November 13, 2011 How Do You Love God? (I)
11.13.11
“How do you love God?”
this is the question we will be asking for several weeks
first we will be bringing the question to Jesus in the gospel of Luke
if you are not interested in this question
that is very serious matter
Luke 14:7-11
i. Do what is disrespected by everyone
girl not attractive, not nice clothes, not good at sports, not good grades, boys calling out her name and laughing, tears in her eyes
I remember wanting to beat those boys to a bloody pulp, but I did nothing out of fear
the culture tells you what you must look like, and do, and have in order to be important, and God have mercy on the one who doesn’t fit
Jesus is calling you to rebellion against the culture, to spitting in the face of this,
to breaking the rules of society
calling you to do what is disrespected
what is considered unimportant
loving God is
doing the dirty work no one else will do
(read account) Floyd Lee — not in charge of food service but morale.
This perspective makes all the difference.
We are called to do common things and dirty things and ugly things
but we are not cleaning toilets/ digging ditches — we are loving God.
Some of you have empty lives/no sense of direction. This will give you sense of real meaning in your life.
God’s spy– no one knows who you are,
you look like nothing special, the people around don’t look twice or think much of you, but you work for God
the unimportant infantry man grunt standing post in the cold
while the important people sleep in warm beds
a great bishop in the early church had a dream of Jesus coming to see him
“I want to show you the most important person in your city”
he took him to an old woman who lived alone and barely existed but occasionally was able to serve a bowl of soup to someone less fortunate than herself
Luke 14:12-14
ii. Do things with no benefits
Do what you do for no reason except love for God
like the intern who took a job with a great journalist for no pay and no benefits
because he wanted to work with this man…
no benefits except the privilege of working for God
old man: someone hit his neighbor’s mailbox while he was out of town
and he fixed it before the neighbor returned and the neighbor never even knew
a third neighbor had seen the mailbox broken and then later fixed and wondered what had happened and he asked around until he got the admission from the old man
“but no one even knew?”
the old man shrugged: “God knew”
serve people who make you feel uncomfortable
everyone is more comfortable with a certain kind of people, race, culture, education
nothing wrong with that
but serving the people in this group benefits you because it is your people and you are maintaining your position in that society
loving the “other” people from outside your group is loving God
however you draw the lines
wherever you draw the lines
loving God is loving the one on the other side of the line
Luke 14:1-6
they were willing to rescue their own child or what belonged to them
but not this woman because she was “other”
Luke 14:33
iv. Give up anything not done out of love for God
“give up everything” = either do it out of love for God or give it up
we get distracted by silly things
the man who loved college football
and his team Tennessee
spent money and hours on it
and one year after looking forward to the season after the first game he decided it was not done out of love for God
so he gave it up
but we also get caught up in important things that distract us from the essential thing
the essential thing is loving God
the man who realized his daily workout was not out of love for God
the woman who realized she was not pursuing her career out of love for God
cut out everything that is important
in order to do what is essential (loving God)
take away everything that is not necessary but nothing that is
there should be no division in your life
not a holy part and an unholy part, all holy
not two pieces sewed together, one piece
not two modes, but only one mode
like a cop, on duty and off duty
soldier, in uniform and out
have you seen the show Hoarders?
people with rooms stuffed with junk
they can’t give up anything, piled high
barely room to live, beds and chairs and tables engulfed in junk
many of us are hoarders by all the activity we put it in our lives (taking up our time)
we need someone to come with a big dumpster and throw away most of what we are doing
so we have time and space to love God
drink your coffee from love for God
if you can’t, give it up
a man has a job he hates
it is not important and no one respects it
he is low on the totem pole
he does it because he feels he has to
he complains about it and his coworkers all the time
his family knows he hates it
then one day he realizes he must do his job out of love for God
he goes back to the same job and nothing has changed by everything has changed
he now serves the company, his employers to the best of his ability
out of love for God
v. be ready to give up anything out of love for God
tell God you can take anything because what I want above all of it is to love you
Luke 14:28-32
Jesus is saying this is what it means to follow me, this is what it means to love God
are you prepared for this?
there is so much you will have to give up
do you understand what you are getting into? and how far it will go?
Luke 14:15-24
Why? because they would not come when they were called
they had things they could not give up
end on this note:
you can’t love God if you have not experienced God’s love for you
what he has done for you through Christ and the Spirit
go back to the gospel message in the NT
and read and listen and believe
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- Posted under Luke
