HOW TO TELL GOD YOU LOVE HIM
REVELATION 5:1-14.
If you were asked to describe the Christian life in a few words, what would you say? If you were asked what does God want from us more than anything else what would you say? The answer is that the living Lord wants to have a love affair with you. The Bible says that we were created as an object of God’s love. God made you to love you. He made you to be an object of His love. That means that you are created for the purpose of having a relationship and, as a result, the most important thing you can know in life is that God loves you. And the most important thing that you can do in life is to love Him back.
Jesus was asked in Matthew which command in the Lord law is the most important? Jesus gave this answer. Matthew 22:37. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.
One version says to Lord the lord your God with all your passion.
Nothing is more important. If you do this you will fulfill your primary purpose in life. If you learn to love God and you let God love you, your life has fulfilled its meaning, its purpose. If you miss this part of your life, your life is a failure. Because you’ve missed the very reason that God created you and put you on earth – to love and be loved. There’s a term in the Bible for expressing love to God. That term is called “worship”. People often think of worship as a ritual or routine or something that you are to do in a church. Worship simply means expressing love to God. Any time you’re expressing love to God, you’re worshiping whether you’re by yourself, in a small group or in a large crowd. When you express love to God in any way you are worshiping.
Today we’re going to talk about how to express your love to the Lord. Expressing our love to God is not only something we do individually, it is something we do together. In fact, as I reflect back over my Christian life, some of the most powerful and meaningful moments took place in worship services. Someone once described the goal of worship is to make it easy to find God and making it difficult to forget him. The book of Revelation gives us a glimpse into what worship in heaven will be like. John describes a day when around the throne of God are gathered around the throne are millions of angels and believer for worship. Listen to John’s description.
Rev. 5:11-13. Then I looked again, and I heard the singing of thousands and millions of angels around the throne and the living beings and the elders. And they sang in a mighty chorus: The Lamb is worthy—the Lamb who was killed. He is worthy to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. And then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea. They also sang: Blessing and honor and glory and power belong to the one sitting on the throne and to the Lamb forever and ever.
I don’t know about you but I can’t wait for that day. Just think there is a day coming when everything in heaven and everyone on the earth will worship the Lord Jesus.
I hope that you realize that what John saw is something that we will likely be a part of. Can you imagine being a part of such a scene? I don’t know about you but I just can’t wait. After listen to what John saw I would imagine that you would think that our worship to the lord from such a few would sound as great. I think that true worship from a few believers is just as powerful when everyone is singing from their hearts in worship to God. The great thing is that we get to practice for that great day.
I saw on the Internet a book called Ten Thousand Ways To Say “I Love You. I though that today we would cover all 10,000. Well actually I’ve narrowed it down to six and a half. What I am going to share with you are ways to tell God you love Him. Now you very likely are already doing some of these but maybe you didn’t know that as you did then you were saying I love you Lord.
1. By singing to the lord Jesus Christ.
You’ve probably noticed that music and love usually go together because music comes from the heart. It’s not something you do intellectually. It’s something that comes out of our inner being, our emotions. There are many love songs in the world. There are radio stations that are dedicated entirely just play love song. But did you know that there are more songs written about Jesus Christ than any other topic in the world? Nothing even comes close in second place. Christianity is a singing faith because Christianity is not about a religion but it’s about a love affair. It’s about a relationship with God, that God loves you so much that He sent His Son to die for you and the wants His children to love Him back.
Psalm 147:7. Sing out your thanks to Him. Sing praises to our God.
Nothing will make you more aware of God’s love and God’s presence in your life than singing to the Lord. I know some of you are saying, “But you don’t understand. I can’t sing.” The Bible doesn’t say that you have to be able to carry a tune. The Bible just says, Make a joyful noise. I don’t know about you but that is something that I know I can do and I believe you can too. What I find interesting is that when we go to a ball games or if we are at a wedding that most time we don’t seem to have a problem using our voices. When we were in Saint John there were times that I would get so caught up in the worship service that I would be in a little world of my own. I know there were time that the people would spend the worship time making fun of me as I worship the Lord Jesus Christ. I know of one Sunday where one of the men came to me and asked me if the next service I would act like the rest of the people. It was kind of like the guy who was on a trip and on Sunday morning he went to church. As the congregation would sing a song that touched him he would say Amen or praise the Lord. Well after the second song one of the ushers went and asks him to please refrain from making those comments. Then when the pastor got to preach the man really began to say Amen brother or praise the Lord. Finally the usher went to the man and said please sir your have got to refrain from what you are doing. The man said I am so filled with love for the Lord that I just can’t help myself. The usher said well you didn’t get that here so don leave it here.
Psalm 66:8. Let the whole world bless our God and sing aloud his praises.
Psalm 95:1. Come; let us sing to the Lord! Let us give a joyous shout to the rock of our salvation!
Notice that the Psalmist says let us sing and let us give a joyous shout. Singing is an important part of you learning to express your love to God. I have been in churches where people got upset because of the type of music that was sung or over using a projector. Did you know that most of the music written about Jesus Christ contains scriptural principles that will help and strengthen your Christian life? Did you know that music can inspires you, it can refresh your soul and it can rejuvenate you? Did you know that if you are depressed that singing a worship song will help you because the singing gets your mind on the Lord Jesus Christ? I’ve noticed that there have been sometimes when I didn’t feel like participating in worship, when I didn’t feel like getting involved, when I just want to be a spectator. What I learned from that was that I needed to warm up my heart by singing to the Lord Jesus. By getting involved in worship of the Lord Jesus will help change my mood. I want to share a couple of report from people on how important the worship service is for them.
A. Worship is setting aside all the busyness and distractions of my life and just giving my complete attention to the Lord.
B. It is an opportunity to focus my mind on how much I love the Lord and how grateful I am for what He’s done for me.
You know that we can worship God more than just at church? As I have said worship is simply expressing our love to God. So if a person is a born again Christian than wherever you are the Lord God is there and you can worship because the presence of the Living Lord is within you. That means you can worship in the shower. You can worship in your backyard mowing the lawn. You can worship washing dishes. You can worship driving to work and on the golf course. You don’t need to be in a certain place to express your love to God but we need to remember that the writer to Hebrews informs us that we are to gather together and when we do that we encourage each other and we are a witness to our community.
We also gather to learn what the Lord has for us and we gather to express our love to God. Here is the thing when we gather for our services and we enter into the worship service the Lord becomes the audience. So when we sing to the Lord Jesus, we are expressing our love for Him. I want you to think about this for a moment. If we say we are born again by His grace and that we love Him yet when we come to a worship service and we don’t want to express or worship the one we say we love; what are we really saying? A lot of people have said well you just don’t know what I went through this week. My answer would be well the Lord got you through the week isn’t that a reason to express you love and thanks to Jesus.
Christians all over the globe come together for times of worship and, in many parts of the world where there is persecution; Christians put themselves at risk to come to a corporate gathering.
2. By TALKING to the lord Jesus Christ.
It took me a while and I’ll admit I'm a slow learner but after 45 years I finally figured out that marriage is about communication.
I believe I have told you about the couple who were married for 35 years and that on the day of their 35th anniversary the wife said she was going to leave her husband. The reason was that he never told her that he loved her. His thing was I told her when I married her and he figured he didn’t need to tell her again. When a relationship stand stills them that relationship isn’t growing and if the relationship isn’t growing then the relationship is going nowhere. A relationship that is going nowhere soon won’t be a relationship. Well the same is true with our relationship with the Lord. On the days when you have deep, significant talk with God your relationship grows. On the days when you have little or no talks with the lord your relationship isn’t growing and if something isn’t growing then it must be decaying. When you really love somebody you don’t just want to spend time with them. You want to talk with them. Remember when you first fell in love and your parents got upset because you were always on the phone? It’s like you had a phone in your ear. You talked and talked and talked. Well all that talking was helping you to get to know each other through communication. What do you talk to God about if you want to express love to God? Anything and everything that you’d talk to your best friend about and all the stuff that you can’t talk to your best friend about. You talk to the Lord about your hopes, your fears, your dreams, your anxieties, the things you’re embarrassed about, the things you’re proud of, the things you’re ashamed of, your goals, your ambitions, your hurts and the things you cares about. You talk to the Lord about every part of your life because the Lord knows every part of your life better than you do. There isn’t a part of your life that you can’t come to God and you talk about.
Psalm 116 I love the Lord because He hears me and answer my prayer, because He bends down and listens. I will pray as long as I have breath. Would you indulge me for a moment but do you still have your spark or has your Christian life become routine, dull, joyless and lifeless. If there’s no real joy or spark any more well there’s a simple remedy for that. Start talking and spending time with the Lord God again. Maybe you’re not talking to the Lord like a child talking to the Living Lord. Maybe you are talking like you are the parent and the Lord is the child. Maybe you are talking but what you are saying isn’t coming from the very essence of your life. Talking or Prayer is not some duty that you have to do. It’s a privilege that you get to do. You get to talk to the creator of the universe and He wants to talk with you. This expression of worship also has a community aspect to it. All through the Bible and through history we find pockets of Christians gathering for the purpose of prayer. Sometimes their prayers are prayers of praise. Sometimes they are prayers of intercession. Sometimes they are prayers looking for comfort or they are prayers that are looking for a deeper relationship with the Lord. I hope that prayer a priority of your life and I want you to know that you don’t have to use a special voice or certain words. Talk to Jesus like He is your best friend.
3. By LISTENING to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Listening is one of the greatest gifts you can give to somebody. Listening is hearing what the other person is saying without thinking up an answer to what they are saying. When you listen to someone, you’re saying, they matter to you that you value what they have to say. That you value their opinion because they’re important to you. When we don't listen to somebody we’re basically saying, that person isn’t important that what they have to say isn’t of any value. One of the ways you express love to anybody is by listening to them. The same is true with God. Every time you listen to God you’re saying that the Lord is important to you and you put great value what the Lord has to say. Listening is the most misunderstood and left off part of prayer. Most people think that prayer is just talking to God. That’s only fifty-percent of prayer. The other fifty-percent of prayer is shutting up and being quiet and letting God speak to us. In our world today I would imagine that most people are in too much of a hurry to do this.
I remember reading about a person who said that his time with the Lord use to go like this. Hi, God, it’s me. I’ve got ten things I need from You. Thank You. It wasn’t until he started writing down his prayer that he realized what his prayer times were actually like. He said he never stopped and wait or even listen to see if the Lord had anything to say to him. One of the most important steps you can take is to set aside time to listen to God. All of us have pressure packed filled schedules. God said that we are to set aside one day per week for rest and worship. This rhythm of life is so important that God put it in his top ten lists.
Leviticus 23:3. You have six days when you can do your work, but the seventh day of each week is holy because it belongs to me.
Perhaps the reason some of us can’t hear God is that our lives are so fast and so full and so noisy, that there is no room for God.
God has been trying to speak to us yet we say why don’t I ever hear the Lord? The reason is because we either not listening or that our lives are so full that we haven’t given anytime to listen to the Lord. The Christian world today isn’t like it used to be. There was a time when we could pause in the middle of the day and say; Do You have anything to say to me right now? Today as I watch Christians who seem to be so occupied with their phone, iPods and texting that it is no wonder that you can actually be talking to someone and while you are talking they are texting to someone else.
God speak to us through the Bible, His word. If you’re not spending any time in this book obviously He’s not going to speak to you through this book because you’re not reading it.
God speaks to us through the experiences we go through in life.
God speaks to us through trials. But you’re not listening. You’re not reading these principles in this book and you’re not being aware that God may be trying to tell you something through that irritation. God speaks to us through other people, through the advice of Christians and godly people who will say, What about this? God will often speak to you through another person. In my life, God has often provided direction, insight and confirmation through other people. Here is another reason why you need to be in community with other believers.
Proverbs 11:14. Without good direction, people lose their way; the more wise counsel you follow, the better your chances.
God will speak to you the loudest and the clearest through the wise counsel of spiritual mature friends. Do you have a trusted circle of Christian’s friends to whom you can go to seek God’s counsel?
God will speak to you through impressions. He puts ideas in your mind. Now, not every idea you get is from God. When you get an idea from God we call it an inspiration. When we get an idea from the devil we call it a temptation. When we get an idea from ourselves we just call it dumb! But how do you know if an impression is from God or not? Test it. The Bible says you’re to test it. Did you know that the Bible says that hearing God’s voice, being able to listen to God and hear God speak is the test of whether you’re really a true believer or not, whether you’re in the family or not, whether you’re headed for heaven or not? In John
Gospel Jesus talked about Him being the Good Shepherd.
John 10: 4; 16. The sheep follow him because they know his voice. I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd.
If you’ve never ever got an idea or an impression or heard from God, you have every reason to wonder, if you really know God? Do you really have a relationship with Jesus Christ? Are you truly a believer or have you stepped across the line.
4. By PUBLICLY IDENTIFYING with Jesus Christ.
Mark 8:38. If any of you are embarrassed over me and the way I’m leading you when you get around your fickle and unfocused friends, know that you’ll be an even greater embarrassment to the Son of Man when He arrives in all the splendor of God with His army of the Holy Angels. If a Christian says I'm not going to let anybody know I'm a Christian, I'm not telling my neighbors or I'm not telling my friends or the people at work that I'm keeping it a secret then you don’t really love God. If you love somebody you’re not ashamed of them. You publicly identify with them. Again, here is a place where the church community helps us to worship the Lord. When we see others who take their stand for Christ, it should give us courage to do the same and we should also let our brothers and sisters know that we are willing to stand with them in a testimony about Jesus Christ. Christianity is not about a secret club with secret words and codes. Christianity is about making one faith in Jesus Christ a public faith.
Jesus said in Matthew 5:14-15. You are the light of the world, like a city on a mountain, glowing in the night for all to see. Don't hide your light under a basket! Instead, put it on a stand and let it shine for all. I wonder if maybe sometime in our past we were encouraged to have a kind of a flashlight witness and we were to only let it shine in church. We all know that it is easy to talk about the Lord when we are surrounded by our brothers and sisters. I don’t even remember being told that when I left the church that I was to publicly allow my faith to shine so everyone could see it. I don’t know about you but I found it very difficult to be that light that was set on the hill for the world to see. Can you imagine what your wife would say if you said let’s get married but we won’t tell anyone. When no one is around we will be husband and wife but when we’re in public let’s pretend like we don’t know each other.
Well a Christian shouldn’t be saying that they love Jesus Christ when they are ashamed of Him. We need to publicly identify ourselves with Christ. That’s how we show our love for Him.
Think for a moment what Jesus did for you.
1. He saved us from the penalty of sin. He paid for your forgiveness. Think of the thing that you feel the most guilty about. The thing that has caused you the most shame in your life, the thing that you wish had never happened and you regret deeply. Now thank God because of Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.
2. He saves us from the power of sin. He breaks its grip in our lives. He gives us a new power to be able to make changes so we’re not the same anymore. He can do new things in our lives that we always wanted to do but never thought we could do on our own.
3. Eventually He saves us from the presence of sin as we graduate to heaven where there will be no sin, no sorrow, no suffering, no pain, and no grief.
Eye has not seen nor ear heard neither had entered into the heart of man the wonderful things that God has prepared for those who love Him. There’s another way you can declare that you are a Christian and that is through baptism. Baptism says I believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus Himself as a thirty year old adult went down to the Jordan River was baptized by John to say, this is how I want it done. It’s a picture of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
Second, it’s a picture of what happens to you. You’re dying to an old way of life.
Colossians 2:12. Going under the water was a burial of your old life. Coming up out of it was a resurrection, God raising you from the dead as He did in Christ.
When you’re baptized you’re saying I'm dying to all my old sins. They’re forgiven, they’re forgotten, and they’re out of my life. I'm beginning a brand new life in Christ.
Three, it symbolizes your new life in Jesus Christ.
Galatians 3:27. Your baptism in Christ was not just washing you up for a fresh start. It also involved dressing you in an adult faith wardrobe, Christ’s life, the fulfillment of God’s original promise.
5. By BEING COMMITTED to the Lord Jesus Christ.
So often we think about commitment from a purely individual perspective. In Scripture you find the people of God making commitments.
For example, at the end of Joshua’s life, Joshua challenges the people of God to stay committed to God.
Joshua 24:20-22. If you forsake the Lord and serve other gods, he will turn against you and destroy you, even though he has been so good to you. But the people answered Joshua, saying, No, we are determined to serve the Lord! You are accountable for this decision," Joshua said. You have chosen to serve the Lord. Yes, they replied, we are accountable.
Joshua 24:25. So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day at Shechem, committing them to a permanent and binding contract between themselves and the Lord.
Love is all about commitment. You don’t really love somebody unless you’re committed to their best. Nothing ever significant happens in life without commitment. Your commitments determine your future. You are becoming whatever you are committed to. So you better choose your commitments carefully. If you’re committed to the wrong thing, you’re going to become the wrong thing. You can’t lose by being committed to God. Some people are defined by their circumstances but strong people are defined by their commitments. The Bible tells us in
2 Chronicles 16:9a. For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.
6. By GIVING to the Lord Jesus Christ.
I have found that when ever I have even mention this subject that most Christians get a bit upset. The thing is I don’t understand why. The subject of tithing is a Biblical one. Jesus and the apostle Paul talked about it. I have been in churches where I have actually had people get up and walk out of the service. Well the only reason I can figure out is that the Lord probably been dealing with them and they though that the Lord was using me to pick on them. I remember reading about a man who was being baptized and when he was just about to get into the water he said to the pastor I need a minute. Now the pastor figured that the man had to go to the bathroom so he said can’t you wait until after I baptize you? The man looked at the pastor and said I don’t need a minute for that reason. I want to go get my wallet so that it can be baptized with me.
The first generations of Christians were givers. And, they did it together. It is amazing what can be done and accomplished when we each give our little bit. As you listen carefully to the history record of the early church we need to understand that I don’t see this as the Lord instructing that we sell everything that we have and put it in a community pool. I do see this as the Lord teaching that when there was a need within the church that the Christians did what they had to do to meet that need. Acts 4:32-35. All the believers were of one heart and mind, and they felt that what they owned was not their own; they shared everything they had. And the apostles gave powerful witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God's great favor was upon them all. There was no poverty among them, because people who owned land or houses sold them and brought the money to the apostles to give to others in need.
Did you catch the words of v. 34? There was no poverty among them. Now I want you to understand that the scripture isn’t saying that everyone was rich. What the Scripture is actually saying is that the needs of the people were all being met. They had all that was required to meet the needs of every person in the church. Can you imagine what would happen in our churches if we got serious about sharing with those in need? Can you imagine what would happen if we were so serious about our Jerusalem that we would make available whatever we had to those in need? Giving is at the very core of love. When you love someone you want to give to them. You can give without loving but you cannot love without giving. It is impossible to say you love God and not give. I can claim to be a Christian, a follower of Christ. I can claim to love God. But the Bible says there is one way to really test the sincerity of your love.
2 Corinthians 8: 7-8. Just as you excel in faith, in speech, in knowledge, and in complete earnestness, see that you also excel in the grace of giving. I am not commanding you but I want to test the sincerity of your love.
God tests the sincerity of your love by looking at your giving.
Why does He do that? Because you’re giving show your heart and how much you love the Lord your God. He wants you to become like Him. God so loved the world that He gave. You can become like God and become a generous giver or you can become like everyone else in the world and become a hoarder.
I want you to know that the major person who doesn’t want you to become a give is Satan. I have discovered that there are really basically two kinds of people in life. There are cheerful givers and fearful givers. Cheerful givers say, I'm going to give. It all belongs to God anyway. He gave it all to me. I wouldn’t have anything without God so I'm going to give it all to Him and He can take care of all my needs. Then there are the fearful givers. These are the ones who say we can’t afford to do this. They are the ones who feel that it is their job to be their own god and look after and protect their interests. If we feel that we have to protect our interest that is a sign that we don’t trust the Lord. It is also a sign that we don’t look at everything we have as coming from the Lord. It is also a sign that we don’t love the Lord as much as we say we do. It is also a sign that Jesus Christ isn’t the Lord of our lives.
