December 30, 2007 First Sunday of Christmas
Sermon Title: “Receiving God’s Love”
Series: Love Came Down At Christmas
Text: Job 1
Elder Vicki Eitel
Delivered on December 30, 2007
Receiving God’s Love
Have you ever known someone who received a gift they really loved but put it away and never used it? One of my friends received some beautiful jewelry but I never saw her wear it. I love jewelry and wear it all the time, so I was curious about why she never wore her expensive jewelry. When I asked her, she said it was because she was afraid of losing it or having it stolen. So she kept it locked in a safe.
I also had a grandmother who was rather a recluse. Even as a young child I noticed that her clothing was a little on the worn-out side. My mom would pick her out new clothes each Christmas and for her birthdays and send it to her. After she died, we were going through her things. We opened the bottom drawer of her dresser, and there, wrapped loving in tissue, were all the outfits my mother had ever sent her. They had never been worn. When we asked my uncle, who lived with her, why she had never worn them, he said she was saving them for a special occasion.
How sad it was to know, that she never got the enjoyment of wearing the outfits which were just every day clothes. She was the one who was special. They were for her, not for some special occasion.
And sadly enough, many of us are doing the same thing. God has given us the gift of His love, and peace and joy, and yet we leave it in the box, never putting it on, walking around in it and enjoying it. We accept the gift of his salvation and acknowledge that He loves us, but we never fully receive it into our lives.
Knowing that the Bible says God loves you and being intimately acquainted with His love are two different things. God wants each of us to not only know that He loves us, but to fully receive the abundant, unconditional, extravagant love He has for us.
Many of us, if questioned, would say, “Sure, I know God loves me.” But do you REALLY know the depth of God’s love for you? Or do you, like me, still unconsciously try to earn it? I read once that no matter what you say you believe, your actions will show what you really believe. Do your actions and thought life show that you feel like you have to be perfect. Do you get upset and beat yourself up when you fail? If things are going bad, do you think God is punishing you for something? If so, then I submit to you, that you really don’t know the love of God.
I want to share with you this morning, some of the obstacles we have to accepting and living in the love of God.
One of the biggest obstacles is a false understanding of who God is and what His character is like. I was recently shocked to discover, that I have been worshipping a false God. All of the pagan Gods throughout history and even the in current times, require their worshipers act in certain ways and make certain sacrifices in order to incur their favor. If you believe you can please God by your performance, then you are worshipping a false God. Nothing you can ever do will increase or decrease God’s love for you or pleasure in you. God might not be pleased with your behavior, but he is still just a pleased with you. You are His creation, His beloved child and He is crazy about you.
One example of this false belief show up a lot in our prayer lives. I have often struggled when my prayers aren’t answered. I would think that perhaps I didn’t pray often enough, or hard enough, or in the right way. Perhaps I should have fasted or agreed to make some sacrifice to God. Without realizing it, I unconsciously believed that God had to be manipulated into answering my prayers in the way that I wanted or was somehow based on my performance. It shows a complete lack of understanding in the goodness of God and His love for me.
Another example of where this false belief shows up is when we look to our circumstance. One of the greatest mistakes we can make as a believer is to determine our standing with God based on our circumstances. If things are going well, then God must be please with me. If they are going bad, then He must be unhappy or I’ve done something wrong and He is punishing me.
Job had this belief. I want us to look at the book of Job this morning and see how this false view of God affected Job’s ability to receive God’s love. It says:
In the
2
He had seven sons and three daughters, 3 and
he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen
and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of servants. He was the
greatest man among all the people of the East.
4 His
sons used to take turns holding feasts in their homes, and they would invite
their three sisters to eat and drink with them. 5 When
a period of feasting had run its course, Job would send and have them purified.
Early in the morning he would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of them,
thinking, “Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.”
This was Job’s regular custom.
One day the angels came to present themselves
before the Lord, and Satan also
came with them. 7 The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming through the earth and going back and
forth in it.” Then the Lord said
to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like
him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears(Yare) God and shuns evil.”
So we can see that Job was loved by God and he feared God.
The word fear
here is Yare (yaw-ray) which means to fear, to stand in awe of, reverence,
honor, or respect.
Job was extremely righteous. He was so concerned about righteousness that he even offered burnt sacrifices just in case one of his children sinned in their hearts.
Now on the surface this seems like a good thing that Job is so conscientious. But it points to a false belief as we will see in just a minute.
Now after Satan arrives in heaven, he says to God:
“Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. 10
“Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he
has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are
spread throughout the land. 11 But stretch out your
hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.”
And later Satan says:
“Skin for skin!” Satan
replied. “A man will give all he has for his own life. 5 But
stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse
you to your face.”
And in each case God says:
12 The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then,
everything he has is in your hands”
So then we read how God allows Satan to strip Job of his family, wealth and even his health. Then we see what Job really believes about God. How he really views God. Job exclaims:
What I
feared (pachad) has come upon me; what I dreaded (yagor) has happened to me.
The word feared in this verse is pachad which means: 1 to fear, tremble, dread,
Although Job had abundant
blessings, he couldn’t enjoy them because he lived in constant fear and dread
that if he did the slightest thing wrong, God would bring disaster upon
him.
The he continues:
That is why I am terrified (bahal) before him; when I think
of all this, I fear (pachad) him. God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has
terrified me.
He was terrified of God. How many of you think that God wants us to be terrified of Him?
Job was terrified because you never knew what God would do to you. “What I feared has come upon me, what I dreaded has happened.” Over the next 30 chapters Job complains that he is suffering unfairly because he hasn’t done anything wrong. His friends keep lecturing him that their has to be a reason for his suffering. That Job had to have done something wrong and if he will just confess it, God will relent and restore him.
Sadly, a large portion of the Christian church has this same belief system. We attribute the characteristics of false gods to the One True God. We are living and acting based on a lie. God loves you extravagantly all the time. It is not based on your performance. You can not assess how much God loves you based on your circumstances. God loves you just as much when things are going well as when they are going poorly.
God loved Job
just as much when He was pouring out blessings on his life as He did while
allowing suffering into His life. God
says to Satan at one point, “though you incited me
against him to ruin him without any reason.”
Satan wanted to ruin Job without reason, but God had a very good reason. He wanted to have an intimate relationship with Job. He didn’t want Job to pacad Him, be afraid of Him, He wanted Job to love Him and have a right understanding of who He was. He wanted Job to be able to receive His love to the fullest.
When you are suffering, or things aren’t going the way you want, don’t take that as a measure of God’s love for you.
Jer. 29:11 says, “For I know the plans I have for you,
declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you
hope and a future.”
And in Romans 8:28, “And we know that in all things God works
for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his
purpose.”
Even if God allows suffering or hardships into your life, it is always out of love.
James 1:2-4 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you
face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith
develops perseverance. Perseverance must
finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
1 Pet 4:12-13 Dear friends, do not be surprised at the
painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to
you.
Job comes to this understanding at the end of the book. After God has talked to Job and given Job a right understanding of God’s is Job replies to the Lord:
2
“I know that you can do all things; no
plan of yours can be thwarted.
3 You
asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my purpose without knowledge?’
Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too
wonderful for me to know.
5 My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.
6 Therefore
I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.”
Job and his friends had a wrong understanding of who God is and they perpetuated that false belief to others. They had obscured or misinterpreted God’s purposes without knowledge. God wanted to bless Job even more than He was already blessing him, but Job couldn’t even joyfully receive what he already had, much less enjoy additional blessings. Job lived in constant fear of displeasing God. But God loved Job so much, that wouldn’t allow Job to remain in his fear. No matter what is going on in your life, God is using it for you good and He loves you. He loves you fully, extravagantly, immeasurably, unconditionally, to distraction. You are the apple of His eye.
Another
major obstacle to entering into the fullness of His love is a false
understanding of who we are. Either we
think too much of ourselves or too little.
We don’t see ourselves as we truly are.
The other morning I was looking in the mirror and the Holy Spirit brought to my mind, “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created them.” And suddenly I thought, “I am created in the image of God.” “I am looking at the image of God.” I was stunned. Close your eyes for a moment, and I want you to picture yourself looking at yourself in the mirror and I want you to say to yourself, you are the image of God.”
How many of you found that hard to say? Or had some negative comment, like, “Yeah, right.” Or, “I don’t think so.” Or, “I sure hope God looks better than this.” If so, then you have a false image of yourself. You might have pride masquerading as low self-esteem. Pride is self-absorption, whether we’re absorbed with how miserable we are or how wonderful we are. To have a right view of ourselves requires us to be God-focused not self-focused.
God wants us to understand who we really are. We are sons and daughters of the Most High God. We are princes and princesses of the kingdom. We are fearfully and wonderfully made.
2 Co 3:18 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.
Did you hear that? You are a reflection, now, of the Lord’s glory and you are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory.
You are the temple of the Holy Spirit. When you look in the mirror, you are looking into the eyes of the Holy Spirit, because He is in you.
You can almost picture it as if when you were born, you were the perfect likeness of Christ. That’s why babies are so beautiful and innocent and pure looking. Then over time, life begins to deform and disfigure you until finally, you aren’t even recognizable as being a member of God’s family. You know how some people you can just look at them and know what family they belong to by their “family features”. Then, when we accept Christ, God begins to perform Spiritual surgery on us and restores us and transforms us into the likeness of Christ, until day some exclaims, “You remind me of Jesus.”
No matter where you’ve been, what you’ve done, or what you have become, you never ceased to be His child, His creation, the one that He loves.
There is a great song called Identity by John Waller, that says, “You are love, so I am love, You are peace, so I am peace, You are joy, so I am joy. Everything you are now becomes me. And the line between where you begin and where I end is gone, I’m in you, I know who I am, You’re my true, born identity. And I’m not the one I used to be, ‘cause now there is no separating you, from who I am.” And then there is a refrain “Anything less is not us, anything less is not us, anything less is not who we are.”
Finally, the third major obstacle to receiving His love is not having a right understanding of our purpose in life. Do you know why God created you? Was it so you could fulfill some purpose, to do something for God? No. God created you because He wants to have a relationship with you. Why do we have children? So they can do something for us? No, we have children because we want to love and be loved. We want to have a relationship with them.
I like the way the Westminster Catechism states our purpose. The first question in the catechism is: “What is the chief end of man? To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” Did you hear that? You chief purpose, the main goal of your life is to enjoy God. Do you enjoy God? Are you happy in the Lord? I love this quote from George Muller, “I saw more clearly than ever, that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord.” He said that if we did not get our soul happy in the Lord, but went out and preached the good news, or served God or helped those in distress, we would be doing it with the wrong spirit.
John Piper states, “God is most satisfied with you, when you are most satisfied with Him.”
The Psalms say, “Delight yourself in the Lord.”, “The joy of the Lord is my strength.”
Paul said, “Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice.”
Are you satisfied with God? Are you delighted with God? Do you rejoice in Him?
The path that leads to abundant life is the path of right understanding. If your obstacle is a false understanding of who God is, then spend time in the Bible learning about His true nature. Spend time in prayer and ask Him to reveal Himself to you and to teach you how to love Him. Ask Him to show you any false beliefs you have about Him.
If your obstacle is a false understanding of who you are, then spend time praying and asking God to reveal any lies that you believe about yourself. Once you identify a lie, then study the Word and find the truth and then memorize scriptures that speak the truth. The battlefield is in your mind. When you catch yourself reacting to something in a sinful way, then stop and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the spiritual roots behind your reaction. Then start quoting the truth.
2 Co 10:5 We demolish
arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of
God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. [1]
And finally, if your obstacle is not being able to enjoy God, then ask Him to help you with that. Spend time just being in His presence, focusing on His love and His true nature.
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our
faith.
My sister’s pastor challenged his congregation to write a love letter to God every day for thirty days. I challenge you to try this. It will very quickly show you the depth of you love for God and the extent to which you have received His love. The first time I tried to write Him a letter, it turned out to be a thank you letter. I was very thankful for God, but I quickly realized that I didn’t really know how to express by love to God, nor did I really know how to be in a love relationship with Him. Do you love him like a father, a brother, or a friend? It has really opened my heart and my eyes. I am looking for things I love about God. I am looking for ways to tell Him I love Him
In 2008, let’s make loving God and receiving God’s love our main focus. Let’s strive to enjoy God and delight in Him.
Open the gift of His love. Take it out of the box, clothe yourself in His love, wear it everywhere you go and don’t ever take it off. Delight in it, enjoy it to the fullest.