We all have specific things we love, but there will always be things we love more.

One of the Life.Church code statements is "We give up things we love, for things we love even more."

So, if we break this down a little bit, we give up things we love like parties, drinking, smoking, drugs, going to the bar, cussing, and gossiping, for things we love even more. But why should I give these things up? They are fun and they make me happy. I only go for the social part of it, I'm not doing anything wrong.

Here are a couple reasons to give these things up:

Going to the bar means being around drunks and being in an environment that a solid Christian should not be in. We as Christians avoid these environments because they could potentially take us back to the darker parts of our past that we struggled to overcome.

Gossiping and cussing may be hard to give up, but in the bible, Ephesians 4:29 says "Don't use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them." It says do not use ugly or hateful language. It doesn't matter if it's just your thoughts or if it's out loud. Use only words that are going to be helpful. There are people listening that you may not know are listening. Somebody who just needs to hear the word of Jesus may be eavesdropping on your conversation, so speak only what is true. It might be that you are the only Bible they read.

We give up these things because we love Jesus more than we love these worldly actions. God gave us His one and only son so that we may find happiness and peace, as opposed to pain and regret. He gives us a life so we can live out His word and do His will. So, why would we revert to the ways of our past? Why would we not live our life completely devoted to Him? Why turn back to the past that was so dark? We do this because we love Him more. His love fulfills us more than anything that this world can give us.