In Love With God - lesson 5

In Love With God - lesson 5

The only thing that I want for this semester 

is for us to be in love with and on fire for God

     Only a church in love with Jesus, will stand.

_  A loose church full of compromise with the world, will not stand.

     This body is carried away with the love of the world and cannot bear fruit because the seed will always be choked out in the end. It may have a good start on a lot of seemingly good ideas, but just as many conversations with a skeptical person on the street just go in circles with a true point for the Lord always being avoided (Anyone who has been out street witnessing has experienced this) so also will the work of a compromised church, come to little or nothing at all.

_  A church set on ridged outward control and full of  rules with no passion for Jesus, will not stand.

     This body is consumed with outward appearance and conformity with set rules and laws but always gets bound up in the technical side of every issue or gets burnt out trying to keep up their good works. Eventually men wear out and turn away and fall back into the world because they have found that works in themselves are unfulfilling. 

     However, a church full of the passion of loving their Savior, will never tire of the good works He has called them to! They might have moments of being discouraged and weary but they are continually going back to Jesus for strength and encouragement to press on with whatever the difficulty is. A church full of love for Jesus will not want the passing pleasures of the world that bring compromise and choke out fruit and nor will they burn out or become weary in well doing. For them the Hymn is fulfilled “It is well with my soul.”  Jesus says, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My load is light.” Matt. 11:28-30

     This is why we must seek a closer fellowship with Jesus than we have had. We must not be content with where we are in Christ right now because if we are it means that we are not fully in love with Jesus or we could never say that. A person in love actually can’t live without that close personal connection to the one they love. If we were fully in love with Jesus everyone around us would know it because our faces would show it and our actions would tell it and our words would speak it. This is the first love that our Heavenly Father admonishes the churches about in the book of revelation. If we do not have this first love continually burning in our hearts, we will fall away when the persecution hits or be choked out when the enticements of the world lure us in.

               The Lord tests our hearts so He can build upon them

     If we are failing by loving the things of this world more than Him, we will not grow or be affective in His service and He will not be able to give us a place of responsibility in His work.

     “I, the Lord. search the heart, I test the mind, even to give to each man according to his ways, according to the results of His deeds.” - Jeremiah 17:10


-Seth

Why do we resist God’s will for our lives?

John 18:10-11

Why do we resist God’s will for our lives?

     Simon Peter therefore having a sword, drew it, and struck the high priest’s slave, and cut off his right ear; and the slaves name was Malchus. Jesus therefore said to Peter, “Put the sword into the sheath; the cup which the Father has given Me, shall I not drink it?”

     Why do we resist God’s plan for our lives? The Father’s plan for Jesus was leading Him to the cross. I need not explain that this was going to be a painful event. Submitting to God’s plan very often will lead us into painful experiences that our bodies do not want to undergo. So many of God’s lessons for us can be quite painful and we would never have chosen to go through them of our own will. God often brings things to pass where our most precious possessions get taken from us and we are unable to stop it from happening, but when the ordeal is over our heart has let go of another idol and we gain a peace in Christ that is deeper then before.
     Jesus’ word – “Shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given Me” is full of strength and encouragement for us when our hearts are torn with the loss of something we hold dear or when we are at a crossroads in our walk with Him and He is asking us to freely let go of something we have been holding onto. The cup that the Father has for us enables us to let go of the world and be free to love Him completely.
     However, there is another factor in the cup that the Father has for us and it is this. It will save souls! The cup that God has for you is going to make your life fruitful and exciting! This is the joy that is set before us, that in enduring all of these things great fruit will come forth. Our flesh recoils at the pain of the experiences therefore we must look past it to the joy of the eternal fruit that will be produced as we walk in the steps that God desires us to walk and fulfill the plans that He has for us.
     Why is it hard to except God’s will for us and endure these things? It is hard because we are not focused on the love for our neighbours and seeing them brought into the kingdom of God. Brothers and Sisters, we need more love for those around us. We need the love that gladly endures all hardships for their salvation. We get so caught up in our own pains that we stop looking outside of ourselves. We want to set ourselves aside and become a blessing to everyone around us.
     These trials produce two things, they refine us into God’s character and they draw others into the kingdom of God. Therefore, shall we not drink the cup that the Father has for us? Let us pray for perseverance and courage and love that we might endure these things that we might not only please our Heavenly Father and make His heart glad, but that we might bear fruit that will endure for eternity and have many friends who have entered in because of our labors. Jesus is returning soon! Let us be found diligently working in His vineyard when He comes!        God bless you all!