Going All In, In Loving Him
OKAY…
I don’t know about you, but I am never going back!
NOW – I would like to start out this morning with a brief devotional thought that comes from one of the chapters some of us read this week in our FCFH… Matthew 8, I read it on Friday what an amazing chapter! It opens up this way….
Large crowds followed Jesus as he came down the mountainside. 2 Suddenly, a man with leprosy approached him and knelt before him.
Wow, what a bold and risky thing to do.
I MEAN - lepers are supposed to stay far away from people.
YEAH – but this guy is too desperate about getting to better to care rules 101 for lepers… his heart had to be just about pounding out of his chest. NOW - I wonder how this huge crowd that had just heard those powerful words Jesus spoke on the mountainside and who were now following Him.. were thinking? Doing? Saying? As this leper drew near to Jesus and knelt before Him.
(Now, I have been to a leper colony and to be honest I was a little nervous and cautious about keeping my distance)
BUT – apparently this desperate man could not have cared less about what the crowd was thinking, feeling or saying…
Because he needed a healing, he wanted to get better.
“Lord,” the man said, “if you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean.”
YOU KNOW
When I read those words, this Friday morning (and tried to see and feel the full impact of this encounter)
I starting wondering…
• What are you thinking Jesus?
• What are you feeling?
• Jesus is you heart breaking over this man’s physical condition and circumstances?
• AND - is it breaking because this guy is not even sure that you would be willing to heal Him?
NOW LISTEN – there is one thing about this guy that is extremely commendable…
He has no doubt that Jesus can… that Jesus does have the ability to change and heal his present condition.
Jesus reached out and touched him. “I am willing,” he said. “Be healed!” And instantly the leprosy disappeared.
– Matthew 8:1-3
Wow… Can you imagine what this X-leper is – thinking, feeling, doing?
UNDERSTAND – Matthew 8 paints an incredible picture…
OF A - God who is more that worthy of your love.
OF A - God who longs to heal and restore and change our present condition and circumstances.
I MEAN – that is pretty much what we see Jesus doing in Matthew 8…
• He heals this leper
• He heals the Centurion’s servant
• He heals Peter mother in law
• He heals many who were demon possessed
This fulfilled the word of the Lord through the prophet Isaiah, who said, “He took our sicknesses and removed our diseases.”
- Matthew 8:17
AND – oh yeah, in Matthew 8 he also speaks and a powerful storm suddenly becomes calm.
Who is this man? Even the winds and waves obey Him!”
- Matthew 8:27
Who is He?
He is a - mighty, powerful, awesome, compassionate, uncontainable God of infinite grace and glory, a God worthy of our love!
Prayer
Okay – here are a few Scriptures that have a common theme and will set up our conversation this morning.
(let’s stand and take turns reading, you can go first)
Your unfailing love, O LORD, is as vast as the heavens; your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds. How precious is your unfailing love, O God! All humanity finds shelter in the shadow of your wings. – Psalm 36:5,7
Great is his steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever. Praise the LORD! - Psalm 117:2
Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken… Isaiah 54:10
Long ago the LORD said to us: “I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself. – Jeremiah 31:3
The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing. – Zephaniah 3:17
“This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says: My love for Mount Zion is passionate and strong; I am consumed with passion for my people! - Zechariah 8:2
You love them Father, as much as you love me. – John 17:23
I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. 17 Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him.
May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.
May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
– Ephesians 3:16-19
We know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love. When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.
Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.
– Romans 5:5-8
We love, because He first loved us. – 1 John 4:19
MGCC – it’s February 26, 2017 and week 5 of our message series, “Getting Better At What Jesus Said Matters Most.”
AND LISTEN – I want you to know that Getting Better at loving God, loving yourself and loving your neighbor…
- is going to be an ongoing,
- frequently revisited – and
- a continuously pursued destination at The Grove!
WHY…
BECAUSE - Jesus said that they are ‘the’ most important things.
UNDERSTAND – there is nothing more important in the church and in our lives then, ‘ Getting Better At’…
• Loving ourselves (then being emotionally healthy and spiritually mature)
• Loving God, and
• Loving our neighbor
AND – that is why, we will NEVER STOP ‘pursuing’ getting better at what Jesus says matters most, because the truth is…
THAT UPON – these 3 things rest all the law and the prophets.
AND – getting better at them (as I felt God impress upon me early Friday morning) is the doorway to living the life that we were created to live.
Let me show a couple of pictures I took early Friday morning…
UNDERSTAND – I have been convinced for years that there is a life that God has created ME (and every single person in the room) to live… A LIFE – that The Creator God has always intended that we’d life.
AND B/S - it is a life of… freedom, joy, contentment, purpose, satisfaction, meaning, fulfillment and abundant living.
BUT TRAGICALLY – it is…
A LIFE - that far too many people who claim Jesus and walk through the doors of the church, leave this earth without ever experiencing in all it’s fullness.
AND YET – it’s just beyond the door.
OKAY - check out the next picture.
QUESTION – do you see the 3 things on the left side of the door that allow it to swing open freely?
UNDERSTAND…
• Loving God, is the top hinge
• Loving yourself, if the middle hinge
• Loving your neighbor, is the bottom hinge
OKAY – here’s the deal. AND LISTEN – this deal is for real…
IF YOU FEEL - that there is a closed door that is keeping you from the life you want to live and were created to live…
YOU KNOW – that life that Jesus came to give you that is rich and satisfying…?
WELL - the good news is that Jesus said that there are 3 hinges that will allow that door to swing open.
B/S - Getting Better at loving God (as you should), loving your neighbor (as He intends) and loving yourself (as He commands)… IS – the doorway to the life you always wanted to live!
SO – I say, let’s just keep working those hinges…
TURN – to the person to you right/left, and say…
“Let’s work those hinges”
NOW – we spent the first 3 weeks of this series talking about the middle hinge… “the commandment of Jesus for you , to love yourself.” AND – in those 3 weeks you learned that to love yourself, to work that middle hinge, you must…
• Plunge The Depths Of The Father’s Love
• Push Through Insecurity
• Accept That You Loving Yourself Is Essential Not Selfish
• Go Back In Order To Move Forward
• Use 1 Corinthians 13 As A Template For Loving Yourself
• Let God’s Approval Become Your Validation
AND THEN – last week we begin to talk about that top hinge, getting better at loving God, in a conversation where I tried to make the case that God is worthy of your love because…
• God is GREAT
I mean – come one, He breathes out stars
He knit you in your mothers womb with one cell from your and one cell from your dad
To see the greatness of our God all we need to do is to look up towards the heavens, look in at the wonder of our own body and look out and see the incredible earth that surrounds us
• God is GOOD
He constantly pours out His grace and mercy.
He is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
He is faithful to all His promises.
He upholds all who fall and lifts those bent beneath their loads.
He satisfies the desires of every living thing
He is near to all who call on Him
He hears our cries and saves us
(And your salvation did not come cheap. Listen you need to stop minimizing the mind-blowing truth, that GOD loves you so much that He sent His Son to die for you)
QUESTION…
Does anybody out there think that God is worthy of their love?
Is He worthy of your love?
Is He worthy of your love?
Is He worthy of your love?
NOW – this morning as we continue talking about this top hinge (on the door to the life that God always intended that you would live), getting better at loving God… I want to unpack a conversation called,
“Going All In, In Loving Him.”
NOW – if I gave this message a subtitle it would read,
“Going All In, In Loving Him,
Who went all in, In loving You!”
YOU KNOW – I found today’s conversation to be extremely difficult one to put together.
AND – I found myself asking a bunch of questions, like…
• Do I love God?
• Have I fallen in love with Him?
• How do I know, if I really love Him?
• What would my life look like if I really went all in, in loving Him?
• Does God feel loved by me?
• Do I even what to be in love with God?
(all kinds of questions)
B/S…
• Do you love God?
• Have you fallen in love with Him?
• How do you know, what evidence would you point to?
• Does God, feel loved, by you?
NOW – you would think that falling for God and being in love with Him would be an easy and natural thing for us to do, right?
BUT – is it?
I MEAN – to be honest, it almost feels a little bit awkward for me to say, “I am in love with God.”
QUESTION – would you agree, that falling in love with the right (person or thing) will change your life, change it for the better?
Yeah, me too.
AND – on the other hand would you agree, that falling in love with the wrong person or thing…
WELL - the end results in our lives… not so good, right?
QUESTION – have you ever feel in love with the wrong person thing? How did that work out for you?
NOW – I contend that to fall for, that falling in love with God is not only a good thing, BUT – that it is…
• the very best thing that you could do.
• the greatest pursuit you will ever undertake
AND JESUS – seems to indicate in the sermon on the mount (Matthew 6) that it should be an easy thing for us to love people who love us (even unbelievers do that)…
The tough thing is to love your enemies, to love those who do not love you.
WELL B/S – God is not your enemy, instead He is One who loves you with a crazy, unbounded hard to even get your brains around (deep, high, wide and long) love.
IN FACT – God demonstrated His own love for you in this, while you were still His enemy He sent Christ to die for you.
Let that sink in for a moment…
But God showed his great love for us (you) by sending Christ to die for us (you) while we (you) were still sinners (a sinner).
NOW – the question I wrestled with all week long was…
How do we go about…
“Going All In, In Loving Him...”
WELL – let me share with you what God taught me this week about getting better at loving Him (you know, working that top hinge)…
AND HEY – don’t forget that getting better at working this top hinge (as with working the middle and bottom hinge)…
IS – the doorway and path to the life you were created to live.
AND – it is a pursuit we to talk about at MGCC for years to come, because Jesus said getting better at these 3 things is what matters most.
NOW – there are 4 points in your notes…
AND – until around 9 am yesterday I was planning on hitting all four this morning…
HOWEVER – I decided early yesterday morning to take a different approach, because I do not want to rush through what it means for you to work this top hinge and to love God with all of your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and all your strength.
SO – here is what we are going to do…
We are only going to unpack the first point this morning…
HOWEVER – I will mentioned what the other 3 are so that the Holy Spirit can begin His work of helping you see how they will help you go all in, in loving Him…
B/L – one point today and 3 next week…
OKAY – let’s do this…
Going All In, In Loving Him
Begins with…
Accepting His Proposal
In his book, ‘Falling For God, Saying Yes To His Extravagant Proposal,’
Gary Moon writes…
God has offered us an incredible invitation to enter into intimate relationship with himself.
Relationship. Loving connection with the One who sketched out the first atom, hung the stars without string, and crafted your soul with greater love than your mom felt as she knitted your first booties.
Connection with the One who loves you with the romantic love of a groom for his bride.
Romantic? Yes. God’s desire for love is stronger than your own, and His use of loving imagery in describing it is enough to make a bartender blush.
The foreshadowing backdrop to Jesus’ first miracle is a week-long wedding celebration in Cana.
He leaves His apprentices with the charge to become one with the Father,
AND - He calls the church His bride and Himself the Groom. A BRIDE - invited to be at the greatest wedding celebration in the history of the universe, the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.
It boggles the mind. Why would God want to develop a loving relationship with me? What do I have to offer Him that He does already have at 1040 ? What’s in it for Him?
This can’t be right! Even my spouse and kids need a break from being with me.
Could the Creator of heaven and earth really desire to be my friend? My lover? Closer than newlyweds on the honeymoon? And forever and ever? Wow!
It’s difficult for me to wrap my brain around the fact that I am not just saved from but to,
THAT – I’m saved to restored intimacy with God.
THAT – with salvation comes an invitation to join in with the Trinity as part of their eternal community of love.
And with it an offer to enjoy an intimate fellowship that surpasses what is possible in the best of marriages…
As surely as a fish is designed to feel at Home in water, you were crafted for a particular environment. You were uniquely designed to be at home in the ocean of God’s love.
UNDERSTAND B/S – a proposal is on the table.
YEAH – I know that it is beyond CRAZY…
That the Lord of all creation,
That the Great I am… would get down on one Knee…
AND – ask you “would you like to be in a relationship with me?”
R U kidding me?
Talk about an extravagant proposal, amen?
UNDERSTAND – the star breathing, ocean holding, universe creating… all powerful, all knowing, always existing God of all Creation wants to be in a relationship with me, with you.
NOW – this week as I dug into what Jesus said in Mark 12:29,30
I learned a few things about the nature of God’s proposal to us, and the kind of relationship that He is looking for…
‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ - Mark 12:29,30
UNDERSTAND – there are 3 words in those verses that help to define the relationship that God is looking to have with me and with you…
The words – hear, one and love…
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.”
NOW - I have always thought this was a strange way to begin the answer to the question of what is the greatest commandment.
I MEAN…
IT SEEMS LIKE - Jesus is merely warming up until he gets to the real stuff, or worse yet, he begins with math—God is one, not two or twenty or a million.
BUT UNDERSTAND - this statement is no math problem, and it is not a mere prelude to the answer.
IN FACT - it is actually part of his answer to the first great commandment (the top hinge on the door to the life you were meant to live)… to love God with all your (heart, soul, mind and strength).
SO – let’s dig into the Great Commandment to better understand the idea behind Jesus’ answer.
NOW JESUS - begins His answer to what is the greatest commandment in Mark 12, by quoting the Shema (pronounced “shmah”).
Which is the Jewish confession of faith (from Deuteronomy 6) that faithful Jews memorized and repeated twice a day.
NOW - Jesus would have been taught the Shema as a child, and he would have recited it morning and evening as a vow of obedience to God.
AND MGCC
THAT’S - the point. The title Shema comes from the first word in the verse —“Shema” - is Hebrew for “hear.”
BUT UNDERSTAND - the hearing described by this word is not merely sound waves hitting against our ear drums…
it’s about obedience.
YOU SEE
We are to be, Not just hearers, but doers of the Word.
NOW – I know that for many of us, the word obey sounds like a drag — like it is going against what we really want.
BUT - to God and Jesus, to obey is to live the way we were created to live.
NOW – the second word that illustrates that Jesus is not so much giving us a prayer or a preamble, but instead a pledge for allegiance is…
the word is echad, commonly translated “one.”
(Eh hodd)
NOW WHEN - this word is translated as “one,” it is understood as belief in monotheism. It is a creedal statement on the ontology of God. God is one, not a few or many.
Which is true.
BUT - what sense does that make as a logical argument to loving God and our neighbor? It makes no sense.
I MEAN - it makes no more sense than saying, “God is billions, so love God and your neighbor.”
HOWEVER - there is another way to translate the word echad (eh hodd) that fits the context better.
“The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.”
NOW - concerning this verse, the Jewish scholar Lois Tverberg (T Verr Berg) wrote the following, clarifying the difference between the two meanings, and why it matters so much…
Rather than merely being a command to a particular belief about God, it is actually a call for a person’s absolute allegiance to God. God alone is the one we should worship; him only shall we serve.
NOW – the final word that helps define and clarify the kind of relationship that God wants with us, is the word love.
The Hebrew word for love, ahavah, (ahvuff)
AND – it means “to act lovingly toward” or “to be loyal to.” UNDERSTAND
God isn’t commanding a feeling,
BUT RATHER - rather action and loyalty.
SURE - it’s nice to have feelings of love toward God, but it’s likely you will need to act your way into these feelings of love before you will feel your way into the actions
OKAY – so here is what Lois Tverberg suggests would be a good modern translation of the Shema and first commandment…
Listen up, Israel—The LORD is your God, he, and he alone!! You should love him with every thought that you think, live every hour of every day for him, be willing to sacrifice your life for him. Love him with every penny in your wallet and everything that you’ve got!
AGAIN – a proposal is on the table to enter into a relationship (an exclusive relationship) with the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe.
A relationship where He will forgive you of all your sins and love you with a love that knows no bounds and that is unending, uncontainable, unconditional, unstoppable and unfailing.
A LOVE - that will never leave you or forsake sake you.
A LOVE…
UNDERSTAND B/S
All of heaven and God Himself awaits your answer…
YES – the proposal is on the table, and yes as CRAZY as it seems, the Lord of Glory is kneeling before you on bended knee.
SO – will you say yes… to God’s extravagant proposal?
AND LISTEN – He wants to marry you not date you.
NOW – there are some in this room, who need to say yes to God’s proposal again…
Kind of like renewing your wedding vows to Him.
BECAUSE – like the believers Jesus was talking to who were attending the church in Ephesus…
Have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first! Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first.
– Revelation 2:4,5
AND LISTEN – part of doing the things you did at first and renewing your wedding vows in your relationship with God, will involve what we will be talking about next week…
UNDERSTAND B/S…
Going All In, In Loving Him… Involves
Enjoying His Presence
This is where our love begins and were it continues to deepen throughout the course of our relationship with Him…
Embracing His Passions
What are God’s core passions?
UNDERSTAND…
Before you will ever find your purpose in life you must get lost in His passions.
Engaging Your Own Pursuit
YES – God is waiting for in this room (whose love for Him may have grown cold, whose allegiance to Him may have become divided, to say YES again!
AND – there may be a few others in this room who need to say YES to God for the first time like I did back in December of 1979 as a 19 year old kid…
Here is a picture that was taking just a few days before I finally said YES!
YOU SEE – I had been listening to and considering God’s proposal for a little over 3 months…
AND – on December 30, 1979… I said “YES” to God for the first time, as I surrendered to Him and was baptized into the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
NOW – I have had a book on my shelf for years, written by
Dr F LaGard Smith a professor of law and theology at Pepperdine University in Malibu California…
It’s called ‘Baptism The Believers Wedding Ceremony”
He writes…
By Jewish custom, the bride would bath herself in an act of ceremonial cleansing before donning her wedding dress… Similarly, in modern times, the bride traditionally wears a white wedding gown to signify the purity she brings to her bridegroom.
Christ is acutely aware that we are not pure brides. Not one of us is without sin. Therefore, Christ cleanses us and makes as pure as He brings us into a loving relationship with Himself. To describe the cleansing, Paul brings us directly to the wedding Ceremony of baptism:
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. – Ephesians 5:25-27
As Christians, we have been washed in the waters of baptism to be a pure bride for Christ.
On one occasion, Paul reminisced about his personal dramatic conversion experience and the purpose of his own baptism.
He said that Ananias had told him…
And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name. - Acts 22:16
It is the same for each of us. With the water of baptism, the bridegroom washes away our sins, bathes us in His purity, and presents us to Himself as a righteous bride.
Could we ever by our own efforts, be able to present ourselves pure and free from sin? Never! Therefore, when we act on our Faith in God’s Word and submit to being washed by Christ in the waters of baptism, our cleansing is solely a matter of God’s grace and mercy.
Paul emphasized this point in his letter to Titus when he referred to our rebirth through washing and renewal of our spirit.
But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. – Titus 3:4-7
TODAY – is 2/26/2017… AND B/S – there is a proposal on the table….
AND…
God is looking for one of two responses from each of us…
Saying Yes to His extravagant proposal and renewing or vows of love to Him…
OR – saying yes to His proposal by being baptized into His name.
This water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, - 1 Peter 3:21
Long ago the LORD said to us: “I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself. – Jeremiah 31:3
The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing. – Zephaniah 3:17
“This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says: My love for Mount Zion is passionate and strong; I am consumed with passion for my people! - Zechariah 8:2
