GOD LOVES YOU 9/11 sermon
As I prepare to preach, I usually do so in one of three ways. Either, the Lord will begin laying something on my heart during the week that really speaks to me, or really burdens me, and I feel led to preach on that topic that particular Sunday. The sermon will grow out of things that I have been studying that week. Other times, I will find myself on Saturday praying and asking the Lord what He wants me to preach on that particular week. He will often then lead me to a passage and as He leads me through a passage or a subject the sermon will come together. Sometimes the Lord just lays a sermon out before me and I can see the whole thing as I look at a scripture passage. This week was a little different.
Yesterday I found myself asking the Lord, “What do you want me to tell your people this week?” I don’t remember asking Him that question before, but I did this time. He answered, “Tell them I love them.” “Tell them You love them?” “Yes, tell them I love them.”
Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t normally carry on conversations with the Lord like this. I will often tell Him what I’m thinking, or about problems I have, and ask His direction or will in a situation; then I’ll often sense an answer in a passage of scripture or something like that, but seldom do we actually carry on a conversation where I sense Him answering my every question; but we talked.
I said, “You want me to tell them You love them. Ok Sir. Does that mean You want me to preach on John 3:16, and remind them that You loved them enough to send Your Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross to pay for their sins?” Does that mean You want me to preach on Romans 5:8 where we are told that You proved Your love for us in that even when we were sinners, Jesus died for us?” “I want you to preach on the 10 Commandments.” On the 10 Commandments?
Lord, tomorrow is 9/11. I know that, and I allowed that because I love them. The people who died that day who didn’t know or love me. They had already chosen their path. The people who died that day who loved Me, they are much better off and in a much better place; but think of how that day impacted America.
Do you remember what you did after hearing about the World Trade Center? Yes Sir. I went home, and Gladys, Drew and I sat in front of the TV. We hugged a lot. You remembered what was important? Yes Sir. Well, a lot of other people did, at least for a short time as well.
All across America, people called their families to check on them. The phone lines were jammed. That night, parents spent a little extra time tucking their children into bed. For days, people realized the futility of much of what they were doing and much of what they were pursuing. Congress, who had been passing legislation trying to keep Me and My people out of things, stood together and sang, “God Bless America.” For more than a month, My churches were full. At least temporarily, people remembered what was important. On that day, there were muslims in the Middle East, dancing in the streets because of the death and pain America suffered. Could there be a greater distinction between that and when I told My followers that they would be known by their love?
“You tell them I Love Them.”
Our conversation went something like that, and because I was told to, this morning we are going to look at the 10 Commandments together through the lens of God’s love.
- Read Exodus 20:1-17
1. I love you, have no other gods. Back in the very beginning of the Bible, we are told that God made us. He made us in His image. He designed us for fellowship with Him.
When we have other things as god in our lives, when we allow other things to become the priority in our lives, we do not experience the joy, the peace, and the contentment he designed and created us to enjoy.
God says, “I love you and want the best for you. Have no other gods.
2. I love you, allow no imitations.
In the 2nd commandment, we are told not to make idols or anything that resembles an idol. We humans are inclined to forget, sometimes, why we make things.
Why do we have automobiles? We have them to provide transportation. You ever see an antique car being pulled down the road on a trailer? Is that antique car now being used the way it was designed? No. The car has become more valuable to its owner than the transportation it provides.
What are model trains designed for? They are designed for people to play with and imagine a real train line. You look though, there a lot of folks who will take “special” trains and put them in cases to look at, not running them anymore. They’re not being used the way they were intended.
God said, “Don’t make any graven images, because you’ll forget what they are for and begin worshipping them or begin using them ini the wrong way.”
As long as I have that angel statue in my house . . . No. Angels are messengers of the Lord. You’ll be OK because He is with you, not because you have a statue in your house.
I have my Saint Whoever medallion. I’ll be OK. No, you’ll be OK because the Lord said He’d never leave you nor forsake you.
I remember attending the church my mom grew up in, when I was a child. They had this huge picture of Jesus on the wall behind the choir loft.
Are you kidding me? That painting made Jesus look like a girly-man with nice hair. No wonder people get the idea that Jesus just wants everyone to be happy and whatever you want to do is just fine. That’s not the case.
Jesus was a man’s man. He was a carpenter in the days before Home Depot and power tools.
That picture made Him look like He never got upset about anything, but I remember He turned over tables and drove livestock out of the temple with a whip.
I love you. Allow no imitations, they will only cause problems.
3. I love you, honor My name.
I was talking to a man a while back and he referred to “His old lady”.
I don’t know about you, but Gladys is my best friend. She is my helpmeet. If I were to go around referring to her as my old lady, or my ball and chain, or whatever, people would get the idea that she is less than she is. They would get the idea of that I value her less than I do.
God says, “Don’t misuse My name. When you misuse My name, you give folks the idea that I am not important to you and that our relationship mens nothing to you.
I love you, don’t misuse My name.
4. I love you, remember My day.
When we let the chickens out in am little while, you’ll see them running around, following people around or scratching in the dirt, looking for something to eat. You’ll see hawks sitting in the trees or on fence posts around here, hoping to catch one of our pigeons. They do that every day. Day after day it is the same thing.
God says, “You are not animals. I made you in My image. This life and this world is not all there is. This is just preparation for what is to follow. I want you to set aside a day a week to rest. I want you to set aside a day a week to worship. I want you to set aside a day a week to remember what is important.
Several days ago I called a friend and asked her to pray for me. I told her that I was allowing the urgent to get in the way of the important.
It sure is easy to get wrapped up in laundry and lawns, dishes and diapers, work and worries. God says, “I didn’t make you just to work all the time. Animals live like that. I created you for more. I love you. Come spend some time with Me and remember what’s really important.
5. I love you, Honor your parents.
We live in a time when very few of our young folks are honoring their parents. May do not obey their parents. They make fun of their parents and do whatever they want.
Look, God gives us rules to govern our lives and our society by. Parents are the first things and first people we learn that we have to report to, that we have to be accountable to.
What happens when we don’t obey or honor our parents? Children get the idea that they can do whatever they want and that the world revolves around them. If they do not learn to honor and obey their parents, they often get to thinking that they don’t have to be accountable to anyone at work; they can do whatever they want. If they don’t honor and obey their parents, then they don’t honor and obey the laws and rules of society. Those laws don’t apply to me. I can do what I want.
God says, I love you and want the best for you. Honor your parents.
6. I love you, do not murder.
You were created by the hands of God, in the image of God. There is no one else like you. You were created with certain gifts and abilities. There is no one else like you.
If you were killed, there would be a void in many lives. Folks you might have touched, encouraged or ministered to, will not be.
What is true of you is also true of others. When they are taken out of the picture, a void is left in their place.
I love you and don’t want you murdered. Don’t murder others.
7. I love you, do not commit adultery. Stay sexually clean.
> 1 Corinthians 6:18 Run from sexual immorality! “Every sin a person can commit is outside the body.” On the contrary, the person who is sexually immoral sins against his own body.
This week Gladys visited with a woman who has been promiscuous. Through tears, she told Gladys that she has cancer and several STD’s. She is afraid.
God never intended for anyone to live like that. He intended for one man to live with one woman for life. He intended for us to say, “I love you. I want you above all others. You mean the world to me.”
When folks cheat, it hurts the one they have made the commitment to. That closeness, that oneness, that bond is damaged and pain and heartache follows in its wake.
God says, “I made this special to be between friends in marriage. Don’t cheapen what I created to be beautiful. I love you, stay faithful.
8. I love you, do not steal.
Leaves the victim a sense of loss.
Stole part of his life. The part he spent to purchase that item.
Leave you looking over your shoulder.
I love you, do not steal.
9. I love you, do not lie.
> John 8:44 You are of your father the Devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and has not stood in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of liars.
When you lie you are speaking the Devil’s language
When you lie, people are left wondering what is true and what they can believe . . .
Is anything true anymore and can anyone be trusted?
Be honest with one another.
I love you, tell the truth.
10. I love you, do not covet.
When you covet:
It destroys your thankfulness
It destroys relationships
It blinds you to what is important.
It robs you of peace and joy . . .
II. HOW DO WE RESPOND?
God says, “I love you. I gave you these guidelines, not because I’m holding out on you nor because I don’t want you to enjoy yourself, but because I want the best for you.
> John 14:15 If you love Me, you will keep My commands
1. God will make Himself real to you.
John 14:21Whoever has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me. The one who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and reveal Myself to him."
2. God will hang with you in a special way - > John 14:23
Jesus replied, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make Our home with him.
3. You can have peace, assurance of your salvation.
Some people worry about whether or not they are truly saved, about whether or not they really have a relationship with the Lord.
John says in 1 John 5:13 I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.
> 1 John 2:3 By this we can be sure that we have come to know Him: if we keep His commandments.
4. They are not burdensome - 1 John 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome,
On this special day or remembering, I want you to know that God loves you. He loves you enough to send His Son to pay the price for your sins; and He loves you so much that He has given you guidelines for living a great life.
