Our Love for Christ
Grace to you peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Today I want to explain how we can deepen “Our Love for Christ.”
A personal relationship with Christ is a transformative connection with Jesus Christ, characterized by faith, trust, intimacy, and a commitment to follow His teachings and example. Love is a commitment not a feeling. Love is founded on the belief that Jesus is the Son of God, who died for our sins and rose again, offering forgiveness and the promise of eternal life. That is Love. It involves actively engaging with Christ through prayer, studying His Word, and striving to live according to His principles, leading to personal growth and a closer walk with God.
As 1 John 3:1 says Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
Now that we have seen how the Lord loves us as His children, let us see and envision how we as His children ought to love our Father.
Our Love Toward Him
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. (Matthew 16:24)
Today I will give the congregation a new perspective on Matthew 16.
Why do we love? Do we love in expectations that we might receive love? Or out of selflessness and compassion? We often chase God so that He might bless us. We search for our own will in Him. We have hope that if we pray enough or meditate on the word enough, maybe He would honor the Lord and Savior of Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost q our will and desires. God has no such obligations. Instead we should chase God, searching for His will in the renewing of our minds.
For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will be for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? - Matthew 16:25-26
Do not show affection to the Lord for your desires, rather love the Lord and fulfill His desire in your life. There is a huge difference between enjoying a person who gives gifts and enjoying the gifts instead of the person. God is our all satisfying treasure and Father and Friend and Savior.
Seek the giver through the gift and seek the giver in the gift. Now what does this mean? When you are with your spouse do you love them because of what they do? or do you love them for who they are? Do you love your husband because he placed a roof over your head, or do you love your wife for the delicious food she cooks? No, because that doesn’t make sense. You love your wife and you love your husband because of who they are. The same way we should love God for who He is not for the blessings itself. Love the Lord for He is good. Love Him for who He is, not for what He gives. If you don’t seek God before you seek His blessings, then there will be certain things that will cause you to miss the mark. When you don't receive said blessings, you will gain a spirit of discontentment and disappointment. But if you had only sought the Lord first, you would have been satisfied with the goodness of God.
These two verses emphasize the importance of seeking God and praising Him in every circumstance:
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. - Matthew 6:33
I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. - Philippians 4:12-13
If you were to receive the blessing of your desires you would idolize it or “not have been prepared to receive it. There is a reason you have not received the blessing you have fervently prayed for. You start praying over a blessing you desire - instead of God's desire for your life. Your consistency, and your focus on God is replaced with wasted time on your desires. You slowly lose yourself while thanking God for something that was never meant for you. You can’t ask God to bless the food so that it may be good and nutritious when the food is poor and unhealthy. God meant for you to eat a salad but you and your selfishness is eating a mcdonalds and thanking God.
Do you recall the story of 10 lepers healed by Jesus? The nine lepers that were healed and did not come back were not ready to receive their blessings. Sure they desired it, and perhaps even prayed over it, but they were not ready. They thought that freedom and deliverance was a means to an end. Every gift, every good thing that comes into our lives are products of God’s everlasting kindness. It was all bought by the sacrifice of Jesus, by the blood of Jesus. All that we give and receive should be a reminder of the death of Jesus.
The Blood Which Shed Love
He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? - Romans 8:32. Christ is the Father’s indescribable gift. Are you trusting God for something today? Remind yourself: If He gave Jesus for you, He will surely take care of everything else. Lord, thank You for giving Your Son for me. Help me trust that you will provide everything I need. Teach me to rest in Your generous love.
Do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and long suffering not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? - Romans 2:4
The gifts you receive, the blessings you receive are good things, to lead to your repentance. He calls us to a life of self-denial. Do not grow closer to Christ to avoid periods of weakness. Do not run to God in order to avoid trials, tribulations, and suffering. Not my will, but yours be done. Christ goes into the hour of His betrayal, for the time that He may be glorified has come. During this time, Jesus is sweating blood. He is so anxious that He pleads to God that He may bless Him with freedom from the suffering at hand. But our redeemer says Not my will, but yours be done.
Freedom is a blessing, amen? Paul goes to Asia and is imprisoned. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1:8-9, “For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life. 9 Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead.” Though we might suffer, we must rejoice.
And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; 4 and perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. - Romans 5:3-5
Rejoice in tribulation because it works patience - Hope - negation of shame. We are driven to hope in God because of tribulation.
He is different from His gifts, yet we experience Him through His gifts. As creatures created and molded by God, He has placed us in a world to experience Him indirectly. The love for a person and love for their gifts are not the same. We experience love through gifts, through touch, and through sight.
God mixes pleasure and pain to provide us with revelation of His goodness. And to protect us from idolatry. As sinners we love the gifts over God. God uses pleasures and pain to provide us with revelations of His goodness and protect us from loving substitutes. He uses a mixture. He brings pleasure into our lives so that we might know Him through it and He brings pain into our lives in order to show us that He is more important than these things.
Everything good that God gives us - is for us to see right through it and into Him as a good giver. We should be willing to lose it all and say, “to die is gain,” because He is more important than these things. Rest assured for He is going to give all of His blessings in the age to come when we are suited and fit to receive it without idolatry.
Walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. - Ephesians 5:2
He gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father. - Galatians 1:4
God gave His Son, and the Son gives Himself for you and to you. The gift is the giver; the giver is the gift. Every gift is the overflow of the gift of God’s love. Romans 8:32 is the key to God centeredness in giving and getting gifts. Every good in our life as Christians is owing to the death of Jesus, and that death is the gift of God’s love, which is also the giving of Himself to us.
Illustration: On a cold rainy day, a barefoot boy pushed his ice cream cart but hadn’t sold anything. Desperate, he knocked on a door and asked for someone to buy one ice cream so that he could afford a hot coffee.
A kind teenage girl asked her father if they could help. The father invited the boy in, gave him a warm blanket and a hot cup of coffee. As the boy left with tears in his eyes, he said, “God is still empowering me. One day, I’ll repay you.” And he left. 15 years passed, and the family never saw that boy again.
The teenage girl, now a 31 year old woman, brought her father to the hospital with a serious illness. He needed an urgent surgery, which was very expensive. The doctor looked at the two and said, let’s do the right thing, we’ll operate on your father and save his life. Afterwards, we'll see the payment will be made. The surgery was performed carefully and was successful. The father was saved. After the successful surgery, they received a letter at home. She read the letter aloud, “Your father’s surgery was fully paid 15 years ago, with a warm blanket and a cup of coffee. God empowered me to return the kindness. May God bless you. The doctor was the same boy from 15 years ago.
Everything you plant you will harvest. May God bless you who have compassion for the little ones.
God shows His love through people—especially in simple acts of kindness. What we do for others, He remembers. And in His perfect time, He brings it back, multiplied. As 1 John 4:19 “We love because He first loved us.” Amen,
