Series:
Discovering the Heart of God
Part 1
His Passion for You
Song of Solomon 7:10
“I am my beloved’s and his desire if for me.”
This morning I want to begin a series of sermons I will call, “Discovering the Heart of God.” I will admit it is a daunting task.
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I am very much aware of Isaiah 55:8-9 where God says, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways… As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” I know that we can never know what He knows o feel what he feels.
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However, I am also aware of scriptures like Jeremiah 9:23-24 which says, “Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me..”
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And 1 John 5:20 which says, “We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know him who is true…”
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And John 15:15 where Jesus says, “… for everything I have learned from my Father I have made known to you.”
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And 1 Cor. 2:16, “For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.”
It is true his ways, thoughts and nature is too big, too grand, too eternal, to omniscient for us to grasp. It would be like trying to put the great Sahara into a tiny box.
However… it is possible for us to know some things about God… the things he wants us to know… the things he chooses to reveal to us… through the bible… through the prophets… through nature… through Jesus… through the Holy Spirit.
Those things we not only have the privilege to know and understand… we have a RESPONSIBILITY.
How can we know the heart of God? We can understand through what he has revealed. So for this series we will look at what is closest to his heart, what grieves Him, what excites Him, what brings him pleasure, what delights Him, what He talks about the most, and what things consistently show up on His own short-list of last minute instructions to his people.
In that way we can begin to understand the heart of God.
We will start today with God’s great passion as it is revealed in the scriptures and through Jesus. What is that great passion of God? Is it creating… judging… saving… healing… being praised… harvesting… what???
Let’s look at a few scriptures.
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Deut 7:7 Because he loved your fathers, therefore he chose their seed after them.
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10:15, “The Lord has a delight in thy fathers to love them…”
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Is.43:4 “Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou has been honourable, and I have loved thee…”
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Malachi 1:2, “’I have loved you,’ saith the Lord.”
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Romans 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Do you hear God’s valentine to you today… the first thing you need to know to discover the heart of God… Slide 12 I LOVE YOU!!!
When you cut the heart of God what does it bleed? LOVE FOR YOU.
What makes that heart beat… what causes it to skip a beat? YOU
What moved the mind of God to create the world… what motivated God to leave heaven and come to earth… what provoked the hand of God to stretch forward and nail his own Son to the cross…LOVE FOR YOU.
There is nothing you can learn about the heart of God that is greater than this or that negates this or that contradicts this… GOD LOVES YOU WITH A LOVE THAT IS ETERNAL, UNDESERVED, COMPLETE and Beyond our wildest imaginations.
The place you have to start when discovering the heart is God is this…He LOVES YOU.
Those verses I read earlier are some of the greatest verses on the love of God for us. But there is yet one that speaks to me the greatest. I know some of you are thinking about John 3:16. Nope! I am thinking of Song of Solomon 7:10
Now let me make a disclaimer: There are two books of the bible from which I rarely preach… Revelation and Song of Solomon. The Revelation… because I do not understand it. I don’t think ANYONE does. I think we will not understand it until it is hindsight. It just gets my mind all twisted up thinking about the woman, the child, the bear, the antichrist, etc.
The other book, Song of Solomon, I stay away from because I DO understand what it is talking about. And it gets me thinking about things I don’t need to think about… then I wind up having to confess lust. So I stay away from this book. This is as close as a Christian should ever get to pornography.
However, today, I am going to break my won rule and venture in here to pick out one little verse… and then quickly close it and run away.
Now I know that because I have said this…some of you can’t wait to read this book. Please… wait until you leave here today. Or, you wont hear a thing I say.
Here in chapter 7, verse 10 is one of the most beautiful verses about God’s heart.
Slide 13 “I am my beloved’s and his desire if for me.”
If you want to know the heart of God… there it is…
Slide 14
GOD’S HEART IS FOR YOU.
How do you know the heart of a person? Find out about his secret thoughts, his innermost desires… what he/she thinks about when they are all alone… the secret place in their heart and mind where no one else gets, and what would you find there?
When God is all alone and has time to Himself, when He has nothing else to do… where does His mind wander? What are the secret things that God thinks about? What does He secretly dream about, have a passion for?
The answer can be found in this one verse and summed up in one little word…
Slide 15 YOU!!!!
I have secretly worn my very favorite t-shirt today. I don’t wear it much because it is stained and has holes in it. It says, “While He was on the cross, I was on His mind.”
When I was a little boy and had to get the first shots I remember, my Mama taught me to turn my head and think about a good place. I could block out what was happening by thinking about that place. Some of you have a good place…the place you let your mind go in order to escape painful times. You know what I am talking about.
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For some of you maybe it is grandma’s kitchen where you can smell the aroma of bread cooking in the oven, feel the warmth of the old wood cook stove, and hear her voice as she hums a song. For others maybe it is a snowy mountain… or the warmth of the sun’s rays on your as you lay on the beach.
I don’t know where your “good place” is. But I know where God’s is.
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When Jesus was hanging on that cross and the emotional pain of rejections was unbearable. When the physical pain of the nails tearing his flesh and the weight of his own body hung on his weak arms like bags of wheat and the weight crushed his lungs and made it impossible to breath… and he had to raise himself by standing on those nails in his feet and tear the flesh some more, but then the pain in his hands and feet was so much that he had to slump down and again he could not breath… as he alternated between the pain of standing and the pain of slumping and Jesus needed a psychological escape… as He turned to that “good place” and found joy and happiness… do you know where it was???
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IT WAS ME!!!
IT WAS YOU!!!
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The scripture says YOU are your beloved’s and HIS DESIRE IS FOR YOU!
Not only does God love us… He desires us.
He does not come to us because He has too… He comes because He DESIRES to come.
He does not speak to us because He is required… but because HE DESIRES to hear our voice.
He does not give us gifts or protect us because we deserve it… but because HE DESIRES to.
There are those days when I walk into the prayer room from my quiet time and I feel like an intruder… I feel like the person who has crashed the party, I don’t have an invitation, I was not invited, I am not welcome, I can feel God looking at me with disapproval and disgust. I feel dirty because I am so aware of my sin and my filthiness. I see God there but shame causes me not to look straight at Him. I am unworthy. I know I won’t get to my prayers for a while because first I have to deal with this incredible sin and guilt. I don’t even begin by calling Him “Lord” because I know that I have allowed myself to be lord. I just call Him Jesus… or maybe Father. I don’t even know how to confess the sin and the guilt and the unworthiness. It seems like a replay of a thousand times before and the words seem hollow and useless.
And I know He should hate me and reject me… treat me like I have treated Him. BUT HE DOESN’T!
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In fact, I am feeling like a intruder at this party, uninvited and unwanted and He walks up to me and wraps his arms around me and says… “Welcome to the party, you are the reason for the party.”
I desire to spend this time with you.
Not only does God DESIRE us… Not only does He LOVE us…
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HE CHOSE US!!!
Deuteronomy 4:37 says, “Because he loved thy fathers, therefore He chose their seed.”
Some of you know the pain of not being chosen. I don’t mean chosen to play kickball or baseball.
Some of you have seen others chosen over you for promotions, for dates with the pretty girls or the handsome boys. Yu have been overlooked and not chosen for parties or dances. You have had to ride in the back seat, or ride with the rejects.
You have looked at yourself and seen the misshapen nose or the too small breasts, or the too long nose or the crooked teeth, or the lopsided smile. And you have hated yourself for them and wished a thousand times that you were prettier or more athletic or smarter or younger or older or more acceptable.
I was 15 years old, with a body that was too short, a nose that was too long, hair that looked like a brillo pad and the self-doubts and self-hatred of a teen-ager magnified because I came from a home that was fractured by hatred and alcohol. I came to church with a hole in me as large as the ocean. And in that church I received the greatest gift… I learned that GOD CHOSE ME.
He knew my shortcomings, my physical deformities, my emotional brokenness and my spiritual deficit… AND HE CHOSE ME.
I WASN’T CHOSEN AS A REPLACEMENT FOR SOMEONE WHO DIDN’T WANT TO SERVE.
I WASN’T ASKED TO PLAY IN THE FIELD SOMEONE ELSE WAS
ALREADY COVERING.
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HE SAW ME, HE CALLED ME, HE SELECTED ME, HE PICKED ME, HE SINGLED ME OUT, HE DECIDED ON ME, HE OPTED FOR ME, HE FIXED UPON ME, HE DETERMINED IN FAVOR OF ME, HE PREFERRED ME, HE ESPOUSED ME, HE CHOSE ME.
IT WAS NOT MANDATORY, REQUIRED, CALLED FOR, DESERVED, NECESSARY, IMPERATIVE, COMPULSORY, OR FORCED. HE HAD A CHOICE AND HE JUST CHOSE ME.
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And since He chose me… the world can not un-choose me… this church can’t un-choose me… my sins can not un-choose me… even death can not un-choose me… He has chosen me with full knowledge of what he was getting before He got it… he chose me despite my unworthiness not because of my worthiness. He chose me when I was far away and brought me near to himself.
Some people would reject the gospel because they say it teaches a worm theology… that we are worthless, despicable, evil, grotesque things and they reject that. I love the gospel because it tells me that even when I was at my worst, when I was without Him, when I cared only for me, when I was living a life that was motivated by greed and lust and pleasure… even then God looked at me, knew the whole thing, inside and out… and still HE CHOSE ME.
That tells me He will NEVER UN-CHOOSE me for being that way… I know, even in that state He did and WILL love me.
I want to tell you one more thing about the heart of God.
Sometimes we have chosen things and then not been so happy with them. Perhaps wished we had not chosen that thing.
Some of you chose me to be your pastor, and now you regret that choice… you thought you got a raw deal!
Donna chose me 20 years ago and I know there have been times when she has questioned that choice… she thought she got a raw deal!!
My kids will doubtless have times when they think… I didn’t even get a choice, I am stuck with him, and they think they got a raw deal.
I want you to listen to Deuteronomy 10:15, “The Lord had a delight I they fathers to love them and He chose their seed.”
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What does that say? It says GOD DELIGHTS IN ME.
He does not have those days when He regrets his choice. He does not have moments when he thinks He got a raw deal.
HE DELIGHTS IN ME.
Have you ever had to whip your child for something and then they climbed up in your lap to cry about it? And then, they cried their self to sleep. And while they slept there in your arms and you stroked their hair to comfort them… you looked into their sleeping face.
Yes they were disobedient. Yes they did wrong. Yes they did a bad thing. But as you are looking into their face… did you ever think to yourself, “Boy, I got a raw deal with this one.”
No… You did not. What did you think and feel as your rubbed the hair from their face and looked at their little face?
YOU TOOK DELIGHT IN THEM.
And what does God think when He looks at you…
Even if you have sinned and broken his heart
HE DELIGHTS IN YOU!!!
Even when I frustrate him…
One day a kindergarten teacher was helping one of her students put on his cowboy boots? He asked for help and she could see why. Even with her pulling and him pushing, the little boots still didn’t want to go on. Finally, when the second boot was on, she had worked up a sweat. She almost cried when the little boy said, "Teacher, they’re on the wrong feet." She looked down and sure enough, they were. It wasn’t any easier pulling the boots off than it was putting them on. But she managed to keep her cool as together they worked to get the boots back on - this time on the right feet. And it was only then that he announced, "These aren’t my boots." She bit her tongue rather than scream, "Why didn’t you say so?" like she wanted to. And, once again she struggled to help him pull the ill-fitting boots off his little feet. No sooner had they got the boots off then he said, "They’re my brother’s boots. My Mom made me wear ’em today. "
Stifling a scream, she mustered up the grace and courage she had left to wrestle the ill-fitting boots on his feet again. Helping him into his coat, she asked, "Now, where are your mittens?" To which he replied, "I stuffed ’em in the toes of my boots." The article ends by saying - Her trial starts next month.
Even when I frustrate Him like that… He DELIGHTS in me.
So… do you know the heart of God. Do you know what lights up His eyes and brings a smile to his face…
YOU!!!
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He LOVES you…. even when you were far away and even when you disappoint Him
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He CHOSE you… not because you deserved it… but because He loved you.
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He DESIRES you…He daydreams about you… He smells things that remind Him of you, He loves to escape to the good place which is thinking of you.
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And He DELIGHTS in you. He never feels He got a raw deal with you… He does not regret His choice. If he could choose 100 times… knowing what he already knows... He would choose you 100 times.
You don’t every have to question His love, choice, desire or delight.
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The only question is… DO YOU LOVE HIM?
Have you CHOSEN Him
Do you DESIRE Him
Do you DELIGHT in Him
If you would like to experience His love, you can do it today. Come and let him choose you.
I have a PowerPoint Presentation to go with this sermon. Contact me at randdp@peoplepc.com to get a copy.
I got the idea for the series from Discipleship Journal, Issue 126, and source for this sermon is an article, "God’s Passion for His People" by John Ortburg, on pp. 36-40.
