HOW DO WE EXPRESS OUR LOVE FOR GOD?

Testimony & Intro:

Love Inn, Freeville, NY, circa 1971

Not very long after I got saved I had to deal with a bad attitude. I had studied techniques of propaganda, what make commercials effective and ways to stir up a crowd, things like that. The Pastor, Scott Ross, seemed to me to be using those techniques. My intellect and the enemy teamed up. Although I didn’t say anything about it, I became very antagonistic towards him. A group of us, including the pastor, Scott Ross, were about to get together for a prayer in a room upstairs in the barn. I walked out to the stairwell and stewed as the conviction of the Holy Spirit was all over me. Finally I gave in to the Lord and went in ready to repent. The Pastor was walking to each one in the circle individually. When he got to me I expressed that repentance to him and he embraced me. As he did, everyone in the room felt waves of liquid love emanating from us. It was an unforgettable, supernatural experience. 

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About a year or so later my roommate and I were conducting a Bible study for college students in our apartment. As we prayed that same intense flood of God’s love filled the room. Interestingly, the distracting noise from the Juke Box in the bar across the street stopped too (we often prayed against that and it shut off, sometimes in the middle of a song).

Romans 8:38   For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,

39   nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Sometime in your past, maybe a life time ago or more recently, you were living in disobedience, you were touched by the Conviction of the Holy Spirit and God’s love. Your response was to repent and follow God’s will. Things happen as a result of that process, and it’s a process we go back through until our body does or Jesus comes. Maybe you know the real old chorus,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGguAKvV4Vk  

I just keep falling in love with Him

Over and over and over and over again

I keep falling in love with Him

Over and over and over and over again

He gets sweeter and sweeter as the days go by

Oh what a love between my Lord and I

I keep falling in love with Him

Over and over and, over and over again

How do you react when somebody does you wrong? Ever been:

§  Thrown under the bus,

§  Stabbed in the back,

§  Publicly humiliated?

§  Fired from a job for no good reason?

§  Do you remember the teenage emotional trauma when you got dumped by that “one” you had all that puppy love for?

§  Some of you, and about half the people you meet, have been married more than once. My younger siblings still carry scars from my parents divorce.

Well, remember, sometime in your life you did God wrong. How did He react when you hurt His heart? How did Jesus react toward those who were crucifying Him? Think about that regarding things you’ve said about how much you love Jesus and want to be like Him.

Take a minute, a Selah, to think about that.

We express our love for God through Obedience & Worship

1)    Obedience - always a choice a the Fork in the Road

John 14: 15   “If you love me, obey my commandments..

21   Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me.  And because they love me, my Father will love them.

23   Jesus replied, “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them.

The connection between loving Jesus and doing what He said is very clear. There’s a principle we learned many years ago, and are still emphatic about, Being must always precede Doing. Remember that the motivation is not to do in order to get saved or earn brownie points from God, but God’s love must be the driving force coming through us. The Father’s love must be the reason we do what we do.

Galatians 5:6 New Living Translation (NLT)

Gal. 5:6   For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love.

Jesus sets the example by His obedience to the father.

John 4:34   Then Jesus explained: “My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work.

John 14:10   Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. (NKJV)

Hebrews 5:8   Although He was a Son [who had never been disobedient to the Father], He learned [active, special] obedience through what He suffered. (AMP)

The ultimate example of obedience to the Father

Luke 22:42   “Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”. (NLT)

Probably the most important obedience outworking is to love people. I counted 19 verses stating this, here are a few.

John 13:34   A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have  loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

35   By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

Romans 12:10   Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;

1 John 4:7   Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.

8   He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

Allow the Lord to show you “Why you do what you do,” to hear what comes out of your mouth and how you said it. The Holy Spirit, and probably your spouse, will let you know when God’s love isn’t evident.

2)    Worship

We finished the lessons on the words the Angels sang in Rev. 7:12 last week. I pray that the Lord continues to work these truths into your heart.

“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom

and thanksgiving and honor

and power and strength belong to our God

forever and ever! Amen.”

“God loves worship. He longs for it. You have an opportunity every day, through worship, to satisfy the heart of the one who:

·        paints sunsets,

·        breathes life into dust and

·        forms mountains,

·        galaxies,

·        animals,

·        angels and

· humankind with just the power of his voice.

You bring your Creator immense joy and satisfaction when you worship. “

Zephaniah 3:17 The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.

You see, God is after your heart. He's after direct connection from his Spirit to yours.”

(See Day 1 of the devotional on You Version, https://my.bible.com/reading-plans/1948-jesus-who-reigns-is-worthy-of-worship )

We’ve frequently worshiped with the song, “I Will Enter His Gates With Thanksgiving…” That old chorus is a firm declaration of our intent to take the steps the Lord described to get into that place in the Temple set aside for worship. The Psalm that this comes from is pretty self-explanatory. Open you Bible to Psalm 100 and follow along as I read it from KJV.

Psalm 100:1   Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.

2   Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing.

3   Know ye that:

Ø the Lord he is God:

Ø it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves;

Ø we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

4   Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise:

be thankful unto him, and bless his name.

5   For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations. (KJV)

“In worship we discover the reality of God on a level different than reading Scripture or spending time in prayer or community. In worship we can sing to God songs of adoration, thanksgiving, high praise and unadulterated love in response to his character, nearness and devotion. Simply put, in worship we give and receive that which is most important-- love.”

(Quoted from same devotional quoted above.)

 Remember the song  FROM 1^st  John 4:7 & 8

Beloved, let us love one another,

For love is of God,

And everyone that loveth is born of God

And knoweth God.

He that loveth not knoweth not God,

For God is love.

Beloved, let us love one another, 1^st  John 4:7 & 8

Read rest of the context:

1 John 4:9   In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.

10   Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

11   Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

12   No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.

13   Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.

Find an altar for prayer, take the opportunity to tell God you love Him. The outworking of that is to look for every opportunity to let your spouse and children know that God is increasing your love for them. Ask the Lord to show you ways to do that in word & in deed. May we always be demonstrating God’s love to one another. May the Lord remind us of this the next time we’re about to lose our cool.