April 30, 2017
Morning Service

Two weeks ago we celebrated together the resurrection of our Lord and what that means for each of us.  Our sins have been forgiven and our greatest enemy death has been defeated.  We know that our team wins in the end.  Last week we started to review what our lives should be like once we realize the magnitude of this gift we have been given.  Jesus has asked each of us to “Follow Me.”  Are we willing to allow God to “transform” our lives into something that brings glory to Him?  What does that life look like?  Where do we begin?  Let’s start here:

John 14:15 If you love Me, keep My commandments.

·         That sounds a little too simple for the deep theology we are looking into, but that is exactly how it is meant to be; simple.  Living a life to serve our Savior is simply just a choice we make, or really a series of choices.  We first make the initial choice to follow Him then we continue to make choices that line up with that decision.

·         As we make those choices, God changes us.  Life has its way of challenging us along the way and sometimes we win the challenge and sometimes we fail.  Either way we learn something about ourselves and the God we serve.   The important thing is that we do not quit; we continue to honor the decision we made to “Follow Him.”  If we truly love Him for what He did for us we will do our best to keep His commandments.  So let’s begin building a foundation with what Jesus calls the “first commandment.”

 

Mark 12:28-31 And coming up one of the scribes heard them reasoning, knowing that He had answered them well, he asked Him, “Which is the first commandment of all?”  (29)  And Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord;  (30)  and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength." This is the first commandment.  (31)  And the second is like this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.”

·         Loving God is the key to serving Him.  Love must be our main motivation, or our foundation for following.  Paul put it this way to the Corinthian church:

1 Corinthians 13:1-3 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I have become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.  (2)  And though I have prophecies, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so as to move mountains, and do not have love, I am nothing.  (3)  And though I give out all my goods to feed the poor, and though I deliver my body to be burned, and have not love, I am profited nothing.

·         That certainly makes it very clear that it is not “what” you do but “why” you do it.  These things he listed are wonderful works and great sacrifices that are made, but they come to nothing if not done with love.   If we try to serve God out of fear, duty, selfish gain or anything but love we are not truly following His commands.

·         The Easter story is the “greatest love story ever told.”  The love displayed by Christ for us on Calvary came before we ever even knew Him.

 Romans 5:8  But God demonstrates His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.

·         Before we ever made our initial choice to serve Him, He willing died for our sins.  How could Jesus walk that road to Calvary not knowing if we would ever know or love Him?  Because love is the very nature of God.

 

1 John 4:16-19 And we have known and believed the love that God has in us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him.  (17)  In this is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, that as He is, so also we are in this world.  (18)  There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has torment. He who fears has not been perfected in love.  (19)  We love Him because He first loved us.

·         We can only truly serve and please God when we portray the key part of who He is; God is love.  When we love we abide in Him and Him in us.  To follow Him is to love like He does.  Paul again in the letter to the Corinthians defines the many attributes of this love.

 

1 Corinthians 13:4-8  Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy, love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;  (5)  does not behave rudely, does not seek her own, is not easily provoked, thinks no evil.  (6)  Love does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth, (7) bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  (8)  Love never fails. But if there are prophecies, they will fail; if tongues, they shall cease; if knowledge, it will vanish away.

·         Are these attributes active in our relationship with God?  Are we long suffering when God chooses to send us down a dark road that we would not have chosen?  Do we seek our own will even when we know it is not His?  Do we rejoice in what pleases Him or what pleases us?  Are we willing to follow Jesus even when we don’t understand where or why He is leading us through something?

·         To say “yes” to these questions we have to truly believe that love never fails.  We must be willing to “bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, and endure all things” because we love the One we follow.  We must trust that His love for us will not allow Him to lead us down the wrong path, but it will be the path we need to travel.  Remember He is leading and we are following.

 

To love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength is the first and foremost command to follow Jesus.  It is now our love for God that we use as our firm foundation to build a life that is pleasing to God.  Now we need to build upon that foundation beginning with the second command that we love one another.  I encourage you to check the strength of your foundation.  Be sure your love for God is your motivation for following Him and then we can build together lives that do indeed please Him.

 

Father please bless us with the desire and ability to love You with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.