ARE YOU WILLING TO PAY THE PRICE?

FOUNDATION STATEMENT: Violating the commandment of love is not free and it is not cheap, it costs you something.  You have to ask yourself am I willing to pay the price to violate the commandment of love? Because the price is this: It will cost you the Word, the anointing, and the victory in your life. 

I. What is the cost of violating the Commandment of Love?

A. If love’s not working, then the Word isn’t working (Matthew 22:36-40)

1. On step outside of love (one negative comment, one act of disobedience, one negative thought not properly dealt with) is one step into the Word not working in your life

a. When you stepped out of love you had to leave all the Word in love because it doesn’t work outside of love

2. That was the cost; Violating the commandment of love cost you every promise, every blessing, and every empowerment that was bestowed upon you the day you got born again

B. When love is not being perfected fear is present (1 John 4:18)

1. Fear will connect you to oppression (Isaiah 54:14)

a. When you are oppressed you are being overpowered or conquered by the devil.

i. Satan’s way into your life is through you violating the commandment of love and stepping into fear

b. You can’t have fear without the oppression and you can’t have oppression without fear

2. Perfected love casts out fear (1 John 4:18 AMP)

a. The love of God throws fear out and consequently the love of God throws the oppression out

b. The Love of God works in my life to keep me out of fear and to keep me from being oppressed (Ps 91, 1 Jn 5:18)

3. The moment love stops being perfected fear begins to work and you immediately become accessible to be oppressed

a. Perfected love is love that is growing, developing, and maturing on a daily basis

b. We are constantly in the process of perfecting love and it’s a commitment to the process that will keep us out of fear and away from oppression

4. That’s the cost: One step out of love is one step into fear and one step into fear is one step into oppression

C. Renew your mind to what it costs you to violate the commandment of love because if you know the costs, you won’t be willing to pay the price

II. Set the boundary of love in your life and absolutely refuse to cross it (2 Corinthians 5:14)

A. As a believer you have to set up a love-line-boundary for your life and make a decision to absolutely refuse to cross that line come hell or high water.

1. Constrains (synecho) – to cover, to crowd against, to guard, to hold in custody, to compel, to urge on, held, keep in, stops, throngs

a. The love of God covers me and guards me

i. It keeps the word working, it keeps me out of fear, and it keeps me away from the oppression

b. The love of God holds me in custody

i. Sometimes I would feel like stepping out of love, but love is holding me in

c. The love of God crowds me

i. Like a car that is crowded in a traffic jam can’t go anywhere, love has me crowded so I can’t go anywhere

d. The love of God compels me

i. It forces me to stay in love because of its functions; It has left me no choice

e. The love of God urges me on

i. It urges me to stay in love and not violate that commandment of love

f. The love of God stops me

i. It stops me from saying things I shouldn’t say, thinking things I shouldn’t think, and doing things I shouldn’t do

2. The Apostle Paul is saying there’s a love fence that I’ve established in my life and it keeps me from thinking  things that I shouldn’t think, saying things that I shouldn’t say, and doing things that I shouldn’t do

a. To think that or say that or do that I would have to cross the love fence and get out there where nothing works

b. There’s a toll to cross that love fence that I’m not willing to play

B. Everything that we do we do in love (1 Corinthians 16:14 KJ/AMP)

1. Everything that I do is done in the sphere of love because outside that sphere nothing works. 

a. I do all my talking in love, all my thinking in love, and all of my acting in love.  I do all my faith in love.  I put on the armor of God in love.  I sow my seeds in love.  I drive in love.  I eat in love.  I pray in the spirit in love. 

2. Philippians 2:3 – Do nothing outside of love

C. You got to root yourself, ground yourself, and take your stance in the Love of God and absolutely refuse to come out (Ephesians 3:14)

III. God’s commandment was a love letter from Heaven

  A. The purpose of the God’s command

1. This is the creator of life in His overwhelming desire to see us get the most out of life, giving us instructions (love letters) that if you do this you’ll experience life better than you’ve ever imagined

a. EXAMPLE: Ford knows how to get the most out of Ford Trucks because they created the truck, so they wrote a manual of instruction so that you could get the most out of the product that you paid for. 

b. God the creator of life knows how to get the most out of this product of life that he created.  So He wrote a manual of instruction so that you could get the most out of the product of life that Jesus paid for and gave you. 

2. Do you want to experience the best life?  Do you want the Word to work for you?  Do you want to live free from oppression?  Then keep the commandment of love.

a. Work backwards: Chose your harvest and then sow the appropriate seed

3. God gave you the commandment of love to keep you from being oppressed and to keep the Word working in your life

IV. The way of love will lead you to a life that is absolutely greater than anything you could have ever imagined or dreamed

A. The love commandment is the pathway to the abundant life (Mark 10:17)

1. Life (Zoe) – The God-kind of life, richly loaded, and overflowing life

2. Luke 10:25 – Same question, Same answer

a. To inherit zoe and walk in it, you have to keep the commandment of love

i. The rich young ruler loved money and things, more than he loved God

3, When you walk in that commandment you are sowing your life to God and the harvest off of the seed of your life is the God-kind of abundant life

B. Keeping the commandment of love is the key to seeing manifestations of the way, the Word, and Zoe  in your life (Jn 14:6,21)

C. Keeping the commandment of love will bring Heaven to the Earth (Deut 11:13-21)

D. You can hear the heartbeat of God in this commandment. He's got a burning desire to see us living the best possible life