God’s Love Opens Heaven
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Zeal for Love
Zeal for Love
We live to Know Him and make Him known
Knowing God and pursuing a daily relationship with God is the most important thing you can do in your life
Our church exist to Know God and help you glorify Him in every area of your life
How you accomplish the vision of our church is to connect with God on a Daily basis
WE have a program called Reign Connect
It’s a program specifically designed to facilitate your daily relationship with God
If you text connect to 360 800 3606
You will watch a few short videos to tell you about our Church
And at the end you will answers some questions about yourself
That will generate a personalized encounter guide for you
It will change your life
Notes:
(360) 800-3606
Tap on the back
Word of the Year is Zeal:
9 Because zeal for Your house has eaten me up,
And the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me.
We say it like this:
Zeal is when God’s passions become our own
God is passionate about Love
Agape- unconditional, sacrificial, love, or the God kind of love
Majority of our time 1 Corinthians 13
I have a Challenge for you for the rest of this month
Read 1 Corinthians 13 everyday for the the rest of this month
Don’t just read it to read it
Use it as a daily gauge for your life
We are going to Start at the end work our way backwards
11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
The key to Spiritual maturity is how well you walk in LOVE
Zig Ziglar said- Duty makes us do things well, love make us do things beautifully
Heaven is not moved by visibility of our actions, it’s moved by love. Jesus rewards the heart behind the mission
You see The very hand that wrote the Love chapter
Was a hand stained with the blood of the Church
When we first see Paul come into the scene He has a mission but the motive was not LOVE
He’s consenting to the death of Christians
Rounding up Christ followers and putting them in prison
5 circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; 6 concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
7 But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.
Zealous for prosecuting the church
Paul thought that he was doing good
The spirit of religion it’s really the spirit of self-righteousness
But I’m doing the right thing
I’m blameless I’m righteous
But he’s got blood on his hands
The first martyr that we see in the Bible is Stephen in Acts 7
The people that stoned Stephen lay down their coats at the feet of Paul
And in acts 9
The love of God opens heaven, and Paul has an encounter with Jesus
See when we have a true encounter with Jesus
God gives us the ability
He creates the capacity
Under the Law, the aim was to avoid sin. Under grace, the aim is to walk in love.
Jesus didn’t just forgive us-He freed us to love.
Jesus says in the Lord’s prayer in Matthew 6
On earth as it is in heaven
The most tangible way we as christians bring heaven down to earth is when we are walking in Love
We never look more like Jesus when we are walking in forgiveness and Love
Henry Drummond a 19th century renowned Scottish evangelist said “Religion is not a strange or added thing, but the inspiration of the secular life, the breathing of an eternal spirit through this temporal world.”
This isn’t just a cool concept, it’s the very thing that gives life and meaning to a cursed world
The Love of God is not merely the giver of life; it is the source from which all life flows
We are the stewards of the Love of God
What are you doing with it?
4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;
Love suffers long and is kind
Patience
This is the normal attitude of Love
It is the nature of being self-restrained in the face of being provoked, the opposite of anger, and associated with mercy
I like the thought of this of patience- Love is waiting for the opportunity to begin
Because love has a spiritual lens in which it looks through-it waits
It looks for every opportunity to show itself kind
I think sometimes we want to have these grand plans of accomplishing great things
God is just as much in the small things as He is in the be things
10 Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in Zerubbabel’s hand.”
(The seven lamps represent the eyes of the Lord that search all around the world.)
Showing someone patience when no has, showing someone a small act of kindness can be the catalyst for an encounter with the Love of God
2. Love is Generous/love does not envy
Love is not in competition with others
Comparison is the thief of all Joy
Envy is a feeling of ill well to those who are in the same space as ourselves
Spirit of covetousness or belittlement
We should want to do things with excellence
Not because we want to outshine others
3. Love does not parade itself, is not puffed up
5 Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for
“God resists the proud,
But gives grace to the humble.”
6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time,
Peter talks about submitting love submit to authority and to each other
Or asked to be clothed with humility
God resist the proud, but he gives grace to the humble
It’s easy for us to get boastful in our good deeds
When we think back about how kind we’ve been and generous
That’s all nice and good
But we have to keep a humble heart
When love lacks humility, it turns into entitlement
The worlds understanding treats love like a paycheck- I showed up, now pay me
It’s purely transaction
Again, we’re just giving what God first gave us
4. Love isn’t rude- it show courtesy
Love is polite
Nothing worse to me than rude Christians
Forget how to be rude
Competition fishing
How could I have sought a better outcome
5. Seeks not her own, is not easily provoked:
We give up our rights to be right for the betterment of others
It doesn’t mean we don’t seek truth
But I’ve been in many situations that I could seek justice
We want justice but we seek mercy and unity first
Sometimes you have to seek your own to realize what you must give up
What do I normally do in this situation?
How can I respond better?
How can I give up myself?
It is more blessed to give than to receive
A lot of people think the pursuit of happiness is getting and having and being served
But Jesus, who is the servant of all brought us what you happiness looks like dying to yourself
Serving
Choosing others first unlocks favor that you couldn’t earn
6. Love is not provoked
We’re not looking for fights or arguments
We don’t have bad tempers
You’re not easily offended
We’re unoffendable
Love does not entertain or grab onto the spirit of offense
We are supposed to act different than the world
The world takes it as a badge on your honor to be offended by things in this woke culture
It’s producing week minded people
Weak minded people let offense and their emotions drive them
We are not those people
7. Love thinks no evil
When you think someone said something hurtful, ask them what they meant by that
Don’t assume everyone is out to get you
We don’t think that they intentionally mean to harm us with their words
We seek clarity and understanding
It doesn’t mean that people won’t think evil about you
But you give them an open door into your energy if you’re making assumptions
8. Does not rejoice in iniquities
We don’t rejoice at the downfall of others
We don’t rejoice when people fail
We rejoice in the truth
We are the ones that offer hope when people fail
We’re the ones that offer restoration when people blow it
We are the ones that open heaven for others
9. Love believes all things believe, all things hopes all things, endures all things
We’re steadfast, the immovable
58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
10. Love never fails
Love outlast everything
It’s the solution. It’s the answer.
It’s our go to
God‘s love will never fail
We will still be walking in God‘s kind of love throughout all of eternity
God is never done with you
9 I have called you back from the ends of the earth,
saying, ‘You are my servant.’
For I have chosen you
and will not throw you away.
There is hope for everyone
And we carry that hope and into every situation
The God kind of love opens heaven
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Gods love ripped heaven open and brought heaven down to earth
Your life might be a culmination of wrong choices
Bad decisions
Regret
Heartbreak
Failures
You might be in the wrong lifestyle
You might think that God cannot love me because of the things i’ve done
I’m here to tell you the best news you could ever hear
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
Only one way to Jesus:
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
Sinners Prayer:
Father God, I give you my life
I give you my heart, I give you my all
I repent today for my past
I thank you my sins are forgiven
I believe in Jesus and that he died on the cross and rose again
I make you the Savior and Lord of my life
I love you God
In Jesus name Amen
