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The Ultimate Love Affair (Debbie)
If somebody asked you to describe in a few words what it means to be a Christ-follower, how would you respond? If someone asked, “What does God want from us more than anything else?,” what would you say? It’s tempting to think that God’s highest expectations of us are found in the way we behave. But, the essence of living a life like Christ can be summed up in two words – “love affair.” God wants to have the ultimate love affair with you. And from this inward and intimate love relationship, our moral devotion and ethical behavior will naturally flow.

The Bible tells us that you have been created as an object of God’s love. God’s reason for making you is to love you. He longs to have a relationship with you. The most important thing you can know in life is that God loves you.

(Wes)
And the most important thing that you can do in life is to love Him back. Jesus said it like this in Matthew 22 “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.” Nothing is more important. If you do this you will fulfill your primary purpose in life. If you learn to love God and you let God love you, your life has fulfilled its meaning, its purpose. If you miss this part of your life, your life is a failure. Because you’ve missed the very reason that God created you and put you on earth – to love and be loved.

There’s a term in the Bible for expressing love to God. That term is called “worship”. We think of worship as a ritual or routine or something you do in a church. No. Worship simply means expressing love to God. Any time you’re expressing love to God, you’re worshipping whether you’re by yourself, in a small group, in a large crowd or wherever. When you express love to God in any way you are worshipping.

(Debbie)
We all know that there are many times when it is hard to say those three little words, “I love you.” So often we feel it deeply, but we just don’t know how to get it out. So the incredible, God-given love we feel for our children, our spouses, our friends and neighbors, the people we work with -- even this love for God that we have been created for -- goes unexpressed.

Perhaps you were raised in home where you didn’t talk about how you felt. You may have experienced a great deal of love, but nobody ever said much about it. The words “I love you” just weren’t heard. Or maybe you learned to keep your emotions under control and to hide your feelings. There are those who even felt that they weren’t loved and being hurt by those feelings has created defense mechanisms that are hard to break down or overcome. It could be that you find it very easy to express your love to the people around you, but you have no idea how to tell God how you feel about Him.

This is your day. Today we’re going to talk about how to do that. We want you to leave here today knowing what we think are six of the most important ways to tell God you love Him.

I'm not going to preach a typical message this morning but lead you in an interactive service. I am going to have the help of a lot of other people as we illustrate these six ways to express love to God. We are going to encourage you to take a self-test on each of these six ways and evaluate yourself. By the end of this hour we hope you will feel loved by God more than you ever have in your life. And I hope that you will have learned to express love to God more than you ever have in your life, learned a deeper level of worship. For some of you I know that you’re going to begin a relationship with Jesus Christ for the very first time this morning.

Let’s look at these six ways. We can express our love to God:

1. BY SINGING TO HIM.

You’ve probably noticed that music and love go together because music comes from the heart. It’s not something you do intellectually. It’s something that comes out of your soul, your emotions. There are many love songs in the world. There are radio stations that are dedicated entirely just to the love song format. But did you know that more songs have been written about Jesus Christ than any other topic in the world? Nothing even comes close in second place. Over the last 2000 years there have been more love songs and songs written to Jesus Christ than any other subject. Christianity is a singing religion, a singing faith. Why? Because it’s not about religion. It’s about a love affair. It’s about a relationship with God, that God loves you so much that He sent His Son to die for you and He wants you to love Him back.

Psalm 147:7 says “Sing out your thanks to Him. Sing praises to our God.” Nothing will make you more aware of God’s love and God’s presence in your life than singing and praise. It doesn’t matter if you can even sing on tune or not, it is the attitude of your heart as you offer Him praise that is most important.

I know there are some people who come into the services intentionally late. There are some of you that for whatever reason just want to hear the sermon. That’s a big mistake. You need principles for your head and music for your heart. You need to worship God. Music inspires, it refreshes, it rejuvenates, it revitalizes.

Music and worship in praise to God has a healing element to it. If you’re depressed you need to sing a song. I’ve noticed this: when I least feel like singing that’s when I need to do it the most. When I don’t feel like participating in worship, when I don’t feel like getting involved, when I just want to stand still and be a spectator that means my heart is cold and it needs to be warmed up. I need to get involved and let my mood be lifted in worship.

Can you sing to God more than just at church? Obviously you can because worship is just simply expressing your love to God. So wherever God is you can worship. That means you can worship in the shower. You can worship in your backyard mowing the lawn. You can worship washing dishes. You can worship driving to work and making a deal or on the golf course. You can express your love to God everywhere. And that means you can sing everywhere. It might be in some of those places you would prefer singing by yourself!

You see musicians and singers week after week. You see what they do. But I want you to hear the motivation behind it.

In each of these six ways of expressing love to God I'm going to ask you to evaluate yourself. How often do you sing your thanks and love to God? Consistently? Occasionally? Rarely? Check which one represents your current view and put a star at where you’d like to move to. When you really think about what God has done in your life, really realize what He’s done, you can’t help yourself.

Now we want to practice. . . Let’s worship Him with a few songs of praise and adoration this morning.

Worship Set

      Famous One
      Salvation
      Everybody Praise the Lord

2. There’s a second way you can express love to God. BY TALKING TO HIM.

Joe Camp our Senior Youth Pastor is going to come in a moment and lead us through this point.

Drama: Debbie W.

You know this marriage thing…it took me awhile, I have never been the fastest car on the race track if you know what I mean, but it took me a while to realize that if we will concentrate on one thing, our lives would be so much better. And after four long years…and I mean long, I have come to this conclusion that if you will communicate with your spouse you will find your marriage strengthened beyond what you can imagine. I am not talking about the quick “Hi, how are you?” or the “I love you, See you tonight” or even the “Night. See you in the morning.” But I mean deep and sincere conversations about (slowing down, changing the tones) “Hey, how are you?” or “I love you.” If you simply take the time to have deep and sincere conversations your relationship will grow. And if you decide that there is not enough time for all of that then your marriage will decay. Why is that? It’s because relationships never stand still. They are either growing or decaying.

So it is for our relationship with God. When you find yourself giving Him time in your life, having deep and intimate conversations with God, your relationship with Him will grow. You will feel closer than you ever have before. But if you find that there is not enough time in your day for him, days where you don’t talk with God at all, you will find yourself wondering where He is in your life.

When you fall head over heels for someone you find yourself wanting to be with them all the time. You want to talk with them. DO you remember the first time you fell in love as a teenager, for some of you that’s seems just like yesterday and others are having to reach way back, all you did was talk on the phone. You find your parents yelling at the top of their lungs for you to get off the phone. As a matter of fact, after you had talked to that person all day at school, you ran home grabbed the phone and called just in case something happened in the 10 minutes or so that you have been a part. You talked, and talked, and talked. You were getting to know that person. That’s how we do it, by communicating. If your husband or wife never ever talks to you, you have reason to start thinking “Do they love me?” That’s why men, we have to talk to our wives! They need that more than anything else.

So, what do you talk to God about if you want to express love to God? Basically, anything and everything. Your hopes, dreams, fears, anxieties, things your proud of, things your not so proud of, your goals, ambitions, hurts, every part of your life. I love what Psalm 116 says…”I love the Lord because He hears me and answers my prayer, because he bends down and listens. I will pray as long as I have breath.” So if you find yourself not feeling as close to God as you once have been…maybe you have lost your spark with Him…there is a simple remedy. Start talking to God again. Pray to Him with sincerity. Prayer is not some duty that you have to do. It’s a privilege to get to do that. You get to talk with the One who threw the stars into space and what makes it more special than that is how He, God, invites you. He wants to talk with you!

So rate yourself on this way of expressing your love to God. How often do I talk to God each day? Do I do it consistently? Occasionally? Rarely? Put a circle around what is and a star by the one where you would like to be.

One last thought on this expression…You’ll never have the time; you must take the time.

Prayer: Debbie M.

3. There’s a third way you can express your love. That’s BY LISTENING TO HIM.

Listening is one of the greatest gifts you can give to somebody.
We all want to be understood.
We all want to be listened to.

When you listen to someone, you’re saying, “You matter to me.” When I listen to my children, when I listen to my wife, anybody, I'm saying, “I value what you have to say. I value your opinion. You’re important to me.” When I don't listen to somebody I'm basically saying, “You don’t matter to me. You’re not important to me. What you have to say I don’t value.” One of the ways you express love to anybody is by listening to them.

The same is true with God. Every time you listen to God you’re saying, “God, You matter to me. I value what You have to say.” Listening is the most misunderstood and left off part of prayer. Most of us think that prayer is just talking to God. That’s only fifty-percent of prayer. The other fifty-percent of prayer is shutting up and being quiet and letting God speak to us. Usually we’re in too much of a hurry to do this. What we do is, “Hi, God, it’s me. I’ve got ten things I need from You. Thank You and good bye.” We don’t stop. We don’t wait. We don’t listen. We don’t say, “God, do You have a few things to say to me?” More often than not we don’t listen.

Can you imagine with me for a moment that you are a father and that your grown children never call or write or email. They never remember your birthday or call to ask how you are or if you need anything. The only time you hear from them is when they need something. And when they ask they just get right to it. Can you give me. . . ? Can I have. . . ? I need . . . ! Can you imagine how you would feel? That’s exactly how God feels when we don’t ever talk to Him unless we want something.

God has something to say to us if we will just listen.

How does God speak to us?

One is the Bible, His word. If you’re not spending any time in this book obviously He’s not going to speak to you through this book because you’re not reading it.

Two, He speaks to us through the experiences we go through in life.

Three, God speaks to us through trials. But you’re not listening. You’re not reading these principles in this book and you’re not being aware that God may be trying to tell you something through that irritation.

God speaks to us through other people, through the advice of Christians and godly people who will say, “What about this?” God will often speak to you through another person.

Did you know that the Bible says that hearing God’s voice, being able to listen to God and hear God speak is the test of whether you’re really a true believer or not, whether you’re in the family or not, whether you’re headed for heaven or not? Jesus said this in John 10 “I am the good Shepherd and I know My own sheep and they know Me and they listen to My voice.”

Here’s the question: How often do I pause to listen to God each day? Do I do it in the morning, in the afternoon and in the evening? Hourly? Occasionally? Consistently? Rarely? Do I pause and say, “God, is there anything You want to say about this?” regarding a decision you’re working on, an event you’re getting ready to go to, somebody you’re getting ready to talk with. Evaluate yourself on that.

Today we’re going to take the Lord’s Supper together. I'm going to invite those that are serving to come and begin serving even as I talk. The Lord’s Supper is a time to listen to God speak to you. As we prepare for the Lord’s Supper, just ask, “God, is there anything You want to say to me?” God wants to talk to you. He wants to speak to you. But you have to listen. And that’s one of the ways you show love to God.

Song: Jenna - Could I

4. You can express your love to God BY PUBLICLY IDENTIFYING WITH HIM.

You and I should not be ashamed of Him at work, at home, or in your neighborhood. If you love somebody you’re not ashamed of them. You publicly identify with them.

Can you imagine: How do you think your wife or husband would have felt if, years ago when you were dating, you said, “Let’s get married and we’ll be committed to each other but let’s just keep it our little secret. Let’s don’t tell anybody about it. I’ll be committed to you and you be committed to me but when we’re in public let’s pretend like we don’t know each other. And let’s just act like total strangers. Won’t that be great?” They’d say, “What kind of love is that?” It isn’t any kind of love at all because when you really love somebody you’re not ashamed of them. You say, “This is my husband/wife.” You take on a name. You’re a family and you identify with each other.

You can’t say you love Jesus Christ and be ashamed of Him at the same time. Jesus said it like this, in Mark 8:38 “If anyone is ashamed of Me and My teachings then I will be ashamed of him when I come in the glory of My Father.” Jesus said, “If you’re ashamed of Me on earth, I'm going to be ashamed of you in heaven.” We need to publicly identify ourselves with Christ. That’s how we show our love for Him.

Jesus understood the power of symbolism and He gave us two very powerful symbols. The first one is the symbol of communion. Communion helps us identify with what Jesus Christ did for us. What did Jesus do when He died for us? Three things:

1. He saved us from the penalty of sin. Everything you’ve ever done wrong was paid for on the cross so you get to go free and forgiven.

2. He saves us from the power of sin. He breaks its grip in our lives. He gives us a new power to be able to make changes so we’re not the same anymore. He can do new things in our lives that we always wanted to do but never thought we could do on our own.

3. Eventually He saves us from the presence of sin in heaven where there will be no sin, no sorrow, no suffering, no pain, no grief. That’s good news.

Communion is not for everybody. The Bible says only believers that have accepted God’s gift should take communion. If you’re not a believer you can become one right now. Even as you take these elements, that can be the physical act of stepping across the line and saying, “Today, Jesus Christ, as I eat this cracker and drink this juice, it is my symbol of saying, ‘Yes, I accept what You did for me. I accept that You died for me. I accept that You paid for all my sins, paid for my ticket to heaven and I accept You as the leader of my life from this day forward.’” If you haven’t done that, do that when we take communion in just a minute.

As we take communion we do several things. We publicly identify our faith in Christ. We publicly identify our love for Christ. We publicly state that we want to be closer to Christ.

Begin Communion

On the night Jesus was betrayed, He took the bread, broke it, blessed it, and He passed it around and He said, “This is to represent what I'm doing for you. It’s My broken body on the cross. When you eat this do it as a reminder. Do it to remember Me, what I’ve done for you.”

Jesus Christ paid for three things in your life. I want you to thank Him for those three things.

      First, He paid for your forgiveness.
      Jesus Christ paid for your freedom.
      Jesus Christ has paid for your future.

Let us partake of the symbol of Christ’s broken body together.

Jesus also took a cup that night. He said, “This is a cup representing the blood I will shed for you. And when you drink this you’re to do it as a reminder that I spilled My blood for you. I gave it for you. This is how much I love you. Do it to remember Me.” Because of Jesus Christ and what He did for us, it will never be the same again. We’re different people. We’re forgiven people. That is something we all have to be grateful for.

I'm glad I'm never going to be the same again. Jesus Christ has the power to change in lives that nothing in the world can change except Jesus. No fad, no therapy, no pill, nothing can change lives the way Jesus Christ can because He is God. Jesus Christ turns failures into successes. He changes fearful, timid, weak, cowardly people into confident people. He turns selfish, egotistical, prideful people into loving gentle servants.

There’s another way you can identify yourself as a believer. That is through the second symbol that Jesus gave us. By baptism. What is baptism all about? What is this thing about getting dunked under water? What’s the big deal about this? I took a shower this morning. Why do I need to get all wet for God?

Baptism makes three powerful public statements. Romans 6:3 “When we went under the water we left the old country of sin behind and when we came up out of the water we entered into the new country of grace, a new life in a new land. That’s what the baptism into the life of Jesus means. When we are lowered into the water, it’s like the burial of Jesus [It’s a symbol.] And when we’re raised up out of the water it’s like the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”

The first reason you need to be baptized is to say, “I believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus. I believe in Easter.” And you give a picture of that by going under and coming up.

Second, it’s a picture of what happens to you when you surrender your life to Christ. You’re dying to an old way of life. Colossians 2:12 says, “Going under the water was a burial of your old life. Coming up out of it was a resurrection, God raising you from the dead as He did in Christ.”

Three, it symbolizes your new life in Jesus Christ. Galatians 3:27 “Your baptism in Christ was not just washing you up for a fresh start. It also involved dressing you in an adult faith wardrobe, Christ’s life, the fulfillment of God’s original promise.”

I want to watch a video of some people who have identified with Him in baptism.

5. The fifth way to express love to God is simply BY BEING COMMITTED TO HIM.

This is what love is really all about. It’s about commitment. You don’t really love somebody unless you’re committed to their best. Nothing ever significant happens in life without commitment. Your commitments determine your future. You are becoming whatever you are committed to. So you better choose your commitments carefully. If you’re committed to the wrong thing, you’re going to become the wrong thing. You can’t lose by being committed to God. Weak people are defined by their circumstances. But strong people are defined by their commitments. The Bible tells us in 2 Chronicles 16:9 that God is looking for people whose hearts are fully committed to Him that He can bless and can use.

What does it mean to be fully committed to God? There are some basic commitments. We are building this church around these commitments. You will hear us talk about them over and over.

      1. I will receive Jesus Christ as my Savior.
      2. I will protect the unity of my church.
      3. I will share the responsibility of my church.
      4. I will serve in the ministry of my church.
      5. I will support the testimony of my church.
      6. I will commit to moving from the congregation into the committed and the core.

Show illustration of the five circles.

These are the six basic commitments. They are listed in more detail on the back of the sermon notes page. What’s the next step for you? Give your life to Christ? Join His church family and be baptized? Start growing as a Christian? Find your ministry? Begin to fulfill your life mission and discover what God put you on earth to do?

What we’re talking about today – worship – is not just something that happens in the four walls of a building in a church. Worship can happen anywhere. You worship God with your whole life.

“Take your everyday ordinary life – your sleeping, eating, going-to-work and walking-around life – and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for Him.” Commit your life to Him.

6. Finally the sixth way you can tell God you love Him is BY GIVING TO HIM.

Giving, at its core, is the essence of love. You spell “love” G-I-V-E because that's what love’s all about. When you love someone you want to give to them. You can give without loving but you cannot love without giving. It is impossible to do that. You say you love God, then it’s going to show up in your generous lifestyle. I can claim to be a Christian, a follower of Christ. I can claim to love God. But the Bible says there is one way to really test the sincerity of your love. 2 Corinthians 8 “Just as you excel in faith, in speech, in knowledge, and in complete earnestness, see that you also excel in the grace of giving. I am not commanding you but I want to test the sincerity of your love.” God tests the sincerity of your love by looking at your giving.

Why does He do that? God doesn’t need your time. He doesn’t need your money. What does He need? He wants your heart. He wants what your giving represents. And He wants you to become like Him. “God so loved the world that He gave…” You can either become like God and become a generous giver or you can become like Satan and become a stingy hoarder.

I have discovered that there are really basically two kinds of people in life – cheerful givers and fearful givers.

Cheerful givers say, “I'm going to give. It all belongs to God anyway. He gave it all to me. I wouldn’t have anything without God so I'm going to give it all to Him and He can take care of all my needs.” Cheerful givers – that’s the kind that God loves.

Then there’s the fearful givers: “I can’t afford to do this. I can’t afford to give. I’ve got to hoard. I’ve got to watch what’s for me. I’ve got to protect my selfish interests.”

Rate yourself: Which word best describes your giving lifestyle? Consistently? Occasionally? Rarely?

In a minute we’re going to close like we always do our service by giving our tithes and offerings. Giving is another act of worship. It’s as much an act of worship as singing, praying, thanking, listening, everything else. It’s saying, “God, I love You so much I want to give back to You. You saved my life and I want to give back to You.” Everything we have came from God. We can’t out give God because He gave it all to us in the first place.

When you came in here today you were given a dollar bill. We did that so that no one would be left out in experiencing the joy of giving back to God. For some of you that dollar bill may represent all you have today. For others you add that dollar with the tithe that you give consistently. Listen carefully. When you leave there are tables set up at the exit doors in the back. Your not giving to an usher or even to the church. As you leave today you and I have the opportunity to symbolically give our gifts to God. That’s what giving in church is all about.

Here’s the bottom line: There are many, many ways to express your love to God. We just looked at six. God has wired you up in certain ways that certain ways are going to appeal to you. And God wants you. God uses our hands and feet and eyes and ears and all parts of us because He loves us and we love Him. First you need to establish that relationship with God.

Prayer:

Would you pray this prayer in your heart if you’ve never opened your life to Jesus Christ? Say, “God, I realize the need for You in my life. Jesus Christ, today I’ve realized what You did for me on the cross and I realize that I’ll never be able to repay what You’ve done for me and I realize that everything I have is a gift from You. Please forgive me for not trusting You in every area every moment of my life. Today, I want to make these five life commitments. I want to trust my life to You. I want to join a church family. I want to start to grow spiritually. I want to use my talent to help other people. I want to fulfill the purpose and mission that You put me on this earth to do. Use me to make a difference in the world. In Your name I pray. Amen.”

2004/03/07