"Do You Know How to Love God?"

(CFRA Broadcast date: January 15^st , 2012)

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 http://proxy.autopod.ca/podcasts/chum/6/5659/good_news_661_jan15.mp3
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Podcast Notes:

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Issues of Life Series…

‘Do You Know How to Love God?’

My Message today is entitled:

Do you know how to love God?

Do you know how to love?

Do you love God?

Do you know how to love God?

Do you know how to love God the way He wants to be loved?

Rod Stewart sang about 10 years ago.

It goes like this:

"Have I told you lately that I love you?

Have I told you, there’s no one else above you?

You fill my heart with gladness.

Take away all my sadness.

Ease my troubles.

That’s what you do."

Do you know how to love God?

Here’s the truth!

God created you to love Him in four ways:

·         Heart       -  with our affections/emotions

·         Soul          -  with our personality

·         Mind         -  with our thoughts (on hpw to please God)

·         Strength   -  with our resources

Schema

Do you know how to love God the way He wants to be loved?

Gary Chapman….. wrote about the 5 Love Languages

·         Time

·         Word of affirmation/praise

·         Acts of service

·         Touch

·         Gifts

Love

God loves you.

God loves you with completely.

There is nothing that you can do to make God love you more.

The Invitation            Matthew 11:29, 30

‘Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,

for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.’

Yoked

·         Both are trained to respond

·         to the same commands

·         in the same manner

·         at the same moment

so when they are joined together  they are a team.

Do you see it?

That’s a picture of being yoked together with Christ in love.

That’s a picture of being yoked together with your spouse

Yoke Pictures Three Things:  Connection - Direction - Cooperation

1.   Connection        “Be with Me.”

Yokes are made for two, not one.

We were not meant to go through life living apart from God.

His yoke fits well and is lighter than the one we’ve been pulling by ourselves.

2.   Direction             “Follow Me.”

The idea of a yoke pictures the forward motion of two connected together.

You cannot be yoked to Jesus and go your own way anymore.

We follow Him and His direction for our life.

3.   Cooperation      “Work with Me.”

To be yoked together means that we co-operate with His work.

Before we come to Him, we were living for this side of eternity.

Now we are joined to His work and discover that our lives make an eternal impact.  We experience only when we obey:

The famous atheist Frederick Nietzsche, who coined the phrase “God is dead,” once said, “Assert yourself.”

Care for nothing except yourself.

The only vice is weakness and the only virtue is strength.

Be strong. Be a superman. The world is yours if you work hard enough for it!”

In contrast Jesus said,

“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth”

Matthew 5:5

Two very different ideas.

Although the first words are from an atheist, and the last quote from the teaching of Jesus, it often seems that Christians go by Nietzsche’s philosophy rather than Jesus’ teaching. Many Christians live as though the only virtue is strength.

Two very different ideas. Although the first words are from an atheist, and the last quote from the teaching of Jesus, it often seems that Christians go by Nietzsche’s philosophy rather than Jesus’ teaching. Many Christians live as though the only virtue is strength. Jesus never talked about strength, but he often spoke of meekness.

‘Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,

for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.’

The promise is that there will be rest for the stressed.

Time magazine noted that back in the 60’s, expert testimony was given to a Senate sub-committee on time management. They predicted that advances in technology would radically change how many hours a week people worked.

They forecasted that the average N. American would be working 22 hours a week within 20 years.

“The great challenge,” the experts said,

“would be figuring out what to do with all the excess time.”

Over 40 years later, after major advances in technology –

how many of us are wondering what to do with all the excess time on our hands?

 Our world has become the world of the Red Queen of Alice and Wonderland.

She said:

“Now here, you see, it takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that.”

There is “Rest For The Stressed”

when we are ‘yoked’ with Jesus Christ’

The Bible teaches us that there are Four Factors that we need to know when it comes to Loving God, the way God wants to be loved.

1   Loving God means:  Obeying God

·         Duty based Obedience

·         Fear based Obedience

·         Affection based Obedience

If you love me, you will obey what I command     John 14:15

Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one

who loves me..  John 14:21

If anyone loves me, he will  obey my teaching.  John 14:23

Obedience is better then sacrifice         1 Samuel 15:22

2   Loving God involves  Trusting God

You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You

because he trust in you.  Trust in the Lord forever    Isaiah 26:3

Trust in the Lord with all your heart                          Proverbs 3:5

3   Loving God requires our loyalty to Truth.

·         Your Word is Truth                              John 17:17

·         The Truth will set you free.                John 8:32

·         The reason I was born

The reason I came into the world was to testify to the Truth.

John 18:37

4   Loving God includes a consuming desire to live for Him

    

·         A lovesick abandonment to God.

1   Four Words of Love

Storge            =   safe/secure

Phileo             =   friend

Epithamia      =   non sexual intimacy

Agapeop        =   unconditional loyalty

2    Four spheres of Love

·         Loving God means:                    Obeying God

·         Loving God involves                   Trusting God

·         Loving God requires our             Loyalty to Truth.

John 18:37

·         Loving God includes  a              Consuming desire

3   Five Love Languages

“Saint Augustine gave interesting advice concerning ‘loving God’ when he said,

“Love God, then do as you please.”

 

·         Time

·         Words of affirmation

·         Service

·         Touch

·         Gifts

4    Why is it important to Love God?

·         Dr. Carl Zimmerman  "Family and Civilization"

Dr. Carl Zimmerman wrote a very important book called, "Family and Civilization"

The book was a result of research he had done on 3000 years of family life. This Harvard Professor made a powerful case for traditional family structure.

The conclusion of his book could be summed up like this:

As go the children so goes the culture;

as goes the family so goes society!

Carl Zimmerman gives 7 indicators that a culture is in decline. According to history, culture that have gone into decline are characterized by:

1    An increased in the rate of divorce.

2    Lack of commitment to the permanence of marriage.

3   Redefining the meaning of family as a solution                   
     to social problems.

4   Lack of respect for parental authority.

5   Promotion of co-habitation over marriage.

6   Lack of inhibition concerning adultery.

7   Acceptance of all forms of sexuality.

It is interesting to know that Dr. Zimmerman was a secular historian and that he never confessed to be a Christian. And again, it is interesting as well to note that he published his research in 1947.

There’s an old saying,

"If a person doesn’t stand for something, they’ll fall for anything."

"Core Values,"

Ø  Truth

Ø  Love

Ø  Hope

These ‘Core Values’ must be delivered consistently with ‘honesty’ and ‘integrity’.

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To listen to the above broadcast, click on the following link:

http://proxy.autopod.ca/podcasts/chum/6/5659/good_news_661_jan15.mp3

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