Why should I love God? (wk. 3)

Good morning, CHURCH!

Welcome to FFM where we love God and love people.

Are you ready to be equipped today?

Let me see your Bibles.

Let’s Pray

Lord, help us to see you as new and fresh through your word today?

Lord, help us to see truth where we have believed lies?

Lord, speak to us through your word today.

Most of all, help us to love you and others more.

Let’s go to the book of 1 John 4:19-21 NIV for this week’s wisdom Vaccination.

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This Week’s Wisdom Vaccination

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Today’s opening shot of wisdom is this.

‌1 John 4:19-21 NIV

We love because he first loved us. 20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.

We are in a series about the Love of God.

Why should I love God? Wk.3

One reason would be, that the creator of the Universe is a relational God and He wants to have a personal relationship with you.

He is a God who wants to come near to his creation, and He is seeking fellowship with us. (That’s really kind of mind blowing.)

The Old Testament represents God’s divine disposition toward loving relationships by the use of the Hebrew word chesed.

Chesed - ”kindness or love between people".

It can also refer to the love or mercy of God towards humanity.

(It’s God’s covenantal faithfulness)

Through His covenants with Israel, our God Yahweh, bound himself to his people in an act of profound love.

And it was a love not called forth by anything they earned.

Deut. 7:7-9 NIV

The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.

8 But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9 Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.

The New Testament

In the New Testament, God’s love is demonstrated in Jesus Christ’s incarnation and death.

This is where God the Son exchanged heavenly glory for earthly servitude and laid down his life for the sake of us, his beloved creation.

We see this in Philippians 2.

Phil 2:5–8 NIV

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!

Again this is literally mind blowing love if you lean into it.

God went to great lengths to express his love for us.

He has exposed himself to great suffering and violence at the hands of his own creation.

We see this in Romans 5.

Rom 5:6–10 NIV

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die.

8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (That is the kind of love that wins over a spouse or a friend.)

9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!

10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!

The scripture says prior to us being reconciled to God through Christ’s death, we were God’s enemy.

And now because of what you have done for us, I am no longer an enemy of God.

But that’s who God is.

He has always sought reconciliation with humanity because His love for us is salvific.

He wants to save us from ourself and our penalty for sin.

It is true that God loves all His creation.

But He bears a special love and commitment toward his believing children.

We see in Ephesians that Christ loves the church like a husband is supposed to love his bride.

Eph. 5:25 NIV

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.

I would say that the entire Bible gives us a look into how God loves us.

In Today’s message which is titled:

God’s good intentions have been revealed.

We are going to see that it was always God’s intention from the beginning to have a love relationship with humanity.

We already know from Genesis that Adam used to walk and talk with God in the cool of the day.

Turn to Mark chapter 12 and this will be our area of focus for today.

We’re going to read verses 28-33 and then we’ll dive into a revelation that took place that God wanted us to see from the book of Mark.

Mark 12:28-33 NIV

One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”

29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.

30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’

31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

32 “Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him.

33 To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

So, let’s point something out here.

Usually when we read Mark’s gospel, what we see is also either in Matthew or Luke or both.

But this bit of information in verse 33 from this lawyer was only recorded or pointed out in Mark’s gospel.

What is going on here that made Mark point this out.

Up unto now this lawyer, and the people, had lived in a system that says, we are the people of God and yes we gather to meet with Him and God meets with us in a system of grace where he covers our sin.

The formula is, we belong to God, we have set times to gather and meet with Him, we take care of the ritual sacrifices and he covers our sin.

But this lawyer suddenly saw past this system of daily ritual sacrifices in the Temple.

(And my burden for today is that someone sees past the ritual relationship with God.)

This lawyer sees that something is going on in the ministry of Jesus that goes to the heart in a way that daily ritual sacrifices never did or could.

And this is why he said:

Mark 12:32-33 NIV

“Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him.

33 To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

And it was at this point that Jesus said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”

And we need to understand that this passage we just read is part of the sequel to Jesus going into the Temple in Jerusalem and turning over the tables of the money changers.

(In Matt. 21 Jesus went into the Temple and threw out all the people who were buying and selling there. He turned over the tables of those who were exchanging different kinds of money, and he upset the benches of those who were selling doves.)

And this was a parallel of the Temple’s destruction.

The Temple has run its course.

And this lawyer was starting to see why the Temple and the ritual sacrifices were no longer the way.

He sees that the Kingdom that Jesus was announcing and launching included a deeper reality.

And this new reality was the original intent of the Torah all along.

The Temple was merely a signpost pointing to a different kind of reality.

That as Israel’s God, the Father, who had promised to dwell with them in the Temple, is now dwelling with them in the presence of Jesus, who is God the son.

And we know that later they would find out that He would dwell with them and us internally in the presence of God the Holy Spirit.

That’s why we choose to love God with our whole hearts.

An as the sequel continued Mark went on to talk about the destruction of the Temple in chapter 13.

(Mark 13, verses 1 and 2. As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!”

2 “Do you see all these great buildings?” replied Jesus. “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”)

This lawyer was starting to see that this was God’s intention all along.

That we as humans would not just follow God ritualistically by going to church and reading a few scriptures weekly and then leaving Him until we meet again.

But that our lives by our hearts, souls and minds would be enlivened by His presence to do His will in a whole new way.

And my prayer for you today as I bring this series to a close is that as the Kingdom of God has become a reality amongst us, that it becomes a reality in your life.

A reality that turns upside down every area of your life.

That your marriage or relationships are changed for the good.

That your neighbors, friends, family members and even enemies are changed because you changed.

That your financial situation is changed for the good.

That your health is changed for the good.

The Kingdom of God should be positively affecting every area of your life.

And that’s why You should love God.

If you’re watching online or here in the building, I have a very important question to ask you.

What is the Holy Spirit saying to you right now?