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This is the Real Faith Podcast where we talk about a movie clip, a scripture, and make an application. We hope these provide encouragement to you. I'm your host, Chuck Bower. After a successful church ministry of 28 years, I became a public school teacher currently teaching high school English. We hope you are blessed by these episodes. Have you guys ever gone to Sunday school? Puny God. I love you. I know. Welcome back to Real Faith.
Thank you so much for listening and spreading the word about the podcast. For the month of February, I'm looking at the topic of love. Honestly, it has to be one of the greatest topics to discuss. Specifically, God's love for us. God's love for the sinner. Last week, we looked at John 3.16 that clearly states, God so loved the world. What a powerful statement. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.
And then we followed that up with Romans 5.8. God demonstrates his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Two amazing verses that can awaken us, that should awaken us with the gospel message that God loves us and wants a right relationship with us. Our sin prevents that relationship so God sent his son to pay the price for our sins that we could never pay on our own. That is amazing love. Now, let me ask you, how do we respond to that love?
Maybe we accepted the Lord years ago, but can people tell that we have that right relationship? Can people tell that we've been changed, that we've been transformed by God's love? Today's clip comes from one of my all time favorite movies. Honestly, I think it's one of the most quotable movies of all time. Maybe Tombstone is a close second. From this movie, we get so many classic quotes. I can even give you a one word quote and you will know this movie. It's from the 80s. Here it is. You ready?
Inconceivable. Of course, it's the princess bride. I use one of those quotes in the intro, as you wish. Some other popular quotes from the movie. Hold it, hold it. Is this a kissing book? Murdered by pirates is good. No more rhymes, I mean it. Anybody want a peanut? And of course the marriage. Woe, true woe. Marriage. Have fun storming the castle. You seem a decent fellow. I hate to kill you. You seem a decent fellow. I hate to die. You get it, right? So many quotes in this movie.
And it's a great movie. It holds up well. Princess Bride came out in 1987 and it holds a special place in my heart. I remember the friends I saw it with and the theater in Knoxville that we went to to see it when it opened up. It was magical. It's currently streaming on Disney Plus and as I said, I think it holds up very well. Yes, the rodents of unusual size are a little cheesy looking, but I'll take it to have this classic any day. It was written by William Goldman and directed by Rob Reiner.
It has huge stars in it. Carrie Ellis, Robin Wright, Mandy Patinkin, Andre the Giant, and Billy Crystal stars as Miracle Max, which is the star of our clip. Wesley has just been killed by Humperdinck because of Buttercup's love for him. If you remember, Humperdinck is forcing Buttercup to marry him. Wesley is dead, so Inigo and Fezzik take his body to Miracle Max for help. And we get our clip of the week. We're in a terrible rush. Don't rush me, sonny.
You rush a miracle man, you get rotten miracles. You got money? 65. I never worked for so little, except once, and that was a very noble cause. This is noble, sir. His wife is crippled. His children are on the brink of starvation. You a rotten liar. I need him to help avenge my father, murdered these 20 years. Your first story was better. Where's that bellows cramp? He probably owes you money, huh? Well, I'll ask him. His daddy can't talk. Look who knows so much, huh?
Well, it just so happens that your friend here is only mostly dead. There's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Please open his mouth. Now, mostly dead is slightly alive. Now, all dead, well, with all dead, there's usually only one thing that you can do. What's that? Go through his clothes and look for loose change. Hey, hello in there. Hey, what's so important? What you got here, that's worth living for. True love. True love. You heard him?
You could not ask for a more noble cause than that. Honey, true love is the greatest thing in the world, except for nice MLT, a mud and lettuce and tomato sandwich when the mud is nice and lean and the tomato is ripe. It's so perky. I love that. But that's not what he said. He distinctly said to blave. And as we all know, to blave means to bluff, huh? So you're probably playing cards and he cheated. Liar! Liar! Liar! Get back, witch! I'm not a witch, I'm your wife!
But after what you just said, I'm not even sure I want to be that anymore. You never had it so good. True love. He said true love, Matt. Don't say another word, Valerie. I was afraid. Ever since Prince Humperdinck fired him, his confidence is shattered. Why did you say that name? You promised me that you would never say that name. What? Humperdinck? Humperdinck? Humperdinck? Humperdinck? Humperdinck? Humperdinck? Humperdinck? Humperdinck? Humperdinck? Humperdinck? Humperdinck? Humperdinck?
Humperdinck? Humperdinck? This is Buttercup's true love. If you kill him, he will stop Humperdinck's wedding. Shut up! Wait, wait. I'm making better Humperdinck's office? Humiliation's galore. Ha, ha, ha. I did a lick, Daldey, naysha. That is a noble cause. Give me the 65. Come on, the job. I will! That's a miracle pill. The chocolate coating makes it go down easier, but you have to wait 15 minutes for full potency. And you shouldn't go swimming after for at least what? An hour. An hour.
An hour. Thank you for everything. Okay. Bye-bye, boys. Have fun storming the castle. Think it'll wait? It would take a miracle. Bye-bye. Now, I know I could have used a half dozen clips from this movie, but I like this one. I mean, who doesn't love a good MLT? What Wesley says when Max asks him, what's so important that you need to live for? Of course, he replies, true love. Miracle Max says that true love is the greatest, the most noble thing in the world.
Wesley was mostly dead, but the noble cause of true love brings him back to life. Now, this might be a stretch, but bear with me. Are you fully alive in God's love or are you mostly dead? Do you just go through the routines of the day or has the love of God transformed you through and through? Now, I know we fail, we sin, we battle against the flesh, and we try to live by the spirit.
But if we are believers, shouldn't there be a significant difference in our love from those who aren't walking by faith? Do we have the true love of God in our lives and are we loving others? Love tells the world that Jesus is our Lord. Jesus said in John 13, 35, your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples. Now, the love word used here is agape. You've probably heard that before. This is the same Greek word that's used in John 3, 16.
Agape is one of the Greek words for love. This is the selfless, unconditional, and sacrificial love that God has for us and calls us to have in return for others. Hebrews 13, verse 1 admonishes us to keep on loving. Yes, it's hard, but that is how we as Christians are called to live. We must have that true love in our lives for others. We must have that agape love. In Donald Miller's book, Blue Like Jazz, he has a chapter called Love, How to Really Love Other People.
He tells of the time that he was at a lecture by Greg Spencer that talked about the metaphors that we use around relationships. He said we talk about how we value people, invest in people, say that people are priceless or that a relationship is bankrupt if it's bad. All these metaphors are economic ones. And he says this, quote, the problem with Christian culture is we think of love as a commodity. We use it like money.
He continues, if somebody is doing something for us, offering us something, be it gifts, time, popularity, or what have you, we feel that they have value. We feel that they are worth something to us, and perhaps we feel that they are priceless. I could see it so clearly and I could feel it in the pages of my life. This was the thing that had smelled so rotten all these years. I used love like money. The church used love like money.
With love, we withheld affirmation from people who did not agree with us, but we lavishly financed the ones who did. You see, Donald Miller makes the connection that sometimes we as Christians, we dole out love as a currency, just like he said. If we find people have worth to us, then we love them. But that's not what agape love is. Donald Miller goes on in the chapter to give an example about a guy that was in his life.
He says this, there was a guy in my life at the time, a guy I went to church with whom I honestly didn't like. I thought he was sarcastic and lazy and manipulative. He ate with his mouth open so that food almost fell from his chin when he talked. He was annoying. He began to get under my skin. I wanted him to change. I wanted him to read a book, memorize a poem, or explore morality, at least as an intellectual concept.
I didn't know how to communicate to him that he needed to change, so I displayed it on my face. I rolled my eyes. I gave him dirty looks. I would mouth the word loser when he wasn't looking. I thought somehow he would sense my disapproval and change his life in order to gain my favor. In short, Donald Miller says, I withheld love. After Greg Spencer's lecture, I knew what I was doing was wrong. It was selfish. And what's more, it would never work.
By withholding love from my friend, he became defensive. He didn't like me. He thought I was judgmental, snobbish, proud, and mean. Rather than being drawn to me, wanting to change, he was repulsed. I was guilty of using love like money. Withholding it to get somebody to be who I wanted them to be. I was making a mess of everything. And I was disobeying God. Donald Miller closes the chapter with the question, are we loving others with the love of Jesus? Are we treating love as a commodity?
Or are we loving others as Christ has loved us? Are we loving others with that agape biblical love, that sacrificial selfless love? We love because God has loved us through Jesus. Don't keep a love with conditions or treated as a commodity. That would be a love that would be mostly dead. Love others as God has loved us. After all, that is true love. Until next week.