Saints, 16 Aug 2010
Most of you are familiar with Jeremiah 29:11-13. You may even have this passage of scripture on a plaque in your house—especially verse 11.
Jeremiah 29:11-13 (NASB)
11 'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.
12 'Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.
13 'You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.
11 'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.
12 'Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.
13 'You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.
There is so much to talk about in these verses. Even so, let’s start with searching for God with all our hearts. Let’s go a little deeper today. Frequently, we find ourselves searching after God for a reason. We search after Him in order to find guidance or receive a blessing. Be honest. What I would suggest is that we go deeper. Let us search after God to reach the ultimate goal…His presence. We all know we have needs. We need God. We need His blessing. We need His provision. Yes, amen! And, brothers and sisters we need Him. We need His presence. Some of you may say, “Well that verse is Old Testament, and besides that was only written to the Israelites.” Alright, let’s look at the gospel of Mark then.
Mark 12:28-31 (NASB)
28 One of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, "What commandment is the foremost of all?"
29 Jesus answered, "The foremost is, 'Hear, O Israel! the Lord our God is one Lord ;
30 and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart , and with all your soul , and with all your mind, and with all your strength .'
31 "The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself .' There is no other commandment greater than these."
28 One of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, "What commandment is the foremost of all?"
29 Jesus answered, "The foremost is, 'Hear, O Israel! the Lord our God is one Lord ;
30 and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart , and with all your soul , and with all your mind, and with all your strength .'
31 "The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself .' There is no other commandment greater than these."
Jesus says love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength—then out of this love which will flow through us, we love our neighbor (everyone, anyone).
Jeremiah--search for God with all your heart. Jesus--love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. They are speaking the same language. God is to be our all. Let me add here—because we tend to have a little cultural baggage at this point—God blesses us to be a blessing. Our life direction is to be outward, toward others, not inward, toward self. Remember the focus of our life (the church) as a follower of Jesus is to make disciples and witness (Matthew 28:19-20. Acts 1:8). Today, we are talking bout how this action flows out of our intimacy with Christ. Or, how these activities flow out of us as God is our all.
The Heart Transformation Workbook by Keith and Karen Peterson has a wonderful section on this topic (p 59).
“It is critical to realize that blessings are not the objective. They are the fruit of intimacy with God. Blessings are who God is. We want to know God so well, be intimate with Him by knowing His thoughts, His emotions, and His desires and reflect them back to Him. We do not want to just know and obey His commands and discipline ourselves to live them. True intimacy with God reflects a man/woman “after God’s own heart.” My life becomes defined by wanting to please Him, and not to disappoint Him, and, thus, as my Father, He desires to bless me. Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love God with everything we are—heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:30). Pilgrimage is the journey of the heart to the sacred destination, His presence.”
I thank God for pastors. If you are a pastor, serving as God has called you—thank you! You have shouted boldly with your life choices, that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind. Thank you! May God fill you with a fresh dose of His Spirit to empower you to PRAY, love, serve, model, and preach/teach His word!
Our pastor, Bobby Holt preached yesterday on the “Three would-be Followers of Christ” from Luke 9: 57-62. Each of these three would-be followers had reservations or conditions on there commitment to follow Jesus. Please read that passage for your own review. The question we must answer today is. “Will we follow Jesus? No conditions. No reservations. Oh God, I cry out to You, Help me/us to say with all our hearts, “We will follow You, no matter what or where you lead. We will follow You no matter the cost!”
Father, be glorified in each of us. Be glorified in every faith family. Be glorified in our cities, our states, our nation, and in all the nations.
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