33, verse 1. Now Jacob lifted his eyes. He's going back to the land where his father was. And there Esau was coming and with him were 400 men. And when I say he's going back to the land where his father was, his father had already passed away. Now Esau was coming and with him were 400 men. Now what would you think if the guy that hated you was coming to greet you with 400 men?

But watch what happens. Verse 4. But Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him and they wept. How does Esau go from hating him and wanting to murder him to loving him, embracing him, and kissing him? Because he'd forgiven him. That's the only way. And I almost did a.6, but I've just never done a message with six points in my life.

I have. So what precedes forgiveness? And that's grace.

So if you just want to make a note. In other words, how do you forgive? Well, forgiveness is giving grace. So how do you give grace? You have to receive grace. You can't give it if you haven't received it. If you have a problem giving forgiveness, you have a problem receiving forgiveness.

Let me say that again. If you have a problem giving forgiveness, you have a problem receiving forgiveness. Here's Matthew 10, 8. Freely you have received, freely give. If you don't receive freely, then you don't give freely. In other words, if you feel like you have to earn forgiveness from God, you will make other people earn forgiveness from you. But once you catch grace and you understand, I'm forgiven freely and I did not deserve to be forgiven, then you'll forgive others who don't deserve to be forgiven. Okay, what's the word forgive mean in the Greek? One word. It means release.

That's what it means. When God forgave you, He released you from the punishment of the sin. He released you. He released you from judgment. He released you.

So when you truly forgive someone, it means you release them. I was upset with someone one time and I kept replaying it in my mind. Have you ever done that? Well, I got a lot of... And it was about two o'clock in the morning.

Have you ever done that? About two o'clock in the morning and I'm just replaying it over and over in my mind. And all of a sudden, you know in your heart how you hear the Lord, not audibly, but I felt like the Lord did that. I felt like the Lord said, forgive Him.

Like that. It was almost like I'm trying to sleep, pal, you know. I felt like I was keeping Him up, you know. He's just like, forgive Him. It's two in the morning, forgive Him.

Let's get some sleep. And I said to the Lord, but Lord, He was wrong. You know what the Lord said? I'll never forget this.

He said, of course He was. You don't forgive people who were right. I baked you these cookies. I forgive you. You don't forgive people who do good things to you. You don't forgive people who are nice to you. You forgive people who are mean and who hurt you and who offend you. You forgive them. You forgive them. I'm really not concerned any of you are going to commit murder. I hope not. I really do.

I don't think you are. But I'm concerned you could fall in a trap, could get caught in a snare, and you could hate people, and you could be angry with them, and you could be offended, and you could not forgive them. There was a lot in this message that really hit home. I especially loved how Pastor Robert gave the definition of the word, forgive, and how it means release. So good. That word alone is such a great illustration of how we forgive.

Absolutely. And you know, we encourage each listener to just take a moment to think about what Pastor Robert shared today and really listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying to you. To get a copy of this message or any of the upcoming messages in this relationship series, visit pastorrobert.com or call 833-933-WORD.

You can get the complete 10-part series. So be sure to visit pastorrobert.com or call 833-933-WORD. You can also follow Pastor Robert on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. Next time, Pastor Robert will be sharing about how the seventh commandment is God's principle of intimacy. Hope you enjoyed today's message and that you have a blessed week.