Loving God love others

Transcript (Auto-generated)

Good morning. It's good to see all your faces today. We're going to go through a bit of a transition period here, folks. Old technology up here and here, and new technology here. So prayer would be appreciative. Let's pray. Oops, sorry. I've got a loud voice. Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, that Father, we just worshiped at your table. Father, it reminds us, Lord, of the mission that you sent your son to Earth for. Lord, to die in our place. We may have eternal life through the risen Saviour. Father, we thank you too, Lord, that for becoming your time of worshiping in your word, Lord, as we open the Bible up. Father, I pray that you'll speak to our hearts. But Father, each person here today, and those at home as well, Father, will have a message from you through your spirit. Lord, not something of man's volition, but Father, something that comes straight from you. Lord, as we continue through this message, Lord, I pray the words will speak what be my words. Lord, but your words will be committed this to you in your name. Amen. Well, one of the things about coming to church is that there's been a journey for us. And so today we're looking at loving God and loving others. And when you step out for God, you really understand what loving God's about. Because you have to trust in Him. And trust emphatically in Him that the things that we hold dear to our heart, we need to set aside, perhaps, just to trust in Him. Is everyone on the same panel? Does anyone understand that? You're all with me on this one? OK. Did anyone else lose power this morning? Yes. I woke up and I thought I was going to go to be with Jesus. Because at 3.30 this morning, my CPAP turned off. I have sleep apnea. I woke up gasping. And I thought, oh, no, it's not the rapture. OK. But when I got up, I thought, OK, what do I do? So I let's go and just have a look at the sermon for today. No power. And I had my little, my phone, and I had my laptop. And I tried to make him sink, and they're working well. And we sort of got a little bit done, but it's hard to see in a black room when all you've got is two glowing screens. Those of you into gaming would absolutely know what I mean. And then I looked at the message and I thought, Lord, how am I going to finish this? So I walked away. I said, that's it. 6.30, the power coming back on, and we all got packed together. Coming to a new house, I thought I'd broken something in the house. So the first thing I did was got my phone went outside and I checked the trip switch, whatever your electricians call it, ones that Dougie doesn't get fried about. And it wasn't that. The whole street was dark. Then I went on the phone and I found out the whole suburb was dark. 736 houses didn't have power this morning. And so I thought, well, OK, this is bigger than me. So where does this lead us? And it got me thinking about our journey coming to the church here. And when the push happens, and this is going to be fun, when the push happens, it... when the push happens, it... Thank you. It's all yours now. Over there, out of the way, I told you about technology. When the push happens, decisions that impact our lives and the tensions and stress we have, sometimes we hold on close to that because we don't know really if loving God's going to get us through. You may think, well, you're just speaking a bit of weirdness, Pastor Doug, but no, this is the truth. We've got to hold on to God. And coming here and trusting in Him, you would have heard my brief but awkward testimony from Dave Elvery here last week, that some of the things that impacted our lives coming here, people are saying, this is awesome. You found a house, and you sold a house all in three weeks. Sharia and hire at home, freaking out thinking, where are we going to live? Because they don't usually mix and cross over. And through God's grace, it happened. And even coming back here to this church, that I came to the Lord here in 1979 and spent a 30-odd years here in and out in ministry and learning and being taught. And the people who've sowed into our lives and in my life, I want to say thank you. I also want to say, it's payback time. Oh, sorry, that came out wrong. It's time for me to pay you back. And that's how it should be. But as Edward was saying last week, and this is part of the loving God, loving others thing, please sort of follow me through the tenuous connection, it's a God who spoke me through his word. All the uncertainty happening whether or not we should be here, whether or not really you're seeing a past material dug because I really was struggling with that for a while. And God brought these words to me, and he brought them out of a sire. And I was just dumbfounded when I read them, and I thought, what are you doing? Of course, trust in God. Love God and trust him. And these are the words that he shared with me. See, I'm doing a new thing. Now it springs up. Do you not perceive it? Forget the formal ways, verse 18 says. Forget the formal ways of things. Do not dwell on the past. See, I'm doing a new thing. It springs up. Don't you perceive it? Do you perceive that God's going to do a new thing? That wasn't rhetorical. I need an answer. Yes or no? Okay, righty-o. So he's going to do a new thing in my life, in our lives, his husband and wife, in our family's life, in our church family life as well. And so things are going to be a little bit different, but that's okay, because we're going to trust in him. We're going to love God first, then we're going to love others. And when we hear from God's word, it impacts our hearts so deeply. Did him the same preparing for communion today. God let him through John. We've heard testimony of the kids trusting in the lamb, and being guided by the shepherd, that comes from God's word. And so as we go on this journey with God, in the next several years, he's going to reveal great things to us. He's going to change what happens in our lives. And we've got to expect that, because it's a new thing, and we've got to do we perceive it. And that's going to be the question you ask a lot. Lord, help me to perceive this with all my heart and mind, that I might know who you are, and know what you intend for me to do. Now, that's going to come out of the left field. There's going to be things that happen. I believe that the message is about today, and God laid it in my heart to share, is that this is going to change the way you do things. God is going to do a new work in you. I'm not saying what's happened before hasn't been valid, and hasn't been wonderful in God-honoring. That's not it. What I'm saying is that be prepared. There's a new way coming. So how do we trust in him? Well, we open God's word up to Matthew. And in Matthew, we read about the declaration that he has of worship. The declaration he has for us. Something you need to know about me before I continue. I was a teacher for a long time, for 18 odd years, before I went to the pastoral ministry. Before that, I did lots of different jobs. And so when Dave Ellery said last week, I'm a rough diamond, I thought those days were behind me, but perhaps they aren't quite. You will notice teachers and please bear with me if there's any spelling mistakes, punctuation mistakes, or any of those sorts of things. I just asked for grace. I'll try my hardest. So we have the God's word up on the screen. First section. Jesus' approach by Pharisee is trying to trick him. And when people try to trick you about God's word, it gets us confused sometimes. But Jesus gives us a great model when he says quite clearly, hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, Pharisees got together, and one of them, an expert in the Lord, tested him with this question. Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law? Now, he knew the answer. But Jesus uses this as a wonderful teaching moment for everyone who was listening. 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. There's an old hymn that comes to mind, I surrender all. Anyone familiar with that hymn? All to Jesus, I surrender, I humbly give. And as Finishes and the Chorus says, I surrender all. And when we read in Scripture, love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your mind, or some virgin that says strength, does that mean something to you? Or do you put that into a sort of a box and say, well, I think all's a bit much in this day and age. I don't think I can commit to all. Perhaps I'll commit to this much. Jesus goes on further, because there's a reason when we love God wholly, and we love God all, then the next part steps in. And this is the first commandment. And the second is like this, love the Lord your God as you love yourself. And that's not about our understanding of society today, where we're more important than those around us, and we should elevate. When we love God first, then what happens is that we have loving others as easy. I'm going to explore a little bit of that as we go on, but it's just a bit of a challenge for you today, I suppose. How do I love God first and foremost? Where does that fit in my head? And how do I love others? One of the things I suppose is that we can choose and we can have a choose or we have a choice, because a human worldly understanding says that if we value money, we value something, and then we add that with the emotional side of it, we are happy. We've seen that. We've seen that portrayed in a lot of places. Hey, some of the things that happen in our life just give us that good feeling. But we expect sometimes God to do that with us. And when God pauses and speaks to us directly and challenges us, sometimes it doesn't look like that, because he may ask you to give more than you've got. He might ask you to quell the emotions so that you can hear him clearly. We heard that today from our kids church. That was a great message. It was almost like you and I sat down and planned the whole thing out. There is another one. That's conditional love. That's the stuff we put value on that doesn't fit. Then there's unconditional love. And this is the love of God. God's first desire is to love us. We read that in Scripture. Secondly, we add that to the cross, which we talk about two weeks to Easter. And then the risen grave, it's important we understand in 1 Corinthians 3, it talks about 5, 10, 3 to 5. It talks about the gospel I preached to you. Jesus died for our sins, and then he was risen. Without the resurrection, we have no hope in eternity. So that's important to understand that. And add that together is that love that encompasses us. That's the best emoji I could find. I'm sorry. I'm trying to get my head around the technology and try and make things fit. But that is how I perceive it. The love of God is so great. When we love God first, to get to love others, is that we understand that the death and resurrection of Jesus plays that important part in our lives. When Jesus was talking about this passage, he was talking about the law and the prophets, and so straight away we go to the Ten Commandments. Because this is what the Pharisee was trying to work out. See, in pharisaical understanding, they understood that everything had the same value. That's why the tricky question come is what would you do, which is more important. And Jesus gave the holistic answer if you want to use that word. And so when we see the Ten Commandments come up, we understand that it's about the personal relationship with God. My recent history in Gatton was about the ministry I had in the football club. And that is no place for the faint-hearted. When you go and minister in a sporting organisation and you put yourself wholeheartedly in there for Jesus, you come across things that you wished you hadn't seen, certainly things you wished you hadn't heard, but it does point out about the personal relationship that we need when people ask you questions about what is more important, God or me. What does God allow things to happen? It affects me. But the understanding comes quite clear when you look at these in two sections, as Jesus pointed out. The first one is love God with all your heart, soul and mind. So the first five of the commandments is about loving God. The second five is about how we relate with others. The first one relating to God, honouring Him and putting Him in His place as our sovereign Lord. And the second one is about mankind and where we fit together in that. And so when we're loving God and loving others, we don't get legalistic. We don't say, oh, this is not fair, the rule book says this. We say, Lord, what are you saying to us right now? What do you want to see happen? How does this affect me in relation to you? How do I be a better servant for you? Because you've called me to love you first with all my heart, soul and mind and to love others like I love myself. Because when I love myself, I love God first. God's love is transformative. That's the next point. Because of God's love is transformative, we get to a position when we say, what's most important here? God's love is most transformative. How do I express that? And Joshua did this. Joshua said quite clearly that he had to choose today. And it's a great passage of Scripture just to sit and meditate on. Because when you do that, you look at the people you work with, you look at the people you go to school with, you look at the people who serve you in the shop, you look at the people who have morning tea with you after church, and you see things differently. Well, that's your journey and what's been happening. And Joshua said these words quite succinctly. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourself this day whom you will serve, with the gods our ancestors served beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you were living. But as for me and my household, I will serve the Lord. If you want to take a mantra into the community, that's for me and my house I serve the Lord. God comes first. Towards the end of the ministry out in Gatton, as it involves and as many people that God has affected or infected in the life of the football community, I could notice him suddenly shut things down a little bit. And I had to make decisions. Do I do this church activity, or do I go to football and minister here? Even though I'd been going to football for 10 years in a great relationship, I could see the value, I could see the fruit, God said, no, I need you to do this. Young adults' Bible studies started up because they're closely connected to UQ Gatton and a lot of students coming there looking for a spiritual home. And so it kicked off again. This is all the grace of God. And in that situation, I had to pick, okay, which night are we going to do Bible study? And so everyone said, let's do it Wednesday night because that's when club nights on at the university, and that's where all the drinking and carosing and debauchery happens. We want an alternative. So they said, okay, if you can offer this alternative, we can have an excuse to say no to that. So we did that. What it meant was that I didn't get to certain football functions and so God shut that ministry down. You can see God's hand in it. I wasn't angry about it. I could just see him changing. He's changing something in your life more. Because it is transformative. His love is transformative. You will change. And your situation will change according to his will. And his divine sovereignty. When we understand how much this happens and when we understand other circumstances, we put those all into perspective before God that we love. And this is a question. As I was preparing this, this is a question. If you were here today and you don't know Jesus as Lord and Saviour, you've never given your life to Him. You've never prayed the prayer as they say. You've never submitted to Him in authority than today's the day. I employ you. I encourage you. Do not leave here today until you've done business with God. Because in Romans 3 Tenet says these words, all who call upon the Lord's name. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. And you can't go past this passage of Scripture, this verse, without thinking about your personal relationship. And if you're a person who's been walking with God and you've been doing your best and you're still struggling, don't let that stuff just sit there either in the back of your head or in that back room but actually confess it to God. John 1.9 says, confess your sins to me and I am merciful and just to all righteousness. That means keeping short accounts with God. We can't keep going with this sermon of loving God and then love others if you don't have a relationship with Him. You don't understand it fully. So where does it sit with you? If God is touching you on the shoulder today, the Holy Spirit has given you a nudge, can I encourage you to not leave here today unless you've done business with God. You've got a myriad of pastors here, a myriad of ex-pastors here who love to pray with you. Is that right, Dave? Would you be able to pray? Kel, you're able to pray? Zaleigh, you're able to pray? Yeah? Deal? I was waiting for you to go, now, way back. There are heaps of people here. One of the great things about a church this size, I love it, it's so much like this worship is awesome, it's a great place to hide. A little story going back quite a few years, back when I was involved in the Pastoral Ministry here, I was on a sales hit pastor, they asked me to do a class on church membership. Being a teacher, I love classes. So we're over in the ATC and we're doing that. And we're going around and the first question I ask is, tell me your story. So there's nine people there. And the first person told me their story, told us all their story about how they were a sinner and how they realised God loved them and how they needed to repent and how they gave their life to the Lord on this day and they walked with him ever since. We went round the room, we got to a gentleman who was 86 years old. And I said, oh, I can't remember his name, I thought it was Gordon but I could have the wrong name. And I said, what's your story? He said, I can't tell you a story. He said, I've been going to church 40 years and no one has ever declared to me that I need to give my life to Jesus to be saved. I thought going to church 86 years old, sitting in this church and on point and fingers because I was part of the crew and he did business with God that night. I said, would you like to give you like, oh, yes, please, I'd love to. And he prayed then and we're all prayed and there's people weeping and it was just an awesome thing, touched from God. Then we baptised him. And we had the tank, we didn't have that one there, we had a round sort of poly tank we bought in and which was the style of the time. And I said, do you want a hand getting in? No way. So we had the pool ladder getting up and in. So as he was doing that, I had four deacons like this ready to launch. I got in the water first and gently lowered him in the water we baptised him and he got out of the pool again and they helped him get out. You see, folks, you're going to love God with all your heart and soul and mind. You can't do it unless you have a relationship with him. And if you're holding something in your heart and you've got a malice against somebody, you've got a sin that's just sitting away in the back of your mind, today God is speaking to you. Please respond, I encourage you. I'm not going to keep marks, I'm not going to get Jan out the front or Colette to tick you off. But as we sing the last song today just ask God, if you haven't already done so, just to take that burden from you, confess it to him. Because in that relationship brings transformation. 2 Corinthians 3 18 says that and all we who will unveil faces contemplate the Lord's glory are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. A couple of things come out of this passage and I've got a little part of how I do things in my mind is when I look up the Greek asterisks beside the words. When it says unveil it means to turn back on your course of action. So turn back on your course of action and transformation means to come into a new and changed relationship. So if you think about it if you're going to walk with God love God and love others then it seems the reason you have to change something in your heart and mind. So have a think about that one as we keep going. Because all in all we undergo a spiritual transformation. I think we're doing well gang up the back well done. Jesus takes it a step a step further with his disciples when he speaks to them and he has a letter who a letter to those who profess their faith in the Saviour. Now I don't know you guys but I know some of you reasonably well and some are not quite sure about it and some are just getting to know me. So if you've heard this before from your gifted pastors if you haven't heard it before take to heart. If you have heard it before and ignored it this is what Jesus said to his disciples a new commandment I give you to love one another as I've loved you that you must love one another in Matthew now he's in John but this by this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. Love is not an easy thing to achieve not in our own strength and even with God's help sometimes love just takes its toll on our bodies but God has called us outside of that and he said keep chipping away one of my favourite skits from the skit guys is that one where the black haired guy I can't remember his name there and the bald-headed guy's got a hammer and chisel and he's chiseling away I don't know if you've ever seen it and I didn't want to put more technology up there and create some sort of viral storm so I didn't use it today but it's about chipping away about being honest with God and just keep chipping away so if you are my disciples Jesus says then what does that look like for us it takes on a little bit of a different look because if you're your disciples your expressions about how that happens comes in various ways love is expressed differently the love I have for my wife is different the love I have for the Broncos we've won by the way convincingly the love I have for my dog is different to the love I have for my wife and some are going yeah well that should be a no-brainer when we express our love we express it as God has loved us first we're committed to follow Him we express our love by committing to follow Him we're steadfast in our obedience to Him that's a tough one to be obedience to God because a lot of times you think why should I do this Lord we go back to that first illustration with the brackets and the value system in there it comes back to that if you commit and steadfast with obedience things all happen in your life and in the life of the church and you'll get a greater understanding of who God is this is not prosperity doctrine this has just been honest earthy relationship with our Lord and King we're faithful in serving one of the things that are standard looking at this church as part of the core process to see who was involved in what and how much was happening there's a lot of faithful servants a lot of faithful servants but always remember you serve God first it's not about what your value is it's His I encourage you with that and lastly we worship Him if you are His disciples you worship Him and the worship takes on a couple of little different forms and some of these have been expressed already and I'm really excited because some of the things that have been said today are so well in with the message thank you Jesus because we're designed to worship and exalt Him that's our first core some people say well I go to church because it does something for me and if it doesn't do something for me I'm going to leave because that church doesn't help me anyway the worship is terrible or the people are too snooty or it's too clicky or the coffee is just not quite what I'm used to not avant-garde enough and really the morning tea first and foremost we are designed to worship we are called to come here to worship you leave everything else outside and you come to worship God so we worship Him how do we worship Him well we make a joyful noise to the Lord Psalm 100 says shout for joy to the Lord all the earth worship the Lord with gladness worship Him with joyful songs know that the Lord is good it is Him who made us and we are His we are His people the sheep of the pasture make a joyful noise into the Lord we worship in song we worship in prayer Pastor Dave let us in prayer earlier on today as a service when we worship in prayer we give God every petition we have in our hearts he was praying the people here praying for others as well because we worship in prayer we treat it as a mark of respect a connection to God talking to God and listening to God we worship in giving we've spoken about it already too this is just awesome worship in giving when you give it's not because you give compulsion you're a cheerful giver it says in the Word it says that you give because it is part of how you understand God and you want to worship Him say Lord I appreciate what you're doing for me and this is how I'm going to interact with that in this capacity we worship also at the table which we did today we worship not the table but we worship at the table the significance of communion and we say Lord thank you for that Pastor Dylan did a great job doing that as well I'm sure you guys did read my sermon notes you too the spirit is awesome isn't it and the one that we find so easy probably easier than others is to worship in fellowship the Bible is quite clear and where it takes us there in Acts 2 it says they devote themselves to the Apostles teaching to fellowship and to the breaking of bread and to prayer when we worship in fellowship we always make sure that Jesus is a silent listener in the conversation is our worship God honoring is it unifying that's the challenge we have because in a church like ours with so many different people we can have our own little understandings but number one we worship God and honour Him in our fellowship so we meet together morning tea words of affirmation if there's a critical spirit say hey can I pray for you the person is struggling I went to sleep what Pastor Doug was preaching can I pray for you I'm not looking at anybody I have a response to that but I'm not allowed to do it anymore so just to finish off worship team if you'd like to make your way out I'm just about to get things finished up here so loving God and loving others in circumstances in all circumstances be drawn to His word that was the affirmation for me when I went into ministry it was the affirmation when I was called to gather my affirmation when I was called here is the word He gave me His word if you were in a ministry can I encourage you find out what the biblical basis for your ministry is why am I doing this Lord according to your scripture so in all circumstances draw to His word seek a personal relationship with Him again I implore you I encourage you while we're doing the last song great times to meditate on the Lord give your heart to Him repent of what's going on affirm what's going on even say Lord thank you so much what you're doing in my life and thank you for saving me as a dirty rotten sinner worship and exult Him worship and exult Him and the dedication of a disciple and probably the things that's closest to my heart and when you're in a small country town folks everything you do in church reflects in the community everything now I'm having bit of a trouble coming here with a non-nimity so I'm used to it but you work places you interact with people love God first love others by this He will know they will know that you are His disciples and they will ask the question who is this Jesus that you worship because I want to know more about Him because you're a different man Lord we give you thanks and praise for who you are but we thank you that you sent your son Jesus Lord to give us that opportunity to respond to Him and Lord to surrender to Him to submit to render all that we may know Him as our Lord and Savior Lord we thank you for raising Him from the grave Lord for resurrecting Lord to send Him to your right hand Father we have the victory in over death through His life and Father as we go into this week ahead Lord all the different things you're calling us to Lord the newcomers morning tea billing the screen around the drum kit Father all the actions we have Lord help us to worship you and fellowship Lord interactions with the community Lord give us eyes to see what you see may you be your disciples in that place Father we give you thanks and praise for who you are You are our King of kings and Lord of lords. Amen.