The Problem of Loving God

How do you make a squid laugh? With Ten-tickles

How can you tell when a vampire is sick? She starts coffin.

Luke 9:57–62 ESV

57 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” 59 To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 60 And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 61 Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” 62 Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Let that fit as a backdrop for today

IF your house caught on fire what would you take with you. There are certain moments in life with priorities rise to the top… doc diagnosis… family member in trouble..

All the other problems in the world seem small and our attention singularly focused...

And this is what happens when Jesus tells us the most important thing we should know. and this is what happens when A man comes to Jesus and Jesus tells him the greatest commandment and when Jesus starts to talk everyone should have brought out their pens and paper and gotten ready to write down what Jesus was about to say and here is what it says the GREAT Commandment

Mark 12:29–30 ESV

29 Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’

There were 600 laws in the bible… and the scribe says lets sum it up and tell me the most important one… the one that I want to run out of hte house with.... if someone asked me after the service what is the most important book out of the 66 books in the bible… I dont even know what I would say… and Jesus responds without as much as a pause

ANd the topic of loving God is one of the most neglected topics in our society… even though it is the key focus of Jesus… we dont talk much about it in western civilization....

And this is something we want to draw back in because Jesus found it as the ultimate importance…

So what does this mean… it means its not just about our religious practices but its about where our heart values and settles.... it is the fountain and seat of your life.... and Jesus is saying everything important and definitive about you should be centered around God or anything else including yourself… loive God… let that be the very focus of your very heart and soul.

Remember when you first started dating your spouse… talk all the time… and that is a taste of what it means to love God… so what is so scandalous about that command?

ITs not the loving, we are wired to love… what is scandalous is that Jesus is saying he wants you to change the thing you love and I want you to change it to God instead are you willing to make that thing above all else secondary.... Adam and eve in the garden… are you going to lvoe that one thing, or want to become like Gods...

WE would have had unending joy and love and discovery in the garden, but we chose to exchange that love… Paul says in Romans

THere foolish hearts were darkened they exchanged God for the fruit… for the created things… for temporal things… the infinite for the finite and we want it to satisfy us so much so that our inner longing never gets fulfilled unless we turn it to him...

THe problem with the finite longing is it never gets us to where we need to be...

ANything can become a replacement for God, and can become idols… and we think those are only bad things… but they can be good things that we replace God with… and take two modern ones… comfort and family....

Jesus looks at the culture he is in… birds have nest… foxes have holes.. but the son of man…you want to follow me… Ive never not had a home… haiti… you take it less for granted… but these are things that I love.... and a willingness to give up those things for following him is what he is telling you we need to be able to give up… we have this subtle elitism around possession in this world… the more stuff you buy and have the better off you are...

The snobbish idea that possessions give us status symbols is what is killing us in this world… could you even hear God if he called you to something else… could you leave the home and the friends you love.... if God looked at you and called you to go to a place you have never been to could you even hear him right now…

Jesus cares for what we care about and he wants to change your heart.... can’t serve God and money… we want to do both… and he says you can’t

AW Tozer says, “The modern christian person is the person of pseudo faith, will fight for his verbal creed but refuse to allow himself to get into a predicament where his future must depend upon that creed being true…he always provides himself with secondary ways of escape so he will have a way out if the roof caves in.”

that tends to be what we do but then he added… “What we need very badly these days is a company of Christians who are prepared to trust God as completely now as they know they must do in the last day.”

Think about that in your own life… in other words we can’t accept the status quo… we must be infused with the kingdom of god and the way we deal with everything… we cant embrace the way the world looks unless we look at the different...

sell everything… don’t do it.. the people that loved him… you’re irresponsible… the truth is our modern christianity doesnt have a category for this kind of obedience…and Jesus is saying this is what you actually have to do… the bumper stickers in bookstores say the safest place to be is the will of God… but that is not so… Paul… joseph… Job… God rarely offers security in the ssense that we think he should… and christianity tells us no matter what happens to us in this world we are secure… and there is a huge difference between being secure and safe....

Second and third hidden idol under the surface in this story… the god of family… consider his response.... leave the bed to bury the dead.... naw.... If you want to follow me I have to be more important than your own family… God first.

Remember in Lord of the Rings,, as frodo is thinking about what to do with the ring next he says

“Are you sure that you do not suffer needlessly?" he said. “I wish too help you. You need counsel in your hard choice. Will you not

take mine?"

“ I think I know already what counsel you would give, Boromir," said Frodo. "And it would seem like wisdom but for

the warning of my heart."

"Warning? Warning against what?" said Boromir sharply.

"Against the way that seems easier."6

Modern Christianity offers us another way… but much like this it seems so much harder...

There are so many reasons why the God of fmaily is dangerous… how many times are people interested in Jesus but because of the worldview of your own family you are too scared to move forward....

Years ago.... preached… then we left… why would he want us to be cautious about loving something good… he wants what is right for us… he wants us to find happiness in him… I have seven kids… I want them to love me… and not put me in a nursing home… but I want them to love Jesus even more

Piper.... bridge collapse… and he wrote about his daughter… “Talitha is sleeping now. But one day she will die. I teach her this. I will not always be there to bless her. But Jesus is alive and is the same yesterday today and forever. He will be with her because she trusts him. And she will make it through the river.”

That is amazing… at some point long after I am gone, my kids will face their own judgment… and I hope I have taught them to treasure Jesus more than anything else… and I am to get them to love Jesus more than anything else.

Piper… dont waste your life.... gives the image of women who were missionaries who died before this meeting.... and the womens brakes didnt work… and they went over a cliff and died… they wre in their 80s and could they be a waste spending their lives sharing their Jesus… is it a tragedy… and the crowd sits in silence… and he looks at them and says… Ill tell you what a tragedy is… consider the story from a feb 1998 readers digest… took early retirement.... they live in florida.... collecting shells for thirty years,,, and are before the judgment seat… and they say look at my shells....

and this is why family can be so hindering… they dont want to see you in pain.... julie in delivery room...

How do we live free of those idols… by loving god… st. augustine said we are what we love… we cannot just stop lusting of being greedy… we can’t demand people just follow… we cant change by sheer mental determination because we want it to… it all comes down to what we love and how much we love it…

Chalmers said “How is it even possible for us to hate the things of this world when in many ways they are so satisfying and he says that its rare for any of our tastes to just disappear by mere force of reasoning or determination. However, we are not without hope what cannot be destroyed may be dispossessed he says the heart is such that the only way to dispossess it of an old affection is by the expulsive power of a new one, the youth ceases to idolize pleasure but it is only because the idol of wealth has become stronger the love of money ceases to have power over the citizen because now they are drawn into the world of politics so now they are lorded over by a love or power. The way to disengage the heart from the love of one object is to fasten it to the love of another. it is not about exposing the worth of the old one but exposing the worth and excellency of the new one it takes more than just say or believing your idols are destructive, it is about coming to believe that God is better taste and see the Lord is good… the heart needs to fasten itself more than it loves the sin… you need to fasten yourself to god.... something that is better… something more satisfying.... that is why you have to love God more than anything else....

Yo ucant just tear down idols.. you have to run toward something that you love more… so how is it possible to lvoe God more....

First we must come to see him as our ultimate treasure… not to love him for what he produces.... becasue if that is the truthe we will love him for what he has given us.... so we want all the perfect gifts/// and what we should want is GOD himself.... Look at what 1st Peter says for Christ also suffered once for sins the righteous for the unrighteous, then he explains why he did that, he says the purpose of that suffering he might bring us to God. Notice Peter doesnt say the greatest gift we get is heaven or seeing our families when we die.. but we get GOD

THe Gospel isnt the way to get people into heaven… its to get people to God… Could you be satisfied with heaven even if God wasnt there… thats not good… thats what we are going after… as the deer panteth for water… so does my soul longeth for you… this is the goal of life....

Satan isnt saved… he knows all the truth… but it doesnt save him… becasue he doesnt treasure above everything else Jesus...

look at this

1 Corinthians 16:22 ESV

22 If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord, come!

The person who has no love for the Lord..think about that… this is why he calls us to love him with our whole self. because in the end that is what gets us saved… our love for Him.... not just do we believe God…

Do you have faith… will you sit on the chair… but its do you love it more than anything else… Satan knows things about God… but he has no trust in it.... and thats why God loves us above everything else… because he loves us above all else.

Help us to see this as the thing we run out of the hosue with in the fire.