7-23-2016   Due Season for living in God's love

                           

                    The Season is Flowing                                       To Walk With Jesus       

This past Sunday Father gave me the following lesson to bring to our church's bible study

DUE SEASON

FOR LIVING GOD’S LOVE

And to come into a true love relationship with our heavenly Father through Jesus Christ our Lord we need to:           

Mark 12:29-30      Hear oh, Israel, the first of all the commandments is this ‘the Lord our God is one Lord.

And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength, this is the first commandment.’

Mark 12:31      the second is like this ‘you shall love your neighbor as yourself’.  No other commandment is greater than these.

The rest are an explanation!

1                      Truly loving God

Five things must be true for us to truly express our love for God:

We must believe that He is (Heb. 11:6 – Without faith it is impossible to please (God) for he who comes to God must believe that He is and He rewards those who diligently seek Him)

If we don't believe God exists, "is", the rest will never happen.

We must give our hearts to Him (Romans 10:9-10 – If you confess the Lord Jesus with your mouth and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.  With the heart man believes unto righteousness and confession unto salvation is made with the mouth.)

If we haven't given our hearts to Him, whom are we loving?  And giving Him our hearts means the next three points:

We must seek Him (Matt. 6:33 – Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you & Matt. 7:7 – Ask and it shall be given, seek and you shall find knock and it shall be opened to you)

First and foremost we need to understand what the kingdom of God is and how His righteousness operates.  When we search, He'll show us.
Here I shared my high school girlfriend.  I was shy back in HS and this girl had taken a liking to me.  She worked in the school office so she had access to records and she searched out all that she could find out about me.  Then she approached me and asked if I would take  her to a school dance.  Point is, she wanted to know as much about me as she could before she even approached me.  God is asking us to do the same, the difference is we can spend a lifetime learning who He is.  The bible is our primary source for in it we find out about God's nature - what He likes, dislikes, is willing to do and what He expects and so forth.  He already knows us.  He would like us to get to know Him.  The best way to get facts about God is to study Him as my girlfriend did me.  We study the bible to show ourselves approved (2 Tim. 2:15) in that we come to know our Lord.

We must communicate with Him (Ephesians 6:18 – Praying always with all prayer (earnestly, worshiping God) and supplication (request) in the Spirit and watching with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.) (1Thess. 5:17 – pray without ceasing)

    

Getting to know Him means we have to start communicating with Him.  When we meet someone new, how can we get to know that person unless we communicate with them?  

We communicate with God through prayer as well as reading our bible - and He communicates with us via the same.  He also will speak to us through other Christians,, but we still need o know something about the bible so we can discern when things line up with God's nature/Word.  We can talk with God anytime or anywhere, taking a walk, driving our car, grocery shopping, lying in bed, etc. but Father appreciates our personal 'quiet time" when we are alone with Him and no other distractions.  He always hears us, but distractions often make it difficult for us to hear Him.  Even when reading our bible. Let me put it this way.  In the evening, the kids are in bed (if you have any), maybe the fireplace is lit and you and you spouse are sitting on the couch (or loveseat), arms around each other and you're feeling a bit 'cozy', would you appreciate an interruption?   Mom!  Dad!  Or even "bing bong" at the door.  Father would like the same type of time with each of us as well.  Quiet time is precious to Him and we should look forward to individual time with Him as well.  It is our time to talk with Him, I talk, He talks, He talks, I talk.  It is a two way street.  That's communication!

We must Worship Him (John 4:23-24 – … the time is coming and is even now when true worshipper shall worship Him in spirit and in truth for Father seeks such to worship Him.  God is Spirit and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.)

(Psalms 150:1-6 – Praise God in the sanctuary, firmament of His power, , for His mighty acts, because His excellence is great.   Praise Him with: the trumpet, stringed instruments, the harp, tambourines, dance and organs and the cymbals.  Everything that has breath praise the Lord!

Praise and worship!  There is no better way for us to express our love for Father by praising and thanking Him for all that does and has done for us.  We should be open, honest and sincere.  Worship begins with praise and thanksgiving but should move into a spiritual union with Him that only materializes as we focus on Him.  It's kinda like 'he looks into her eyes, she looks into his, then the 'look' moves a little deeper as they focus on each other and then BLAM!  They've embraced in that all loving kiss'.  I don't know that we can kiss God in the Spirit, but I do know that we an experience Him, His presence, in a way that nothing else can match.  Worshipping HIm is moving into a state where I know that He is 'my' God and at that moment nothing else matters.  It's just Father and me - nothing else!  Read Psalms 150 carefully.  In everything we say and do, talking, singing, dancing, playing a musical instrument, no matter what we do, we do unto the Lord - and He will inhabit what we do (Psalms 22:3)

2          The Vine

Jesus reveals to us the relationship He desires with us as He explains the "Vine" to His disciples.

The vine (John 15: 1 – 8 -Jesus is the true vine & we are His branches, we abide in Him for without Him we can do nothing, when we abide in Him we will bear fruit)

1)    I am the vine/Father is husbandman

4)    Abide in Me and I in you/cannot bear fruit unless you abide in Me

5)     Much fruit from abiding in Me/do nothing without Me

6)        Not abiding/cast out & burned

7)        Abide in Me/My words abide in you/ask & it shall be done

8)         Father glorified by fruit bearing/evidence of discipleship       

Abide in Him (John 15:9-10 – Father has loved Me and I love you, continue in My love.  When you keep My commandments, you abide in My love just as I have abided in Father’s love by abiding in His commandments)

9)          Father loved Me/I loved you/continue in My Love

10)      Keep My commandments/you abide in My love/I have kept Father’s love         and abide in Him.

11)      Said this so My joy remains in you/your joy might be full

We become His friends (John 15:14-15 – You are My friends when I do whatever I command you.  Therefore I don’t call you servants because a servant doesn’t know what his master does but I call you friends because I have shared everything that I’ve heard from My Father with you.

    

12)      My commandment “love each other as I have loved you

13)       No greater love than to give life for friends

14)       Obeying My command makes you My friends

15)       You are no longer servants/servant doesn’t know what his master    does/you are My friends/I’ve told you everything I’ve heard from Father

In case you missed it, Jesus wants us to be so one with HIm that people can't tell us apart.  We show our love towards God through showing our love for Him by keeping His commandments and what did Mark 12 tell us that those commandments were?  To love God and our neighbor.  As we love Jesus, we find that He returns that love by sharing everything He knows with us because we have become His 'friends'.  And, as we see, we are an extension of Jesus - He IS the vine and we ARE the branches living in and expressing His love to those around us so that all might be drawn to Him.

                        
3          Loving our neighbor

                And, of course, we continue to express our love for Jesus by sharing that love with those                     around us as He has demonstrated His love towards us.  We remember that when we love                     the least in the kingdom, we've loved Jesus (Matt. 25:40)

                Mark 12:31      the second is like this ‘you shall love your neighbor as yourself’…

                Romans 15:2     Let each of us please his neighbor for his (neighbor’s) good to edify                                                (build up) him.

    Ephesians 6:18 - …   and watching with all perseverance and supplication for all                                                   the saints

We treat those around us as we would like to be treated because Jesus treats us with             respect and love and we do what Jesus did and those things which would edify those around us (1 Corinth. 14:26).  I know.  I know.  The passage only says 'church but when we treat all people with respect and do things for their good, we never know who will come into God's kingdom because of our kindness.  PTL

Father desires us to start living like we truly understand who He is and what our relationship should be.  This is the season to walk closer with God and start living for Him like we are serious about living for Him.  Father told me a long time ago that I can walk as close to Him as I dare.  As I age, I'm getting bolder and I find myself walking closer with HIm than I ever have before.  How close do you dare to walk with the Creator of all that is?