Heavenly Waiter Or Sit Down Friend?

Scripture: Dt. 6:5; Jeremiah 31:3; Matthew 22:37

Theme: Loving The LORD

Title: Heavenly Waiter or Sit-Down Friend?

Deuteronomy 6:5 -English Standard Version

5 You shall love the Lord your The LORD with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

Jeremiah 31:3 English Standard Version

3 the Lord appeared to him[a] from far away.

I have loved you with an everlasting love;

therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.

Matthew 22:37 -English Standard Version

37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your The LORD with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

“The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend.” (Exodus 33:11)

INTRO:

How many of you ate out last week?

How many of you and your family took the time to travel to a nice restaurant to enjoy a wonderful meal?

Growing up in Eastern Kentucky, going out to eat was not common. Or should I say it was not something that our family did very much. In fact, I don’t think that we went out as a family to a proper restaurant more than 10 times in my first 18 years of life.

Now, there are a few reasons for that:

1. We were a family of seven people who were living on a rather constrained budget.

2. There were not very many family style restaurants near our little town.

3. My mom happened to be an excellent cook, so my dad thought why should we go somewhere else where the food is not as good as what we can eat at home.

That pattern of not going out to eat became a part of my life. Having not been raised to go out to eat, I didn’t think it was important to go out to eat with my family as well.

And like my dad, I gave all the same reasons – not enough money and the food made at home was so much better than what we could find at a local restaurant.

It wasn’t until a few years ago that I decided that it was time to break that habit.

So, Rebekah and I have a date day every week. Included in that day is the sharing of a meal at one of our favorite restaurants.

It’s our time to be together. It’s our time when we can get away from the busyness of life. It’s our time when we can share something to eat, and we don’t have to deal with the cooking or cleaning up. And it’s something that Rebekah likes to do so naturally I enjoy it as well.

We have our favorite places to go. Places that we believe provide a pleasant atmosphere, great food and wonderful services. And by wonderful services, I mean that have good waiters and waitresses.

And if you are like me, you want a skilled waiter or waitress. I mean they can easily make or break the mealtime.

Over the years we have had some that have tried to entertain us when all we wanted them to do was to take our order and serve us. We were not there to be entertained by their wit or comedy.

We have had others that were in training and at times that meant that they were finding out that being a waiter or waitresses was not in their skill set.

All of it, makes the times when you have a skilled waiter or waitress a joy. For there is nothing better than a waiter or waitress understanding their true purpose in taking your order, seeing that it is right and then kindly bringing it to you with a proper attitude and smile.

I was thinking about all this the other day and realized that there have been times in my life that I have treated my relationship with the LORD on that same level. I have wanted the LORD to be my Heavenly waiter ready to wait on me at given moment, provide what I feel like I need all with a proper attitude and smile.

Now, let’s take a moment or two this morning and flesh all of this out.

It may be the case that there are some of us here this morning that have done the same thing to the LORD.

You have …

1. Desperately wanted the LORD to be attentive to you like a great waiter.

+You have wanted Him to be aware of your needs without being overly intrusive.

+You have wanted Him to be aware when you need something without you having to always remind Him of your concerns and needs.

+You want Him to just provide for you the things that you want or feel like you need.