Love this land with God's love

I may be biased, but I think that Canada has the best national anthem in the world. I especially love the fact that the English version is a prayer to God. In that sense, Christians are the only ones who can really sing the anthem to its full potential! God, keep our land glorious and free!

The French version of the anthem, which I grew up singing, speaks of valor immersed in faith. It talks about a nation bearing the cross. Now I understand that those French words were penned by a Catholic, but how far we have strayed from that ideal today, of living in a land where our emblem is a cross..

As a young preacher, one of the things that grieves my heart is the number of guys who stop loving their country with God’s love and start loving their country for this present world. Maybe it’s been the same in every generation, I don’t know, but it’s true in my generation and it was true in Paul’s day.

I know the same thing is repeated in America, Britain, Europe and many other places, but I think this is the best country on earth. If God sent me elsewhere I would go, but I am glad He put me here. And yet, I am very aware today that I live in a dangerous land. Maybe not dangerous physically; God has blessed us with a good measure of safety. But I find that this country is dangerous spiritually.

A few years ago, I was invited to a missions conference in North Carolina. The church there was wanting to support national pastors as missionaries. I was the Canadian national pastor that they invited. There was one from the Philippines, some from other parts of the world, and one that I remember in particular from Pakistan. At supper, nobody was talking to him, so I went and introduced myself and we had dinner together. I asked questions about him, his family and his ministry in Pakistan. He told me that he had been publicly flogged for his faith three times. When we prayed for dinner, he specifically prayed for the physical safekeeping of his family during his absence. He ministers in a physically dangerous place for a Christian.

Then, after describing the challenges that they face, he asked me this question: “So, tell me, what is it like being a Christian in Canada?” I really didn’t want to answer. I didn’t want to paint of false picture and say it’s easy here, but I didn’t want to get into a comparison between his trials and mine either!

But as I reflected on my conversation with him, I realized that I live in a danger zone too. Yes, I can leave my house without much fear of physical harm, but I do leave my house with many opportunities for spiritual harm.

Now it’s not always been that way everywhere in Canada. There are three people at our church who vividly remember the days when missionaries came to Quebec from Ontario and from Europe in the 1950s and 1960s. They tell me how the police would break up their outdoors evangelistic meetings and how they would take the preachers and throw them into the fountain in the middle of the park, yelling, “Lets’s baptize the Baptists!”

Story of going to thank Lorne Heron for his stand for the faith.

Would you take a few moments and reflect with me on these words, “Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica.” (v. 10)

I. A spiritual threat. v. 10

I love safety. I am not by nature a risk-taker, at least not physically. We were at Canada’s Wonderland near Toronto this summer, and my son Daniel, who is 9 years old, thought that he was ready for the big-boy rides. He was chomping at the bit to leave Kidzville and try a real one. He identified the craziest-looking roller-coaster in the park, I don’t even know its name, but I doubt he would have been tall enough to get on anyway. We ended up going to the one called Dragonfyre, which is usually my warmup ride when I go there, just to get back into the roller-coaster mood. Well after the first drop, his confidence was gone. He was praying that the Lord would return before the next loop in the track. But as we walked around the park that day, my wife Melissa kept pointing out some of the rides and said, “Wow, that looks like fun!” I thought, “To me that looks like faith! Or foolishness!” She will go heavenward on anything; I prefer walking with God on the ground, haha.

But truth be told, Canada is a risky place to serve God. There may not be much physical threat, although that can happen anywhere, but there is a spiritual threat. We are still in a spiritual war zone, and the enemy would love to take you out of the battlefield.

You know what happened to Demas? He fell in love. He didn’t fall in love with a woman. He fell in love with a city. But he didn’t fall in love the souls of that city; he fell in love with the worldliness of that city.

Need I remind us today that Demas was not back-pew church member? He was an integral part of Paul’s ministry team. I would imagine that Demas had been a winner of souls. I would surmise that he had been a teacher of men. It would stand to reason that Paul had invested much in him, or else Paul would elaborate on Demas’ departure like this.

If Paul had been in Canada in 2017, he would have come to a conference like this, and he would have been introducing his assistants. This is Epaphras; this is so and so. This is…Demas. Then one year, poof, Demas is gone.

You know how it is in ministry; the harsh reality is that people come and people go. It’s not what we want; but it’s our calling to love people who one day may just get up and leave. Yet, there are those departures that sting just a little bit more. And Demas seems to have been one of those.

Demas fell in love. And it wasn’t with God. Nor was it with the lost souls of his country. It was with the present world that his luxurious country was offering.

I love my country. I love the east coast and I love the west coast, and I love the places that I visited in between. I love my home province of Quebec and my heart breaks over the depravity that we see there and how that depravity seems to be bolder every day.

The problem with my country is that it’s an easy country to love. I pastor a church where the vast majority of people are immigrants. They come from Haiti and west Africa in particular. So many times, I have gone to visit a family and heard their salvation testimony. Sometimes, I get a letter from a pastor overseas who expresses his sadness over losing such a pillar in his church, and asking me to take good care of them. And often, guess what happens. These people who were Sunday School teachers, deacons, faithful men in their homelands move here and they start skipping church left and right. I go visit them and they tell me everything that I want to hear. But they remain just as sporadic, and sometimes they flat out fall away. I asked one of our faithful men, who is from Togo, West Africa about it. “How come people can be such pillars overseas and here they become nominal Christians?” He said to me, “Pastor, they just fall in love with Canada. This country is easy to love. And frankly, pastor, it’s easier to love Christ in my homeland than here. Christ has more so-called competition here than He does there.”

The Scriptures tell me that I am to be a watchman. Twice in Ezekiel God said, “Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. “ (; ). But it’s a lot harder being a watchman when there’s comfortable couch at the top of your guard post. The watchman can easily fall asleep!

How sad it is to see people move to my country and city for a better life, they gain the whole world, and it seems that they lose their own souls. Or in many cases, they literally lose their children’s souls.

But you know what, if it can happen to them, it can happen to me. I am not better. I can easily fall in love with all that this land has to offer. One day away from God, then two, and then three, and don’t you know it, you start to love this present world.

There is a spiritual threat. We live in a land of plenty, and it’s a dangerous land.

I am sure that you have read Pilgrim’s Progress. As Pilgrim makes his way towards the Celestial City, he meets many dangers along the way. Some men want to lead him astray; there is the castle of despair, but he comes to a dangerous place called Vanity Fair. Vanity Fair offers every pleasure, luxury, and sinful enticement imaginable. But that town is an attack on the souls of Pilgrim and Faithful. It is there that Faithful will be martyred for his faith, but Pilgrim will get to travel on.

, “Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness. Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way.”

I love Canada. But you can’t love Canada right if you don’t love God more.

37Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way.Turn…: Heb. Make to pass

II. A sacrifice to choose v. 10

“Having loved this present world”. If you are a preacher, I am sure that at some point you have explained the difference between agape love and phileo love: sacrificial love and brotherly love.

Well, guess what. Demas didn’t have brotherly love for this present world; he had sacrificial love for it. Something about this world called out to Demas, and he was willing to sacrifice a life of fruitfulness to God for it.

You can only have it one of two ways. Either you will have to sacrifice some of the attraction of Canada because you love God, or you will have to sacrifice some of your usefulness to God because you love the stuff in Canada. And I am not talking about loving Canadian souls nor about loving the beauty of God’s Creation that we see here. I am talking about the Vanity Fair that calls out to every Canadian.

We all sacrifice. You can’t enjoy all that this land offers and also enjoy all that God offers. Because a lot of what this land offers is contrary to the laws of God. And much of what is not contrary to the law of God will become weeds that choke out the seed in our hearts.

The province that I live in is way down the garden path of wickedness. I love the place, I love the sights, I love the city where I get to live and serve, but man, there’s just not a lot of people there who want to sacrifice the conveniences of Quebec for the cause of Christ.

I had a discussion the other day with a man whose son is confused about what he should study, and the son is just spinning his wheels taking classes that he doesn’t even care about. The dad is in ministry. I suggested, “Well why don’t you encourage your son to go to Bible college for a year? Learning the Scriptures is never a waste of time.” He looked at me and said, “I can tell you lived in Ontario for 11 years. We just don’t do that here.” No wonder our pulpits are emptying out and there are few preacher boys in my province. When the very thought of studying God’s Word rather than something financially lucrative is an outlandish thought!

We all choose. We choose what is a bigger deal to us: God or this present world. God or the thirst to possess more. God or the thirst for comfort. God or the passion of pleasure. But we all choose. Demas chose, and he chose wrong.

I don’t want to overreach or read into the passage too much; but I find the Spirit’s choice of words here interesting. Paul doesn’t say, “Demas has forsaken Christ”, nor “Demas has forsaken the faith”. He says “Demas hath forsaken me.” Now Paul knew how he was himself. He believed himself to be the chief, the worst of sinners! He was not confused about himself vs. Christ.

But Paul took this thing very personally. This was persona to him. Demas has forsaken ME. I don’t know whether Demas still goes to church, whether Demas still claims to be a Christian or not. But he has forsaken that kind of Christianity that seeks the souls of men and seeks to spread the Gospel and seeks to see churches planted across the dominion, and he’s fallen in love with the present world.

May God help me and help us to love Christ so passionately, with all our heart, with all our soul, with our mind, and with all our strength so that our love for Him will translate into a burning love for our country, not primarily a love for what our country is offering us, but a love for what we are offering our country: Jesus Christ and His glorious Gospel.

III. A settling of the heart v. 10

Have you noticed that when people quit on God, they often skip town? I have had a number of my peers quit the work of God, and in most cases, they end up moving elsewhere not long after that. Once you stop following the Spirit, you usually follow the money, I guess.

God doesn’t lead to Sodom, we all know that. We all know the story of Lot who looks up, sees the greenery, and goes there. Now Demas does the same thing.

Our feet will eventually go where our heart is leaning. Demas’ heart began to lean. It leaned away from Paul’s ministry team, and more tragically, it leaned away from God. And it was a matter of time until his toes were facing Thessalonica and he turned his back on God and the ministry.

We need to settle our love in our heart. Whom do I love? Do I love this land? Oh for sure; I will fly the flag, buy the jersey, eat the maple syrup, eat the poutine, and all of that. But when I pray that God will increase my love for Canada, I am praying that God will increase my love for the souls of Canada.

The most patriotic thing you can do is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. You can do it with the flag flying and with the jersey on. But underneath all that, there had better be a burning passion for God.

Because the less attractive Christ becomes; the more attractive Thessalonica becomes.

You can go to Thessalonica for two reasons in the New Testament: to plant a church or to make money. Either you love its souls or you love its stuff. And it’s still true today. You can be Canadian for two reasons: to see churches planted across the land or to make money and live a comfortable life.

I love Canada. Love it. But I love Christ more; and therefore I desire to love Canada as Christ loves it.

May the Lord settle my heart every day on the glory of the cross of Jesus Christ, and may the colour red remind me more of the blood of Christ than it reminds me of my flag. May it remind me of both, but of Christ more.

God keep our land! Glorious and free! But God keep me. Keep me in your way. Keep my heart fixed on you. May I love you with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my mind, and with all my strength. And may I do that in Canada, for the good of my country and for the glory of Christ.