Loving God

LOVING GOD

INTRODUCTION

I appreciate the opportunity to speak to you this evening, and I appreciate everyone who came tonight, and all who are listening or watching through the church Facebook page.  

If you have your Bibles with you, be finding Matthew Chapter 22.  Matthew Chapter 22, and we’re going to start reading in verse 34: Mat 22:34-40 NKJV - 34 But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 Then one of them, a lawyer, asked [Him a question], testing Him, and saying, 36 "Teacher, which [is] the great commandment in the law?" 37 Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' 38 "This is [the] first and great commandment. 39 "And [the] second [is] like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 "On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."

This evening I’m going to be speaking a bit on the subject of LOVING GOD.  And if the Lord wills, we will talk on Wednesday night about loving each other.  But for tonight let’s dive into this subject of Loving God a little bit.   

You know, as we read through the entirety of Scripture, we are confronted with the overarching truth that the God who created the universe is also the God who created you and me, and nearly 8 billion other humans… and He is an extremely personal being who loves with a depth that we could never fully fathom.  He has given us many tangible proofs of His love for us, none more significant as the sacrificing of His one and only Son on our behalf as a propitiation for our sin. 

The Scripture itself says much about God’s love for us:

[Rom 8:38-39 NKJV] 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

[1Jo 3:1 NKJV] 1 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!

[Lam 3:22-23 NIV] 22 Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.      

[Jer 31:3 NIV] 3 The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: "I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.

[Rom 5:8 NIV] 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

[Jhn 3:16 NIV] 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

There is so much scriptural documentation for the greatness of God's love towards us. And that is why we love him -- because he loved us first and he is worthy of our love. And he greatly desires our love. So much that he made it the greatest commandment. There's no greater commandment than the commandment to love God with all of our heart, all of our soul, and all of our mind – that means everything that is in us.

Now there's been a lot of discussion about what the word love means. It’s hard to define something abstract that’s in the heart, without also defining how that affects our actions.  

As I was putting these notes together, I was looking for a good definition of Love.  I came across something the other day that I thought was a great way of putting it.  It said:

"To truly love something is to value it and cherish it above anything else that could be traded for it, and to look out for its interests above anything else.”

That's good isn't it?

To value or cherish something above anything else that could be traded for it.

But what could we trade for the love of God?   Sounds like a simple question with an obvious answer, doesn’t it?   NOTHING should be traded for the love of God!  But if we’re being honest, we all trade things for the love of God.   Let me explain what I mean. 

We all have some forms of “currency” with which we can trade for other things of value. We have time.  Each of us has a certain number of minutes left on this earth.   Some of us less than others, some of us more, but while we’re here we still have time.  And most of us have at least a little bit of money.  Again, some of us have less than others, some of us have more. But the fact that we haven’t died of starvation shows that we AT LEAST had enough money to buy a can of spam or a happy meal.  So the majority of us AT LEAST had enough money to take care of our most basic needs.    

These two things – time and money – are resources that we can trade for other things of value.  

And HOW we use these two resources is a great way of revealing what we truly love in our lives.  

A wise man said, “You let me look at a man’s bank account, and how he spends the waking minutes of his day, and I WILL TELL YOU WHAT HE TRULY LOVES.”

{PAUSE}

A lot of truth in that statement. 

We can say that we love God and we can come here and sing, Oh how I love Jesus, but then we go out into that world and spend every dollar we make on personal entertainment and every minute of every day on things other than Jesus.  That's not what loving Jesus with all our hearts looks like.

That's not loving Jesus with all of our hearts. That's loving the flesh and seeking to gratify the desires of the flesh.  You see, the desires of the flesh are not just the outwardly sinful desires that we've been taught about – drinking and smoking, gossiping, sexual immorality, cursing and hatred, and things like that – but they can be much more subtle than that. The most dangerous desires of the flesh are the seemingly innocent things that we cultivate time with in an effort to give us satisfaction apart from Jesus Christ.

Pause and Repeat

The most dangerous desires of the flesh are the seemingly innocent things that we cultivate time with in an effort to give us satisfaction apart from Jesus Christ.

Those are the things we have to fight against this Christians. See, every day we wake up, and we have a battle on our hands, whether we know it or not. The battle is between the spirit and the flesh. Paul talks about this in Romans chapter 7, go read it when you have a chance. There are two natures inside of ourselves, one nature is that which desires the flesh, and the things of the flesh, and that nature is the one that causes us to seek the things of the world. The other nature is the spirit, and that's the part of us that seeks the things of Jesus Christ. And every single day we have to wake up and kill that flesh, so that the spirit can have the victory.

That is why we are told to “take up our cross” daily.  It is our FLESH that must be NAILED TO THE CROSS... otherwise the Spirit will not be able to get the victory in our lives.  

But when the spirit does get the victory, then loving God, and it's truest form – in spirit and in truth – becomes a reality in our lives.

But that battle is present every day. And if we don't willingly fight the battle, we will lose by default – and the loss is manifested in our inability to truly God with all of our hearts, souls and minds.

Jesus said, we are to take up our cross every day he never said take up our roses, take up our cross not too many Christians are looking for a cross.  We tend to want things to be easier than that.  

And let's be honest friends, in the year 2024, it is a lot more difficult to fight this battle than it was in other times in the past. Mainly because we carry the enemies weapons in our pockets.

{Hold up cell phone.}

This cell phone that many if not most of us carry around is one of the biggest distractions that we have. Why? Because it invites our immediate attention all day long... anything that can command our immediate attention is something that can take our focus off of Jesus Christ and our relationship with him. Everything from a telephone call to emails text messages to games to news articles. These are seemingly benign things, but if they take our focus off of Jesus Christ, they are not helping us wage the war! If you want to have quality time with Jesus Christ, you’d better learn to to put your cell phone down, turn it off, and, get alone with your Bible. That's the only communication device that matters in developing your relationship with Jesus Christ.

Let's contrast that with what King David did. You know King David was spoken of in the Bible as “a man after gods own heart”.  So I think we can reasonably conclude that there was some love for God in David's heart. Let's read about what he did.

Psalms 5:1-5 (NKJV) 1 To the Chief Musician. With flutes. A Psalm of David. Give ear to my words, O LORD, Consider my meditation. 2 Give heed to the voice of my cry, My King and my God, For to You I will pray. 3 My voice You shall hear IN THE MORNING O LORD; In the morning I will direct [it] to You, And I will look up.

WHEN did David first spend time with God? 

IN THE MORNING!!

David gave the first part of his day to the Lord. He gave the best that he had in terms of time to his God.

But he didn't stop then.

Psalms 119:147-148 (NKJV) 147 I rise before the dawning of the morning, And cry for help; I hope in Your word. 148 My eyes are awake through the [night] watches, That I may meditate on Your word.

He started And he didn't quit throughout the course of his day. He continued making God the focus of his heart throughout the entire day and into the night!! That is what loving God with all of our hearts looks like. We give him everything in terms of our time.

But many of us think that we’re okay if we give him one or two hours on Sunday, and if we’re really good, another hour on Wednesday evening.

I have news for you : when we get to heaven, God is not going to ask us how much we went to church. He is going to ask us how much did you give ME of the time that I GAVE YOU?  He is going to focus on what sort of RELATIONSHIP he had with us while we were on Earth.  

Matthew 7:21:

[Mat 7:21-23 NKJV] 21 "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 "MANY will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' 23 "And then I will declare to them, 'I NEVER KNEW YOU; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'

You know this is one of the most sobering Scriptures that I have ever read.  The idea that there are people who literally CALLED JESUS LORD... yet it is said of them that HE NEVER KNEW THEM!!!  Look at the Scripture – they address Him “LORD, LORD”.  In that culture, to address someone’s name twice is a way of trying to get their attention, as if to point out that they are somehow missing a big point.  In this particular instance, the point people are trying to make with Jesus is two things:

they 1) Called Him Lord, and 2) Did things in His name.

And His response DID NOT center on what they did or didn’t do – it centered on whether or not they had a true RELATIONSHIP with Him.  

The most important thing in our entire existence is NOT that we did things for Jesus Christ.   It isn’t even that we CALLED Him ‘Lord’ and CLAIMED to KNOW HIM... it is that JESUS CHRIST KNOWS US.  

And here’s a newsflash:  We don’t get to know Jesus Christ just by going to Church.  That's not to say we shouldn't go to church. I love fellowshipping with other Christian brethren. Forsake not the assembling of ourselves together - that is Scripture.   But that is not the totality of what it means to give God our time!

We don’t get to know Jesus Christ just by going to Church.   There are 168 hours in a week.  We don’t love God with all our hearts by giving Him 3 of those 168 hours.  

We get to know Jesus Christ by GOING TO JESUS.  ALONE.    By spending quality time with Him.   By talking to Him, and LISTENING TO HIS VOICE by reading His Word and meditating on it.  

This is what it really means to “have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ”!  WE SPEND TIME WITH HIM!!  What sort of relationship doesn't involve spending time with someone? Those of you who are married, do you not spend time with your spouse? Those of you with children, do you not spend time with them? then, how can we say? We have a relationship with Jesus, and not want to spend time with Jesus??

Let me tell you, Jesus, delights, and hearing our prayers! Jesus delights in the hearing the voice of our praises! He delights and hearing us sing a song to him, even if it's off key! He's listening to the sound of our hearts voices!

If you want to give God your best, get up an hour earlier than you normally do and give that first hour to him. Devote yourself to prayer, to reading his word, to talking with him, to listening to his voice. To asking him to give you understanding of His Word, and to give you assignments that you can complete for the sake of his kingdom.  TO PRAISING HIM AND GIVING THANKS FOR WHAT HE HAS DONE FOR YOU, and WORSHIPPING HIM FOR WHO.  HE.  IS.  

QUALITY TIME WITH JESUS.  That’s what the Christian life is supposed to be about.   The very word “Christian” means “A FOLLOWER OF CHRIST”.  How can we claim to follow someone whom we don’t want anything to do with apart from 3 hours out of 168 every week?  

Jeremiah 2:13 (NKJV) “For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, [And] hewn themselves cisterns--broken cisterns that can hold no water.

// 

But how does that apply to loving God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and will?

HE KNEW THE COST.   He knew it, because HE HAD COUNTED THE COST.  

Yet He still went ahead with the program.  I don’t know about you all, but if something is going to cost me very much, I might decide to just pull the plug on the whole thing before getting started.   But God went ahead with the creation, KNOWING that it would cost Him dearly.  He did that because of the opportunity to have personal relationships with every individual human being.  

The enormity of that love really is staggering when you think about it.   His love for us CANNOT.  BE.  MEASURED.   

Lam 3:22-23 NIV - 22 Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

And He wants to BE loved in return.     This issue of loving God is actually an important point with God – SO important in fact that He actually makes it a commandment.   Then later on, after hundreds of commandments are laid down in the Old Testament Law, he actually puts a claim to this commandment, stating that it – that is, the command to Love God – is the MOST IMPORTANT COMMANDMENT of them all.