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You're listening to Heed the Word with our pastor and teacher, Ken Davis. Pastor Ken is the senior pastor of Calvary Chapel, Southwest Metro. Please join us as we study our series entitled Lessons in Christian Living.

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Love is not a feeling, love is an action. No, don't get me wrong, there are feelings that can go with it, but love devoid of feelings can still be love, because love is a choice, it's a decision, and so what the writer is saying here is this Don't just pretend that you love others Really love them. So the injunction still is that we are to love, but we're to love from our heart, we're to love in sincerity.

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There's no shortage of self-help books, motivational speakers and even opinions out there about how we're supposed to live on this earth, but as Christians, we need to take our direction in this area from the Word of God. So we're bringing you our series entitled Lessons in Christian Living, taken from the 12th and 13th chapters of Paul's letter to the church in Rome. As believers, we're commanded to love God with all our heart, soul and mind and to love our neighbors as ourself. How do we accomplish this? In the book of 1 John, we learn that we're to not love with our words only, but with actions and truth, just as Jesus said if you love me, then keep my commandments. Love is a verb. Don't forget to stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Heed the Word, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, please open your Bibles to the book of Romans, chapter 12, verse 9, as we join Pastor Ken.

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Romans, chapter 12, verses 1 through 8, speaks in turn of how we are to view ourselves in relation to God.

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In relation to God, romans 12 tells us that we are to see ourselves as living sacrifices. It tells us how we are to view ourselves in relation to the world. We are not to be conformed to this world, but we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. It tells us how we are to view ourselves in relation to ourselves, that we ought to not think more highly of ourselves than we ought to. And it also tells us how we are to view ourselves in relation to the body of Christ, or the church as a whole, and that is by using our God-given gifts to serve the body diligently. Now, in Romans 12, 9 through 16, today we're going to learn how we are to view ourselves in relation to one another, not just as a body, but as individuals within that body, not only from the perspective of gifts activated in service, but from the perspective of love offered in sincerity. Let love be without hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is a bad thing, wouldn't you agree? I mean, there are a few things that people complain about more than hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is a bad thing, wouldn't you agree? I mean, there are a few things that people complain about more than hypocrisy. And I don't want to go to church, man, they're just a bunch of hypocrites, right? Well, you know, my response to that, as always, was well, where would you prefer the hypocrites be? I mean, church is kind of a good place, because maybe they'll hear something there that will convince them not to be hypocrites. Right? You know, I've often said and you've heard me say it before that hypocrisy is not having a standard that you fail to live up to. Hypocrisy is having a standard that you fail to live up to but then pretending as though you didn't fail, right. But you see, we know that we are sinners saved by grace. If we thought we were not sinners, then we would be prone to hypocrisy. But if we just remember that we are flawed and failed people, that will help shield us certainly from hypocrisy, though it is no guarantee. We must continually examine ourselves.

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As I studied out this phrase let love be without hypocrisy I found it very helpful to look at some other translations of this phrase. The Darby translation says let love be unfeigned. Right, when we act like we love somebody, but then, as soon as they walk out of the room, we start to talk badly about them. That is feigned love, isn't it? We're just acting like we love them. Well, why would we do that? Well, because we want them to relate to us in a particular way, or we want something from them. So what do we do? We put on a mask and we pretend that we love them. Now, this is not the kind of feigned love that is fake it till you make it right. If you're trying to fake it till you make it, or in other words, treat someone with love even though you don't feel love for them, at least in that instance you have a desire to feel love for them, and that's the motivation behind your faking it till you make it. But when our motive is impure, when our motive is for our own benefit, then that is a feigned love. The English Standard Version translates it this way let love be genuine. You want it to be the real deal, right?

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I mean, if I were to pull out of my wallet this morning a $100 bill? If I pull out a $100, wow, I have a $100 bill in my wallet. That almost never happens, right? But if I pull this $100 bill out of my wallet and I say you know what? I'm gonna give this to you and then, after I give it to you, you turn it over and you see that there's a picture not of Benjamin Franklin but of Colonel Sanders on the front. Then does that $100 bill, which I'm gonna put back in my wallet right now, have any particular value? It has no value. It's probably not worth the paper that it's printed on.

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You know how quickly y'all started paying attention. When I pulled a hundred dollar bill out of my wallet. Every eye in the house was is he going to give that away? That's what you were thinking. I would give it away, but then it would like be drawing attention to myself, so I'm going to have to keep it. You know, if I give you a hundred dollar bill and you're thinking, wow, that's a hundred dollar bill, that's awesome. But then you find out it's a fake. What value does it have? Now, if it's a genuine hundred dollar bill, well, that's really good. You're excited about that and you know what Our love is.

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The same way, when we love someone in a genuine way, that love has great value. But when we're deceiving them and only acting like we love them, then where's the value in that love? So the English Standard Version says let love be genuine. The International Standard Version makes it more personal. It says your love must be without hypocrisy. I like that Because you know we can sit back here and say, oh well, love must be without hypocrisy, and that sounds really good and we can all agree to that. But when we make it personal and we say, look, your love must be without hypocrisy, then that forces you to step back for a moment and say wait a minute, is my love without hypocrisy or am I just lying? Then the King James version let love be without dissimulation, big word right. Without deception, without deceiving someone. The New Century Version your love must be real, Real love. That's what we're looking for. The NIV your love must be sincere.

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Often I've heard the word sincere described as without wax, in other words, your love should be sincere. Often I've heard the word sincere described as without wax. In other words, your love should be without fillers, right or without additives or preservatives. You want the organic love. That's what you're looking for. Your love must be sincere. The Good News translation love must be completely sincere.

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And my favorite rendering of the phrase actually comes from the New Living Translation, which says this don't just pretend that you love others, really love them, and I like that because it takes away an excuse. And here's the excuse. Well, you know, pastor, you said my love must be sincere, that I shouldn't fake it. So, since I don't really love that person, I'm not going to be loving toward them, because that would be deceptive. Right, there are people out there, I guarantee you, who are probably thinking that right now. Well, if my love has to be sincere, then if I don't really feel love for someone, then I don't have to be loving toward them, because to do so would be hypocritical. Right, that's bogus, because love is not a feeling, love is an action. No, don't get me wrong, there are feelings that can go with it, but love devoid of feelings can still be love, because love is a choice, it's a decision, and so what the writer is saying here is this Don't just pretend that you love others, really love them. So the injunction still is that we are to love, but we're to love from our heart, we're to love in sincerity. Let love be without hypocrisy. So, love is to be without hypocrisy. But what is the love that Paul is writing about? Well, it's none other than agape love, the agape love of God and, honestly, no description of this love would ever be complete without considering what Paul had to say about it in 1 Corinthians 13. So turn with me there, if you will.

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In the first three verses, paul talks about the importance of this love, and then in verses 4 through 8, he's going to describe it. But we'll start in verse 1. He's saying this no matter what spiritual gifts you have, no matter how self-sacrificing your actions may seem to be, no matter how flashy those things that God has empowered you to do are, whether you can preach to bring down the heavens, whether you can speak in tongues, whether you can prophesy, whether you can lay hands on the sick and they be healed, whether you have the gift of giving and you give thousands and thousands and hundreds of thousands of dollars to the work of the gospel no matter what you can do, if you don't have love, it doesn't matter, it's worthless, it's not genuine, it's a fake $100 bill. You understand me? So he's saying listen, love is paramount in importance. Without love, none of the rest of it even matters.

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So what is the love that he's talking about? How do you describe this agape love? Well, whenever you describe something, really, the best you can do is say things about it, right, well, it's like this and it's like that, and you try to paint a picture of it. And so here, in verses four through eight, paul paints a picture of love. What does love do? What does love look like?

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Love suffers long and is kind. You know, when we think about love, we don't often think about suffering, do we? When we think about love, we don't often think about suffering, do we? When we think about love, we think about warm, fuzzy feelings. We think about, you know, late night romantic comedies, or about candlelit dinners, or about walks on the beach, or about all of these other romantic ideas. Love suffers long. In other words, love is patient. Love doesn't just give out all of a sudden because it gets frustrated. And in the midst of its suffering, love maintains kind actions.

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Love suffers long and is kind. Love does not envy. Love does not parade itself and is not puffed up. In other words, love isn't impressed with itself. Aren't you so glad that I love you because I'm such a wonderful person? You see, that's not love. That's self-love, isn't it? But that's not the kind of love that God wants us to have. Love does not parade itself, it's not puffed up. Love does not behave rudely, it does not seek its own, it is not provoked, it thinks no evil. Love does not rejoice in iniquity but rejoices in the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things. Love never fails.

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You know, when I read through that, I think of a really good frying pan. I know that sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? But I do. I think of a really good frying pan. Have you ever cooked with a really bad frying pan? Have you ever noticed, no matter how much Pam you spray on the bottom of that pan, those eggs are gonna stick, aren't they? But if you get a really good, high quality frying pan, then just a little dab of butter will do just a little bit of lubricant, maybe not even that, and you can cook an omelet in that thing and it'll come out looking beautiful, won't it? A really good frying pan? You know why? Because a really good frying pan, it's not going to get stuff stuck to it. And that's what love is like.

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When you really have the love of God operating in your heart, then stuff's not going to stick to you. People are going to say harsh words, but guess what? They're not going to stick. People are going to be inconsiderate of you, but it's not going to stick. People are going to say harsh words, but, guess what, they're not going to stick. People are going to be inconsiderate of you, but it's not going to stick. People are going to be rude to you and you're going to have to be patient with them.

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But if love is there, none of that's going to stick and you're going to be able to allow the love of God, which is that fire underneath the pan, to transfer its warmth and its heat from you to the one you're loving. Does that make sense? That frying pan takes that heat that is underneath it and it transfers that heat to the thing that it is working on. And if we allow God's love to work in our heart, then, as God's love warms our hearts, we in turn will love and warm the heart of the person that he has called us to love. So love is a frying pan. So the Bible tells us that love is never fails. Now, does that mean that love always accomplishes what it sets out to do? Maybe it means that, but when I see the word love never fails, I think of the fact that love never runs out. The supply of love never fails.

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If you find this morning that you believe that your love has failed, or that the love you feel for your husband or your wife or your children, or your friends or your family, or whoever it may be, if you feel that your love has failed, that your love has somehow run out, what's the answer to that problem? You go to the source, don't you? If you don't have the love, you're like a frying pan that isn't sitting on the flame. So what you need to do is you need to get that frying pan moved over on top of the heat. In other words, if you feel that you don't have love for another person, then you need to get right with God and you need to go to God and you need to ask God to fill you with his love for that person. You know, guys, I've been married for over 20 years now. God bless my wife.

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One thing that, as a young man, I figured out how I figured this out is beyond me. I do not know how I came to this idea. It had to be a God thing. I fully believe that it was the Holy Spirit who communicated this wisdom to me, because, as an 18 year old young man, I began, even before we were married, to pray and to ask God to give me the love for my wife that she needed to receive from him, and to give her the love for me that I needed to receive from him. And so, from the very earliest days of our relationship, my prayer was that we would each be channels of God's love to one another. You see, somehow or another, I figured out that I couldn't be the source of the love she needed, and that she couldn't be the source of the love that I needed, that only God could be the source of that love, and that the best I could ever hope for was that she and I would be channels through which that love could flow. May God impart that wisdom to you this morning, because I can say it all day long but if God doesn't speak it to your heart, it's not gonna stick. But the source of this agape love is not our flesh, it's not our heart, it is the Holy Spirit, it is God. Let love be without hypocrisy. Now.

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Romans 5, 8 told us that God demonstrates his own love toward us in that, while we were still sinners, christ died for us. In other words, we didn't deserve his love. He gave his love, he demonstrated his love even when we didn't deserve it. And in first john, chapter 3, verse 18, the apostle of love himself tells us my little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. So, in other words, it's not enough for me to say I love you, it's not enough for me to get a beautiful Valentine's Day card for my wife or for her to get this beautiful Valentine's Day card for me. I mean, we can profess our love to each other all day long and it might make us feel good, but ultimately it's not going to accomplish anything. We need to demonstrate our love, just as God demonstrated his. So then, if we are to love in sincerity and not in word or in tongue only, but in deed and in truth, how are we then, as believers in Jesus Christ, to demonstrate our love? That is actually the question that is being answered in Romans, chapter 12. How are you going to demonstrate your love? Well, we demonstrate our love to God by presenting our bodies as living sacrifices holy and acceptable to God. By presenting our bodies as living sacrifices holy and acceptable to God. In other words, we demonstrate our love to God by giving ourselves to him, by not holding anything back from him, by acknowledging his authority in every corner and crevice of our lives.

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You've heard me use the illustration before about the pizza, right, as it compares to your life. You see, your life is like a really big, thick crust pizza and it is awesome. It's got the sauce, it's got the cheese, it's got the pepperonis and the Italian sausage and the bell peppers and the jalapenos and all of that good stuff. You notice I left out the anchovies. Nobody likes those and if you do, you're just weird. No offense, I love you, but you're weird. So salty fish on a pizza just does not work. I don't understand that. But anyway, pineapples are good. So whatever your pizza has on it, if you want anchovies you can have them.

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But here's the question I have for you when you think about the pizza of your life, you think about the fact that it is cut into slices. Now, in your life, some of these slices are bigger than others, right. There's a slice called work life, and for some of you that takes up as much as half the pizza, right, maybe more For others of you. There's another slice called family, and for some of you that takes up as much as half the pizza, right, maybe more For others of you. There's another slice called family, and that slice of family is broken down into wife, kids, in-laws, siblings, and all of that. And then there's this other piece called leisure time. I'm not going to ask you how big that is and that's cut up into TV and internet and this and that. So there are all these different slices in your life, all these different things that take up your life, and your life is filled with little toppings, your interests and your hobbies. That's the pepperoni and the Italian sausage and all of that.

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So my question to you this morning would be this what part of that pizza of your life does God want for himself? What part of that pizza does God want to be in your life? You see, for a lot of people, god is the toppings of life. Right, they have their life, they have their work, they have their family, they have all of these things that they do, and you know what they think. It would be a good idea to throw a little bit of God in too, so he becomes the Parmesan cheese of their pizza. You know Easter and Christmas. To throw a little bit of God in too, so he becomes the Parmesan cheese of their pizza. You know, easter and Christmas, just a little sprinkling of God in there. How many of us have been guilty of that before? And so that's one way of looking at it.

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Or another person might say well, you know what, I love the Lord and I am going to serve God with all my might, and so I am going to cut that pizza and I'm going to give God the biggest slice. And then there are all these other little slices that are, you know, the areas where I'm in charge of. But God, he gets the biggest slice of my life. Right, that's the mentality that says that my relationship with God is based on how I serve him. You know what I do for God? Well, you know, I go to church on Sunday and I go to church on Wednesday and I read my Bible every day and I pray and I do all the things my pastor told me I'm supposed to do, those I do. So God gets this really big slice of my life.

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But you see, the problem is that's not enough for God. God wants to be the crust of your pizza, because that crust permeates the entire pizza. That crust is in the work life, that crust is in the family life, that crust is in the leisure time, that crust is in the service to God. That crust is part of, it is the foundation of every part of that life. And let me tell you, a life without God as the crust is like a pizza. Without a crust, you can eat it, but it's going to be messy. You understand what I'm saying. You can live a life without God, but the end result is it's going to be a mess.

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So our love for God is demonstrated in that we present our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God. Now we demonstrate our love for the body of Christ, the church, by putting the gifts that God has given us to work for the good of the body and for the glory of God. So there is a place for our works. Our works are the way that we express our love, or demonstrate our love to the body of Christ as a whole, and we can demonstrate also the sincerity of our love for one another as individuals by obeying the exhortations that we find in Romans, chapter 12, verses 9 through 16. Now, if we're going to love each other sincerely and without hypocrisy, we need to carefully consider what the Holy Spirit, through the Apostle Paul, has told us that that kind of love, that sincere love, would look like.

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So for love to be without hypocrisy, first we must abhor what is evil and and cling to what is good.

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To abhor evil means to detest utterly everything that is hurtful in effect or influence. Now, there are a number of other ways to describe it, but I think this suffices to say that we are to turn away from those things that are bad and we are utterly to reject them. We're not to make an allegiance with, or a treaty with, or a compromise with, those things that are evil. Because when we compromise with things that are evil ie drug abuse, alcoholism, pornography, lying when we allow those things and others like them to have place in our lives, when we do not utterly reject them but we allow the devil to have a foothold in us and in our lives, then we are ultimately hurting those whom we are supposed to love. By contrast, we are to cling to what is good. The idea here is that we are to stick like glue to what is good. When we see something that's good, that's right, we are to keep our eyes set on that thing.

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The Christian life was never designed to be a solo flight. God designed us with the need for relationships with others who can encourage us in our personal journey of faith. Maybe you're listening today and you don't have a home church and this message ministered to you. Well, we'd like to take this time to invite you to join us for one of our worship services. Calvary Chapel Southwest Metro meets each Sunday morning at 10.30 am and Wednesday evenings at 7 pm. Besides our Sunday morning services, we have ministries for children, men, women, couples and youth. To learn more about Calvary Chapel Southwest Metro, log on to heaththewordorg. That's heaththewordorg and when you get there, just follow the link. Or, if you'd like to talk with someone, give us a call. Our phone number is 817-447-5675. That's 817-447-5675. So visit the website or call us today. Now we also want to encourage you to review this study. This study and many more taught by Pastor Ken are available at our website, heedthewordorg.

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Many of Pastor Ken's teachings are available in MP3 format. You can also receive a CD copy of this message. Simply log on to heedthewordorg and select the option for CD requests. The CD that you'll receive is the full-length, unedited teaching. When you fill out the order form, please keep in mind today's date. This helps us make sure that we send you the correct message. Well, that's all the time we have for today. Please join Pastor Ken next time as he continues teaching through our series entitled Lessons for Christian Living, right here on. Heed the Word.