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HOW TO TELL GOD YOU LOVE HIM
Essentials for 21st Century Living
02-26-12 Sermon
If somebody asked you to describe the Christian life in a few words, what would you say? If somebody asked you, “What does God want from us more than anything else?” What would you say? If you said moral devotion, if you said ethical behavior, if you said religious ritual you’d be wrong. The essence of the Christian life can be summed up in the word “love”. God wants to have a loving relationship with you.
The Bible says that you were created as an object of God’s love. God made you to love you. He made you to be an object of His love. He wants to have a relationship with you. That means that you are created for the purpose of having a relationship and, as a result, the most important thing you can know in life is that God loves you. 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, and 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.
You may have noticed that sometimes, for some people it’s hard to say, “I love you.” (especially for men). Sometimes we feel it, we just don’t know how to get it out, how to say it. So we don’t know how to express our love to our children, to our wives/husbands, to our friends and neighbors, the people we work with or even to God. It’s kind of difficult. Why does that happen? Why is it sometimes hard to say, “I love you”?
You may have been raised in a very non-expressive home where there was love or maybe there wasn’t and you just didn’t talk about it that much. You didn’t frequently say, “I love you.” Or maybe you were taught to stuff your emotions, push them down, hide your feelings. Maybe you have been hurt in the past and you say, “I don’t want to get hurt again so I'm not going to tell anybody I love them.” Or God. Or maybe you’re resentful of hurts in your past so you say, “I don’t want to love God. There are things in my life I don’t like.” Or maybe you just don't know how to express your love to God.
This is your day. Today we’re going to talk about how to do that. There was a book called Ten Thousand Ways To Say “I Love You”. Today we’re going to cover all 10,000. Actually I’ve narrowed it down to six. Six ways to tell God you love Him.
1. The first way is 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 and about 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 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. I know some of you are saying, “But you don’t understand. I can’t sing.” The Bible says, “Make a joyful noise.” I know all of you can do that. You go to football games or somebody’s getting married – you make a joyful noise. So just let it out. You don’t have to hit the right note. You just have to make a joyful noise.
I know some people who come to church say, “I'm coming for the main event. I'm coming for the preaching.” 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 worship 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!
When you really think about what God has done in your life, really realize what He’s done, you can’t help yourself. It about busts out of you. You have to worship.
2. There’s a second way you can express love to God. BY TALKING TO HIM.
On the days when you have deep, significant talk with God your relationship grows. On the days when you have little or no talk with God your relationship decays. It’s that simple.
When you really love somebody you don’t just want to spend time with them. You want to talk with them. Remember when you first fell in love as a teenager and your parents got upset because you were always on the phone? It’s like you had a phone in your ear. You talked and talked and talked. You were getting to know that person. That’s how you get to know them, through communication. If your husband or wife never ever talks to you, you have every reason to start wondering, “Do they love me?”
What do you talk to God about if you want to express love to God? Anything that you’d talk to your best friend about. Everything. Your hopes, your fears, your dreams, your anxieties, the things you’re embarrassed about, the things you’re proud of, the things you’re ashamed of, your goals, your ambitions, your hurts, your cares, every part of your life – you come to God and you talk to God about it. The Bible says in Psalm 116 “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.” If you don’t feel close to God there’s a simple remedy for that. Start talking to God again. You need to just talk to Him more often. Prayer is not some duty that you have to do. It’s a privilege that you get to do. You get to talk to the creator of the universe. He has invited you and He wants to talk with you.
You say, “I’d like to have more prayer time with God. I’d like to talk to God. I just don’t have the time.” Then you’re too busy. You’ll never have the time; you must take the time to pray.
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. The gift of listening. 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. Over and out. 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?” We don’t listen.
God is speaking to you all the time. At least He’s trying to speak to you all the time. You say, “Why don’t I ever hear Him?” Because you’re not listening. You don’t ever take the time. You don’t ever get quiet. You never pause in the middle of the day and say, “Do You have anything to say to me right now?” You’re so busy, your life is so full of noise, you always have a channel on – radio, TV, cell phone, something – God couldn’t get through because the lines are all busy. You need to not just take time to talk to God. You need to take time to listen to God. You stop and pause because God is speaking.
How does God speak to us? Many ways. 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 maybe you’re not listening. You’re not reading the principles in his 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.
God will speak to you through impressions. He puts ideas in your mind. You have some great, good idea. Where do you think you got that idea? God put it there. Now, not every idea you get is from God. When you get an idea from God we call it an inspiration. When we get an idea from the devil we call it a temptation. When we get an idea from ourselves we just call it dumb! You do have some good ideas because God gave you a brain to come up with good ideas. But how do you know if an impression is from God or not? Test it. The Bible says you’re to test it.
God can speak words into your mind. He can speak to you in an audible voice. He can speak to you through the gift of prophecy. He can speak to you through an angel. There are many ways that he can speak to you.
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? Regularly? 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.
4. The fourth way you can express your love to God is BY PUBLICLY IDENTIFYING WITH HIM.
By not being ashamed of Him at work, at home, in your neighborhood. By not saying, “I'm not going to let anybody know I'm a Christian. I'm not telling my neighbors. I'm not telling the people at work. I'm keeping it a secret.” Then you don’t really love God. Because if you love somebody you’re not ashamed of them. You publicly identify with them.
Can you imagine: How my wife would have felt if, 30 years ago when we were dating, I 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?” She’d say, “What kind of love is that, buster?” 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.
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 five basic commitments.
1. Giving my life to Jesus Christ.
2. Committing my life to His family, the body of Christ, the church and joining a church family.
3. Choosing to grow spiritually and become more and more like Jesus Christ everyday in my character.
4. Using my talents and gifts in helping others. We call that ministry.
5. Sharing the good news with other people and fulfilling the mission and purpose God put me on this earth to do.
These are the five basic commitments. 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. Your life can worship God.
Romans 12:1 says “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.” Committing 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 self-interests.”
Cheerful or fearful – you make the decision. Like God? Like the devil? God tests the sincerity of my love by how generous I am in life.
In each of our services we have a time for giving our tithes and offerings. Giving tithes and offerings at the end of the service is not like, “Ok! It’s time to tip God.” If that’s your attitude, forget it. He doesn’t need your money and doesn’t want it anyway.
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.
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.”
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