What we all need

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what we all long for

what could it be?
fame? money? a great job? family? more time? more friends? more fun?
what are you longing for? what is it you really need?
well, whether we realize it or not, so much we long for never actually gives us what we really think that we will get out of it. we are in search for something that satisfies. something that lasts and lasts and lasts. lasting happiness, lasting joy, lasting satisfaction, and in this world, the stuff of the world that we chase after, it will never really bring the promise of that kind of satisfaction. so we will search on, hopelessly seeking that thing that is just out of our reach.
ever felt that way? like you could almost get there but it just goes that much faster than us.
what about the opposite? ever experience the sense that everything was ok? just an incredible peace.... you knew that you always had enough, you didn’t need, didn’t want, because everything seemed to be there, your needs were met and your wants.....well, you didn’t want much because you felt satisfied. completely satisfied. such a good place to be, isn’t it?
I have been one person on such a search in my life. I have tried a lot of different directions, a lot of paths that led to promises, but never the promised land. have you been there too?
----God’s love for us
A story from the book by Wayne Jacobson called He loves me.
The picture of the cross traditionally taught the wrath of God poured out on Jesus while Jesus is taking our suffering, so the father turns His back on Jesus.
Wayne looks at it from another perspective, where Christ can't see the father because He has so identified with sin that the father is there but Jesus experiencing spiritual death or disconnection from the father.
Jesus experienced something radically different than you and I. we were all born spiritually dead to God the Father, and through Christ we have been made alive, so we can be in relationship with God the Father!
Jesus experienced being born on this earth completely alive, physically and spiritually. Just as Adam and Eve were with God, so was Jesus fully with God all His life, and we see it displayed in the power and miracles He performed. but then, Jesus willingly, not only took on sin for physical death, but took on our sin so completely that He was able to become sin......becoming sin meant He would be dead to the Father.
think on this for just a moment
as I prepare this sermon, my heart is breaking for what Jesus did. the tears in my eyes are making it hard to see the screen.
He was willing to become spiritually dead for me!
hear the words of Jesus
Psalm 22:1 ESV
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?
being spiritually dead, there is no connection to the Father. Jesus couldn’t experience relationship with His Father!
the Son of God that was in perfect union with the Father for all eternity past! He faced spiritual death and said yes, for me and for you.
think about that moment in the garden now.....when Jesus was praying, and He prayed Father...
Luke 22:42 ESV
saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”
Jesus struggled with the thought of what was coming for Him, spiritual death! How could He be willing to do this for me?
I am humbled and in awe at my Jesus. I am thankful beyond words at what Jesus faced. At what the Father was willing to do for me.
even after I reflect on my life and realize how horrible I have been to others and to Him.
I realize so perfectly that I am nothing and He is everything. and I should just let God have every single moment of the rest of my life freely and willingly. He deserves it completely.
You can have it Lord. it’s Yours.
anyone else pray that prayer? anyone else want to give it all to Him because He bought and paid for it with such a life?
1 Corinthians 6:20 ESV
for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
1 Corinthians 6:19–20 ESV
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
1 Cor
1 Cor
I am wrecked right now. He has me floored.
I owe Him everything. I owe Him my love. which is really His love coming back to Him.
-----our love for God

On the whole, God’s love for us is a much safer subject to think about than our love for him” (C. S. Lewis).584

how are we doing with loving God? what would you rate yourself?
Ultimately,
all of our love for God comes from the love we have accepted from the Him. whether indirect, from other people that comes from the father, or directly from the Father Himself. We can either accept all His love or we can reject all His love......it is that wide in scope. maybe you’re somewhere in between.
think about it. When the scripture says
1 John 4:8 ESV
Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
1 John 4:18 ESV
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
we are seeing in this verse what love, or who love is and where love comes from. we are seeing the actual root or source of love. all love.
when we look at love, we must understand what it is. there is so much to love. it could reveal itself through patience, mercy, grace, forgiveness, so many ways it is displayed.
but love ultimately wants the best for the one it loves. if God loves you, He wants the best for you. if you love your spouse, child, friend, you want the best for them. so you give them the best, just like God did for you. He didn’t give you His leftovers, He didn’t say “I will give them second best” but He gave His very own Son, and He gave Him to us so we could have something that we could never get on our own. Jesus was the only one who could do what needed to be done to show the love of God and to set us free.
-----our love for others....outside the church. even our enemy
John 13:35 ESV
By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
John 13:35 ESV
By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Is there an Importance of body ministry? Loving others within the church?
We could focus all our energy on people that aren't here yet…. But what about those who are here?
This is the place to practice Love! Right here at church with the people who come here!
Practice so you get good at loving…... so that we can go out in the world and love others the same way.
Value of loving one another
Church is a place for us to get good at loving each other. We have an incredible God that works love, forgiveness, grace and mercy in us……. And where?? But through our circumstances!
Let's really define love. It is spoken of over and over in the Bible, we see it playing out through numerous people and also the way God handles people.
story of Corrie Ten Boom
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