Pastor_Transcript6alt
40 Days of Community
Part 6 – Alternate Message
HOW TO TELL GOD YOU LOVE HIM
Transcript of Message by Rick Warren
From “Essentials for 21st Century Living”
Part 8 of 9
October 22-24, 1999
The following message is part of a 9-part series preached by Rick Warren on the five purposes in 1999. This message is on the topic of worship, and has been adapted for use in the 40 Days of Community campaign by Lance Witt. The extra text provides tie-ins with the Community theme of “worshiping together”, and includes the memory verse for this week as well. The accompanying message outline and PowerPoints are provided on the Pastor’s page of the website.
If somebody asked you to describe the Christian life in a few words, what would you say? If somebody asked you, “What does God want from us more than anything else?” What would you say? If you said moral devotion, if you said ethical behavior, if you said religious ritual you’d be wrong. The essence of the Christian life can be summed up in two words “love affair”. God wants to have a love affair with you.
The Bible says that you were created as an object of God’s love. God made you to love you. He made you to be an object of His love. He wants to have a relationship with you. That means that you are created for the purpose of having a relationship and, as a result, the most important thing you can know in life is that God loves you. And the most important thing that you can do in life is to love Him back. Jesus said it like this in Matthew 22 “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.” Nothing is more important. If you do this you will fulfill your primary purpose in life. If you learn to love God and you let God love you, your life has fulfilled its meaning, its purpose. If you miss this part of your life, your life is a failure. Because you’ve missed the very reason that God created you and put you on earth – to love and be loved.
There’s a term in the Bible for expressing love to God. That term is called “worship”. We think of worship as a ritual or routine or something you do in a church. No. Worship simply means expressing love to God. Any time you’re expressing love to God, you’re worshipping whether you’re by yourself, in a small group, in a large crowd or wherever. When you express love to God in any way you are worshipping.
You may have noticed that sometimes, for some people it’s hard to say, “I love you.” (especially for men). Sometimes we feel it, we just don’t know how to get it out, how to say it. So we don’t know how to express our love to our children, to our wives/husbands, to our friends and neighbors, the people we work with or even to God. It’s kind of difficult. Why does that happen? Why is it sometimes hard to say, “I love you”?
You may have been raised in a very non-expressive home where there was love or maybe there wasn’t and you just didn’t talk about it that much. You didn’t frequently say, “I love you.” Or maybe you were taught to stuff your emotions, push them down, hide your feelings. Maybe you have been hurt in the past and you say, “I don’t want to get hurt again so I'm not going to tell anybody I love them.” Or God. Or maybe you’re resentful of hurts in your past so you say, “I don’t want to love God. There are things in my life I don’t like.” Or maybe you just don't know how to express your love to God.
This is your day. Today we’re going to talk about how to do that.
And here is something I don’t want you to miss. Expressing our love to God is not only something we do individually, it is something we do together. In fact, as I reflect back over my Christian life, some of the most powerful and meaningful moments took place in corporate worship. Someone one described the goal of corporate worship as “making it easy to find God and making it difficult to forget him.” I like that.
One such experience is described in the book of Revelation. This book written by John gives us a glimpse into worship in heaven. John describes a day in the future around the throne of God. Gathered around the throne are not just thousands or tens of thousands, but the Bible says millions of angels and believers gather for worship. Listen to John’s description.
Rev. 5:11-13 (NLT)
Then I looked again, and I heard the singing of thousands and millions of angels around the throne and the living beings and the elders. [12] And they sang in a mighty chorus:
"The Lamb is worthy—the Lamb who was killed.
He is worthy to receive power and riches
and wisdom and strength
and honor and glory and blessing."
[13] And then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea. They also sang:
"Blessing and honor and glory and power
belong to the one sitting on the throne
and to the Lamb forever and ever."
Can you imagine such a scene? I think about how powerful it is to gather a few thousand believers in the same place where everyone is singing their worship to God. It is mind boggling to try and imagine what this day will be like. In the meantime, we as a church get to practice for that great day. Each weekend, we get to come together and in worship express our love to God. You see, in worship we are also BETTER TOGETHER.
I saw on the Internet a book called Ten Thousand Ways To Say “I Love You”. Today we’re going to cover all 10,000. Actually I’ve narrowed it down to six. Six ways to tell God you love Him.
I'm not going to preach a message this morning but lead you in an interactive service. The choir and musicians are actually going to lead you in example of these six ways to express love to God. I'm going to encourage you to take a self-test on each of these six ways and evaluate yourself. By the end of this hour I hope you will feel loved by God more than you ever have in your life. And I hope that you will have learned to express love to God more than you ever have in your life, learned a deeper level of worship. For some of you I know that you’re going to begin a relationship with Jesus Christ for the very first time this morning. For others, for the first time you are going to understand that worship is also a team sport. Yes, God wants you to express love to him individually. But, he also loves it when you express love with other members of God’s family. Even though your worship is personal, it is not just to be private.
Let’s look at these six ways.
1. The first way is one we’re real good at here at Saddleback and that is by singing to him.
You’ve probably noticed that music and love go together because music comes from the heart. It’s not something you do intellectually. It’s something that comes out of your soul, your emotions. There are many love songs in the world. There are radio stations that are dedicated entirely just to the love song format. But did you know that more songs have been written about Jesus Christ than any other topic in the world? Nothing even comes close in second place. Over the last 2000 years there have been more love songs and songs written to Jesus Christ than any other subject. Christianity is a singing religion, a singing faith. Why? Because it’s not about religion. It’s about a love affair. It’s about a relationship with God, that God loves you so much that He sent His Son to die for you and He wants you to love Him back.
Psalm 147:7 says “Sing out your thanks to Him. Sing praises to our God.” Nothing will make you more aware of God’s love and God’s presence in your life than singing and praise. I know some of you are saying, “But you don’t understand. I can’t sing.” The Bible says, “Make a joyful noise.” I know all of you can do that. You go to football games or somebody’s getting married – you make a joyful noise. So just let it out. You don’t have to hit the right note. You just have to make a joyful noise.
That’s why I love coming here on the weekends and having the music cranked up. That way I can sing as loud as I want and not quench the spirit for anyone standing around me. To tell you the truth, I just don’t understand a Christian who doesn’t sing. The COMMAND to sing is given all throughout the Psalms. And when you read the Psalms, it’s not just a directive to sing individually, but to also do it together.
Psalm 66:8 (NLT)
Let the whole world bless our God
and sing aloud his praises.
Psalm 95:1 (NLT)
Come, let us sing to the Lord!
Let us give a joyous shout to the rock of our salvation!
Notice that the Psalmist says “let us” sing and “let us” make a joyous shout. Singing is an important part of you learning to express your love to God.
I know there are some people who come to Saddleback intentionally late. They say, “I’ll miss the crowd going in and I’ll miss the warm up act, all the preliminaries. I'm coming for the main event. I'm coming for the preaching.” That’s a big mistake. You need principles for your head and music for your heart. You need to worship God. Music inspires, it refreshes, it rejuvenates, it revitalizes. Music and worship in praise to God has a healing element to it. If you’re depressed you need to sing a song. I’ve noticed this: when I least feel like singing that’s when I need to do it the most. When I don’t feel like participating in worship, when I don’t feel like getting involved, when I just want to stand still and be a spectator that means my heart is cold and it needs to be warmed up. I need to get involved and let my mood be lifted in worship.
You see musicians and singers week after week. You see what they do. But I want you to hear the motivation behind it. Today I'm going to ask a few of them what does worship mean to them when they are leading us in worship.
*“For me worship is setting aside all the busyness and distractions of my life and just giving my complete attention to the Lord.”
*”It’s an opportunity to focus my mind on how much I love the Lord and how grateful I am for what He’s done for me.”
*”The harp is a great word picture of worship. When I worship I'm telling God who He is and I go from the horizontal to the vertical on the harp strings just giving praise to God.”
*“When I worship the Lord, it’s amazing. I feel very close to Him and I'm drawn into Him and the whole world kind of falls away. My fears and my frustrations and my failures aren’t present with me. I'm just here present with the Lord in dance.”
*“I just feel like God’s presence and His spirit are strongest during worship for me. Worship reminds me that the best position I can be in is with my forehead to God’s feet.”
*“Worship to me is being thankful and grateful to God for filling my heart with His love and mercy.”
*“Worship for me is forgetting about that To Do list and being reminded of God’s faithfulness and His ever presence.”
*“Worship for me is when I'm worshipping the Lord and His peace comes over me and then out of the middle of that peace comes joy. There’s a song – joy, joy, joy down in my heart.”
*“For me, when I worship, I feel I can sing my problems off to God. Even if I'm in the middle of a tough time I feel re-energized and I sense God’s presence that He’s really there for me.”
Can you worship God more than just at church? Obviously you can because worship is just simply expressing your love to God. So wherever God is you can worship. That means you can worship in the shower. You can worship in your backyard mowing the lawn. You can worship washing dishes. You can worship driving to work and making a deal or on the golf course. You can express your love to God everywhere. And that means you can sing everywhere. It might be in some of those places you would prefer singing by yourself!
But, don’t underestimate the power of coming together to worship. You see, if you are a follower of Jesus, you come to church not just to receive, but also to give. Each weekend when we gather, it is not just to hear a message that I can apply this week. We also gather to corporately express our love to God. In worship God is the audience and we are the players.
Have you ever thought about that? Christians all over the globe come together for times of corporate worship. And, in many parts of the world where there is persecution, Christians put themselves at risk to come to a corporate gathering. So, why do they do it? Because there is power in “together”.
In each of these six ways of expressing love to God I'm going to ask you to evaluate yourself. How often do you sing your thanks and love to God? Daily? Regularly? Occasionally? Rarely? Check which one represents your current view and put a star at where you’d like to move to. When you really think about what God has done in your life, really realize what He’s done, you can’t help yourself. It about busts out of you. You have to worship.
2. There’s a second way you can express love to God. By TALKING to Him.
It took me a while – I admit I'm a slow learner – but I finally figured out that this marriage thing is about communication. I'm a little dense but I finally realized that the key ingredient to marriage was talk. I discovered that on the days that I had deep, soul-communication with Kay – not “Hi, How are you? I love you. See you later.” I'm talking about deep, soul-communication. This is when our relationship grows. And on those days when we have little or none of that communication our relationship decays. Because a relationship is never standing still. It’s either growing or decaying.
The same is true with God. On the days when you have deep, significant talk with God your relationship grows. On the days when you have little or no talk with God your relationship decays. It’s that simple.
When you really love somebody you don’t just want to spend time with them. You want to talk with them. Remember when you first fell in love as a teenager and your parents got upset because you were always on the phone? It’s like you had a phone in your ear. You talked and talked and talked. You were getting to know that person. That’s how you get to know them, through communication. If your husband or wife never ever talks to you, you have every reason to start wondering, “Do they love me?” That’s why, husbands, you need to talk to your wife! She needs this like multiple vitamins. A daily dose.
What do you talk to God about if you want to express love to God? Anything that you’d talk to your best friend about. Everything. Your hopes, your fears, your dreams, your anxieties, the things you’re embarrassed about, the things you’re proud of, the things you’re ashamed of, your goals, your ambitions, your hurts, your cares, every part of your life – you come to God and you talk to God about it. The Bible says in Psalm 116 “I love the Lord because He hears me and answers my prayer, because He bends down and listens. I will pray as long as I have breath.” If you don’t feel close to God and some of you don’t… some of you have been believers for quite a long time and you honestly, have lost your spark. Your Christian life has become routine, dull, joyless, lifeless. There’s no real joy and spark any more. There’s a simple remedy for that. Start talking to God again. You don’t talk to Him the way you used to talk to Him. You don’t talk to Him at the gut level as you used to. Now you’ve got all these “thee’s” and “thou’s” and trite little clichés that you repeat over and over. You need to just talk to Him more often. Prayer is not some duty that you have to do. It’s a privilege that you get to do. You get to talk to the creator of the universe. He has invited you and He wants to talk with you.
This expression of worship also has a community aspect to it. All through the Bible and through history we find pockets of Christians gathering for the purpose of prayer. Sometimes their prayers are prayers of praise. Sometimes they are prayers of intercession. Sometimes they are prayers of searching. Sometimes they are prayers looking for comfort.
Let me offer a word of practical advice to our groups. Make prayer a priority of your group time. Don’t just tack it on the end if you have a few extra minutes. And, I want to encourage every single person in your group to learn to pray and pray out loud. Some of you have never prayed in a group setting before. That’s OK. But your small group provides a great environment where you can begin to learn to pray. You don’t have to use a special voice or certain words. Just talk to God on behalf of your friends. Even if it is just a sentence prayer, take a risk this week to pray in your group.
Rate yourself on this one of expressing love to God. How often do I talk to God each day? Do I do it once a day? Twice a day? Ten times a day? In the morning, afternoon and evening? Do I do it regularly? Occasionally? Rarely? Do you take prayer serious in your group? Is prayer a priority in your group? Put a circle around what is and an arrow by the one where you’d like to go.
You say, “I’d like to have more prayer time with God. I’d like to talk to God. I just don’t have the time.” Then you’re too busy. You’ll never have the time; you must take the time to pray.
3. There’s a third way you can express your love. That’s by LISTENING to Him.
Listening is one of the greatest gifts you can give to somebody. The gift of listening. We all want to be understood. We all want to be listened to. When you listen to someone, you’re saying, “You matter to me.” When I listen to my children, when I listen to my wife, anybody, I'm saying, “I value what you have to say. I value your opinion. You’re important to me.” When I don't listen to somebody I'm basically saying, “You don’t matter to me. You’re not important to me. What you have to say I don’t value.” One of the ways you express love to anybody is by listening to them.
The same is true with God. Every time you listen to God you’re saying, “God, You matter to me. I value what You have to say.” Listening is the most misunderstood and left off part of prayer. Most of us think that prayer is just talking to God. That’s only fifty-percent of prayer. The other fifty-percent of prayer is shutting up and being quiet and letting God speak to us. Usually we’re in too much of a hurry to do this. What we do is, “Hi, God, it’s me. I’ve got ten things I need from You. Thank You. Over and out. Good bye.” We don’t stop. We don’t wait. We don’t listen. We don’t say, “God, do You have a few things to say to me?” We don’t listen.
One of the most important steps you can take in listening to God is to set aside time for God. All of us have pressure packed, deadline-filled schedules. Our days and our souls are filled with noise. God has a remedy. As one of the ten commandments, God said that we are to set aside one day per week for rest and worship. This rhythm of life is so important that God put it in his top ten list.
Leviticus 23:3 (CEV) says
You have six days when you can do your work, but the seventh day of each week is holy because it belongs to me.
Perhaps the reason some of us can’t hear God is that our lives are so fast and so full and so noisy, that there is no room for God.
God is speaking to you all the time. At least He’s trying to speak to you all the time. You say, “Why don’t I ever hear Him?” Because you’re not listening. You don’t ever take the time. You don’t ever get quiet. You never pause in the middle of the day and say, “Do You have anything to say to me right now?” You’re so busy, your life is so full of noise, you always have a channel on – radio, TV, cell phone, something – God couldn’t get through because the lines are all busy. You need to not just take time to talk to God. You need to take time to listen to God. You stop and pause because God is speaking.
How does God speak to us? Many ways.
One is the Bible, His word. If you’re not spending any time in this book obviously He’s not going to speak to you through this book because you’re not reading it.
Two, He speaks to us through the experiences we go through in life.
Three, God speaks to us through trials. But you’re not listening. You’re not reading these principles in this book and you’re not being aware that God may be trying to tell you something through that irritation.
God speaks to us through other people, through the advice of Christians and godly people who will say, “What about this?” God will often speak to you through another person. In my life, God has often provided direction, insight and confirmation through other people. Here is another reason why you need to be in community with other believers.
Proverbs 11:14 (Msg) says
Without good direction, people lose their way;
the more wise counsel you follow, the better your chances.
Sometimes God will speak to you the loudest and the clearest through the wise counsel of friends. Do you have a trusted circle of friends to whom you can go to seek God’s counsel? I hope your small group is becoming such a place for you.
God will speak to you through impressions. He puts ideas in your mind. You have some great, good idea. Where do you think you got that idea? God put it there. Now, not every idea you get is from God. When you get an idea from God we call it an inspiration. When we get an idea from the devil we call it a temptation. When we get an idea from ourselves we just call it dumb! You do have some good ideas because God gave you a brain to come up with good ideas. But how do you know if an impression is from God or not? Test it. The Bible says you’re to test it. We’ve talked in the past about six ways to test an impression or an idea.
Did you know that the Bible says that hearing God’s voice, being able to listen to God and hear God speak is the test of whether you’re really a true believer or not, whether you’re in the family or not, whether you’re headed for heaven or not? Jesus said this in John 10 “I am the good Shepherd and I know My own sheep and they know Me and they listen to My voice.” If you’ve never ever got an idea or an impression or heard from God, you have every reason to wonder, “Do I really know God? Do I really have a relationship with Jesus Christ? Am I truly a believer? Have I stepped across the line yet?” Because maybe you haven’t. Because God is trying to speak to you and maybe you haven’t made that relationship.
Here’s the question: How often do I pause to listen to God each day? Do I do it in the morning, in the afternoon and in the evening? Hourly? Occasionally? Regularly? Rarely? Do I pause and say, “God, is there anything You want to say about this?” regarding a decision you’re working on, an event you’re getting ready to go to, somebody you’re getting ready to talk with. Evaluate yourself on that.
Today we’re going to take the Lord’s Supper together. I'm going to invite those that are serving to come and begin serving even as I talk. The Lord’s Supper is a time to listen to God speak to you. As we prepare for the Lord’s Supper, just ask, “God, is there anything You want to say to me?” God wants to talk to you. He wants to speak to you. But you have to listen. And that’s one of the ways you show love to God.
4. The fourth way you can express your love to God is by PUBLICLY IDENTIFYING with him.
By not being ashamed of Him at work, at home, in your neighborhood. By not saying, “I'm not going to let anybody know I'm a Christian. I'm not telling my neighbors. I'm not telling the people at work. I'm keeping it a secret.” Then you don’t really love God. Because if you love somebody you’re not ashamed of them. You publicly identify with them.
Again, here is a place where “community” helps me worship God. When I see others who take their stand for Christ, it give me courage to do the same. Christianity is a public faith.
Listen to these words from Jesus.
Matthew 5:14-15 (NLT)
You are the light of the world—like a city on a mountain, glowing in the night for all to see. [15] Don't hide your light under a basket! Instead, put it on a stand and let it shine for all.
The fact is, it is easier for me to let the flashlight of my faith shine when I know you have your flashlight turned on. Courage and “together” go hand in hand. Every team, every platoon, and every gang knows this to be true. So, don’t be afraid. Publicly identify yourself with Christ.
Can you imagine: How do you think my wife would have felt if, years ago when we were dating, I said, “Let’s get married and we’ll be committed to each other but let’s just keep it our little secret. Let’s don’t tell anybody about it. I’ll be committed to you and you be committed to me but when we’re in public let’s pretend like we don’t know each other. And let’s just act like total strangers. Won’t that be great?” She’d say, “What kind of love is that, buster?” It isn’t any kind of love at all because when you really love somebody you’re not ashamed of them. You say, “This is my husband/wife.” You take on a name. You’re a family and you identify with each other.
You can’t say you love Jesus Christ and be ashamed of Him at the same time. Jesus said it like this, in Mark 8:38 “If anyone is ashamed of Me and My teachings then I will be ashamed of him when I come in the glory of My Father.” Jesus said, “If you’re ashamed of Me on earth, I'm going to be ashamed of you in heaven.” We need to publicly identify ourselves with Christ. That’s how we show our love for Him.
Jesus understood the power of symbolism and He gave us two very powerful symbols. The first one is the symbol of communion. Communion helps us identify with what Jesus Christ did for us. What did Jesus do when He died for us? Three things:
1. He saved us from the penalty of sin. Everything you’ve ever done wrong was paid for on the cross so you get to go free and forgiven.
2. He saves us from the power of sin. He breaks its grip in our lives. He gives us a new power to be able to make changes so we’re not the same anymore. He can do new things in our lives that we always wanted to do but never thought we could do on our own.
3. Eventually He saves us from the presence of sin in heaven where there will be no sin, no sorrow, no suffering, no pain, no grief. That’s good news.
When we take communion we remember what Jesus Christ paid for. And, we are to do it together. Communion was not given to us as individuals. It was given to the church. When Paul gives instructions about communion in 1 Corinthians, he begins by saying “when you come together”. Whether it is a small group in a living room or thousands in a worship center, communion is to be taken in community.
What should be my attitude when I take the Lord’s Supper? Should I sit here feeling guilty, remembering all the wrong things I’ve done in my life? No. They’ve already been paid for by Jesus Christ and forgiven. When I take communion, should I feel grief, thinking about all the torture and suffering that Jesus Christ went through for me? No. Because He didn’t stay dead. He came back to life. So what should be my attitude when I take the Lord’s Supper? It should be the attitude of gratitude. Gratefulness for all that God has done. That God would love me this much before I even knew Him to come and die on the cross for me.
Communion is not for everybody. The Bible says only believers that have accepted God’s gift should take communion. If you’re not a believer you can become one right now. Even as you take these elements, that can be the physical act of stepping across the line and saying, “Today, Jesus Christ, as I eat this cracker and drink this juice, it is my symbol of saying, ‘Yes, I accept what You did for me. I accept that You died for me. I accept that You paid for all my sins, paid for my ticket to heaven and I accept You as the leader of my life from this day forward.’” If you haven’t done that, do that when we take communion in just a minute.
As we take communion we do several things. We publicly identify our faith in Christ. We publicly identify our love for Christ. We publicly state that we want to be closer to Christ.
On the night Jesus was betrayed, He took the bread, broke it, blessed it, and He passed it around and He said, “This is to represent what I'm doing for you. It’s My broken body on the cross. When you eat this do it as a reminder. Do it to remember Me, what I’ve done for you.”
Jesus Christ paid for three things in your life. I want you to thank Him for those three things.
First, He paid for your forgiveness. Think of the thing that you feel the most guilty about. The thing that has caused you the most shame in your life, the thing that you wish had never happened and you regret deeply. Now thank God because of Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the cross it’s been paid for and forgiven, wiped out, as if it had never happened in God’s mind. Thank Him for that gracious forgiveness.
Jesus Christ paid for your freedom. Think of the freedom that you have because of Jesus Christ, the changes He’s made in your life. Thank Him for those changes. Thank Him that He gives you the power to change.
Jesus Christ has paid for your future. Because of His sacrifice you can have a future secured in heaven. “Eye has not seen nor ear heard neither had entered into the heart of man the wonderful things that God has prepared for those who love Him.” Thank Him for the future of heaven.
Jesus also took a cup that night. He said, “This is a cup representing the blood I will shed for you. And when you drink this you’re to do it as a reminder that I spilled My blood for you. I gave it for you. This is how much I love you. Do it to remember Me.” Because of Jesus Christ and what He did for us, it will never be the same again. We’re different people. We’re forgiven people. That is something we all have to be grateful for.
I'm glad I'm never going to be the same again. Jesus Christ has the power to change in lives that nothing in the world can change except Jesus. No fad, no therapy, no pill, nothing can change lives the way Jesus Christ can because He is God. Jesus Christ turns failures into successes. He changes fearful, timid, weak, cowardly people into confident people. He turns selfish, egotistical, prideful people into loving gentle servants. He turns wife-beaters into loving husbands and distant dads into caring fathers. He turns drug addicts into responsible citizens.
How many of you would say, Jesus Christ has changed my life at Saddleback church? How many of you would say, I know somebody whose life has been radically changed at Saddleback church? That is why we are here. We’re not here to impress anybody. We’re not here to just go through a ritual. We’re not here to build buildings, to build monuments to ourselves or to just make up programs. We’re not here just to have a good time. We’re here because the only person that can make the changes in human behavior that we need in our society is Jesus Christ. He starts in our lives and He moves to our family and our friends and our culture. I am not ashamed to identify with Him.
There’s another way you can identify yourself as a believer. That is through the second symbol that Jesus gave us. By baptism. What is baptism all about? What is this thing about getting dunked under water? What’s the big deal about this? I took a shower this morning. Why do I need to get all wet for God?
Baptism makes three powerful public statements. Romans 63 “When we went under the water we left the old country of sin behind and when we came up out of the water we entered into the new country of grace, a new life in a new land. That’s what the baptism into the life of Jesus means. When we are lowered into the water, it’s like the burial of Jesus [It’s a symbol.] And when we’re raised up out of the water it’s like the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”
The first reason you need to be baptized is to say, “I believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus. I believe in Easter.” And you give a picture of that by going under and coming up. That’s why Jesus Himself as a thirty year old adult went down to the Jordan River, was baptized by John to say, “This is how I want it done.” It’s a picture of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
Second, it’s a picture of what happens to you. You’re dying to an old way of life. Colossians 2:12 says, “Going under the water was a burial of your old life. Coming up out of it was a resurrection, God raising you from the dead as He did in Christ.” When you’re baptized you’re saying, “I'm dying to all my old sins. They’re forgiven, they’re forgotten, they’re out of my life. I'm beginning a brand new life in Christ.”
Three, it symbolizes your new life in Jesus Christ. Galatians 3:27 “Your baptism in Christ was not just washing you up for a fresh start. It also involved dressing you in an adult faith wardrobe, Christ’s life, the fulfillment of God’s original promise.” An adult faith wardrobe.
I have an honest question for some of you. You say you love Jesus. Then why have you not followed Him in the most basic act of baptism? Are you ashamed of Him? Are you more concerned about getting your hair wet in front of somebody than making a statement to say, “I am not ashamed of Jesus Christ”? How can you say you love Him if you won’t do the very first thing He commanded and publicly signify through the waters of baptism that you are a follower of Christ?
We’re going to be baptizing every week between now and the end of the year. You need to be baptized before the end of this century. Don’t take into the next century what you need to do this century. If you’re in a small group why don’t you make sure that everybody in your small groups has taken this next step before the end of the year?
5. The fifth way to express love to God is simply by BEING COMMITTED to Him.
So often we think about commitment from a purely individual perspective. But, often in Scripture you find the people of God corporately making commitments.
For example, at the end of Joshua’s life, Joshua challenges the people of God to stay committed to God.
Joshua 24:20-22 (NLT) says
If you forsake the Lord and serve other gods, he will turn against you and destroy you, even though he has been so good to you."
[21] But the people answered Joshua, saying, "No, we are determined to serve the Lord!"
[22] "You are accountable for this decision," Joshua said. "You have chosen to serve the Lord."
“Yes," they replied, "we are accountable."
Then, in verse 25, it says
Joshua 24:25 (NLT)
So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day at Shechem, committing them to a permanent and binding contract between themselves and the Lord.
This is what love is really all about. It’s about commitment. You don’t really love somebody unless you’re committed to their best. Nothing ever significant happens in life without commitment. Your commitments determine your future. You are becoming whatever you are committed to. So you better choose your commitments carefully. If you’re committed to the wrong thing, you’re going to become the wrong thing. You can’t lose by being committed to God. Weak people are defined by their circumstances. But strong people are defined by their commitments. The Bible tells us in 2 Chronicles 16:9 that God is looking for people whose hearts are fully committed to Him that He can bless and can use.
What does it mean to be fully committed to God? There are five basic commitments. We’ve built Saddleback church around these five commitments. We talk about them over and over.
1. Giving my life to Jesus Christ.
2. Committing my life to His family, the body of Christ, the church and joining a church family.
3. Choosing to grow spiritually and become more and more like Jesus Christ everyday in my character.
4. Using my talents and gifts in helping others. We call that ministry and talked about that last week.
5. Sharing the good news with other people and fulfilling the mission and purpose God put me on this earth to do.
These are the five basic commitments. At Saddleback we use a little baseball diamond to illustrate them. What’s the next step for you? Give your life to Christ? Join His church family and be baptized? Start growing as a Christian? Find your ministry? Begin to fulfill your life mission and discover what God put you on earth to do?
What we’re talking about today – worship – is not just something that happens in the four walls of a building in a church. Worship can happen anywhere. Your life can worship God.
“Take your everyday ordinary life – your sleeping, eating, going-to-work and walking-around life – and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for Him.” Committing your life to Him.
6. Finally the sixth way you can tell God you love Him is by GIVING to Him.
The first generation of Christians were givers. And, they did it together. It is amazing what can be done and accomplished when we each give our little bit. Listen carefully to the history record of the early church.
Acts 4:32-35 (NLT)
All the believers were of one heart and mind, and they felt that what they owned was not their own; they shared everything they had. [33] And the apostles gave powerful witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God's great favor was upon them all. [34] There was no poverty among them, because people who owned land or houses sold them [35] and brought the money to the apostles to give to others in need.
Did you catch the words of v. 34. “There was no poverty among them.” They had all that was required to meet the needs of every person in the church. Can you imagine what would happen in our churches if we got serious about sharing with those in need? Can you imagine what would happen if we were so serious about community, that we made available whatever we had to those in need?
Giving, at its core, is the essence of love. You spell “love” G-I-V-E because that's what love’s all about. When you love someone you want to give to them. You can give without loving but you cannot love without giving. It is impossible to do that. You say you love God, then it’s going to show up in your generous lifestyle. I can claim to be a Christian, a follower of Christ. I can claim to love God. But the Bible says there is one way to really test the sincerity of your love. 2 Corinthians 8 “Just as you excel in faith, in speech, in knowledge, and in complete earnestness, see that you also excel in the grace of giving. I am not commanding you but I want to test the sincerity of your love.” God tests the sincerity of your love by looking at your giving.
Why does He do that? God doesn’t need your time. He doesn’t need your money. What does He need? He wants your heart. He wants what your giving represents. And He wants you to become like Him. “God so loved the world that He gave…” You can either become like God and become a generous giver or you can become like Satan and become a stingy hoarder.
I have discovered that there are really basically two kinds of people in life – cheerful givers and fearful givers.
Cheerful givers say, “I'm going to give. It all belongs to God anyway. He gave it all to me. I wouldn’t have anything without God so I'm going to give it all to Him and He can take care of all my needs.” Cheerful givers – that’s the kind that God loves.
Then there’s the fearful givers: “I can’t afford to do this. I can’t afford to give. I’ve got to hoard. I’ve got to watch what’s for me. I’ve got to protect my selfish interests.”
Cheerful or fearful – you make the decision. Like God? Like the devil? God tests the sincerity of my love by how generous I am in life.
Rate yourself: Which word best describes your giving lifestyle? Regularly? Occasionally? Rarely?
In a minute we’re going to close like we always do our service by giving our tithes and offerings. Giving tithes and offerings at the end of the service is not like, “Ok! It’s time to tip God.” If that’s your attitude, forget it. He doesn’t need your money and doesn’t want it anyway.
Giving is another act of worship. It’s as much an act of worship as singing, praying, thanking, listening, everything else. It’s saying, “God, I love You so much I want to give back to You. You saved my life and I want to give back to You.” Everything we have came from God. We can’t out give God because He gave it all to us in the first place.
Here’s the bottom line: There are many, many ways to express your love to God. We just looked at six. God has wired you up in certain ways that certain ways are going to appeal to you. And God wants you. God uses our hands and feet and eyes and ears and all parts of us because He loves us and we love Him. First you need to establish that relationship with God.
Prayer:
Would you pray this prayer in your heart if you’ve never opened your life to Jesus Christ? Say, “God, I realize the need for You in my life. Jesus Christ, today I’ve realized what You did for me on the cross and I realize that I’ll never be able to repay what You’ve done for me and I realize that everything I have is a gift from You. Please forgive me for not trusting You in every area every moment of my life. Today, I want to make these five life commitments. I want to trust my life to You. I want to join a church family. I want to start to grow spiritually. I want to use my talent to help other people. I want to fulfill the purpose and mission that You put me on this earth to do. Use me to make a difference in the world. In Your name I pray. Amen.”