Calvary Baptist Church - Canyon Texas - David Crump, Pastor

In the summer, when the weather is hot day after day, it makes us long for a break.

Our bodies grow tired of the heat. We grow tired of being hot and thirsty.

Everything around us grows tired of the heat – grass yellows, flowers wither, trees droop.

Everything around us needs relief.

We need the summer doldrums broken up by a day of cool, rainy weather – a day of renewal.

This is how our lives can be spiritually too.

Sometimes we go through seasons when it seems like there’s been no relief, just doldrums of summer.

Sometimes it can seem like it has been a long time since the Lord has done anything new in our lives.

We need renewal, revival, refreshing, restoration.

We need the Lord to move again, to lead us again, to show us something of himself afresh.

This was where Israel was in Mark 1.

Malachi was the last prophet sent by God to the people of Israel, to speak words of the Lord.

But that was 400 years ago.

The people were ready for a new word.

Mark 1:1-15

v. 1 – “Son of God” – written to Roman Christians, proves that demonstrate Jesus is the Son of God, with power and authority over disease, the natural world, and the spiritual realm.

vv 2-3 – Malachi had prophesied that a messenger would come ahead of God’s Messiah.

Notice: Prepare the way, and make straight paths

vv. 4-5 – John the Baptist was that messenger.

To prepare the way for Jesus the Messiah,

John preached a new word from the Lord: that people needed to confess their sin individually.

He was a herald who told people ahead of the Messiah that there would be a new way to relate to God.

He used baptism in a new way.

Before John, people who were converted into Judaism were baptized.

But John used baptism as a sign of repentance from sins.

John preached you need to confess and repent of sins, you need of forgiveness.

Isn’t it interesting that in God’s plan he would send a man ahead of the Messiah?

You would think that Jesus on his own would be all that anyone needed.

It is interesting that John is sent to prepare people for Jesus.

But that is how it was in your life when you first came to Christ.

Someone helped you see your sin.

Someone helped you see your need for forgiveness.

Someone helped you see your need for Christ.

Someone made a straight path for Jesus to come into your life.

Thank God for them, they were like John sent to you to prepare you to received Christ.

It was all orchestrated by God, but carried out by a very common man or woman.

People need someone to prepare them for Christ.

Your family member, friend, classmate, neighbor, business contact, if they have not believed in Jesus, they need someone to prepare them.

How can you “prepare the way?”

1. Explain their need for forgiveness.

Explain how we all need to turn from sinful temptations and attitudes and

from dead-end worldly pursuits.

2. Tell them how you found forgiveness in Christ.

Tell them how you knew you were sinful and found forgiveness in Christ.

3. Tell them how it has changed your life. To be free from sin, shame, guilt. New meaning.

People need our help to prepare them to receive Christ.

In his grace, God lets us be a part of him changing lives.

What about you and me?

Do we need still need to be prepared to meet Christ?

We do. We need to continually confess and repent.

Confession of sin and repentance is not a one-time event.

We need to ask the Lord to search our hearts and to help us see sinful attitudes and disobedience.

Then we need to take them to Christ and ask him to cover that too and cleanse us.

Are you stuck in the summer doldrums spiritually?

Are you preparing your heart for Christ?

Are you making a straight path for him into your life?

Be ready to receive his grace by remembering your need for it.

Thirst for his forgiveness, hunger for his presence.

If he came to you with a new word or new direction or new revelation, would you be ready?

God is ready with an endless store of refreshing, renewal, restoration, revival.

But he waits until we have been obedient with what he’s already given.

He won’t refill your cup until you’ve taken a drink of what he’s already given you.

Mark 4:24-25

Greater obedience leads to greater revelation.

Have you been obedient to what God’s already given you?

Step out in faith to do or believe what He’s already said.

Lord, help us prepare the way in other’s lives.

Help us continually prepare the way in our lives through confession and greater obedience.

A prayer for the community of Israelites to ask God to renew his mercies.

The psalm has two main divisions of 7 lines.

• Vv. 1-7 are the prayer

• Vv. 8-13 are assurances of God’s response

Each division is made up of a three-line stanza, then a four-line stanza.

The corresponding stanzas of the second half answer to those of the first.

• Vv. 1-3 speak of God’s past mercies. Vv. 8-9 speak of God’s mercies to come.

• Vv. 4-7 voice the prayer. Vv. 10-13 offer the assurance that God will answer the prayer.

The beauty of the structure is this:

• God’s past kindness toward us (vv. 1-3) gives us assurance that God will show his kindness to us again (vv. 8-9).

• The prayer for God to bring restoration and revival (vv. 4-7) is assured (vv. 10-13).

The psalm is one of 7 psalms ascribed to the Sons of Korah.

“Sons of Korah” refers to a choir of Levites, temple attendants, who were descendants of Korah, who were appointed to King David to serve in the temple liturgy.

This psalm would have been spoken during temple services.

The Sons of Korah would have led worshippers in this psalm, all together, asking for God’s restoration, renewal, revival.

vv. 1-3 – the prayer begins with a reminder of God’s past mercies.

• V. 1 – God has restored them before, perhaps a remembering the restoration from the exile.

• V. 2 – He has forgiven them before.

• V. 3 – He has put away his anger against them.

vv. 4-7 – the prayer for God’s restoration and revival.

• V. 4 – they ask God, “restore us again,” recognizing their need for God to help them to be restored, or to turn. The image is for God to turn them towards him.

• V. 5 – they are suffering, perhaps this is from the time of the return of the exiles, perhaps a time of drought. They need God to show them his kindness again.

• V. 6 – “Revive us again” literally means “will you give us life again.”

God is the giver of life. They know that if they are to be renewed and revived, that it must come from the Lord.

They are dependent upon him to revive them.

Their response is not just for them, but that they “may rejoice in” God.

• V. 7 – “Show us unfailing love” checed love from God is his covenant to love his people.

The prayer asks show us your unfailing, unconditional, loyal, devoted love.

and grant us your salvation.

vv. 8-9 – This is the assurance that God WILL bless his people again.

• V. 8 – “I will listen” the speaker waits for the word from the Lord.

This is lost on us English speakers, but the word wait and hope are the same word in many languages.

To hope for something is to wait for it.

If we hope for restoration, renewal, revival, we are dependent upon God for it.

We are waiting for his response.

“He promises peace to his people” shalom is something God wants for his children, and gives to us ultimately in Jesus Christ.

Peace or shalom itself speaks of restoration.

• V. 9 – “His salvation is near those who fear him,” God is good and brings his salvation to his people.

“his glory may dwell in our land” wherever God’s saving power is displayed, his glory is revealed. God’s salvation is a significant part of his glory – his love and kindness displayed for sinners.

vv. 10-13 – God is sure to show his mercies again to his people.

Why is God certain to show his love again? Because of his covenant love (checed).

• V. 10 – This is who God is: he is love, he is faithful, he is righteousness, he is peace.

love, faithfulness, righteousness, peace are all personified.

The image is that these attributes of God are all greeting and embracing each other.

This image is one of the most beautiful in all of scripture.

It is a picture of God’s graciousness toward his people.

• V. 11 – God’s faithfulness springs from the ground like spring time.

Mankind is blessed with the bounty of God’s faithfulness.

God’s righteousness shines down from the heavens.

God’s people are enveloped by God’s faithfulness and righteousness.

• V. 12 – the Lord will give what is good. James 1:17

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights”

• V. 13 – God’s righteousness is like a herald going before him.

It marks the course for how God deals with his people.

Righteousness is God’s perfect faithfulness to all his covenant promises.

Like the Israelites, we can – and should – pray for God’s restoration, renewal, revival.

Like them, we are dependent upon him to shower us with his mercy, checed love.

Would you pray with me for the Lord to pour out his love for us again?

vv. 4-7

Psalm 84:1-12

v. 1 The Psalmist is thinking about the beauty of the Temple.

The Temple was the place where God’s presence dwelt.

It was the grounds where creation and Creator met.

It was also where people came to worship him.

It was where people offered sacrifice for their sins, and received forgiveness.

The psalmist writes, “How lovely”. How beautiful indeed.

All of this is found in Jesus Christ.

He is the fulfillment of the OT Temple.

He is how we meet God.

He is how we receive forgiveness.

v. 2 The Psalmist physically longs for the experience of God’s presence.

His attention is on the Lord.

He longs for His presence.

In a world that offers many distractions, pursuits; God himself is the treasure.

He is the treasure in the field.

v. 3 He sees sparrows that have nested in the temple eaves.

Common birds have nested close to the altar of the Lord Almighty.

The thought of those lowly birds in such a glorious place overwhelms the psalmist.

“O Lord Almighty” (Jehovah tsaba) “Lord of Hosts” is the Lord who is sovereign over all the ‘hosts’ (powers) of heaven and earth.

“my King” God is not only over the earth, but his personal Lord, sovereign over the psalmist.

“my God.” (elohiym) God and his divinity, his uniqueness over creation.

v. 5 Those who have lean on God to be their strength are blessed.

Those who set their hearts on pilgrimage after God are blessed.

v. 6 Passing through the Valley of Baca – the valley of weeping.

When God’s people pass through sorrow, suffering,

The valley is a picture of a parched land. No water, no shelter.

But God brings rains for his people.

The rain brings pools that the people are able to go from one to the next as they travel.

God’s provision gives them strength.

This may be a picture of a practice where people would dig out earthen cisterns in arid places.

They would dig out pits and then wait for the rains to come and fill them so they could have pools of water to drink from.

Get that picture: people dug out pits, waiting, trusting, knowing that God would fill them.

Even when there was no water, they prepared for the Lord’s blessing.

In the midst of suffering, of sorrow, God’s people for thousands of years have found that God gives them strength.

v. 10 Better is one day in your courts – one day of fellowship with God in service as a temple guard is better than receiving public recognition and wealth.

v. 11 “Sun” is symbolic of a time of restoration and light.

The Lord bestows “favor (grace, acceptance)

and “honor” (kabowd) literally glory.

God showers his people with all of his “goodness”

v. 12 Blesses is the man who trusts in you.

Do you long for the Lord’s presence?

Let him remind you of his favor toward you.

Psalm 67

The whole psalm is a prayer set to song, asking for the Lord’s blessing and ascribing kingship to the Lord.

vv. 1-2 “May God be gracious to us”

Every interaction with God begins with his grace and mercy.

When you came to God the very first time, it was initiated by God and his grace.

When you first prayed asking for forgiveness, God listened out of his grace.

Our whole relationship with God is based upon his grace.

God marinated us in his grace.

The terms of our relationship with God began and will be fulfilled in his grace alone.

“and bless us”

God removes the cures and judgment of the Fall.

He cares for us like a father.

“Make his face shine upon us”

He delights in his own.

He receives and cares for us with joy.

“that your ways may be known”

The Psalmist is asking for blessing and grace for a purpose – that others may know the goodness of the Lord through him.

God’s grace and blessings are so that people may know his way.

He’s not just being nice to us, He’s revealing to us his plan for salvation.

He’s showing us how our relationship with him can be restored.

How he can heal in us what has been broken by sin.

vv. 3-5 “may the peoples praise you”

The psalmist prays for other nations to see God’s goodness and praise him.

This results in praise by nations.

the nations will join in the praise of God.

All the nations will know God’s salvation when they hear about Jesus and how he died to forgive their sin. They will respond in praise.

vv. 6-7 “Our God will bless us”

The psalm ends with a prayer for God’s blessings. “Our God” – He is ours, we are his.

He is confident in the hope of God’s universal rule.

The psalmist foresees an era in which Jews and Gentiles share in the glorious presence of God.

The day is coming when all of the enemies of God are put down, when God reigns over all.

God blesses us so others might come to know him, share in his blessings, and have reason to praise him.

There is joy in being part of God’s work to show his grace and tell of his salvation.

Have you ever been really tired of who you are?

Have you ever really wanted to change?

Have you ever tried to change yourself, but been unsuccessful?

The deck is stacked against us.

How can we know our desires, when our hearts are deceitful (Jeremiah 17:9) “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”

Sin deceives us too (Hebrews 3:13) “But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.”

2 Samuel 12:1-10

How can we change when we cannot see the problem?

Have you tried, but been unable to change?

How can we change when we cannot see the depth of the problem?

Hebrews 4:12-13

We can know ourselves by being in the word of God.

It is a terrifying thought that my motives and thoughts can be discovered and laid bare before a Holy God.

“I have never seen anyone of whom I dared to believe that he had the honesty and courage to be alone with God’s word.” Soren Kierkegaard

"It is human for a person to shrink from letting the Word really gain power over him. If no one else will admit it, I admit that I do." Soren Kierkegaard

James 1:22-25

When we can truly see ourselves, we have real hope that God will bring change.

You must see yourself, not just the mirror.

Because of our sinful nature, because we have a natural bent away from God, it is easy for us to be in the word of God and avoid being convicted by it.

It is fair easier to make reading the Bible an academic affair.

This was the problem the Pharisees had. They knew the Scriptures inside and out, but could not see their own self-righteousness and arrogance.

Reading the Bible is not academic time, it is transformation time for your mind.

It is time to apply the truths of the gospel to the brokenness in your life.

You must recognize yourself in the mirror.

When we read of the priest who ignored the wounded man in the story of the Good Samaritan, we are to see the priest with familiarity, "it is I." We must not allow ourselves to read the Word impersonally and objectively. We must recognize ourselves in the pages.

You must not forget how you looked.

Knowing full well your own limitations, have a healthy suspicion about yourself.

Recognize your own unreliableness and attempt to remember what we have learned about ourselves for an hour or a day.

We all have a tendency to want to avoid God’s word.

But it is one of our main hopes for real change in our minds and character.

Looking into it like a mirror, we can see our deep need of change.

God uses the truth of his word to transform us.

His word gives the Holy Spirit a tool to work on our souls.

How can you have courage to be alone with the word of God?

Remember that everything you God uncovers that Jesus forgiveness goes ahead of you.

“I didn’t know that was there.” That’s already been forgiven.

“I thought I was over that, it goes deeper?” Jesus blood has covered the depth of all your sin.

You and I have real hope for change.

Looking intently in the word of God, we have real hope of transformation of our mind and souls.

No Perfect People Allowed by John Burke

NT era Corinth like our society – known for drunkenness, sexual immorality, and religious tolerance.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11

“That is what some of you were…” Somehow these “sinners” in Corinth became followers of Jesus.

Those sinners came to faith through relationships with believers.

It is hard to know what to do with people who are steeped in sin.

The church has a difficult time knowing what to do with substance abusers, sexually promiscuous, homosexuals.

The Bible makes it clear that these are sins.

We do not need to apologize for it.

It is true, these are sins.

These sins have a damaging affect on a person – these sins affect their

• Relationship with God

• Relationship with other people

• Their minds – all sexual immorality has a warping affect on the mind.

• Their souls – they are seeking something in a substance or in a sexual relationship.

Sexual immorality is a lousy substitute for significance and love.

Substance abuse is a lousy substitute for peace.

• Their bodies

Sin is a legitimate need met in an illegitimate way.

Sin is a person looking for significance or love or peace outside of God’s loving path for us.

Having these needs fulfilled outside of God is always damaging to us, our relationship with God and others, our souls, our minds, even sometimes our bodies.

In fact, many people who are caught in these kinds of sin is because they were sinned against – sin has a damaging affect.

This generation has had many sins committed against it.

The sexual revolution – our society decided that biblical ways of thinking about sex was too stifling.

What needed to happen, was that sex needed to be more casual – it did not need to be only in confines of marriage.

Sin always has a damaging effect. What did the sexual revolution create:

• Greater abuse of children

• Addiction to pornography – which trains the mind.

• Today’s kids grow up with a broken view of themselves – esp. girls think their identity is found primarily in their looks.

Me-first This generation has grown up more in broken homes than any past generation.

Kids have been left alone at home as their parents worked.

Kids have suffered as parents divorced.

• From 1962 to 1981, the number of divorces tripled.

• In 1962, 50% of adults believed tough marriages should stay together and work on it. By 1980, 20%

• Less than 50% of the emerging generation reached 17 with both biological parents living with them in the same house.

• In 1987, more than 50% of all children of divorce had seen their fathers 3 times or less in the previous year.

Everclear song: father of mine, tell me where have you been? You know I just closed my eyes, my whole world disappeared… I will never be safe, I will never be sane, I will always be weird inside, I will always be lame… Daddy gave me a name then he walked away.

This generation bears the scars of increased abuse, greater sexual immorality in our culture, and increased divorce.

The sins of our society left them broken.

Why do they struggle with sins?

Because in their brokenness, they are looking for love or acceptance through sex, they are looking for peace or wholeness in alcohol or drugs.

The church cannot walk away from the truth:

There really is sin in the world. It is in you and me, and it needs the solution of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The gospel of Jesus Christ has real hope for healing for them.

The unconditional love that they seek is found in Jesus Christ.

The healing that they seek is found in Jesus Christ.

The forgiveness that they need is found in Jesus Christ.

The guidance that they need for their lives is found in Jesus.

There is hope for their brokenness – just like you and I have found hope for our brokenness.

Romans 10:9-15 How can they know unless someone tells them?

Where is the best place in the world to be if you’re sick? A hospital.

Where is the best place in the world to be if you’re broken with sin? A church.

What if the people in church don’t want you there? Where would you go?

If people who are broken cannot be loved and welcomed by believers, and be in a place where they can hear and see the gospel in action – healing brokenness, restoring relationships, bringing forgiveness.

If they can’t be a part of the healing that is going on in church, what hope do they have?

We need to remember:

• We cannot judge, nor can we fix people.

• Remember where they came from and where they are.

• Healing comes through relationship with Jesus.

• We came to Christ based on his grace, not our worthiness.

• God was (and is) patient with us.

• We are all in process.

• It is okay not to be okay here, but it’s not okay to stay there.

Many in this generation believes the church is full of judgmental, self-righteous, intolerant people.

We cannot argue that away, it has sometimes been true.

The only way to overcome that is by demonstrating to others the love, grace, patience that we received from Jesus.

When God’s people show God’s love, there is real hope for the broken to find his love, grace, patience, healing.

We are called not just to love people for love’s sake, but to love people for Christ.

In Paul Tripp’s book, Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands,

We are called as believers not just to be conduits, but instruments of God’s change.

When we are instruments in the Redeemer’s hands, we are part of His story of redeeming people.

God uses us as a combination of God’s truth and love, expressed through us to transform people.

God’s word is the primary tool of change.

2 Cor 5:14-21

v. 14 Christ’s love compels us – God has captured our hearts.

We have experienced the love he demonstrated at the cross.

We have been accepted by him.

We have marveled at his loving devotion toward us, his stubborn love for us.

We know his love for us is so great, it overcame our sin.

His love compels us. His love has changed us forever.

v. 17 Christ’s love changes you.

v. 16 Christ’s love changes your view of people.

We don’t view people the same anymore.

We don’t view people in classes. We’re all sinners.

We see everyone as, this is someone for whom Christ died.

v. 18 The incarnation of Christ is not just for us to marvel at; it is to be our example.

Jesus' incarnation is a calling.

Jesus’ incarnation was part of God’s agenda to bring revelation of God to mankind.

v. 20 Christ’s love changes your role in relationships.

The incarnation is also a calling for us to be God’s ambassadors in the lives of people around us.

We are called to incarnate Christ to others.

God has a higher goal for relationships than our personal happiness.

He wants our relationships to result in greater avenues of his grace – for you and the people around you.

What is God calling you to in your marriage? To be his ambassador.

What is God calling you to as a parent? To be his ambassador.

What is God calling you to regarding your friends and neighbors? To be his ambassador.

What is God calling you to at work? To be his ambassador.

When we forget the call to incarnate the love of Christ, we take our relationships as our own.

They become about us and for us and become solely for our pleasure.

We get irritated at people who interfere with this.

Much of our anger is due to the fact that we are relationship thieves.

People do not belong to us; they belong to God.

v. 15 Your relationships are not your own; they belong to God.

We represent God's purposes to the people he places in our lives.

The problem is we don't like to live as ambassadors.

We easily slip into "my will be done."

One of the purposes of the cross is to recapture our hearts to serve God alone.

Sin causes us to be incredibly self-absorbed, but Christ died to set us free from this.

His goal is that our lives would be shaped by worship of him and nothing else.

He has sent us as his ambassadors to make his appeal for people's hearts.

v. 20b Christ’s love changes the content of your conversation.

Because of Jesus’ work on the cross and his resurrection, (all) people have real hope of change.

Our Redeemer is pursuing us and our hearts to be our only King.

This is the basis of heart change.

We offer people not a process, nor principles, nor a system, but a Redeemer.

He is the message of our conversations in these relationships.

He is the answer for how change happens in the heart of believers.

He is the hope for change.

Proverbs 10:21

The lips of the righteous nourish many,

but fools die for lack of judgment.

Proverbs 15:4

The tongue that brings healing is a tree of life,

but a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit.

Running buddy – find someone you can be in conversations with – talk about God.

Talk about what you’re learning in the Scriptures.

Talk about how you’re learning to apply the Scriptures in your life.

Talk about your struggles and how God is helping or using them in your life.

Christ’s love changes - You

• your view of people.

• Your role in relationships

• The content of your conversations

1. God’s glory is almost beyond our comprehension.

2. He has given us revelation of his glory (enough to move us and excite our hearts).

a. Hebrew “glory” in the OT is “kabod”

i. Means weightiness, significance or meaningfulness.

ii. There is nothing more meaningful than Him.

iii. Psalm 96:3 “Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples.”

iv. He is the creator and sustainer of the universe.

v. He is infinitely weighty – more than all the suns and worlds of the universe.

b. Greek “glory” in NT is “doxa”

i. Means “outshining.”

ii. His glory shines out in his creation and his word.

iii. His glory most clearly shines out of Jesus Christ.

iv. John 1:14 – “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

v. The heavens declare the glory of God. It shines in the created order, but clearly in the life, death and resurrection of Christ.

vi. His glory shines in the life of believers. His redemptive glory shines out of believers as we grow in the fruit of the Spirit, reflecting Jesus' life.

c. God’s glory is in his attributes

i. The glory of God is the sum of all of His attributes.

ii. The combination of his goodness.

iii. All that makes Him God.

iv. Exodus 15:11, Song of Moses

“Who among the gods is like you, O LORD?

Who is like you—majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?”

v. His holiness, righteousness, beauty of his moral character, omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence, goodness in compassion, mercy, love - for his own greatness and for us sinners.

vi. Love for those he's saved. His glory is in his willingness to love us to the end.

d. God’s Glory is his beauty

i. Jonathon Edwards said God's glory is his beauty.

ii. There is no beauty greater than his. He is righteous, just and at the same time perfectly loving.

iii. He doesn't love just people like himself - the majestic, best ones, but the least.

iv. He delights in us in spite of our sin. He loves sinners. This is part of his beauty.

v. Our sin did not get in the way of his love.

vi. Jonathon Edwards essay - The End for Which God Created the World. Clearly lays out the glory of God. It is God's purpose for creating and saving mankind.

3. God made people made for his glory.

a. Isa 43:6-7

6 I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’

Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth—

7 everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”

b. God created man with the capacity to receive, comprehend and respond to his glory.

i. God has created beings that are thoughtful, discerning, discovering, able to see his glory, recognize what God accomplished in Christ’s life, death and resurrection.

ii. We were created to understand, receive, and be changed by his glory and to participate in it.

iii. Only humans were created with the capacity to understand God's glory and enter into it by his grace. "Yes, it's true, you are glorious.”

iv. Jeremiah 9:23-24 “23 This is what the Lord says: “Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches,

24 but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me,

that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth,

for in these I delight,”declares the Lord.”

v. We are then able to participate in God's agenda and praise him, and live our lives in a way that communicates that glory as a gift of his salvation.

c. Our focus is constantly diverted to ourselves.

i. The world is a system of societies, not interested in God, but ourselves.

ii. Our society in particular, has self as its center.

iii. We have indwelling sin that further compromises us from to focus more on us than God.

4. We were created to bear his image – to show his glory

a. He is the majestic One, Beautiful One.

b. God has created us such that we can only find our fulfillment in radical re-orientation.

c. This is what it means to be saved. To find freedom from self and value in God.

5. We are growing in his image.

a. Augustin’s The City of God.

b. God is saving us from the city of humanity (where people love self and hate God) and moving us by journey to the city of God (those who love God and despise self).

c. We are in the city of God in principle, but it is more like we are on a journey toward the city of God than we have arrived.

d. The City of God is the New Jersusalem in which we will fully love God.

e. We have begun this journey and left what Bunyan calls “the city of destruction.”

f. God is in the process of changing our hearts.

g. It is a journey, thought by thought, step by step, desire by desire.

h. 2 Corinthians 3:18 “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

6. All of life is meant to aim at the glory of God.

a. When I am in my best moments as a Christian, when I worship and see the beauty and glory of God, it is better than anything else in the world.

b. It is pure, holy, good, cleansing. This is what I was made for. This life at its fullest.

c. We can't sustain it for long. Sin makes it hard to sustain.

d. It feels right b/c it is right. It gives us happiness like no other.

e. Relationships, family life, church life, money, parenting, marriage, suffering – it is all for the glory of God

2 Thessalonians 1:8-10 “8 He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power 10 on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.”

When we sat down 10 years ago to give our church some direction, we worked on core values, things that we think are important, things that we want people who come here to pick up on, things that we want to be true of the culture of our church.

These are things that we want to shape our teaching, the content of our ministries and even our conversations.

The first of these core values is a “great love for God.”

I pray this for you. I pray this for me. May we grow in greater love and affection for God.

Matthew 22:34-40

v. 37 “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment.”

The Pharisees had added rules and regulations on top of the Laws of Moses.

They thought what God wanted people to do could be attained by regulating behavior.

But there was never any hope in that.

Jesus gave an answer that reveals how we attain righteousness, become better, how we change.

It is not a matter of behavior; it’s a matter of the heart.

This is what God wanted all along, not for people to behave like robots,

but God longed for a people to love him.

He wants our love.

He wants our affections.

He wants to be central in our lives.

He wants to be your Savior, your Healer, your Redeemer, your Rock, your Father.

But we always tend to look in other places for significance.

We tend to look to our jobs for importance.

We tend to look to people for acceptance.

We tend to look to money for security.

We tend to look to the opposite sex to know that we’re lovable.

Romans 1:21-25

v. 23 “exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.”

v. 25 “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator”

People, we, refused to acknowledge God for Who He is – glorious.

Despite knowing God, people trade in God for something else.

We exchange the Creator for the creation.

Our love for God is never going to be perfect.

It will always be tainted by our sinful hearts.

We will always struggle in this life to for our hearts to be fully his.

John 16:25-28

v. 27 “the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.”

Did the disciples love him?

They misunderstood him; mistook his mission; while he tried to model service for them, they argued about who was the greatest; when he anguished in Gethsemane, they slept; when he was accused and abused, they left him alone. None of them stood up for him.

Their love for him was far from perfect. It was tainted by their own self-interest.

But Jesus said, “you love me, so my Father loves you.”

Even though it was imperfect, even though it was polluted by their selfishness, God accepted it.

God loved them for it.

Even though their love for Jesus was imperfect, it was precious to God.

Their love was mixed with confusion and selfishness.

God sifted through the mess and found small gems of their love for Jesus.

They were precious to him.

He loved them for it.

Your love for God isn’t perfect.

It’s mixed with impure motives.

You have a tendency to wander in your affections.

But what is there, those times that the Holy Spirit has produced in you a love for God in worship,

a dependence on God for needs,

a steadfast trust in God in pain and suffering,

a quiet time of really wanting to know God better.

God gathers those up like gold,

like a fragrant offering when it is mixed with our union with Christ,

and says, “I love you for loving my Son.”

How do we grow in love for Jesus?

Jesus prayed for us about this.

John 17:20-26

v. 26 “I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

We need to pray what Jesus did. “Father, put your love for Jesus in my heart.”