Today we will be continuing on the series; THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM. We started with AN INTRODUCTION two weeks back. Last week, the Lord graciously exposed us to the first key; THE WORD OF GOD, and today we are looking at the second key. But the dynamics of this key is that it's not just a key, it's a key and a key holder. You would want to ask; how can you have a key that is also a key holder, you will see it in the word. Now I'm so excited this because it wasn't planned. I realized that today is actually February 14 and worldwide people celebrate Lover’s day in ignorance. So, when the Lord gave this word and I saw the significance of it in collision with today on the calendar, I said yes this is God.

 

There's something God has to say to us today that is so key and important. Now this second key is so vital, we can't joke around it. Now all other keys will be useless without it. All other keys will not be functional without it, in fact if other keys and you don't have this key, you will lose other keys that you have. That is how vital this key is. So today we are looking at a second key in the series of the keys of the kingdom, THE BOND OF LOVE. We will start with Colossians 3 this morning; we will be reading a number of Scriptures. Please let's open up our hearts to the Holy Spirit as He leads and teach us this morning in the name of Jesus.

 

Colossians 3:12-14:"therefore, as the elect of God…" now I want you to notice every word in this verse. Therefore, as the elect of God…, so this Scripture is written to the elect, the believers, the saints, the sons of God. Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved…. So, the intro to this is that you are the elect of God. You are holy in the nature of God and you are beloved. Why are we called beloved? Because why we were yet sinners, Christ showed us Love, God showed us Love in the sacrifice of Christ Jesus and He Loved us in hope. So, we are beloved. We are the beloved of the Lord. We are precious in His sight. No wonder there was a conversation in Psalms by the angels because they were in awe of how beloved we are. They said “what man that you God are mindful of him, nor the son of man that you visit him?” That happens in a Love relationship. So, man is actually beloved. Much so is the man that is in Christ. He is the beloved of the Lord because the same Love in which God have for Christ is the same Love that He has bestowed on us. The Bible says “the Love of God has been shared abroad in our heart by the Holy Spirit.”

 

The same Spirit He gave His Son ‘not less’, the same Spirit He has given to us, so we are beloved. Your identity is spiritual, when you miss it, you miss who you are. There are many people that look at themselves in the mirror and stand and judge themselves by the outward man, you are missing it, your true identity is in your spiritual origin, and nature. Your true identity is in the one that begat you. The Bible says we have been born of an incorruptible seed. So, you are beloved. Don’t let the devil lie to you, because the devil is a lie and the father of lies. He brings up an appearance to falsify the things that God has done. So, the devil is about falsehood. So anytime the devil is speaking to you, please flip it. Because what he is saying is a lie, because when you flip it around, you will get the truth. So, when the devil wants to make you feel as if you are the worse person on the earth, flip it, you are the best. Because you are beloved.

 

God is a business God, because He is not a man. God does not invest where there is no profit. If you look through the parables Jesus told of God, about the kingdom in representation of God, you will note that God is a business God. He is always about profit. No loss, anything that will bring loss God cast out. When the devil was going to bring loss to the kingdom, he was cast out. God does not joke around loss. He is profit minded. And that’s when Jesus was telling the story of the tree that refused to produce, giving us an example of the mindset of God, it said “and the owner came and said why is this tree encumbering the ground?” And they came and said to him “please don’t cut it down, let us dig around it, let’s add manure let’s see, give it another year, let’s see if it will yield.” And he did. But when he came back and found no fruit yet, he asked it to be cut down. That’s God, so if your life does not matter, God will not invest. If your life does not matter and God does not see a prospect of profit, He will not invest. So, when you see the investment of God in your life, know that you matter.

 

So, you are beloved, don’t let the devil lie to you. It says now we are talking about the beloved, we are talking about you, ‘put on tender mercies’, now we remember that the text of this series is Ephesians 6:11-18, where the Bible makes us to understand that the weapon of our warfare is not carnal, we do not wrestle against flesh and blood against principalities and powers and rulers of darkness and it says put on the whole armor of God so that you will be able to stand against. So, ‘you put on’. So, when the Bible talks about putting on, it's talking about something vital to your identity. And that's why when the Bible tells you to put on something, it is talking about your spirit man, your inward Man. That Scripture we read yesterday in 1 Peter about not letting your adornment be merely outward, the braiding of the hair, wearing of Gold and all that. Adorn your spirit, what the devil is concerned and committed to is to shift your attention from your spirit to your body.

 

The devil invests all his arsenals to make sure that the sons of God, the children of God, pay attention more to their outward man that perishes than their inward Man that gives them the ability to be able to defeat him. So, when God is admonishing and speaking to us, He will always tell us to put on, decorate your spirit man. So, in Ephesians 6 we were made to see the whole armor of God. The things you must decorate and arm your spirit with. Those are the things. And in this verse, it's now telling us that in addition to all that, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, these are things in your spirit. These are not things that will be seen on your outward man. It will be seen in your inward Man. Put on meekness, long-suffering, bearing with one another and forgiving one another. If anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. And I remember this Scripture this morning, somebody offended me this morning and I have to forgive. Because it is not about you, it's about what God asked you to do. So, if the Love of God is in your heart, you will do it, because it's a command. And one beautiful thing about the command of God is that the more you do it, by reason of use you have your senses exercised, once you are doing something that God asked you to do, you are communicating to your soul that this is how we must live. So, you are renewing your mind.

 

So, the Bible says forgive as Christ has forgiven you, but above; you have put on render mercies, kindness, humility, meekness; but it says above all these things. So, what we are going to be talking about now surpasses them all. Above all these things, put on Love. So, Love must be put on. Do you wear it on your outward body? No! It must be on your spirit. Put on Love which is the bond of perfection. Do we now see why I said it's a key holder? Because when you say something is a bond, that means it unites, it holds, it secures. So, Love is what secures all the keys of the kingdom. Every key of the kingdom is secured, united, held together by Love. It said put on Love. If you don't put on Love, you would have missed out on what should hold the keys together. Imagine that you have 14 keys, no key holder, how will you do it? It's only a matter of time before you start to look for some keys. And that's what happens in the kingdom.

 

You have the key of prayer, the key of the word, the key of this and that, so many of them, the key of thanksgiving, praise, if there is no Love you will lose them. You will lose those keys it's only a matter of time. You will start hot, you will start to hold the keys, before you know it, you have lost them. Why? Love the key holder, the key of keys is missing. So, the key holder of all the keys of the kingdom is Love. It binds it together. Above all these things put on Love. Let Love hold the keys for you. And we will see why that is so vital and important. One of the things we will see in the kingdom is this; some people have watered down Love, we know God is Love, we say it but we don't understand the import of it. In this kingdom, Love is a true mark of maturity. It's not in the speaking of tongues, because if you go to 1 Corinthians 13 and you read from verse 1-13, you will see what apostle Paul was saying about Love.

 

1 Corinthians 13:1. Though I speak with the tongues of men, it's a gift. I'm sure many of us when we hear our fellow believers speak in tongues, we will conclude that that person is Spiritual, that person is hot. But apostle Paul said “though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have no Love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal”, empty. I have lost that key. Speaking in tongues is an important key in the kingdom, it gives you access but without Love you will lose it, you will become a sounding brass and a clanging cymbal. Verse 2, and though I have the gift of prophesy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, faith is a key of the kingdom, so that I could remove mountains but have not Love I am nothing. I have lost that key. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not Love, it profits me nothing. I have lost it. Then he began to describe Love. This is what the Bible says we must put on. Put on Love, put on this. Not the Love of the world. The Love of God. Love suffers long and it is kind. This is what you must put on your spirit.

 

“Love suffers long and is kind; Love does not envy; Love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; ⁵ does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; ⁶ does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; ⁷ bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” This is the nature of the Love that you must put on. Love never fails and this is key. Love is the reason why your prayer will not fail. Love is the reason why the word of the Lord on your lips will not fail, Love is the reason why your faith will not fail. The Bible says there abides these three things, faith, hope and Love. It said the greatest of the three is Love. The reason why your hope will not be dashed is because of Love. The reason why your faith will not fail is because of Love. So, Love never fails, it's nature of Love, and that is the nature the Bible says put on. Put on your spirit man Love, and your spirit man will have the capacity to record success over and over again, it will not fail.

 

The Bible says but whether there are prophecies, they will fail, without Love they will fail, whether there are tongues, they will cease. What is apostle Paul saying in verse 8? He said until you put on Love that never fails your prophecy will fail. You are wondering what is he saying? Remember prophet Jonah? God sent him to Nineveh, he took a detour to Tar-shish. Why did he have the problem of going to Nineveh? Love! You will see it in the latter part of that book. When he started talking with God, because God now showed mercy to the people, Jonah was angry. Why? He wanted his prophecy, what he said not to fail. No Love! And the Bible says Love never fails. Who is that person that never failed over Nineveh? God! Jonah failed. But God never fails. Why? There is a Love He has for those people. They turned and repented and God had mercy on them.

 

So, whether there are prophecies they will fail, whether there are tongues they will cease, you will pray in tongues to a point, if there is no Love of God in your heart it will cease. Whether there is knowledge it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when that which is perfect, what is perfect? Love! Remember where we read in Colossians 3, it says the bond of perfection is Love. So, when that which perfect has come, that which is imperfect will be done away. Verse 11: when I was a child I spoke as a child. Apostle Paul making us to understand that Love is a mark of maturity. When I was a child without Love I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, when I became mature in Love, what did he say, I put away childish things. Love is a mark of true maturity in the kingdom. For now, we see in the mirror dimly face to face, but now I know in part, but then I have known just as I am known. Verse 13 and abide faith, hope and Love these three, but the greatest, the most powerful, the most potent is Love. Because God is Love. So, this is the kind of Love that we must put on.

 

1 John 4:8 say: he who does not Love does not know God. So, you are ignorant of God when you are ignorant of Love. He who does not Love does not know God for God is Love, that is His nature, that is His personality. So, Love comes from the heart very important. We can read Proverbs 4:23 later in our own leisure time. Love comes from the heart, and I'm sure if we see Galatians 5:19-22 it's also clear. But the fruit of the Spirit is Love. So, Love is spiritual, you must put Love on your spirit. For those that did not join us in our evening Bible School yesterday, it will be meaningful for you to go back to that message, it will help you understand this more. You must put Love on your spirit, that's who you are. So, Love comes from the heart. The Bible says guard your heart diligently for out of it comes the issues of life. What flows from your heart are the things that make for your life. So, Love comes from your heart, it flows from your inward man. So, we are going to look at two sub headings very quickly.

 

The Expression of Love in the Kingdom

 

Matthew 22:36-40. Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?  Somebody asked Jesus this question. Jesus said to him, you shall Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. Verse 39; And the second is like it: so, there are two expressions of Love in the kingdom that are foundational and fundamental. Jesus said the second one is like it; you shall Love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hangs all the law and the prophets. What entered my spirit from that verse is that the summary of all the Scriptures is Love. In it hangs all the law and the prophets. For you to say you are a kingdom citizen, and there is no Love in your spirit, you are not of God. You don’t belong to this kingdom. The two expressions of Love in the kingdom are; Number one: your Love for God. Jesus said you shall Love, it’s a commandment, it is binding. If you are a spirit being, an elect, a saint, this is a binding principle. You must Love God, you must Love Him with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might. Remember let us look at the arrangement. You must Love God with all your heart, so you must put on Love in your spirit. Number two: you must Love Him with all your soul. You must teach your soul; you must renew your soul to Love God. And you must Love Him with all your mind. The knowledge of the Love of God must fill your mind. That’s the first expression.

 

So, if you are in the kingdom and you don’t Love God, you are not a citizen. Love is the greatest and it starts with your Love for God. You cannot express Love in the kingdom if you have not Love God.  And that’s why Jesus said this is the first step. And He said the second expression is like it, Love for one another. You must Love one another. All through the New Testament; the epistles and the letters, you will see that Love was what established in the church. You can’t say you are part of us and you don’t Love. 1 John 2:9-10. In fact, in 1 John, it was repeated over and over again. “He who says he is in the light…” in the kingdom of Light, “and hates his brother is in darkness until now he who Loves his brother abides in the light.” So, you are in the kingdom when you Love your neighbor, your brother, your sister, you are in the light. And there is no cause for stumbling in him. But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness. Even though say you are in the kingdom. No! The devil has you. It says he walks in darkness and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes. Let me say this at this point, in the kingdom of God, God makes Love the binding principle. Remember the devil will always bring the falsehood of whatever is true. He will twist it. Now the devil has the opposite but coated.

 

Now what is the opposite? It's hatred. But he will coat it. He will say Love yourself that's the preaching of the devil, Love yourself so much that whatever you want to do for others, make sure you have so satisfied yourself first. Before you can think of any other person. But that's not true in the kingdom. And that's why you will see people in the world, who say they are self-made millionaires. So, to give somebody a helping hand becomes difficult. Because they will say if I do like that, I have not helped you, because nobody helped me, you will have to sort yourself out. And that is the lie of the devil, making people see that they must Love themselves so much that they now hate other people. Some people will say I am not a bad person, this is just life, nobody helped me, I can’t help anybody. I struggled and hustled myself, you also should struggle and hustle, why should I give to you. Don’t you have hands? Don t you have legs? So why? That is the lie of the devil and it has penetrated into the church that we justify our hatred for our brothers. Somebody needs prayer, we will say we have our own prayer list is very long. I can’t leave my own to carry your own on my head. It can’t work like that. But that’s the lie of the devil, and it has come into the church. That’s why you will see we have less intercession in the church because everybody is now preoccupied with themselves.

 

You will intercede because you Love God, our Love in the kingdom comes primarily from our Love for God, we Love God so much that we put ourselves on the sideline. God first! Because its God first then I must Love that my brother/sister that God Loves. God first, that’s the principle of the kingdom and it is binding. I will pray for you even though I have my prayer points because I Love God, because God said pray. In the latter book of Job, the Bible says and God remembered job and blessed him with double portion because he prayed for his friends. Look at the life of Job do you know there are more than 365 prayer points in that life alone? But Bible says the minute Job became selfless, and looked to God and not to his situation, God changed him. When I first gave my life to Christ, one of the first lessons the Holy Spirit thought me, is to learn to pray for others. It says while you are busy at it, I will take care of you. and that principle the devil is making it erode the church and that’s why we keep coming, we pray and pray for ourselves and it looks as if nothing is happening. Why? We have abandoned Love. We have lost the key of prayer, because we have lost Love.

 

So, it looks as you have preoccupied yourself, 7 days a week you are praying for yourself and no answer because God is looking at your heart, is this all? Are you even concerned about what is in my heart? Is your Love for me drawing you to the place to ask me, God what do you want me to pray about? The Bible says we don’t know how we should pray as we ought, but the Spirit makes intercession for us with groaning that cannot be uttered in words. And this is the life we have been called to. That’s why when we are talking about kingdom, we are not talking about religion, in religion the devil lies to people but in the kingdom, there are salient principles, that if you don’t walk in, you will miss out. And fundamental in it is Love. It is the key holder. Everything you think you have, if Love is not binding it, you will lose it, so Love for one another is critical, vital in the kingdom.

 

In 1 John 4, you can’t say you Love God that you cannot see when you cannot Love your brother that you can see. God calls that falsehood. It’s not correct, its religion. The devil has coated lie for us in the name of religion and we have abandoned the kingdom and God is looking at us. Jesus prayed a prayer, He said Father let them be one as we are one, that’s Love. Jesus Loved God so much that when He was in the garden of Gethsemane, He was not looking at Himself, the Bible said He prayed until, His sweat was like a drip of blood and He still said, never the less not my will but yours be done. That’s Love. Holy Spirit Loves Jesus so much that He will not testify of Himself, He will testify of Jesus. He said see us, if you can truly be like us then the kingdom of God will truly come, it’s not just in the Lord’s prayer it’s in your action. It says by this the whole world will know that you are My disciples, by your Love for one another. So, Jesus commanded us to Love, its important.

 

What will Love do for you?

 

Let us go into that very quickly. 2 Peter 1:2-11. What will Love do to you? When the bond of Love is received as a key of the kingdom and it’s at work and you put on Love sincerely in your heart, what will it do for you? 2 Peter 1:2-11. Its lengthy but I want us to read it deliberately because those verse are important.

 

Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, ³ as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, ⁴ by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature.

 

We read this Scripture yesterday and the vessel of utterance made us to understand that the divine nature we are talking about here is the nature of God. What qualifies us to be partakers of that divine nature is because we have come into Christ. And once we are a partaker of that divine nature, we are growing into maturity. We become matured in the kingdom. Then we can be handed down the keys that gives us access. It says partakers of divine nature, “having escaped” when you become partakers of the divine nature, you escape the corruption that is in the world through lust. We have mentioned that. The devil will coat it. So, you are lusting about everything that satisfy you. Love is not selfish and that is why lust is not found in Love. There is no lust of the eyes in Love, there is no lust of the flesh in Love, there is no pride of life in Love. Love is selfless.

 

Verse 5:

 

“But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, ⁶ to knowledge self-control, to self-control ^[d]perseverance, to perseverance godliness, ⁷ to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness Love. That’s the last thing. Add, keep adding until you attain Love. So, Love is the goal, Love is the destination, continue to add these things, you are walking gradually, walking your way to maturity in the kingdom. When you get to Love, you have gotten it, that’s the peak. It says: For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. If you have not attained Love, the knowledge of Christ you think you have, you will lose it. It says; you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness. We have read this in Colossians; and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. ¹⁰ Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent.

 

So, Love takes diligence. Be even more diligent to make your call, your call to Love, for if you do these things you will never stumble. Love never fails, if you do these things, you will never stumble, for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Do you see where we are working it from? It says when these things are yours, they are in you, what will happen to you? You will be supplied abundantly; you will be given access into the everlasting kingdom. So, what gives us unlimited access to the kingdom? Love! That’s what Love will do for you. Love will give you unlimited. If you read that verse 11 it’s so rich. For so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly: that’s why I Love God, there is no scarcity in Him. Abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ.

 

Love will give you unlimited access. You have been praying, you been trusting God, “Lord give me the keys.” This is the key of keys, and the key holder, the bond of Love. If we hold on to this key, we will have abundant entrance into the ‘everlasting’ not a temporary kingdom, the everlasting kingdom. Access un-denied. In security outfits they talk about levels of access, you must get to a point before you can get security clearance. Love clears all security clearance; gives you access to all security levels in the kingdom. You keep going from one level to another in the kingdom via Love. Let Love be your hunger, let the hunger of your spirit be defined in Love. Let it be the vessel, the container that you take into the presence of God, you will never come back empty. Never! This is the truth of the word of God.

 

I believe you have learnt something!  

Thanks for the gift of your time, I am Lara Gboyega Adedeji!

Feel free to share your thoughts or testimony in the comment box below. I promise to respond to them as soon as possible!