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Part 3: Loving God the Son Introduction: A.
Living in Four Relationships
1. Whoever you are, wherever you live, whatever your values or philosophy of life, you can’t escape the necessity of living in four relationships. 2.
Each person must relate in some way a)
to God b)
to himself c)
to the significant others in his life (those with whom he lives and
works intimately) and d)
to the world (everyone outside his immediate sphere, whether down the
street or halfway around the globe). 3.
The good news of the gospel is that Jesus Christ can enter into a
human life and redeem it in all four of these dimensions or relationships. B. The Most Important Relationship 1.
The most basic and important relationship is the one which exists
between a human being and God. 2.
There are three dimensions of this love: a)
Love of God the Father b)
Love of God the Son c)
Love of God the Holy Spirit 3.
We show our love for each of them differently even though they are
One! 4.
We do this because we relate to each person in the Trinity
differently! C. The Commandment - 1. Scribe: “Which is the great commandment in the law?” 2. Christ’s answer was powerful. 3. “Love the Lord your God.” 4. Love God as your very own God, a personal relationship, not a distant relationship. D. Love Commanded Is Controllable 1. The importance of a personal relationship with God cannot be overstated. a) It is the greatest of all commandments. b) Is it possible to command somebody to love? 2. Yes, love is an act of the will: we choose to relate to God no matter how we may feel. E.
An
All-encompassing Love- 1. Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.” a) A person’s total being must be involved in loving God. b) Nothing must be held back because God holds nothing back when He loves us. 2. The total personhood of each individual is to be involved in the fulfillment of this commandment. 3. Take each of these components and meditate on how to express your love. a) “Heart” refers primarily to our emotional response. b) “Soul” includes the willful, decision-making part of us. c) “Mind” refers to the reasoning component of our love for God. F.
Agape
Love – 1. One
of the most beautiful descriptions of a Christian is one who loves “our Lord Jesus Christ with a love
incorruptible” - 2. Again, note that the word for “love” here is the distinctive Christian word. 3. The word for “love” is agapao, totally unselfish love, a love of which human beings are capable only with the help of the Holy Spirit. 4. Agape is self-giving love. 5. It is love which desires only the highest good for its object — whether the object be God, self, or others. 6. How do we love “our Lord Jesus Christ with a love incorruptible”? I.
Loving
God the Father A.
The
Father’s Highest Good - B. Have Faith - Trust Him! - C. Worship Him - D. Enjoy Him - Psalm73:25 E.
Obey
Him - F.
Be
Holy (1 Peter G. Love Others – II.
Loving
God the Son A.
The
Son’s Highest Good - 1. The highest good we can do for God the Father is to glorify His name. 2. What is the highest good we can do for Jesus? 3. a) Exalt His name above every name. b) Bow your knee to Him and worship Him c) Confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. B. Thank Him – 11As Jesus continued
on toward 14He looked at them and said, “Go show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, their leprosy disappeared. 15One of them, when he saw that he was healed, came back to Jesus, shouting, “Praise God, I’m healed!” 16He fell face down on the ground at Jesus’ feet, thanking him for what he had done. This man was a Samaritan. 17Jesus asked, “Didn’t I heal ten men? Where are the other nine? 18Does only this foreigner return to give glory to God?” 19And Jesus said to the man, “Stand up and go. Your faith has made you well.” 1. We all need to be thankful a) All ten men believed that Jesus could help them, and He did. b) All the lepers were blessed and should have been thankful. c) Every one of the ten should have turned back and given thanks, just like every person on the face of this earth should turn back to Jesus and give thanks, for Jesus died for all men and women. 2. We all need to come back to Jesus and thank Him the way this man did! a) One did come back to .Jesus and give thanks. Note what he did. (1) He glorified God immediately. (2) He worshipped Jesus. b) Worship Jesus and Glorify God – he loved them both and wanted the very best for them. C. Serve Others in Humility - 1. Jesus loved them to the end and to demonstrate His love for them, He washed the disciples’ feet. a) Jesus knew that the Father had given Him all things (John 13:3). b) Jesus knew where He came from, what He had, and where He was going. 2. What Jesus knew helped determine what Jesus did (John 13:4‑5). 3. It is remarkable how the Gospel of John reveals the humility of our Lord even while magnifying His deity: a) “The
Son can do nothing of Himself’ (John b) “For
I came down from heaven, not to do Mine own will” (John c) “My
doctrine is not Mine” (John d) “And
I seek not Mine own glory” (John e) “The
word which you hear is not Mine’“ (John f) His ultimate expression of humility was His death on the cross. (1) 4. We desperately need this lesson on love and humility. a) The church is filled with a worldly spirit of competition and criticism as believers vie with one another to see who is the greatest. b) Humility is not thinking meanly of yourself, it is simply not thinking of yourself at all. c) True humility grows out of our relationship with the Father. d) If our desire is to know and do the Father’s will so that we might glorify His name, then we will experience the joy of serving others to show our love for Christ. D. Keep His Commandments – 1. In the Gospel of John, our Lord Jesus Christ speaks six times of our love to Him demonstrated by the doing of His will. a)
“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. “‑
b)
21He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who
loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him
and manifest Myself to him. (John 14:21). c)
“If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father
will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. (John
14:23). d)
7If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask
what you desire, and it shall be done for you. (John 15:7). e)
10If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love,
just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. (John
15:10). f)
14You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.
(John 15:14). 2. Go over these verses carefully, and notice how in each verse there is a wonderful promise. a) Then you will realize the blessings of one who loves Christ and keeps His commandments. 3. a) The Father and the Son dwell in the hearts of those who love Jesus and keep His commandments. b) When the Holy Spirit comes to indwell us, then Christ dwells in our hearts by faith, and we are then rooted and grounded in love. c) Then the love of God can work in us through the power of the Holy Spirit, and we can love Christ, even as He loved us, in the love of the Father. E.
Lay
down your life for Christ - 1. If Christ has our love, he has our all because love withholds nothing from Christ. a) “And
they loved not their lives unto the death,” b) If we actually love him, he will have our time, and He will have our service, and he will have the use of all our resources and gifts, and our very lives, whenever he calls for them. c) God loves each of us the same way - He will withhold nothing from us that is good for us. d) He does not hold back his own only begotten Son. 2. (1) A person like Mary loves the Lord with her whole being, sacrificing all that she is and has. (2) She gives herself out of a heart of pure love for the Lord. b) Her love was a sacrificial and costly love. (1) The ointment (murou = myrrh) was a perfume that was “very costly.” (2) 300 hundred denarii equaled a year’s wages. (3) A bottle of perfume worth a whole year’s wage being poured upon the feet of Jesus. (4) In sacrificial love Mary was taking her most precious possession and giving it to her Lord. c) This demonstration of her love cost her more than material things. (1) Imagine how difficult it was for Mary to do. (2) This was a very personal act of worship, but it was also a very public act of worship. (3) She set aside pride and embarrassment in order to demonstrate her love and faith in Jesus. 3. How far are we willing to go in order to show our love and faith? 4. Are we willing to die to self or even physical death in laying down our life for Jesus? F.
Have
faith and believe that Jesus came forth from God - 1.
27for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved
Me, and have believed that I came forth from God. 28I came forth from the Father and have come into the world.
Again, I leave the world and go to the Father.” 2. a) What a wonderful description of the Christian life! b) People who had never seen Christ, and yet truly loved Him and believed on Him 3. Great love will results in great faith a) Faith in His love to us b) Faith that He came forth from God c) Faith that He will finish the work He has begun in us d) Faith that one day He will return again! G. Feed His Lambs/Sheep and Follow Him - 1. “Do
you love Me? . . . Feed My sheep . . . Follow Me.”‑ 2. First comes, “Do you love Me?” a) Three times Jesus asks Simon, “Do you Love Me?” b) Everything hinges on our answer to this question. c) Everything is determined by the degree to which we really love our Lord Jesus. d) The first thing which makes a Christian minister or missionary or evangelist or preacher or Sunday School teacher or leader or Christian worker of any kind, is not learning, or eloquence, or wisdom, or organizing ability, or pleasing personality, or even a “passion for souls”, but love for Jesus Himself! e) Before you can ever feed His sheep, you must love Jesus! Nothing can take the place of that. 3. Are You Following? a) ”Do
you love Me? . . . Feed My sheep . . . Follow Me.”‑ b) Another evidence that you love our Lord is an obedient following of’ Him, wherever He leads us. (1) Three times, “Do you love Me?’ (2) Three times, “Feed my lambs or sheep” (3) Then twice, “Follow Me”. c) For many this willingness to follow is the sensitive nerve of our love to Christ. (1) The “self’ in us will yield up anything else - money, time, comforts, anything else, if only we can direct ourselves! (2) Then we are still in control! 4. Jesus says to us, “Do you love Me? Then Feed My sheep and follow Me.” H. Look Forward to His Return – 1. Of all the evidence that one loves the Lord, this longing for his return is one of the best 2. The crown of righteousness is God’s reward for a faithful and righteous life that loves the promise of the Lord’s appearing. a) The word for “crown” is stephanos ‑ the victor’s crown. b) Not a fading crown of leaves, but a crown of righteousness that would never fade. 3. If we love Christ we will long for His appearing and live in obedience to Him as Lord, and do the work He has called us to do. a) b) Revelations
III.
Returning to Your First Love – A.
The
First Love 4 Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have
left your first love. ‑ 1. In
Revelations 2:2‑3 there are 8 signs mentioned that show the zeal of the
Church at a) But there was one bad sign. b) And the Lord said: “unless you repent - I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place.” c) And what was this sign? “that you have left your first love” 2. We find the same lack in the Church today. a) There is zeal for the truth b) There is continuous work c) But what the Lord values most is lacking – a fervent love for Himself. B.
How do you find a love that is lost? (Revelation 2:5) In verse
5, Jesus gives us a prescription that is very simple and very direct. He tells
us to do three things. 1.
“Remember from where you have fallen” a) Think back to what it was like when you first entered into
a relationship with God. b) Remember the joy, the excitement, the enthusiasm you had for
the things of God. c) Remember how you saw God’s hand in every circumstance. d) Remember how you felt the presence of God in you. e) Remember the thankfulness you felt. 2.
Repent a) Turn 180 degrees and go the opposite direction. b) Confess your sin to God c) Then stop sinning! 3.
Do the things you did at first a) When you first became a Christian, you probably came into
God’s presence in awe when you prayed. (1) Work at recapturing that awe in your worship and in your prayer
life. b) When you first became a Christian, you probably read God’s
Word more than you do now. (1) Shut the TV off, put the paper down, place the murder mystery
on the shelf, and open up the Word of God and start reading it again. c) When you first became a Christian, you were probably teachable
and tried to apply what you learned from you pastor’s messages and the teachers
who taught the Word of God to you. (1) Trust and submit to God’s word again, and listen for ways
you can apply what God teaches you. C.
Conclusion 1. Listen friends, there are times when every Christian needs
to revive his or her love for the Lord. a) It’s human nature to get distracted. b) Remember where the Lord found you and what He did for you
when He saved you. 2. Today Jesus is asking you, “Do you love Me?” 3. Do you want to return to your first love, this morning? 4. Will you listen to the voice of the Lord as He speaks to your heart? 5. If the Lord has spoken to your heart about this, or any matter, then you come as He calls. |
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