OUR MISSION AT THE RIVER – Part 2

Love Jesus – The Foundation of Our Faith

Our greatest desire at The River is to help you discover what it means to love Jesus. We will never push religion, God, Jesus or our church on anyone.

We want to celebrate what it means to be a Christ follower!

So we tell people come as you are, check us out, ask questions, take as much time as you need, but our goal is for you to fall in love with Jesus.

But what does that mean? There are so many misconceptions about what love is that if we're going to really understand how to love Jesus we have to start with understanding what real love is.

Love is a word that we use and misuse in many different ways. We say things like:
· I love my wife.
· I love pepperoni pizza. I hope I feel differently about Cathy than I do about pepperoni pizza or at least maybe more passionately
· I love America.
· I love apple pie.
· I love you.
Same word, different meanings.

What does the word mean? That's the key. If I'm going to love Jesus, I've got to understand what this word is all about.

First let’s look at some popular misconceptions that confuse our understanding of love.

1. Love is only a feeling. I get a feeling, a quiver in my liver, an ocean of emotion, or a tingle in my toes. But love is more than a feeling. It affects my feelings powerfully, but it's more than just a feeling.

2. Love is uncontrollable. A lot of people use words like I feel giddy, my head's spinning, or I'm weak in the knees. It sounds a lot more like being sea sick than love struck, but that's the words that we use to describe love.

We've all heard people say, "I fell in love." Like you're walking down the street one day, tripped, and fell in love. When you say that what you're really saying is, “it just happened, I couldn't help it; I had no control over it.”

That's a dangerous misconception. Because if you can fall into love, then you can fall out of love.

You may not realize it, but you can control love, in fact the Bible teaches that love is controllable. It is actually up to you to determine if you fall in or out of love.

In fact Jesus actually commanded us to love one another.
John 15:12 (NIV) “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”

If He commanded it, obviously it’s something we can control.
That means I have control over when I love and when I don't love. Who I love and who I don’t love.

God’s love, Agape love is a different kind of love than we’re used to. His love is powerful, complete, and unconditional. He loves us and He wants us to love Him back and to love others.

So if love is more than just a feeling and you have control over it, then what does God say about love?

1. God says, Love is a choice.
Colossians 3:14 (NIV) "And over all these virtues, put on love, which binds them all together." Circle "put on love". Love is something that I choose to do. It’s an action that I take. If it were a feeling, or just an accident, then God couldn't command it. But it’s a choice so He can command it and that leads to the second thing God says about love.

2. Love is a matter of conduct. It's how I act.
1 John 3:18 "Let us not love with words or tongue, but with actions and truth." Actions -- that's what love is really all about. It's how I act towards another person. You can talk about love until you're blue in the face, but your actions will always determine what is real.

3. Love is what God has for us unconditionally.
Romans 5:8 (TEV) “God has shown us how much He loves us; It was while we were still sinners that Christ died for us.”

When you understand God’s love, it includes a forgiveness capacity that strains anyone’s imagination.

God doesn’t say, “Clean up your act first and then come to Me.” God says, “Come to Me. Receive My love and I will help you clean up your act.”

When we receive God’s unconditional love He forgives us for everything we have ever done.

Luke 24:47 (LB) “There is forgiveness of sins for all who turn to me.”

It’s like this: Imagine that God gave you the ability to remember everything wrong you’ve ever done– every bad thing, every sin, everything you’ve ever done and you had to write it down in a notebook. Some of you are thinking, “That’s a lot of notebooks!” You’re right. Now God says give Me your notebooks and He drops them into a trash can that says “FORGIVEN”. Then He walks you into a party, a celebration. There’s music going and streamers and people are hollering. And it’s a party for you.

That’s what heaven’s like. And Jesus tells us three stories to explain it. He tells us a story about…
a woman who lost a coin,
a shepherd who lost a sheep,
and father who lost a lost son.

Guess what happens when the coin, the sheep and the son are found? They celebrate! God and all the Angels in heaven party!
· He’s not rejoicing because all the problems of the world have been solved.
· He’s not rejoicing because all human pain and suffering are over.
· He’s not rejoicing because thousands have been converted and are now praising His goodness.
He rejoices because that which was lost has now been found. He rejoices because one of His creations has been found.

If you’re here today and you are just checking things out, today’s your day to be found. It’s your day to respond to God’s love and to receive it. God wants to throw a party in your name, today!

John 1:12 (NLT) “But to all who believed Him and accepted Him, He gave them the right to become children of God.”

That’s what a Christian is - a child of God. If you’ve never received God’s love, what are you waiting for?

All you have to do is say, “God, here I am. I want to be your child. I accept your Son Jesus Christ.” That’s what being a Christian is.

So let me make it simple, here are the ABC’s of loving Jesus.

What do I have to do to love Jesus?
A - ACCEPT GOD'S LOVE FOR ME.

This is what we have been talking about. But think about it like this:
Your deepest need in life is to feel totally and unconditionally loved.
· Not for something you could be or should be,
· But loved just as you are, total acceptance.
That is your deepest inner need.

And only God can love you with as much love as you really need. God loves you every second of every minute of every hour of every day of every week of every month of every year.

There's never been a time in your life when God didn't love you. Nobody else can do that. Only God can love you as deeply as you really need.

So if to be loved is your deepest need, and God loves you as much as you need, why people avoid God? Because they don't know what He's like. They don't know how much He loves them.

It's ironic to me that when you need God's love the most is when you tend to run the other way. Guilt causes us to run from God instead of running to God.

That started way back at the Garden of Eden. Adam, after eating the forbidden fruit says, "I was afraid and I hid myself." And people have been afraid and running from God ever since.

I used to have a big sign in my office that said, "If you feel far from God, guess who moved?" It’s not God, God hasn't moved. He's never stopped loving you. In fact He continues to pursue you.

But some of you say, "But you don't know what I've done! I've blown it too much. God can never love me." Wrong.
Romans 8:39 (NLT) "… 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."

God has never stopped loving you. That doesn't mean He approves of everything you've done, because He doesn’t, but no matter what He's never stopped loving you.

Some say, "I don't feel like I'm a bad person but I just don't think God's interested in me." You're wrong too!

Luke 12:7 (NCV) "God even knows how many hairs you have on your head. Don't be afraid, you are worth much…"

You’re worth much! In fact you ever want to know how much you're worth, just look at the cross!

What’s the starting point? Accept God's love for you.
It's one thing to know about God's love. It's another thing to accept it. You're never going to understand it until you accept it.

That means saying to God, "God I know You love me and I receive Your love. I don't want to just know about You. I want to know You."

The Bible says God created you just so He can love you. He knows everything there is to know about you. He knows everything you’ve ever done and He still loves you and wants you to know Him. He still wants to have a relationship with you.

He loves you unconditionally; don’t you think you should love Him back? That makes Him worth our acceptance of Him.

To love Jesus, first I have to accept God’s love for me, then I...
B - BELIEVE THAT JESUS DIED AND ROSE FOR ME.

Psalm 14:1 (NIV) “The fool says in his heart there is no God.”
Let me be totally candid with you here: You have to have more faith to believe that creation happened by accident than to believe there's a creator. When you have a creation there must be some creator.

It takes more faith to not believe in God than it does to believe in God. If I took a watch all apart and put all the pieces in a bag and shook it up - do you think it could come out as a working watch? No way! Somebody had to put it together. And it's an even bigger leap of faith to think the universe happened like that.

Its one thing to believe about a person but it's another thing to believe in a person.

Romans 10:9 (NIV) “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Some people say, "I believe there's a God." So what?

There’s more to loving Jesus than just head knowledge. It's not just believing about God, it's believing in God. The Bible says even the demons believe that God is real but you're not going to find them in heaven.

I believe Lenin was real but I'm not a Communist. I believe Hitler was real but I'm not a Nazi. I believe in Jesus and I'm a Christian. Why? Because I've committed myself to Him.

The Greek word for believe in means to trust in, cling to, rely on, adhere to, sell out to, commit to.

It's like the chair you're setting on. You say, "I believe this chair will hold me up." It's one thing to say you believe it. It's another to sit down on it. The moment you sit down on it, that's real belief. You relied on the chair to hold you up.

You need Jesus in your life. You need to have a relationship with God, not because you're going to die tomorrow, but because you're going to live tomorrow BUT you’re going to die someday. And only a fool goes through life unprepared for what he knows is going to happen. That's foolish. So be prepared.

So to love Jesus I need to accept His love for me. I need to believe that Jesus died on the cross and rose from the grave for me. And finally to Love Jesus I need to take that final step and…
C - COMMIT MY LIFE TO CHRIST.

Romans 10:9 (NIV) “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’… you will be saved.”

That’s what separates Christ followers from religious people. Religious people confess their religion; whatever that is… and Christ followers confess Jesus as their Lord.

You say Jesus; I commit my life to You.

You accept His love for you, you believe in your heart that Jesus died on the cross for you and rose from the grave and then you commit your whole life to Christ.

I lived in Atlanta for several years. I served as a youth pastor at a church and then I went out on my own as a youth evangelist. I began speaking at camps and youth groups and I was even booked on a Christian cruise to the Bahamas. Most of the churches who booked me were Southern Baptist churches. They network, once you do a good job for one, they tell all the other Southern Baptist churches and you’re in. Then one day someone asked me, What are you? I said a Christian. They said no I mean are you a Southern Baptist. I said, no I’m a Christian. Now you have to know that most of my ministries had been at Baptist churches and I was originally ordained at a Baptist church. But the truth is I have always disliked being put into a mold; to me a religious title was never comfortable. And I saw this strong religious attitude that said, I’m a Southern Baptist so I’m saved. But I knew a lot of people who claimed to be So Baptist that didn’t know or love Jesus, they were just religious. Shortly after that, all my speaking opportunities dried up. The word was out, he’s not a Baptist! I hate religion!

1 Peter 3:14-15 (GN) "Don't be afraid of anyone and don't worry, but have reverence for Christ in your heart and honor him as Lord."

· How many of you would say "I try to follow the Ten Commandments."
· How many of you even know all Ten Commandments?
· How many of you have seen the Ten Commandments?
· Do you know what the first commandment is?

Exodus 20:6 "You shall have no other gods before Me."
That's number one on God's big ten! The Bible calls the opposite of that idolatry.

Any time you put anything, any person, any career, any job, any decision, any religion, anything in first place in your life instead of God; that's called idolatry.

It can even be a good thing, but if it's in first place in your life where God ought to be, you've made it god.

Any time you put your house, your job, your bank account, your girlfriend, boyfriend, husband of wife - before God that's called idolatry.

1 Peter 3:14-15 (TEV) “Do not be afraid of anyone, and do not worry. But have reverence for Christ in your hearts, and honor him as Lord."

That's not a word we use a whole lot. We don't have lords and ladies and counts in America. This is a democracy. So what does it mean to honor Christ as Lord?

It means let Christ be the manager of your life. Let Him be the boss. Let Him call the shots. He doesn't want to be resident in your life, He wants to be president in your life. You say “God, You be number one." That's what it means to commit to Christ, to make Him Lord. And that’s what it means to love Jesus.

Maybe you feel like things aren't fitting together very well in your life right now. Maybe you're feeling a sense of incompleteness.

You’re wondering why am I here? What’s my purpose?
Is this all there is to life?
If you've had those feelings, congratulations!

Where do you think those feelings are coming from? God!
God is putting a hunger for Himself in your life. He's saying "I love you and I want you to love Me.

He creates a dissatisfaction in your life that says, "There's got to be more to life than this!" Because there is!

There's a God-shaped vacuum in each of us. Nothing else can fill it. If you don't fill it with God, it will fill with something else.

Nothing else can substitute for God.
· It doesn't matter how much human affirmation you get,
· it doesn't matter how many awards you put on your shelf,
· how many achievements you get,
· how many possessions you stockpile,
Because nothing can substitute for God in your life; God says, I love you and I want you to love Me back.

Maybe you made a commitment to Christ a while back, but you got stuck in religion. It’s time to repent. Know what that means? It means to turn around and go the other way.
In other words, turn from religion and turn to Christ.
Stop being religious and start loving Jesus.

That’s why this is a key value and the second part of the Mission of The River, is to Love Jesus. We want you to fall in love with Jesus. He is the answer to all of life’s problems.

At the River we have discovered the keys to living life to the absolute fullest and it is found in a relationship with God who loves you so much he sent His Son to die on the cross for you.

That’s the foundation of our faith. It’s the foundation for life.