Please open your Bibles to Matthew
chapter 22 beginning in verse 36. Matthew
writes, "Teacher which is the great
commandment in the Law? And He said to
him, 'You shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart and with all your
soul and with all your mind. This is the
great and foremost commandment.
The second is like it you shall love
your neighbor as yourself. On these two
commandments depend the whole law and
the prophets." You know we we tend to get
away from it because of our religious
habits and traditions but the essential
purpose of man in this world is to love
God. We just read so the answer to the
question why am I here or why was I born
is found in the summary of man's total
and final responsibility and that is to
love God with every fiber of our being.
that's why we're here, that's what our
life is about. Of course the immediate
problem with this is how do you love
what is not seen? how do you manage to
love something, someone who is invisible
invisible someone who is not evident to
the census. You know it's hard to love
the invisible God. So in response we have
tried to make church-going, you know
church attendance, the barometer of our
love for the unseen one and as edifying
as church attendance and church services
can be, it is sometimes hard to make the
emotional connection between going to
church and loving God. Compare the
experience
of loving your spouse or loving your
parents or your child or loving a
special friend,
compare that experience those
experiences to loving God. Why do they
not feel the same, these experiences?
well I think it's because we have
institutionalized our love for God. In
other words we've made the activities
that surround worship the main way that
we express our love and the main way we
try to perceive God's love. You know
trying to express and feel love in this
way can be compared to you know feeling
and experiencing love, for example you
know the love that people feel in a
nursing home.
I mean it's love all right people are
being cared for but its institutional
love is not warm and personal. Another
example you ever get a birthday card and
you over the birthday card inside the
birthday card just a person's name is
son just the first name not even the
second names their first name.
no I hope you have a great year. No I
hope everything's great hope God's
blessing on you a poem if your name is
Dayton, you know nothing just just the
first name
no check no cash. You know nothing just
the name. I mean it's still your birthday
and yes they remembered but somehow it's
a little dry isn't it. Or it's like going
to your high school graduation dinner
with your cousin.
it's a big night and she's a pretty girl
but this will be your one and only date
and you both know this. So what I'm
trying to say here is that loving God
and receiving his love ought to be an
experience that motivates. It ought to be
something that feels like something.
It ought to be something that changes us
like love normally does when we
experience it with people. When we
experience a loving relationship with
someone it has an impact on us.
It changes us some somehow. for the most
part i see that it doesn't motivate or
change or bring pleasure to Christians
because they've turned love into a habit
of rituals and rules. You know it's hard
to experience love in an atmosphere of
rules and regulations.
it's like a married couple who go
through the motions they do enough to
keep the facade of a marriage but not
having any joy that love is supposed to
bring to a marriage. So I believe the
problem is that it's a one-sided
relationship where one person loves more
than the other person and if you've ever
been in that kind of relationship you
know that those relationships don't they
don't work very well. In our case, I think
God loves us more than we love Him and
the way to remedy the problem is not
just you know change our style of
worship, some people say if we could
just get a feeling while we're
worshiping I guess that would you know
mean that we really love God, so we sing
louder, some places you know let's get
a band in here let's get some flashing
lights we'll feel something. They kind of
confused feeling something like that for
actually loving God loving the invisible God.
Now, it isn't easy to love the
invisible God but it's
possible.
so let's talk about ways that we can
pursue to enable us to increase our love
for this invisible God that we worship.
alright loving the invisible God number
one develop a sense of his presence
You want to love the invisible God develop a
sense of his presence. You can love
something that you can't see I didn't
say it was impossible to love something
that you can't see
I mean I love the gentleness that I see
in our grandchildren.
I love that about them.
I feel something about that. Yet you
can't touch that thing. I love the
kindness and the generosity of my wife.
I don't have to see her in front of me to
appreciate and love her great sense of
generosity that she has. I love the
stillness of an early morning. I mean can
you see the stillness? not really but you
know that it's surrounds you somehow.
now you can love those things that you
can't see but you cannot love something
that is not actually there. The stillness
is there the gentleness of the child
that's really there, the generosity of my
what that's really there, but you can't
love something that actually isn't there.
so you can't see God but He is there.
what's needed is the recognition of
different signs that permit or rather
that point to his presence. For example,
how do I know He's there
well I know he's there because there are
answered prayers and the answered
prayers that I have raised up to him are
a sign of his presence in my life.
not all prayers are answered right away
or in a positive way but those that are
our answers point to the One who listens
and who responds. You know the asking and
the receiving point to a God who is
there to hear and to give. The Psalmist
said in Psalm 21 verse 4, "He asked life
of You, You gave it to him."
another way of developing the sense of
his presence: realize that spiritual
insight is only possible because God is
actually there.
see the reason that we are encouraged to
read the Bible regularly is because it
is in reading the Word of God that we
gain insight and knowledge and wisdom.
but God is the one who imparts these
things not just the words on a page.
For example, in 1 Corinthians chapter 2
verses 9 to 13, Paul says the following,
"but just as it is written, things which
the eye has not seen and ear has not
heard and which have not entered the
heart of man all that God has prepared
for those who love Him for to us God
revealed them through the spirit for the
spirit searches all things even the
depths of God. For who among men knows
the thoughts of a man except the spirit
of the man which is in him? Even so the
thoughts of God no one knows except the
Spirit of God. Now we have received, not
the spirit of the world, but the Spirit
who is from God, so that we may know the
things freely given to us by God, which
things we also speak, not in words taught
by human wisdom, but in those taught by
the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts
with spiritual words." So Paul chastised
the Corinthians for thinking that
through human wisdom or cleverness they
knew the things of God. He tells them
that what they know of God, God has not
only transmitted it to them, in other
words through the written word, but has
actually enable them to understand it
through the power of the holy spirit.
Believing in Jesus is a decision that I
make for myself, but that Jesus is
revealed is a work of God and a witness
of his presence.
You see what I'm saying? every time
you say, "I never saw that" you know as
you're reading the Bible every time you
say "wow I never saw that" for now I
understand this teaching you are
grasping more fully not just a new idea
you were grasping more fully the
presence of God himself. Because it's
impossible to know Him unless you are
making the effort to love Him. Another
way to sense His presence and that is
through the comfort of the Holy Spirit.
the Holy Spirit is God and manifests
himself in many tangible ways and ways
that are unique to himself now not every
member of the Godhead manifest
themselves in the same way to us.
For example the father he initiates the
creation and we can perceive him in it
his power his wisdom his sense of beauty.
the Son is the Word made flesh and we
have His presence recorded in an
historical sense through the gospels.
We see Him through the gospel. We see the
Father through the things He has made
and the holy spirit manifests himself
through the production of the word and
through the growth of the church.
the Holy Spirit is most visible in his
relationship with individual Christians.
you see him there.
among other things he provides strength
for example to overcome sin (Romans
chapter 8 verse 13) you get what I'm
saying?
where does the strength come from to
overcome sin?
well it doesn't come from our flesh and
it certainly doesn't come from Satan, so
where does it come from? the Bible
says it comes from the Holy Spirit, how
do i see the Holy Spirit? I see myself
overcoming sin.
that's how I perceive Him.
that's how I understand and can see if
you wish the invisible God. I see Him
working in me doing things that I cannot
do and certainly things that Satan
doesn't want to do, let alone can do.
We also see his comfort in time of sorrow
or trial or temptation. Paul talks about
the comfort that he receives from God,
Acts 9:31. The peace that we experience
when we should be experiencing fear or
depression or anger
according to logic, this peace that
surpasses understanding that Paul talks
about in Philippians 4 verse 7, where do
you think that peace comes from? When he
says you will experience the peace that
surpasses understanding, what is he
saying? well he's saying it's going to,
it's not coming from you, it surpasses
your understanding
it's coming from somewhere else, well
where is that he's coming from?
well it's coming from the Comforter, He's
the One that reaches inside of you to
comfort you to hold you up to support you.
Again, how do I see this invisible
God? I see Him through the comfort that
He gives me during times of trial or
crisis in my in my faith. I see Him
working in me and seeing Him enables me
to love Him more. And so the piece that
we experience when we should be
experiencing fear and depression as I
say
according to logic, comes from the spirit
and we see Him in this. It doesn't come
from our understanding it comes from God
who is there in the tears and the chaos
a God who is present during these times.
so if we want to learn to love God, the
invisible one, we need to recognize the
difference
signs of His invisible but yet
undeniable presence. Another way to love
the invisible God: exercise sincere repentance.
Exercise sincere repentance.
What kills love in any relationship is sin.
Nevermind your relationship with God,
your relationship with your friend,
you lied to your friend and he finds out
or she finds out that you lied to them.
what does that do to your friendship?
You cheat on your spouse what does that do
to your marriage? you have you have a
double standard with your children,
you've told them all their lives, you
shouldn't do that, that's wrong, I'm
against it, blah blah blah, and they discovered
that you yourself do this thing.
what does that do to your relationship
to your moral authority with your
children when they find out that you
practice the very thing that you forbid
them to practice because it's bad it's
not good, it's unhealthy.
Sin destroys relationships at every level level.
Lying, adultery, violence,
selfishness, pride, these and other sins
are usually the root causes of marriage
breakdown or any relationship breakdown.
the same phenomenon works in our
relationship with God except that in
this relationship, the sin is always on
our side, not on God's side. The sins we
do and the sins that we do not only
separate us from God in a spiritual way,
but also in an emotional way as well.
sin hardens our hearts and makes it
unable to feel your desire the love of
God. When I sin, when I send a lot, when I
harden my heart, I don't even want to try
to love God.
it's not that sin causes God to stop
loving us because we're impure we're not
clean,
I mean God has always loved the steadily.
doesn't it say that in the Bible John
chapter 3, God so loved the world
it doesn't say God so loved the world
while they were doing everything ok it
says God so loved the world
yeah and whatever condition you're in.
the problem is that sin renders us
incapable of loving God. Now the reason
that we must repent and be baptized, is
that without repentance we cannot
succeed in loving God. Even if our past
is forgiven the inability to love God
will eventually drive us away from Him
once again. Example: Judas. Judas never
repented truly sincerely of greed and he
loved money more than he loved Jesus.
Demas did not repent of his worldliness
and he returned to the world and the
love of the world rather than follow
Paul and the mission that he was on
given to him by Jesus. Sin shrivels our
heart up. It renders us incapable
nevermind of loving God, in many times it
renders us incapable of just loving
another human being that we can see.
repentance on the other hand is always
painful but it's liberating. It is like
opening your eyes and really see
yourself without God and turning towards
Him in love. Without repentance the only
love that we actually feel is the allure
and the excitement of the world and the
lost and the pleasure for sin that's the
only feeling we have.
repentance is really our exchange. We go
from loving the world and sin in the
flesh, which are the tangibles of the
unseen Satan. We go from this to loving
purity and obedience and righteousness
which are the tangibles of the unseen
God. In time, the loving of the things of
God lead us to loving God himself.
this is what God was doing with the Jews,
He gave them the law and the temple, the
things of God, but they never got beyond
the things of God, to God himself.
that's our danger also in the modern
Church. Understand what I mean? they
didn't get beyond the things they were
so hung up on the rules, the regulations,
the carrying out of everything, they
forgot that they were worshiping a
living Being and instead were
worshipping the things of God. They were
pious in their own way but they weren't
loving. And then another way that we can
cultivate this love for God and Jesus
mentions it, and that is to love others
as self. That's why he says, you know, love
God with all your heart your soul your
money all your strength and love others
as you love yourself that love others
that that that works directly to helping
us love God. Jesus provides the key in
how to express our love toward God in a
very practical way. "Felt love" is
unfulfilling if it is not expressed. Your
love for your spouse or your child or
your parents, propels you to do something
not because you have to, but because you
want to,
cannot help yourself. I mean right, at
Christmastime we just went past
Christmastime lot of us are beyond you
know that having kids you know we've got
grandkids and that but you remember when
you had your kids. Out shopping for
Christmas, "we got a budget,
stay in that budget" with you know and
then she always a minute look at this or
this is good , Lise would say
yeah but then I get this over or
that gives Julia a bigger
present then it gives the Emilie and we
got to keep things even, aww c'mon let's
go for it, and you know what happens
right, you were at this level for all the
presents and then one present goes up
well then you gotta top it off everybody
else.
why do we do that? we love our kids.
We want to see the expression of joy.
We want them to say, "this is perfect dad, that's
exactly the one I wanted!"
So discerning God's presence
through answered prayer
and spiritual insight and the comfort of
the holy spirit along with a greater
capacity to love Him as the sin in our
lives is removed, all of this heightens
our desire to love Him. This love moves
us to do something and Jesus says that
loving others is the tangible way that
we demonstrate our love for God.
The mistake that we make sometimes, is we
pour all of that love and all of that
energy into worship services, which are
fine - which are good, but doing that does
not create us the satisfaction that
comes from actually loving Him.
Now the amazing thing about this is that
it is when we love others they begin to
feel God's love for themselves and this
moves them to search for the invisible
God, that they have caught a glimpse of
through our love and this cycle repeats
itself over and over again until
everyone is loved by God and everyone
offers their love to God. Now i can
preach a lot of sermons about what we
need to do and what we ought to do.
We can live right, we live honestly and
faithfully, we got to do that, we got to
attend worship and give generously, of
course, we need to get involved, we need
to serve, we need to be evangelists, we
can bring people to church, we can preach
a sermon on every one of those topics
and be perfectly biblical and perfectly
necessary, but all I'm doing here is
explaining the details of what the Bible
says about christian living and church
growth. The power that moves us to
actually do these things is not fear or
guilt or persuasion, it's love.
You, perceiving the presence and the love of
God for you and for me. You, moved by that
love to express your love to God in ways
that have been mentioned before. God must
have known that loving an invisible
Being would be difficult for man, so He
sent His Son in a visible form as a
human being to demonstrate his
unmistakable love by dying on the cross
to remove the sins that separated us
from Him. When we doubt His presence, when
we are not sure that our prayers are
heard, when
loving the unseen becomes just too much
for us, let our eyes rest on the cross of
Jesus as a testimony, not only of God's
presence but the presence of His love
for us and so if your love for God has
grown cold through religious routine or
sinfulness and you would like to
reaffirm your faith in your love for
that unseen God, that we encourage you
come forward confess your sins.
Come forward acknowledge your faith in Christ.
whatever is needed. I would
think that for most of us it would be to
renew our commitment, not only to our
worshipping of God but our commitment to
loving others as God has loved us so
that we can get more in
touch with the feelings of love that we
should have and that we need to have for
God and that are so rewarding when we
experience them. So if you have any need
for prayer, whatever, we encourage you to
come forward now as we sing our song of
encouragement.