Love & Devotion (6 of 21)

Romans 8:38-39 "And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. ³⁹ No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord."
-Convinced to Stay Connected

At the start of a new week of labor, I have a very little to say about this passage. But don't allow the short length of this Love & Devotion to minimize the strength of it.

Paul is writing to the church at Rome, in an extremely encouraging tone. He was convinced, based on his personal experiences with God to stay connected to his love, no matter what! Nothing was going to change Paul's mind about God.

Let's look at this in two facets, Paul's Declaration and God's Revelation.

1) Paul definitively declares, that he's not going to allow himself or anyone else, not hell or heaven for that matter, not fears or worries to move him from his choice. Here's what worth pondering over, doe's your Sunday declarations match your Monday actions? I'm urging you to boldly do what you say! Your connection to God's love is what keeps you alive, so convincing you to stick with God shouldn't be difficult to do.

2) God's revelation of his love for us, was done in grand fashion. Jesus' death is what let us know that God loves the world for real. The only fact that I want to give you about that is, love isn't meant to be buried but it should be displayed. Jesus died and was buried in a grave, but something as precious as love can't be cooled off in the darkness of the grave. Jesus showed off God's love for us by dying, which displayed how fearless his love for us is but the resurrection showed us how strong his love for us is. Thank God that he showed (Romans 5:8) us his love and the reason that we ought to be convinced that staying connected to him must be our declaration. I don't know about ya'll, but Jesus is the best thing that ever happened to me!

***Tomorrow's verse...1 John 4:19 'Reciprocity'

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Love's Train Sermon Notes...Part 1 of 4

Part-Time Lover
Hosea 1 The Lord gave this message to Hosea son of Beeri during the years when Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah were kings of Judah, and Jeroboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel. ² When the Lord first began speaking to Israel through Hosea, he said to him, “Go and marry a prostitute, so that some of her children will be conceived in prostitution. This will illustrate how Israel has acted like a prostitute by turning against the Lord and worshiping other gods.” ³ So Hosea married Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she became pregnant and gave Hosea a son. ⁴ And the Lord said, “Name the child Jezreel, for I am about to punish King Jehu’s dynasty to avenge the murders he committed at Jezreel. In fact, I will bring an end to Israel’s independence. ⁵ I will break its military power in the Jezreel Valley.” ⁶ Soon Gomer became pregnant again and gave birth to a daughter. And the Lord said to Hosea, “Name your daughter Lo-ruhamah—‘Not loved’—for I will no longer show love to the people of Israel or forgive them. ⁷ But I will show love to the people of Judah. I will free them from their enemies—not with weapons and armies or horses and charioteers, but by my power as the Lord their God.” ⁸ After Gomer had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she again became pregnant and gave birth to a second son. ⁹ And the Lord said, “Name him Lo-ammi—‘Not my people’—for Israel is not my people, and I am not their God. ¹⁰ “Yet the time will come when Israel’s people will be like the sands of the seashore—too many to count! Then, at the place where they were told, ‘You are not my people,’ it will be said, ‘You are children of the living God.’ ¹¹ Then the people of Judah and Israel will unite together. They will choose one leader for themselves, and they will return from exile together. What a day that will be—the day of Jezreel—when God will again plant his people in his land.

Introduction: The relationship between God and Israel was strained. Israel was free-spirited, in that polytheistic practices were considered customary instead of sinful. They weren't necessarily trying to leave God, but they wanted God as their main squeeze along with a side piece. In short, Israel was married to God and had a part-time lover. God's stance was clear, that his love train would not tolerate stow-a-way passengers.

Transition: Overwhelming Observations that are practical for us to us...

-Beware of marrying someone with expectations of them turning into someone better

-Don't think that being in God's will, deletes life's trouble

-Children will not make a strained relationship any better

-Part-time love may come with fulltime consequences

Exposition:

1) An illustration of desperation...verse 2

The prostitute (Israel) was desperately searching for love and affection and God was desperately searching for someone to loyally love him the way he would love them.

2) Promiscuity leads to questions of paternity...verse 2

Verse 3 says that the child was Hosea's. Verses 6 and 8 suggests that the second two aren't. Life has a ways of starting all right but end up going all wrong.

3) Time will turn things around...verse 10-11

God wasn't giving up on Israel. He combated there part-time love with tough love. Time and space will help part-time lovers miss the water that filled the well, but now is dry. However, not all strained relationship end up like God and Israel. Sometimes you have to know when to ease on down the road.

*This week's sound track: Love's Train by Con funk shun   Part-Time Lover
*Next week we'll study Hosea chapter 2:1-13 "That's The Way Love Is" A Bobby 'Blue' Bland classic

Love &Devotion (5 of 21)

Ephesians 1:4-5 (New Living Translation)  "Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure."
-He Chose Me

Discovering who you are in Jesus, is an amzing feeling of being loved,desired and useful. You are an adopted and legitimate child of God! That's a supreme actof love on God's part. In biblical the era, it was legal for a father to disown his legitimate child. However, it was illegal for one to disown his adopted child. Thank God that we'rea dopted! He had us on his mind before the beginning of time! We were lifted by his love, to a place of being found not guilty of sin because of the blood of Jesus Christ!

God doesn't make mistakes! So the choice to make you a part of his own family was not by accident. Stop singing the woe is me song; stop feeling like no one wants you and that you're all alone; stop acting so pitiful, as if love has passed you by. Listen, God chose you! You are a part of the chosen people of God, a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9)! So act like it! Lift up your head, dry your tears and stop living a second class existence when you've got a first class ticket in your hand!

When God chose you, verse 5 says that he found pleasure in his choice. Wow! Think about that level of love for a minute... You make God smile. Now don't go getting all beside yourself, because it's Jesus who covers us that makes us presentable to God. Thank God for Jesus, that makes us choosable!

Here's how want to wrap up this week's Love & Devotion, I want you to feel wanted. That's it! We live in an image driven society, that specializes in telling you how to feel, dress, eat, how your body should be shaped...etc...but I want you to feel wanted, because GOD CHOSE YOU just like you are. Understand that that's not a license to never change. It's a license to breathe and cultivate your relationship with God. God loves you and as you love him back, you'll notice that the way he loves you will begin to improve who you are.

Enjoy your weekend. Don't let the Super Bowl keep you from worship, because it doesn't take all day to prepare. I encourage to make a phone call, senda text, tag some friends on Facebook just to invite someone to worship with you this Sunday. Help them feel wanted by the same God that loves and adopted you. Be safe and sane in your celebrations and I'll see you Sunday at 10:45 a.m. as we talk about Part-time Lover from Hosea 1.

***Remeber that I'll return to writing on Monday, but don't stop reading!

Love & Devotion (4 of 21)

1 John 3:16 (New Living Translation) "We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters."
-Love That Lifts

Some of our relationships have ended miserably, because we never had any quality examples of what 'real love' looks like to follow. Either not seeing our parents respond to each other healthily, not knowing a parent at all, seeing a steady stream of different people in and out of our parent's lives or not knowing how to properly process our emotions are all possible factors. However, I'm thankful for God's personal and positive interaction in our lives! David says in Psalm 27:10 that "Even if my father and mother abandon me, the Lord will hold me close." God is the best example of love we have, because he is love!

People of God (those who have an experiential engagement with his authority) know real love when they see it because Jesus showed it to us in Romans 5:8. Jesus died for us and we weren't even good. As a matter of fact, we qualified to be called enemies of the cross (Philippians 3:18). But Jesus gave up his life for us any way! Real love lifted our sins off of us and nailed it to the cross. So, it's safe to say that real love improves the quality of one's life. Jesus' love made us all better by adding to not subtracting from the quality of our lives. Real love lifts!

The same love that we've experienced is the same love that we should share. Selflessness is what we should embody. God is not asking for us to physically die for our brothers and sisters. Yet he is saying that we must support them. Now, that doesn't mean to take care of them but we should assist them (1 John 3:17). Real love gives of itself without bragging, for the sake of those in God's family to feel loved by our actions.

I'm challenging you to do a random act of kindness this weekend. Give what you've gotten from God! He's given you the example to follow, so follow the leader and practice love that lifts! Don't broadcast it or brag about it, just do it!

***Tomorrow's verse...Ephesians 1:4-5 'He Chose Me'

Love & Devotion (3 of 21)

1 John 4:16-18 (New Living Translation) "We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. ¹⁷ And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world. ¹⁸ Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love."

-And You Know This Man! Watch this 'Friday' movie clip of Chris Tucker here

The goal of anyone that seeks to become Christ-like, is to move beyond an intellectual assent of Jesus (knowing about him mentally) into an experiential engagement with his authority (knowing him emotionally and personally). This passage speaks to the difference between the two. Ironically, many of us who claim to be followers of Jesus, lose sight of who Jesus is to us at the sign of trouble. I want to spend these few moments reminding you that there are some things that you should know and not forget about YOUR God.

You should know without any reservation, that God loves you immeasurably! That's a simple statement with significant implications. God's love is worthy of your trust. I know that your heart has been broken and you have a problem trusting people and their declarations. But you can trust God's love! It's sure (solid foundation), it's safe (gives you eternal security) and it's strong (it holds you, you don't hold it)!

Also, you should know that God is love. My father in the ministry (Pastor David Lattimore in Jacksonville, FL) used to say "If you don't love me, don't die". Jesus told us in John 13:35 that "Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.” Here's my point, If you're a Jesus follower, then love is in you, because God is love. The radical nature of this God love is that it's alive. It goes, it gives and it grows. Believers' love should not be stale or stagnant but ever striving toward modeling Jesus.

I think you ought to know, that once you've experienced God's for real, that it ain't ever scared (I know, I just did 'dat...lol)! God's love casts out all fear. What doe's love (God) have to be afraid of? Certainly not punishment; God can't punish himself! That's why having him living on the inside of us and exemplifying his attributes are important. On judgment day, we won't have a problem if we 'live like Jesus here in this world'.

There's a story about a Sunday school teacher, that was closing class one Sunday morning with a question. She rhetorically asked, if there was anything that God couldn't do? A little girl raised her hand with excitement. Teacher, teacher she yelled, I know something that God can't do. Annoyed, the teacher asked her what is it? The little girl proudly stood and told everyone in a professor like tone, that God can't see our sins through the blood of his son Jesus! I've got to take a praise break right there, because that's something that God can't do! Thank God that he can't do that! I'm glad that God looks at us but sees Jesus, because he lives within us. I urge you today to not forget these principles and to express them in your living, so that there's no mistake that you are a child of God!

***Tomorrow's verse...1 John 3:16 'Love That Lifts'

Love & Devotion (2 of 21)

Romans 12:5 (New Living Translation) "so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other."
-Believing Includes Belonging

When I hear about the church of Jesus Christ, I immediately think of the phrase 'assembly required'. Hebrews 10:25 admonishes believers in this way "And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near." Don't let anyone fool you into thinking (and don't fool yourself) that you can be saved but not need the church. Hear me clearly when I say. that believing includes belonging!

The body of Jesus Christ is composed of various parts. The implication is that all of us (believers) are a body part, which makes us valuable to it's function. Our local body known as Grace Corner, needs you in order to operate properly. I urge you to not slow down, back up or sit down. If you do, it hinders the progress of the body's purpose because all of our parts are attached to the same body.

Watch how love arrives in this text, in grand style. Paul (the author of this passage) says that 'we all belong to each other.' What sense would it make for a body to hate parts of itself! That's an incredibly unhealthy and dysfunctional scenario. I've got a big nose, I'm short and I'm of an extra chocolate hue, but I certainly don't hate those parts of myself! As a matter of fact, I love those parts of me all the more because I don't see them as flaws but as perfect imperfections that make me unique.

When I declare that I love my church, I'm really saying that we don't have it all together and we're not even close to getting there. We are a unique people that loves God and is determined to live tomorrow better than we lived today. We lie, cuss, fuss, fight, cheat and steal but we are nothing like we use to be and don't want to go back there. We love each other, not because we're perfect. Rather, we agape (loving in spite of imperfections; unconditional; without restraint) each other, the way God intended. I know I just took the long way around, but I'm simply suggesting that we 'belong to each other' and we don't have any receipts to make returns! You're stuck with us!

As your pastor, I want you to seriously thing about where you fit on the body. Get in where you fit in! After you've thought about it, and if we don't have a ministry that you feel drawn to then start it! Don't pour cold water on the Holy Spirit that's at work within you (1 Thessalonians 5:19). If you believe, then belong! You've found brothers and sisters that aren't judgmental of your past, we just want to be your family and push you to be better than you've ever been before!

***Tomorrow's verse...1 John 4:16-18 'And You Know This Man!'