The Bible is pretty clear that WE are love BY God.
John 3:16 God so loved the World
While we were yet sinners… Christ died for us. Romans 5: 8-9
1 John 4:10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Doesn’t it FEEL GOOD to be loved? Its one of the basic needs for everybody. There is a sense of SECURITY when you know youre loved!
When we realize the AMOUNT, the DEPTH and the COMPLETENESS of God’s Love for us… we feel secure!
Consumer Mindset: If we are satisfied with the product, the service and the performance of something or someone… then we will return our effort with the same kind of devotion, and performance.
We do it in relationships too… if someone meets all of our needs… then we give back to them.
It even moves into our relationship with God! We don’t want to admit that, but we do.
If we FEEL loved by God, and we translate that by seeing Good Things happening to us and around us… then we are obedient or feeling good about walking with God.
When life gets messy and things aren’t going well, then we tend to fall away from our close relationship with God.
When crisis hits or pain happens… we will run back to God… but we do it so He will show up and fix things…
Its called a CONSUMER / CONDITIONAL relationship.
Even though this happens in our people relationships… and we just live with it… IT CANNOT BE ALLOWED TO HAPPEN WITH GOD!
Think about how it would be if God looked at each of us with CONDITIONAL LOVE?! It would be disasterous. We would be cut off and lost for all of eternity.
But that is NOT how God Loves us… He pours out his GRACE and Loves us UNCONDITIONALLY!
Love us NO MATTER WHAT!
WE MUST GET IT IN OUR HEADS THAT WE NEED TO LOVE GOD… NO MATTER WHAT… FIRST!
John 21:15
Jesus has appeared to the Disciples who are fishing and is asking them to bring their catch and to prepare some fish to eat. They figure out that it is Jesus and it tells us that they are in AWE.
Imagine what it must be like to REALIZE that it REALLY Jesus who is wanting to be with YOU!?!?!
It was an EYE OPENING experience! It was that AHA moment when Jesus was more than a GOOD IDEA! It was that moment when they, like us… UNDERSTOOD that He really was who He said He is! THEY GOT IT!
In that moment… Jesus asks a really strange QUESTION… He looks at Peter and He asks… DO YOU LOVE ME?
Some theologians teach that it was at this moment… Jesus was restoring Peter following his denial of even knowing Jesus when he was recognized during the time of Jesus’ crucifixion. However, I want us to look at this a whole different way this morning…
Could it be that Jesus was unlocking the truth of HOW we can really experience the POWER oF HIS LOVE?!! Could it be that the CREATOR of the Universe… DESIRES OUR LOVE as a direct response to our understanding of HIS LOVE?
In our earthly relationships… we think in our minds… I’ll give love if I get love. Remember… that is “Consumer Love”
God wants us to give love BECAUSE He IS love. The Bible says that IN HIM… we live, we move and we have our being! (Acts 17:28)
How SHOULD we love God?
Moses told the people Deuteronomy 6:5, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. ”Four times this command is spoken in the New Testament: Matthew 22:37; Mark 12:30, 33; and Luke 10:27. In essence, the first four of the Ten Commandments are summed up this way. “Love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” (Mark 12:30)
The Greek word for heart represents the innermost part of a person, the center of one's personal life. The word used for soul consists of the mind, will and emotions. This includes one's personality. The word for mind means the faculty of thought, the reflective activity of the heart. The word for understanding basically refers to intellect, and the word for strength means physical ability. It is clear that God wants all that a person is and has to give. He commands His people to love Him with everything they are, with every ounce of their being. Feelings cannot be commanded, so it must be understood that love is not a feeling or an emotion. Love is a decision. For believers, God wants them to decide to love Him in all that they do, for all of their lives.
To love God is to obey His Word. He is greatly delighted when His people obey because He knows that only then will they be the most blessed. He does not want people to act religious and just go through the motions. He knows all and sees through that kind of hypocrisy. He wants heart, soul, mind and strength. “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams.” (1 Samuel 15:22)
Loving God also means learning to love what God loves, and to hate what God hates. “You love righteousness and hate wickedness.” (Psalm 45:7) People usually do not think about what God strongly dislikes, and actually hates. People have things that make them angry to the point of abhorrence and, although it may come as a surprise to some, so does God. “These six things the LORD hates, yes, seven are an abomination to Him: A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren.” (Proverbs 6:16-19)
Several verses in the Psalms express hatred towards injustice and wickedness, and towards all the enemies of God. “You who love the Lord, hate evil! He preserves the souls of His saints; He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked.”(Psalm 97:10) There are other verses, but it should be noted that God loves conditionally, not unconditionally. He loves His own people unconditionally, but, like any parent, not everything they do. He offers correction to His children, either directly, through His Word, or indirectly, through other people, “for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness.”(Hebrews 12:10)
The phrase 'love the Lord' appears nine times in the book of Deuteronomy. (6:5; 11:1, 13, 22; 13:3; 19:9; 30:6, 16, 20) Other instructions accompany the exhortations to love the Lord: keep His charge, His statutes, His judgments, and His commandments always. Carefully keep all these commandments to walk in all His ways, and to hold fast to Him. Obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days. “Loving God means keeping his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome.” (1 John 5:3 NLT) The New King James Version also uses the word burdensome, meaning heavy, afflictive, oppressive, weighty, or severe.
God's commands are always in the best interest of His people. God is love and God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. His ways are always the best, designed for maximum benefits and blessings in abundance for His people.
Loving God also means learning to love what God loves, and to hate what God hates. “You love righteousness and hate wickedness.” (Psalm 45:7) People usually do not think about what God strongly dislikes, and actually hates. People have things that make them angry to the point of abhorrence and, although it may come as a surprise to some, so does God. “These six things the LORD hates, yes, seven are an abomination to Him: A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren.” (Proverbs 6:16-19)
Several verses in the Psalms express hatred towards injustice and wickedness, and towards all the enemies of God. “You who love the Lord, hate evil! He preserves the souls of His saints; He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked.”(Psalm 97:10) There are other verses, but it should be noted that God loves conditionally, not unconditionally. He loves His own people unconditionally, but, like any parent, not everything they do. He offers correction to His children, either directly, through His Word, or indirectly, through other people, “for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness.”(Hebrews 12:10)
The phrase 'love the Lord' appears nine times in the book of Deuteronomy. (6:5; 11:1, 13, 22; 13:3; 19:9; 30:6, 16, 20) Other instructions accompany the exhortations to love the Lord: keep His charge, His statutes, His judgments, and His commandments always. Carefully keep all these commandments to walk in all His ways, and to hold fast to Him. Obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days. “Loving God means keeping his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome.” (1 John 5:3 NLT) The New King James Version also uses the word burdensome, meaning heavy, afflictive, oppressive, weighty, or severe.
God's commands are always in the best interest of His people. God is love and God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. His ways are always the best, designed for maximum benefits and blessings in abundance for His people.
Lastly, lets get really practical… down where the rubber meets the road…
- To love God… we have to FACE Him… we have to LOOK AT HIM
- We have to TALK to Him… NOT ignore or avoid Him
- When we talk… we have to not always talk about what we want, about what we think or about what we feel… its got to be ABOUT HIM.
- We need to PRAISE and THANK Him… David gave us an entire book to show us HOW to do just this… THE PSALMS. Throughout the Psalms… David greets God with a heart of PRAISE.
- We show our love for God… by our SACRIFICES.
- Psalm 51:15-17
Open my lips, Lord,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
17 My sacrifice, O God, is[b] a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart
you, God, will not despise.
and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
17 My sacrifice, O God, is[b] a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart
you, God, will not despise.
- We show God our LOVE by our Obedience (James 2:14)
In this month of Love… lets remember that God LOVED US by Giving Himself. Lets also understand that WE LOVE GOD by Giving Ourselves… ALL of ourselves BACK TO HIM.
As we do this… not only will we experience the LOVE of our Father and see ourselves TRANSFORMED and REFLECTING His Character and Qualities… but miraculously… SO WILL EVERYONE ELSE AROUND US.
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