Who Do You Love
Jerry Watts
John 21:15-19
Years ago, as teenagers, we played the game called, ''Who do you love?'' We would place a unsuspecting person (the new guy) in a chair in the center of the room and would say this, 'We want you to tell this entire crowd something. Please tell us (and with a big emphasis), say, ''Who do you love?'' While what is desired is fairly obvious today, to us kids in a different day, we thought that for us to get out of the chair and find relief from this embarrassing question, we had to give up the secret of who our girlfriend/boyfriend was that no one knew about. So, the answers were interesting to say the least. All the victim had to do was say these words, ''Who Do You Love?'' They didn't have to spill the beans about an unknown, secret love in their life, just simply say, ''Who do you love?''
Not long ago, I heard Dr. Richard Blackaby give a long illustration about 'loving' someone and the realization of that love. (It was about when He knew that Lisa, his good friend, was his love). If you know Richard, then you know that every story he tells is filled with humor and climaxes with some great spiritual truth. This story was no different. In fact, he doesn't know what an impact he made on me with his statement. I sat thinking that we, as the SBC, have seen our baptisms drop to the lowest rate in over 50 years (while the population is exploding), with our state following suite, and here in our association the lowest ever, this is the key to change.
His words were something like this: We try to get those people who wear the name of Jesus to share Jesus. Generally, you don't have to guess who or what people love, because they talk about their love. What we may need to do is to get people to fall in love with Jesus and the talking will take care of itself.'' For me, this is huge. It requires asking ''Who or what do I/we really love?'' To drill down, I think of the church in Ephesus.
In Acts 19 Paul came to Ephesus to ...
Jerry Watts
John 21:15-19
Years ago, as teenagers, we played the game called, ''Who do you love?'' We would place a unsuspecting person (the new guy) in a chair in the center of the room and would say this, 'We want you to tell this entire crowd something. Please tell us (and with a big emphasis), say, ''Who do you love?'' While what is desired is fairly obvious today, to us kids in a different day, we thought that for us to get out of the chair and find relief from this embarrassing question, we had to give up the secret of who our girlfriend/boyfriend was that no one knew about. So, the answers were interesting to say the least. All the victim had to do was say these words, ''Who Do You Love?'' They didn't have to spill the beans about an unknown, secret love in their life, just simply say, ''Who do you love?''
Not long ago, I heard Dr. Richard Blackaby give a long illustration about 'loving' someone and the realization of that love. (It was about when He knew that Lisa, his good friend, was his love). If you know Richard, then you know that every story he tells is filled with humor and climaxes with some great spiritual truth. This story was no different. In fact, he doesn't know what an impact he made on me with his statement. I sat thinking that we, as the SBC, have seen our baptisms drop to the lowest rate in over 50 years (while the population is exploding), with our state following suite, and here in our association the lowest ever, this is the key to change.
His words were something like this: We try to get those people who wear the name of Jesus to share Jesus. Generally, you don't have to guess who or what people love, because they talk about their love. What we may need to do is to get people to fall in love with Jesus and the talking will take care of itself.'' For me, this is huge. It requires asking ''Who or what do I/we really love?'' To drill down, I think of the church in Ephesus.
In Acts 19 Paul came to Ephesus to ...
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