Love What Matters

Collide – 4

Love What Matters

Series Slide

Good morning and welcome to worship!

Backpack Bonanza

Back 2 School Bash

We are wrapping up our final week in our Collide sermon series and what a series it has been! We started looking at how we need to stand firm in the faith, even when the world, when culture tries to convince us that there is a ‘better way’ to live… Remember, there is a way that seems right to us, but in the end it leads to destruction.

Then, in the second week we considered the importance of allowing God to transform us, from the inside out… that God can change our lives from what and who we were to what and who God created us to be!

Finally, last week, we looked at how God’s Word is living and active, how it is the Truth we need! We need to get the truth, then once we have it, we need to start giving it away.

Sermon Slide

Today, we are going to be talking about a 4-letter word… L-O-V-E. When culture collides with our faith… when we are standing firm in our faith… when we are being transformed… when we are allowing God’s Word to dwell in us richly, Love must be a part of all of it. We need to love, to be loving, to offer love to others… That is a crucial part of our relationship with God and others… but equally important is loving what matters.

You know, we have to be intentional about love don’t we. This summer has been a little different that some of my previous summers. My time hasn’t always been my own. So, a few weeks ago I was intentional about going away with Renee. We got away, spent time in different places doing different things together… We were intentional about our love and spending time together. I mean, we were about 700 miles away from anyone that knew us. I had my phone on Do-Not-Disturb for part of the time. We were intentional about spending quality time together.

Just like we all need to be intentional about our quality time with our loved ones, we need to be intentional about the quality time we spend with God. As we spend time with God we are drawn closer to God. John Wesley called it, “Attending Upon the Ordinances of God.” Bishop Rueben Job translated that as “Staying in Love with God.” What they were both talking about was the things we do to stay in relationship with God. Things like prayer, fasting, reading scripture, celebrating Communion, gathering with other believers for accountability and spiritual growth, corporate and private worship. These intentional things we do to stay in love with God are what we call the means of Grace.

Here's the thing… if we don’t do these things, we will begin to love other things, do other things, find other things to focus our attention on. We will begin to focus not on the Creator, but the created. We will worship that which is made rather that the One who made them.

In other words, we will begin to practice Idolatry. An idol is anything that pulls out attention, our worship, away from God. Truett professor of Theology and Wesleyan Studies, Dr. Jason Vickers – talks about the fact that we will either live a life of Idolatry or Doxology. We will either worship the created, or give God the glory for all that is created. And, the way we stay grounded is by “attending upon the Ordinances of God.”

John tells us a little about our bent toward Idolatry in 1 John 2:15-17.

Turn with me to 1 John… right before Revelation at the back of the New Testament… these were John’s epistles, or letters to the church. Yes, there is John’s Gospel, and there is John’s Revelation, but these are his Epistles.

So, let’s read a little bit of what he said about loving God the Father…

1 John 2:15-17

<PRAYER>

Who has ever dealt with cravings? When I think of cravings, the first thing I think of is pregnancy. We all hear about “Pickles and Ice cream” or something like that… But with Renee, it was Turtle Cheesecake from Sam’s. When Renee was pregnant with Reagan, we lived in Lufkin, and I went to Sam’s several times to get that cheesecake. I have to say, her craving could have been worse… I mean, I enjoyed some of that cheesecake as well. God is present in all of God’s good creation… and I certainly think God is present in a good cheesecake! But… we need to be careful when anything becomes a craving.

A Craving is an insatiable desire for something, nothing else seems to satisfy it. There are all kinds of cravings, here I think John is telling us to be careful not to crave the things of this world. Rather than fulfill the craving for the things of this world, I think we need to Correct the Crave.

Correct the Crave

Our culture presents all kinds of desires that it says are worthy of craving. Sexual desires – there is nothing wrong with sexual desire in the correct context – that is in marriage… but to peruse the internet looking for temporary satisfaction isn’t the place to fulfill that craving. Neither is a relationship outside of the bonds of your committed relationship with your spouse. The desire isn’t wrong… but what John is warning about is fulfilling that desire in the wrong way or the wrong place.

He talks about the lust of the eyes too… think of all the glamourous things that catch our eyes.

You know, I’ve got a pretty nice truck… but then I see a newer truck, with more bells and whistles on it… and suddenly I am craving a new truck.

For some of us, we have a desire for fame and fortune. I know a lot of preachers who desire to be famous. They crave the fame! I know one pastor who never wished for it but ended up with all the fame and fortune of a celebrity. He has numerous books. He leads one of the largest churches in the metroplex… I mean, his pastoral staff is larger than most churches. You know what he gets for his fame… loneliness. You know how I like to stand at the back and greet you as you leave worship? He can’t do that. After he preaches, he has to be escorted off by security. He goes into a private room and has to stay there until the worship area empties of the 5000 or more worshipers before he can go to his vehicle – an ol’ beat up farm truck. If he didn’t, he would be overrun by ‘fans’ who want an autograph or a picture or to talk. He would never get home. I do not believe that is the life God wants for any of us!

Those who want all the fame and fortune… those who crave the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes… that isn’t the life God created us for. We need to let God correct our crave, and I think that is something that God wants for us!

I think God wants us to hunger for more than what this world can give. I think God wants us to crave more than what the culture throws our way. Maybe that’s why the first commandment is that we are to have no god’s, no idols, before God. Instead of the things of this world, we should crave… should hunger for God’s love.

Find God’s Love

John reminds us in 1 John 4 that God is love. When we find God, we find true love. We find a love that lasts forever. As we read a moment ago, The world and all the lusts of the world are passing away, but God’s love remains forever. The exact words were, “But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.”

Let that sink in for a moment. This sanctuary… rubble. All those cars in the parking lot… a pile of rust and decaying rubber. That boat at the dock… a fish habitat at the bottom of the lake. Even before the whole earth passes away, everything we have will decay and be gone.

Luke 21: 33 reminds us that “Heaven and earth will disappear, but my words will never disappear.” These were the words of Jesus. One day everything that we know will be gone… BUT – God’s word will last forever.

And, those words are exemplified in love. Jesus came and taught us how to live in relationship with God and one another. Jesus came and taught us how to act and react… then he showed us what love truly is when he gave himself for us. His love was unconditional. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. That is so amazing…

Sermon Slide

The culture tells us that love is dependent upon action. “I will love you as long as you do x, y. z.” But God’s love doesn’t work that way. God’s love works in spite of our actions. Romans 3:23 reminds us that all of us have fallen short of God’s glory… we have all sinned. And Romans 6:23 tells us that the wages of that sin is death… BUT – and other one of those Big But’s – But the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ.

Regardless of my sin, God decided to love me… regardless of what you have done, God loves you! The only question left for you is, will you make the decision to love God back?

That is a daily decision that each of us have to make. Every day, I wake up and I have to decide, am I going to love God and love my neighbor. Every day, I have to decide, am I going to do the things that build up my relationship with God, or am I going to love the culture around me and do thing things that give me temporary pleasure.

We have a choice…

I hope you choose to love what matters…

I hope you choose to do those things that draw you into the love of God more deeply…

Studying God’s Word, spending time with believers praying for one another, worshipping God in church and in your private life… all these “ordinances” of God… these means of Grace… these things that help us stay in love with God.

And, one of those is what we are about to do now… remembering the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ through Holy Communion.

Let’s talk…

… When we come forward to receive communion, we recognize the nature of creation and salvation: Creation – bread and juice (fruit of the vine)… and Salvation – the body and the blood… are gifts that we can only receive.

The means of Grace are gifts of the Holy Spirit to join us with Christ.

God’s presence among us doesn’t leave us as we are… but it changes us from the inside out….