Sermon series - 6 qualities for spiritual health
- Today we’re looking at the first & greatest decision we ever make.
- It is to Love God totally.
- I know that in life it’s easy to say I love this person, or I love so & so, but it’s just
words.
- The power of the phrase, I love you, is a statement of commitment. It’s not
something that’s to be used lightly.
- Now, think of the power, or destruction that comes when you tell God you love
him, but it’s just words.
- In the beginning of a healthy Spiritual life, it begins with loving God totally.
- So Let’s begin,
- A rich young ruler comes up to Jesus in Matthew 22:, & he asks a question in
verse 36.
Matthew 22:36-38
36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
- The greatest Commandment is, Love the Lord with all your heart, soul, & mind.
-Prayer
Q- Can you imagine what your week would look like if it were without God?
- This is what the days of the week would be called.
> A Weekly Reminder (www.smilegodlovesyou.org)
Without GOD, our week would be:
Sinday, Mournday, Tearsday, Wasteday, Thirstday, Fightday & Shatterday.
Remember seven days WITHOUT GOD makes One WEAK!!
- Each day would be a day of sorrow & chaos.
- Moses sets the model for a productive life. One that isn’t falling apart (even if it may
Not look like it is), but it is lifted/supported in the nurturing arms of out Lord!
- Here’s What he says in Deuteronomy 10:12.
Deuteronomy 10:12
12 And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul,
Q- Why do you think a person heavily addicted to drugs, or alcohol are so easily
picked out of a crowd?
- They’re picked out because, we can see their life falling apart from under the god
they’ve put themselves under.
- For many of these people under the ruse of I’m okay as long as I’ve got my
drugs, or alcohol.
- They took God’s name Jehovah Jireh (the Lord will provide) & gave it to this
created substance.
- It became their God!
- Yes, the list of false gods keeps going, but I think you get my point of if
God’s not first, you’ll never be.
- Now, I want to give you an entirely different perspective.
- We easily Judge a person by their outward appearance.
- The common belief of the Israelites was, if you were doing well it was because You
were right with God & He was blessing you. If you were bad off, God was cursing
you for sin.
- We know the way it worked for Job. He was righteous, but his life looked like it was
falling apart.
- The same can be said about Jeremiah, the weeping prophet.
- Besides Job, I cannot think of a Godly man that looked more depressed & cursed by
God.
- Jeremiah was called, not to try & turn the people from their sinful way, but to
prepare them for judgement!
- They would see famine, would be plundered, and taken captive by foreigners
who would exile them to a foreign land
- Jeremiah was constantly rejected by the people of Judah he loved and reached
out to.
- God had called him to preach, & forbade him to marry or have children.
- So, he lived alone, he ministered alone, he was poor, ridiculed, and rejected by his
people.
Q- Although his spiritual faith and strength was strong, can you imagine the
depression he had to have suffered?
- Listen to Jeremiah’s words & realize how close they sound like Job’s.
Jeremiah 20:14
14 Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed.
Jeremiah 20:18
18 Wherefore came I forth out of the womb to see labour and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?
Q- If people don’t see God’s Joy in me, how am I a good witness?
- Most of my sermons echo the thought of witnessing, & people are
watching/taking note of us.
- Today we’re going deeper than just our outward appearances.
Q- Do people see how much you love God?
- Job never cursed God, Although he had lost it all.
- Jeremiah never lost his faith/hope in God.
- Jeremiah had no children. He lived in a place ready to be destroyed, & yet God
told him to buy a field & he does.
Jeremiah 32:9
9 And I bought the field of Hanameel my uncle's son, that was in Anathoth, and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver.
Q- What did that show the people?
- We skip down to verse 36.
- After Jeremiah bought the land, God responded. He foretold the destruction &
captivity, but then listen,
Jeremiah 32:36-39
36 And now therefore thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning this city, whereof ye say, It shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence;
37 Behold, I will gather them out of all countries, whither I have driven them in mine anger, and in my fury, and in great wrath; and I will bring them again unto this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely:
38 And they shall be my people, and I will be their God:
39 And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them:
- You May not have been able to see Jeremiah’s Joy, but it was there in his love & faith
to the Lord.
- Love of God is the first step to a healthy life.
- Yes, by our standards it may not look like that’s true, but by God’s standard it’s
the entry way to eternity.
> The Love of Jesus - Author unknown (www.inspire21.com)
Every Sunday afternoon, after the morning service at their church, the
Pastor and his 11-year-old son would go out into their town and hand out
Gospel tracts. This particular Sunday afternoon, as it came time for the
Pastor and his son to go to the streets with their tracts, it was very
cold outside as well as pouring down rain. The boy bundled up in his
warmest and driest clothes and said "Okay Dad, I'm ready."
His Pastor Dad asked, "Ready for what?
"Dad, it's time we gather our tracts together and go out."
Dad responds, "Son, it's very cold outside and it's pouring down rain."
The boy gives his Dad a surprised look, asking, "But Dad, aren't people
still going to Hell, even though it's raining?"
Dad answers, "Son, I am not going out in this weather."
Despondently the boy asks, "Dad, can I go -- Please?"
His father hesitated for a moment then said, "Son, you can go. Here's
the tracts; be careful son."
"Thanks, Dad!" And with that he was off and out into the rain. This
11-year-old boy walked the streets of the town going door-to-door and
handing everybody he met in the street a Gospel tract. After 2-hours of
walking in the rain he was soaking bone-chilled wet and down to his very
last tract. He stopped on a corner and looked for someone to hand a
tract to but the streets were totally deserted.
Then he turned toward the first home he saw and started up the sidewalk
to the front door and rang the door bell. He rang the bell -- but nobody
answered. He rang it again and again bit still no one answered. He
waited but still no answer. Finally this 11-year-old trooper turned to
leave but something stopped him. Again, he turned to the door and rang
the bell and knocked loudly on the door with his fist. He waited,
something holding him there on the front porch. He rang again, and this
time the door slowly opened. Standing in the doorway was a very sad
looking elderly lady.
She softly asked, "What can I do for you, son?"
With radiant eyes and a smile that lit up her world, this little boy
said, "Ma'am, I'm sorry if I disturbed you, but I just want to tell you
that JESUS REALLY DOES LOVE YOU! I came to give you my very last Gospel
tract which will tell you all about Jesus and His great love." With that
he handed her his last tract, and turned to leave.
She called to him as he departed, "Thank you, son! And God bless you!"
Well, the following Sunday morning in church, Pastor Dad was in the
pulpit and as the service began he asked, "Does anybody have a testimony
or want to say anything?"
Slowly, in the back row of the church, an elderly lady stood to her
feet. As she began to speak, a look of glorious radiance came from her
face. "None of you in this church know me. I've never been here before.
You see, before last Sunday I was not a Christian. My husband has passed
on, some time ago, leaving me totally alone in this world. Last Sunday,
being a particularly cold and rainy day, it was even more so in my heart
as I came to the end of the line where I no longer had any hope or will
to live.
"So I took a rope and a chair and ascended the stairway into the attic
of my home. I fastened the rope securely to a rafter in the roof then
stood on the chair and fastened the other end of the rope around my
neck. "Standing on that chair, so lonely and brokenhearted, I was about
to leap off when suddenly the loud ringing of my doorbell downstairs
startled me. I thought, 'I'll wait a minute, and whoever it is will go
away.' "I waited and waited -- but the ringing doorbell seemed to get
louder and more insistent and then the person ringing also started
knocking loudly. I thought to myself again, 'Who on earth could this
be?! Nobody ever rings my bell or comes to see me!' "I loosened the rope
from my neck and started for the front door, all the while the bell rang
louder and louder. When I opened the door and looked I could hardly
believe my eyes! "There on my front porch was the most radiant and
angelic little boy I had ever seen in my life! His smile! Oh, I could
never describe it to you! And the words that came from his mouth caused
my heart, that had long been dead, to leap to life as he exclaimed with
cherub-like voice, 'Ma'am, I just came to tell you that JESUS REALLY
DOES LOVE YOU.' "Then he gave me this Gospel tract that I now hold in my
hand. As the little angel disappeared back out, into the cold and rain,
I closed my door and read slowly every word of this Gospel tract. Then I
went up to my attic to get my rope and chair. I wouldn't be needing them
any more.
"You see, I am now a happy child of the KING, and since the address of
your church was on the back of this Gospel tract I have come here to
personally say, 'Thank you to God's little angel who came just in the
nick of time, and by so doing, spared my soul from an eternity in Hell.'"
- This little boy showed his Love, & it overflows with the joy God gave us, in the midst
of a great cold storm.
- I want us all to have a clean bill of health.
- If you don’t feel like your love for God is lacking all it takes to fix that, is to tell Him
you love Him.
Q- Would you take the time today to tell Him that?
