I Love God. This simple but profound statement matters more than anything for a Christian. I Love that God is selfless...no one can make him do anything. He chooses goodness. I Love that God is secure...he is not threatened by our growing knowledge. I love that God is creative...the sheer variety of what God has made and the volume of it and complexity of it are nothing short of awesome and reveals so much about Him. I love that God is mysterious...he is not predictable nor ferile. He is simultaneously simple and complex. So often his methods are freighteningly unfamilair and yet comforting. I love that God is just...in His way and in his timing justice is measured and prevails. I love that God is demanding...He asks for our life, nothing less. This makes us so much more as people. I love that God is forgiving...while his standards are high, his graciousness and mercy are wide. I love that God is exciting...He is continually moving, never resting, always doing something, redeeming someone working out his will. I love that God is Almighty and yet approachable. I love God. These 3 words pure and simple...have changed my life. Because I really do mean them everyhing I do and everything I see and everything I think has changed.
Do you LOVE God? This is an important question. I want you think really think about it. Is there an affection within your heart for God? DO you think that love is a whimsical emotion that falls upon you? Do we have a choice in who we love? Is everyone equally easy to love? Why does it matter?
We paddle faster with the proper incentive. Fear is a powerful force. It motivates us for awhile...but it gets tired. We paddle faster with the proper incentive.
Love motivates great and lasting and willful change. Love has a way of moving us at a heart level to take risks, to try new things, to stretch the boundaries of our comforts. It moves us to sacrifice without complaining, to forgive without having to be ordered, to endure with joy. It could be said that love is what animates us. Love for God is what drove Deb Zambrovich up from Ripon today? Love for God is what gave Dave Renwick to courage to face his trials this week and still make it here to lift his voice in worship. Love for God is what moved our volunteers to care for our children during service today. Love for God is what caused our volunteers to work at Homeless connections this past Thursday night. Love for God is what inspires the Water Walk we have coming up next weekend. Love for God is doing all sorts of things, inspiring all sorts of things. Most all of the good we can see in the world in modern times can be attributed to men and women in the course of history who were acting on their love for God.
God’s Love for us... We see God’s love for us if we open our eyes and our hearts… It is in our ability to rest (Psalm 127:2) It is in the hands of those who serve us and hold us It is in the food on our table It is in the majesty of what he has made. It is in our beating heart. It is in the Spirit he places within us. It is displayed in the many quiet and unheralded moments when the sunshine is on our face or the breeze cools us down or when the rain comes in season to water the harvest. It is displayed publicly and for all to see in the sacrificial atonement that was offered at the cross and he gave up his Spirit... Read John 19:28-30
Our love for God -Commanded (Matthew 22:37) -Compelled (2 Corinthians 5:14-15) We respond to God’s love, we are left with no alternative. Read 1 John 4:16-21 Have you felt the pull of God’s love for you? Have you been able to see it in the blessings that HE authored into your life? Have you witnessed it at the cross? If you have then you see the command to love the Lord, and it excites you. If you have not yet then the command probably confuses you (how am I supposed to love a God who doesn’t talk to me, whom I can not see?)
Love looks like this... Obedience “There will be no peace in any soul until it is willing to obey the voice of God.” -D. Moody Love for others hen we love God we obey him. That respect and submission communicates love to God. More than the amount on our offering, more than our attendance at worship service, more than the highlights in our Bible, more than the station our radio is tuned into, more than our membership in a congregation. Obedience to God tells God that we love him...Read John 14:15-21 and Read 1 John 5:1-4. So how do I know if I really do love God? Well, ask yourself honestly how well do you obey him/trust him?W
I love God. I hope that you love God too. If you feel as though you used to love God but you’re not sure where it has gone I want to invite you to come on up front here at the close of this message and pray with us, we will get you pointed back towards God and he will help you to sort it out. If you want to love God but honestly don’t know where to begin we would like to open up his word with you. We have a simple series of Bible studies that are designed to teach who God is, what his word is about and how we can follow him in a loving relationship. At this time I’m going to ask Robby to play some instrumental music and for those who sense the Spirit calling them up to rekindle their love for God to come forward and pray with us. For the rest we are going to use this time to simply reflect on the love of God and the reasons we love him too.