"Love Portion Number Nine"
A message by Pastor John Glass, D.Min.

Malachi 2.7 says, "For the lips of a priest ought to preserve knowledge, and from his mouth men should seek instruction - because he is the messenger of the Lord Almighty." And so we begin with a short prayer that what comes out of my lips today will be knowledge and instruction from the Lord. Prayer.

Shall we review the Ten Commandments? We shall.
One: Our God comes first.
Two: No graven images substitute for the Real One
Three: His name is honorable
Four: Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy
Five: Honor our parents
Six: Life is sacred; handle with prayer
Seven: Delight in your spouse
Eight: Respect all others

Nine. Let's say this one the way it reads: Exodus 20.16 - "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor." Leviticus 19.11 is very similar: "Do not deceive one another." You know how most people apply this, right? "Listen you, before you sell me that used car you tell me everything that's wrong with it."

Leadership is an excellent professional journal for pastors. One of their articles related an incident that came out of a church located in a university town. They needed a new pastor and after an extensive search found one everyone ended up loving. People would say, "Isn't our new pastor wonderful?" The central personality in the church had been a retired professor. He began coming back with, "You're right, but you know, the other day when I saw him I noticed how tired he's looking already - and he just got here. Do you suppose he just doesn't have what it takes to pastor a congregation like ours?" He began calling in question the pastor's emotional and mental health and family life and...the end result was the pastor lost his ministry, lost his family, lost his health, and ended up doing 3rd rate menial labor. And the professor, who just hadn't been able to handle second fiddle, with a sigh and a smile went back to being the center of attention once more.

Do you suppose you can find the book of Psalms? Psalm 15.1 asks, "Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill?" Good question. Interested in the answer? "He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from his heart and has no slander on his tongue..." Psalm 19.14, "May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer." Do you notice the connection between our heart and our mouth? Isaiah 29:13 - "The Lord says: These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me."


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Jesus' words in Matthew 12.34-37: "Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned." What about the things we have said about others? Sometimes accountability doesn't wait for the Judgement. In ancient Rome if a person was guilty of perjury he was hurled head long from the Tarpeian Rock. In ancient Egypt your nose and ears were cut off.

It was during my senior year in college. Dan came to me really angry about his missing bicycle. ""I think Mike stole it. What do you think?" Not wanting to be confrontational I agreed. Inside of one hour guess who was eyeballing me? Mike (equally angry). "Dan accused me of stealing his bicycle and he said you said I was the kind of person who would. I told him you'd never say anything like that about me." I lied. Years later the Holy Spirit reminded me and I had to send a letter confessing and asking Mike's forgiveness, telling him that the minute he came to me I knew he wasn't that kind of person. Know what he told me? Dan made a federal case out of it and got him kicked out of college, and it came close to ruining his career. It did any opportunity his father might have had to ever become a Seventh-day Adventist. Too late Dan found his own bicycle in the unusual place he had left it.

I remember watching one of the Minerth-Meier counseling videos on coping mechanisms. After running through 21 of them the doctors said, "Guess what? They're all sinful; they're all based on deceit instead of honesty." I don't remember the others, but I do remember passive-aggression. You just can't be honest. Someone asks, "You're not mad, are you?" and you say..."Naw." But inside you are mad and you act accordingly. In the video the doctors next said, "Now, we're going to give you 13 coping mechanisms that are Christian; they are honest." Assertiveness: honestly saying what's really there in a thoughtful way.

How can a person ever be totally honest? Proverbs 10.18 says, "He who hides hatred has lying lips." James adds, "If anyone doesn't offend in what they say they're perfect." Oh, to be like Jesus. He always spoke the truth. 2 Peter 2.22-23 (citing Isaiah): ""He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth." When they hurled their insults at him he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly." Jesus trusted himself with his Father, just like you and I can. So, I tell you truth. You may no like truth. You may no like me. Your problem. My Heavenly Father, he take care of me. No problem.




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Back when I was plugged into the Top 40 for three hours every afternoon I had a "license to listen" to WTAC ("wee-tack") in Flint: #1415. Each DJ had a "pick of the week" and if you sent in you might win a free recording. Along came "Love Potion Number Nine." Someone wrote in for "Love Portion Number Nine" and one of the DJs had to comment on it. I remembered that as I was working on this message. Each of the Commandments is a message, a portion of love from God, and the 9th Commandment really is love portion number nine.

Dick and John had grown up together and by the time I knew them both were Seventh-day Adventists. They put their heads together in a partnership and opened up a carpet store. Dick was the funniest guy. He'd tell customers, "If that carpet isn't here 100 years from now I'll eat the sleeves off my vest." John did the installing and he is good at what he does. They assured their customers if there was any problem they'd make it right. Shortly after that TV station WBKB opened. John and Dick got the bid. It was a lot of carpet because it covered the walls, too. Wouldn't you know, the carpet went bad - and the carpet mill wouldn't back up their product - so Dick and John had to eat it; they replaced it at their cost, and they didn't really have the money.

Station management got wind of it and came to the boys: "We're new so we don't have much money either, but we like what you did for us. We'll match your advertising, dollar for dollar up to $3500. Only you have to let us create your ads for you." They accepted. Know what the station did? They got a list of their customers and went around with a minicam and filmed interviews. Customer after customer said
"I got my carpet at Country Carpets and had a problem, and Dick and John fixed it - just like they said they would. You need carpet? You go talk to Dick and John; they're honest!" Know what happened? Two established big carpet outlets came a whisker from closing, because people preferred doing business with two young upstarts who were honest.

What God is giving us in this commandment is a gift of love: a way to real prosperity. Earlier, I shared with you the connection in Scripture between our mouths and our hearts. Jesus said this in the Sermon on the Mount: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." Wouldn't you like to have a pure heart? Let's ask God for that right now, shall we? Prayer.