Loving God

It’s good to think and to appreciate that we all come here with different expectations.

Let me tell you why I’m here.

I’m here, this morning at any rate, because:

• I’ve been invited to speak

I’m here because:

• I believe that God is calling us deeper & deeper into relationship with him and although this is a simple truth, I firmly believe that it is one that we need regularly reminding of.

I’m here because:

• My own heart is to know & to love God more & more

I’m going to talk for about 20 minutes. My message is simple but will hopefully be a profound reminder of how our lives as Christians work best when they revolve around us learning to love God more.

So in this time I plan to cover 3 things:

Firstly, I want to remind us of:

1. God’s CALL to us, his CALL to know him & to love him more

Secondly, I want to challenge us to press on and

2. To develop deep, lasting friendship with him

Lastly, I want to encourage us. To encourage us that the

3. Impact of us Loving God spreads far beyond our own lives

 

Recently, David Flowers has been inviting us to ‘review where we are, to consider where we are called to go and to think through how we might get there’.

We had the opportunity as a community to respond to this a couple weeks ago. If you missed this, let me encourage you to listen to David’s May Invitation talk  - you can download it form the website or ring the church office for a copy - and to take the time to respond.

David shared our theme for the year, which I like to think of as the ‘Micah challenge’ (Micah 6:8):

• To do justice
• To love kindness
• And to Walk humbly

And as we as individuals & as a community begin along this journey, I’d like to take the time to remind us that it simply begins with us learning to love God more.

 

This morning:

• I am aiming to provide time for reflection
• I am expecting God to speak to us - personally
• And I would encourage you to ask him to do so

 

So before we continue, I’d love to pray

Father God, thank you that you created us to know and to love you. Come and be with us, speak to us, teach us how we can love you more. Amen

 

Let’s get started.

Our Call to Love God:

 

Let’s start with our call.

What is our call? Our quest, our mission, our ultimate goal in life?

If you were to ask me that question – all sorts of things would come flying into my mind. There is so much I want to do, to see, to share, to accomplish – and many of these things (not all of them) are God-given desires. It’s good to have vision.

But sometimes in my experience, these desires to do & be things – can overwhelm the simplicity of God’s primary call to us:

To be in relationship with him – to know him & to love him. To spend time in his presence.

Jesus puts it very simply, when asked about the greatest commandment he replies (Luke 10:27):

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself

Loving God comes first, and out of this comes action

 

I spent much of my childhood at a Christian boarding school. It was a very traditional education – in which we learnt many things ‘off by heart’. There are several things that will always stay with me – things that I ‘learnt’ back then, but that I am only just beginning to understand.

It’s time for a little more interaction.

 

Does anyone remember the Westminster Catechism? (Completed in 1647) Some of you are looking blank!

It’s a collection scripture-based writings, put together by the Westminster assembly and still very much in use by the Presbyterian church today.

I’ll start us off – What is the chief end of man:

Is to glorify God & to enjoy him forever.

I love it.  The chief end of man: Is to glorify God & to enjoy him forever. To enjoy him.

 

God’s ideal is for us to know him and to enjoy his presence, not just here and now but in our every waking moment.

What are people searching for? Again some thoughts, please.

Your friends, colleagues, and neighbours – when you get beneath the superficial stuff, what do they / we really need deep down?

 

People long for relationship. They seek it out.

I’m going to set a few challenges this morning – here’s the first:

Take a step back, watch & listen, next time you are in the playground, in the office, at the shops, on the football pitch. People crave relationship.

Let me share with you some imagery form Psalm 1.

The picture of us, like a tree, planted by the waterside, bearing fruit in due season.

If that’s not a familiar psalm to you – read it.

God really means for us to be with him, a part of him, drawing from his strength. I use psalm 1, because it’s one of my favourites – one I remember by heart. 

But throughout the bible God shows us that we can find what we need in relationship with him.

• Acceptance – the knowledge that we are known and loved no matter what.

That we can find:

• A place of safety

And that we can find:

• Strength – to live life as he intended

Surely that’s what we are looking for.

 

So why is loving God and spending time in his presence so difficult?

Tell me about the concept of Drift. I know we have some cleaver people here.

 

Finance/biology/statistics/racing – top gear fans

 

I think you could define drift as: Unforeseen changes over time

Or perhaps pointing in one direction, but moving in another.

A bit like when you are on a tred mill and you stop running.

 

The writer of Isaiah puts it like this:

We all, like sheep, have gone astray; each of us has turned to his own way.

Paul also sums it up quite well in Romans (7:19) when he says ‘For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.’

Does this sound familiar – it does to me?

 

Put simply - Sin gets between us and God, knowingly and unknowingly & it needs putting right again & again & again.

 

I don’t know about you but I have a tendency to do my own thing, to sort it out, and just get on with it. I like to be seen to cope, more than that; I like to be seen to succeed.

But don’t hear me wrong, God want’s us to succeed, he loves it when we do things for him & for those around us – but he loves it when we do them in his strength, using his resources. (Repeat)

 

So don’t be fooled into thinking that Loving God is easy

It requires effort and action. So let’s move on and think through then how we can develop our relationship more.

 

Developing our relationship with God:

 

When I think about my relationship with God – I like to think of the heart – now that may be because I’m a medic – but let’s stick with that image.

As humans we have a finite capacity. We can grow, change, develop, stretch ourselves but ultimately we all have a limit: physically, emotionally & spiritually that’s what makes us human and not God– on earth at any rate.

And as we have discussed we are all susceptible to being ‘pulled’ or ‘drawn’ and without significant action we ‘drift’ about.

 

So if we want to love God more I think that we need to be decisive, strategic and take action. I believe the challenge for us to two-fold:

Firstly:

• To love and to follow after earthly things less

And secondly:

• And to encounter God’s presence more

 

1. Love Earthly things less

Let’s think then about loving earthly things less,

I guess – in a nutshell – I’m talking about dealing with Sin.  And I want us to think about sin in terms of anything that comes between us and God.

We are encouraged again & again in the bible and by Jesus himself to repent.

Getting rid of sin in our lives is a bit like cleaning. Some of us love to clean – not me.

When we think of cleaning - We clean to different extents:

• ‘a quick lick & a polish’ as my grandma used to say.
• A ‘good tidy up time’ – as we say in the Griffin house
• Or a full spring clean.

Sort some things out in your life. If you don’t know where to start ask God. Don’t tackle everything at once but actively look at clearing away some of the clutter that comes between you and God.

This might be challenging and certainly requires a response but ultimately it can and will create more space for God’s presence.

 

2. Love God More

Let’s think now about spending more time in God’s presence.

Another scripture that I love and remember is in James (4:8) where James encourages us saying ‘Draw near to God & he will draw near to you.

God loves to come & be with us – he never passes up the opportunity.

• Worship God More. 
• Talk to Jesus anywhere & about anything.
• Invite the HS to come and help you.
• Read & re-read God’s word, the bible
• Know the scriptures & bring them to mind

Some more challenges:

Pick 1,5,10 verses write them down, actively learn them. When you are tired, fed up, stressed or having to make Godly decisions – they will come back to mind.

Pick a worship song of the week or month & play it over & over again.

 

Practice calling on God throughout the day.

My current job involves looking after newborns, some very tiny or early. Putting in cannulars (drip tubes) that are needed to give fluids & medicines is something that is very much a part of my routine at work. It’s not easy. With every attempt, throughout the shift, I ask the HS to come. It has become a habit.

It reminds me of who I am, who God is and how much I need him to be a part of who I am & what I do.

Pick something similar; pick something that you do routinely. It doesn’t have to be difficult. Perhaps you like coffee. Invite the HS to come and be with you every time you put the kettle on.

 

Enjoy God’s presence wherever you are, whatever you are doing.

Start with the small things

Impact of loving God:

 

Why? Why is it so important to spend more time with God?

Because being with God changes us.

And as God impacts our lives – we naturally impact the lives of others.

We begin to see & to understand things differently.

 

I have always found the book of James quite challenging –why?

Because he talks about the ‘overflow of the heart’ – about how what inside us, spills out.

Cast your mind back to an occasion when you’ve ask a friend, family member or colleague ‘what’s wrong’? What lead you to ask?

Their face, posture, conversation, actions?

 

Out of the overflow of the heart come:

Our Thoughts

Our Words

And our Actions

And usually in that order

Time in God’s presence changes our hearts. When we know & love God – it shows.

 

If we start by Loving God……

We can’t fail to love people, and to put that love into action

 

Do you want a lifestyle that reflects the person of Jesus? Do you? Then clear away some clutter & spend more time in God’s presence.

I want to summarize & to finish soon.

 

 

 

Summary:

 

I hope you’ll take up some of my challenges.

Because  - We can only be like Jesus, if we spend more time with him, if we learn to love him more & more.

God’s call to us is

1. To be in relationship with him
2. To develop a lasting friendship
3. To clear our some clutter
4. To practice being in his presence & develop Godly habits

His promise is that if we do this - it will not only impact us – but the lives of those around us.

 

As we finish, I want to allow some time for reflection. We are going to play a song & I would encourage you to ask God to speak to you. Do stand, sit or kneel – put yourself in a position that you are comfortable with – to receive from God.

 

Song