Stay in Love with God

Stay in Love with God
I love coffee…The taste, the smell, the idea…I’m not gonna lie, I need to have at least 2 cups of coffee in the morning to be functional and the stronger the better…I like my coffee with cream and sugar…I prefer fair trade coffee because there’s nothing like knowing that a farmer earned a fair wage for their work rather than being exploited by corporations…I love coffee…I love the way that it warms me up when I’m feeling cold or if I’m feeling adventurous and try ice coffee, how it cools me down…I feel better after that first drink in the morning and I feel full of energy and ready to tackle the day…I crave coffee…Coffee fills me up! And yet…no matter how much I love coffee, there are times when I’m just done with it…I cut out the hard stuff by about 2:00 and am not a fan of decaf…Sometimes I’m just not thirsty and don’t need a drink…Sometimes I’ve just had too much and I’m done for the day…As much as I love coffee, I’m just kind of done with it…I’m sure you’ve got something like that for you…chocolate? Sports? Shopping? What is that thing that you just seem to crave? And yet no matter how much coffee I drink, it’s not always what I’m craving…I think it might be, but it’s just not satisfying like I want it to be…It seems like there’s something more…
For the past couple weeks we’ve been going through John Wesley’s 3 Simple Rules…The first week, we explored the first rule—Do No Harm, which isn’t as easy as we may think nor is it one that many people go out to intentionally break and yet it happens, right? So there’s grace for when we do fall short…But more than doing no harm, we explored the second rule—Do Good…which is the other side of do no harm—where we seek to do all the good we can in all the places we can to all the people we can as long as we ever can and not because we are trying to earn God’s love, but because we have already received God’s love…Which brings us to the third rule which is clearly not about coffee…But the third rule is to stay in love with God. So, what does that mean?
When married couples are having difficulties in their marriage, one of the pieces of advice is to think about what made them fall in love. To go to the time when they knew this was the person with whom they wanted to spend the rest of their life with—the person that they were madly in love with. So, when was the first time that you knew that you were in love with God? Now, it sounds like an awkward question because we usually don’t talk about God in a romantic way or in a way where God is my boyfriend or girlfriend…But, falling in love with God is something that we do when we decide to claim Jesus Christ as Lord…If you didn’t love God—would you really do something like that? Give your whole life over? No, we don’t talk about God with the romantic love, we talk about God in the “agape” love…Agape is the fullest kind of love…In the Greek language there are several different words for “love” each describing a different kind of love—erros which is passionate love; philios which is brotherly or friendship kind of love, and agape which is the fullest and Godly kind of love. The root for the word agape is also the root for the same word as holy in the Greek…So agape is kind of that holy love. So, when did you fall into agape with God? It doesn’t have to be a life changing moment, although that’s possible! It may have been a gradual happening—something that you didn’t even realize was happening, but now life will never be the same! When did you fall in love with God?
Jesus’ sermon on the mount is a challenging piece of Scripture because it challenges beliefs and actions…Jesus calls for a commitment to the whole of God—to fall in love with God with our whole beings…The last section doesn’t sway from that idea whatsoever…Jesus tells those listening that not everyone that says “Lord, Lord” will enter the kingdom of God…That’s not very comforting is it? Not everyone that calls on the name of God will enter the kingdom of God? What does that really mean? Jesus is insistent that our actions must match our belief…If we confess that Jesus is Lord, Jesus is Lord over our whole lives and not just what we want Jesus to be Lord over…So you can’t say, Jesus I want you to be my Lord, but stay out of my business…And if we confess Jesus as Lord it’s all the time and not just when it’s convenient…Jesus I want you to be my Lord on Sundays and Tuesdays, but the rest of the time is off limits…Not everyone who claims to believe really believes…
Now that’s not to say that we should look at everyone who confesses Jesus with suspicion and think, “I wonder if they’re one of those Christians.” Jesus also said, take the log out of your own eye before you attempt to remove the speck in another’s…Don’t worry so much about what someone else is doing—what are you doing? Are you in love with God with your whole being? Because I have to tell you that it is not easy all the time…
There are so many things pulling our attention from God…Oh, I’ll just watch this one episode of ER and then I’ll pray…Oh, I’ll just miss worship this one week so that I can sleep in…Oh, I’ll just stay at work a little bit longer and then I’ll study the Bible…There is much that will pull our attention away from God. There is much that comes between that love that we have with God…Now some may be thinking…Well, you know what Melissa you have no idea—I do love God with my whole being…Which you may very well do…But let me ask a question—where does most of your money go? If you looked at the register in your checkbook—where does most of your money go? Is it to God? Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also…
In a couple weeks we will begin the Advent countdown…The four weeks where we prepare for the birth of Jesus—Christmas. Our culture gives us subtle hints as to when it’s time to celebrate Christmas…Maybe you’ve heard the songs on the radio already, or have seen the decorations in the stores, or have started thinking about gifts lists…Christmas has taken on a whole new life in the middle of our culture…Over the past few years there have been arguments about whether to say “Happy holidays” or “Merry Christmas”…but instead of focusing what we say to one another, what if we focused on what Christmas is really about? Because Christmas isn’t really about what our culture tells us…It’s not about gifts or ribbons, or cookies…Christmas is about a Messiah that came to us because we couldn’t do it on our own…Christmas is about a Savior who chose to spend time with us so that we could understand the love and grace of God…Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus…Christmas is Jesus’ birthday! Christmas is not your birthday…you have a birthday where you receive gifts and celebrate…Christmas is about Jesus’ birth…Now some may be thinking, “I’m not going to let you make me feel guilty for wanting to buy gifts for my loved ones.” Well, I’m not trying to…But here’s the challenge I give to you…Whatever you spend on Christmas this year—bring that same amount to the church. So, if you spend $1,000 on Christmas, bring $1,000 to the church…If you spend $10,000 on Christmas, bring $10,000 to the church. Whatever is collected from this Christmas miracle offering will go to help hunger issues. Because 30,000 children die every day from hunger issues. Because most of the world’s population lives on less than $2 a day…Because it takes just $360 to feed a child for a year…$40 to feed a family of 5 for a month…Can you imagine what kind of a gift it is to give someone help to meet their basic needs? That instead of focusing on what we get and what we need, we focused on what someone else may need to live…That we live simply so that others may simply live.
Stay in love with God…Any relationship takes work…It takes communication and action…If you talked to someone you loved once a week, what kind of relationship do you have? If you talked to someone you love only when things are going wrong, what kind of relationship do you have? If you tell someone you love to stay out of your business, what kind of relationship do you have? Why is it okay to say & do those things to God? How do we stay in love with God?
By focusing on God…By being intentional about making God first in every aspect of our lives…John Wesley said to it was by attending upon the ordinances of God….Worship, Communion, Prayer, Bible study, Christian fellowship and discussion…
Imagine what it would be like if instead of craving a cup of coffee in the morning, you craved spending time with God in prayer…Because the satisfaction that comes from that is more than any cup of coffee can give…Every morning, I start the with prayer and devotion. Upstairs in my library, before I even go downstairs to make my coffee, I’m in prayer and time with God…Sometimes it’s a long time before I can get settled enough to be fully with God and sometimes it’s very quick…And there are days when I’m running late or my alarm doesn’t go off that I don’t spend that time with God…And I know it because my whole day is off…I feel like the person Jesus talks about who built their house on sandy land instead of a strong foundation…That’s what it’s like when we don’t give our whole selves to God—when we still want to follow our own way or the way that our culture tells us…our lives are built on sand instead of a strong foundation…
Stay in love with God by attending to all the ordinances of God…God asks a lot from us…Just in Jesus’ sermon on the mount, there is a lot asked of us…Don’t murder, don’t be angry, don’t commit adultery, don’t look at anyone with lust, treat others as you would like to be treated, forgive your brothers and sisters, whatever you do to the least of these you do to me, where your treasure is there your heart will be also…And that’s just the beginning…God asks a lot from us—God asks for all of us! God wants us to love God with our whole being…And it’s not an impossible task…Yes, it is hard because so much pulls our attention elsewhere…But it’s not impossible to stay in love with God…If you find it challenging, turn to the person sitting next to you and promise to help them when life gets hard and they promise to you the same thing…Find some friends to build a covenant group…Find someone who will hold you accountable…It’s not impossible to stay in love with God…Partly because it’s deep within us to want to…God has placed a desire in us to be with God…Instead of filling that desire with other things, let’s fill it with God…By attending to the ordinances of God…By doing no harm…by doing God…and Staying in love with God.