The Greatest Commandment Bible Study #4

We have seen so far in this study

The Greatest Command is to Love God and Love Others.The Motivation of Love to God and Love to others is God's Love (Demand, Declaration, and Demonstration of God's Love)Yesterday we talked about - What it is to Love God

To Love God is:

To commit oneself in a self-sacrificial mannerTo Delight in Him

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Today I want to talk about three more aspects and principles what it is to Love GodTo Continually Desire to Please HimTo Rejoice in Serving HimTo Find One's True Happiness in HimTo Thirst day and night for a fuller enjoyment of Him.

�� TO Love God is To Continually Desire to Please Him - Love Desires to Please God in everything One of the most frequent Scriptural statements about loving God is that it always involves obedience In fact Jesus declared, "If you love me keep my commandments - John 14:15 He is saying - Love wants to please God in Everything .

Jesus models this for us in John 8:29 John 8:29 (KJV)

29 And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him.

I hope you are so in love with Jesus that you are willing to do whatever makes Him happy. You want to Continually desire to Please HIM!!! THE LOVE SLAVE - There is a beautiful picture of this Showing our Love by Pleasing Him found in Exodus 21 that is so easy to look over. Its just about two verses but it contains volumes worth of information.

It gives us the example of what has been termed a "Love Slave"

We are given the laws of slavery. Now the KJV uses the term "Servant" but you didn't buy a servant you paid a servant. A slave was owned they were property.

There was strict command given that if you purchased a Hebrew slave they were only to serve six years and the seventh year they were set free. But God gave a caveat:

Exodus 21:5-6 (KJV)

5 And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free:

6 Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an aul; and he shall serve him for ever.

That man was forever marked not as a slave, but as a slave who made the statement - I love my master, I want to do what pleases him rather than have my own freedom. Rather than do what I want to do.

Think of this - the Lifelong enslavement of an Israelite to another Israelite could only happen at his own request. Bruce, F. F.: New International Bible Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI : Zondervan Publishing House, 1979, S. 171

Today we have been marked, we have been bored through not in the ear but in the heart - We love Him and want to do whatever pleases Him!!!

Loving God not only includes desiring continually to please Him but… To Rejoice in Serving Him In a promise of special blessing to the Children of Israel - God links service with obedience Deuteronomy 11:13-15 (KJV)

13 And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul,

14 That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil.

15 And I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle, that thou mayest eat and be full.

This is part of the servant-master relationship. Jesus says in Matthew 6:24 and its also recorded for us in Luke 16:13

Matthew 6:24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one,

and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye

cannot serve God and mammon. (|| Luke 16:13)

We have a scriptural basis for rejoicing in our serving Him or for glad service in Psa. 100:2 “Serve the Lord with gladness”

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TRANSITION => Loving God is not only by Continually Seeking to Please Him

Loving God is not only by Rejoicing in Serving Him

But Loving God is also …

To Find One's True Happiness in Him - Psalm 63:5-6 My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, And my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips. 6 When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on You in the night watches. Psalm 36:7-9 7 How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. 8 They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures. Notice the exclamation point and not a question mark in the first sentence of verse 7 - The Psalmist is trying to tell us they are fully happy and satisfied with God!!! They aren't asking they are declaring!!! Happiness what is it? Here is how some have defined and used it. Happiness - Thomas Jefferson inserted in the Declaration of Independence "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. I have a feeling if Jefferson knew how his term "happiness" would be interpreted 242 years later he might have included what he meant by the term "hapiness" Thomas Boston wrote, "Man is a creature that desires happiness, and cannot but desire it. The desire of happiness is woven into his nature, and cannot be eradicated. It is as natural for him to desire it as it is to breathe…" John Wesley: "God made all things to be happy. He made man to be happy in Himself. He is the proper center of spirits. …Many indeed think of being happy with God in heaven; but the being happy in God on earth never entered into their thoughts. … You are made to be happy in God." C.S. Lewis on of my favorite authors wrote about happiness like this…"God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without bothering about religion. God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing." [2. C.S. Lewis (Mere Christianity, bk. II, chap. 3, para. 7, p. 54.)] Have you ever asked yourself what is the most repeated command in the Bible?

We have been talking about the Most important command Loving God Loving Others

But what is the most repeated command?

The most repeated command in the Bible is - "Be Happy" Let's put that in perspective: "How many times in the Bible is the command to procreate and fill up the earth given? 1 time How many times in all four Gospels the command to be born again given? 1 time How many times is the Great Commission given in the New Testament? 1 time How many times are we either told either to be or how to be happy? A very quick and limited scan I found 53 verses (Using words of blessed i.e. blessed are the poor in spirit for there is the kingdom of heaven. All of these every single one are pointing to our happiness being found in God! But what is Biblical Happiness? "Biblical happiness is … the satisfaction or contentment that comes from attaining what is good from God's perspective." We find our happiness in God by:Pursuing the things that He says will make us happyNot looking to God to pour out happiness on meIt is trusting God that what He says is best for us really is best, and then passionately pursuing those things for His glory. Look at Moses - Hebrews 11:24-26

24 By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter;

25 Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;

26 Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.

How does Moses’ choice to suffer with the people of God illustrate seeking happiness in God? He sought for reward, as we should at least the reward of God. The Pearl of Great Price - KJV Matthew 13:44 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field. (Matt. 13:44 KJV) Look at Jesus Heb. 12:2 - I've taken this, at least the first part as my life verse Heb 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

"If you love God, then you are happy in God." ~ John Wesley

TRANSITION => Loving God is not only by Continually Seeking to Please HimLoving God is not only by Rejoicing in Serving HimLoving God is not only finding our happiness in Him

But Loving God is also …

To Thirst day and night for a fuller enjoyment of Him. I want to look at three key passages from the Psalms that illustrate love’s thirst for a fuller enjoyment of God. (Psa. 63:1-3; 42:1) Psalm 63:1-3 (KJV) O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;

2 To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.

3 Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.

Psalm 27:4

Possible background 1 Sam. 20-22 David is running for his life chased by Saul's army. Hemmed in by hostile Philistines parents had to leave he was in danger of betrayal.

Behold - to see with satisfaction to experience

Beauty - the quality or qualities in something that gives pleasure to the senses or pleasurably exalts the mind or spirit.

God definitely has qualities that "pleasurably exalt" our minds and spirits when we think of them.

I find the Holiness of God beautiful

He invites us to "Worship him in the beauty of holiness!

His name is lovely - a name above every other name.

Psalm 42:1-2 (KJV) As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.

2 My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?

This kind of desire, of thirsting after God isn't manufactured or drummed up - but it will produceIf in the Beatitudes Jesus said - "Blessed are they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness" Promises filling - certainly a seeking after a hunger and thirsting after a fuller enjoyment of God will be met with His Presence!!!

So to sum up To Love God is toTo commit oneself in a self-sacrificial mannerTo Delight in HimTo Continually Desire to Please HimTo Rejoice in Serving HimTo Find One's True Happiness in HimTo Thirst day and night for a fuller enjoyment of Him.

Tomorrow Lord Willing we will be turning our study to the next part of our scripture - And thy Neighbor as Thyself!!!

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