Loving Jesus — Paul Lloyd

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Amen, that was a good prayer that we just prayed. Amen, let's pray some more together. Yes, Lord, that is our heart's desire, that you would pour out a blessing. Pour out the blessing of your very self upon us, Lord.

That's the highest blessing we can ask for today. To have you near and to be changed into your image, Lord. Father, I just pray that you take control of my words. Make me, Lord, a mouthpiece for you today.

Order my thoughts. And Lord, make me a part of that blessing, I pray. I need you, Lord. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Greetings to everyone this morning. In Jesus' name. This is our last Sunday of 2008, as we know.

Examining Our Lives and Choosing the Right Mountain

I wanted to speak about putting first things first today. You know, at the end of the year, I usually try to take some time and reflect, like has been already shared. Where have I been this year? What has happened?

What did God do in my life this year? Where do I want to go next year? Isn't it wonderful that God breaks life up into increments of time? And makes it easy to have new beginnings. And to start over. Every week is a new beginning.

Every day is a new beginning. His mercies are new every morning. And every year, likewise, is another year. I may have failed this year, but this is a new year. By God's grace, I can overcome this year.

So that's what I have in my heart today. I felt the Lord would have me to share about. An unexamined life is a risky thing. Did you ever think of that? An unexamined life is a risky thing. Many people spend a lifetime climbing some mountain.

Only to find out at the end of their life it was the wrong one. Somehow they didn't examine. Somehow they missed. This happened to me in the natural realm. When I lived in Colorado, we used to like to go to the mountains.

One time we went there with a group of young men to climb a certain peak. It was a 14 ,000 foot formidable peak. And we wanted to climb that. We wanted to conquer that. And so we took off. We had to backpack in to get even close to it.

And then we had to camp overnight and attempt to climb it. And we climbed what we thought was the right peak. Only to discover at the top that it wasn't the one we wanted. That one was far away and it was really high.

And you know we were tired. And we couldn't get to that peak that time. We didn't have enough time or energy. And so we were disappointed. We didn't conquer what we wanted to. We didn't conquer what we wanted to.

Young men like to conquer, don't they? And that's not that big of a tragedy to miss a mountain like that. Coxcomb Peak was the name of it. We could go back another year. But you know, if we climb the wrong mountain of life, that is a tragedy.

If we get to the top of what we thought was the highest peak that we could get to. And then we discover we've climbed the wrong one. There's one higher. There's one better. And we don't have the wherewithal to get on that peak.

For many people in our land, they're climbing mountains of financial achievement. That's the mountain. I worked for a fellow one time and he had a sign in his house. It said, he who dies with the most toys wins.

Isn't that sad? I'm going to climb that mountain. I'm going to get the most toys. And the highest peak is the one who gets the most of them. He wins the game. How empty. How sad. That's not even a foothill.

That's the lowlands. Some people, it may be a career. They're climbing a mountain of success. Many a woman has discovered in our culture that the mountain she was climbing, that she thought was going to be so promising and glorious of being a CEO or a business entrepreneur.

When they get to be 40 and they realize they don't have any children, they realize I've been climbing the wrong mountain. I'm 40 years old. I may not be able to have any children now. And I'm going to get old without any children.

That's sad. And other people climb mountains, mountain after mountain of personal pleasure. How can I get the most fun in life? What can I do to gratify my body, my bodily desires or my feelings? And so mountain after mountain, they try to climb only to realize that it's not what it was cracked up to be.

And so they look for the next one. I want to speak to you this morning about the highest mountain. The one that we want to climb. The only one that's worthy to be climbed. It takes effort to climb a mountain.

You don't get to the top of a mountain just cruising up easily. It takes effort. Sometimes you have to stop every few steps. Those 14 ,000 foot mountains, you had to stop and rest every few steps. You could climb about 10 feet and then you just had to take a break.

Loving Jesus as the Highest Calling

The mountain I want to speak to you about today is the Christians Mountain. And the title of this message is Loving Jesus. Loving Jesus. There's no greater thing we can do. And I want to speak today about what does that mean?

Because there's a lot of misconceptions. What does it mean to love Jesus? What doesn't it mean? What does it mean? Yes, in a way it's a mountain. It takes effort to love Jesus. A young man came to Jesus one day and he said to him, What's the greatest commandment?

Jesus, Master, what is the greatest commandment? I want to know what the greatest thing is I can do. He wanted to climb the highest mountain for the Lord. Well, we know the answer. Jesus said, the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.

That is the highest mountain peak. That's why we were created, isn't it? Any other mountain that we would climb to feel that we've achieved is only going to show us that higher mountain someday. Surely in the day of judgment, if not sooner.

It's the highest commandment that we have. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. We're starting a new year. We want to think about what is God's will. What's our highest purpose?

It's closely connected. Our highest purpose. In Romans chapter 8 with me. I love the unity of God's word. And how in this case, how God's highest commandment leads to God's highest purpose for our life.

They go together. Romans chapter 8 and verse 28. And Paul says, and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. What is his purpose for whom he did foreknow?

He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. The highest purpose is that we become like Jesus. The highest command is that we love God.

I titled this loving Jesus. We believe in the Trinity, don't we? God, the Father, God, the Son and God, the Holy Spirit. I titled this loving Jesus for a reason, which we'll see as we go on. Second Corinthians 318 says, but we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the spirit of the Lord.

That's second Corinthians 318. Write it down. And so what it says here, as we behold with an open face, an open heart, as in the glass, the glory of the Lord, we're changed into the same image from glory to glory.

What you look upon becomes what you will be like, what you value, what you give the highest value to is what you will be like. Whatever you gaze upon is what you're going to be looking like sometime soon.

We see it so clearly, especially with youth. One time I was on a certain place where they had a cruising strip, you know, where they would drive up and down, back and forth all evening, Friday night. And we were witnessing handing out tracks and things.

And it was amazing to walk along. You could tell what these people were into. There were little groups all along the street. This group over here, these were the cowboys. They had on those hats, you know, and the big belt buckles and those pointy shoes.

And they all looked the same. They were the cowboys. They were gazing at something. Apparently they were all looking at the same thing. You could tell because they all looked that way. And then over the next place, there was the punk punks.

They all wanted to be different than everybody else of society. So they all had the same chains and black things and so forth and so on. That was the punk group. You didn't have to ask them, what do you admire?

What do you appreciate? You knew it. You could tell by what was on the outside. And we could go on and on. There was the athletes, the cheerleaders and so forth over in this group. And even like a group of, I guess maybe people call them nerds or something.

They were like into books and into studies. They had their group. I'm a nerd and I'm proud of it. So you become like what you gaze at and what you give yourself to. What you admire. We see this that it even makes grown men put on shirts that have the number of some guy on it and his name on the back.

Well, he's not that person. Nobody admires him. I used to do that too. So we become like what we look at. We have to be careful what we gaze on. You can tell by the way we look at people. You can tell what they look at because they have on these racing clothes.

You ever see them? Car racing? It's like a whole suit they wear and hats and things. Well, what do we look like? Who do we look like? But we all with open face, beholding as in a glass, the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

God wants that principle to be used in our life to make us like Him. To change us from glory to glory. And that's the beauty of what happens when we give ourselves to God's highest commandment, which is to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.

And His highest purpose is fulfilled. We become like Jesus. So this is very important. Loving Jesus is a very important thing, isn't it? We want to talk about what does it mean? And I hope I can say it in such a way that you will not forget it.

That it will change something about the way you live. I believe it can. If you'll hear what I have to share here. A few weeks ago, we read the resolves of Jonathan Edwards, 19 year old young man. He said, I resolved 70 times.

He wrote down, I'm going to do this, this by the grace of God. Well, one of the resolves that he said was resolved. To endeavor to obtain for myself as much happiness in the other world as I possibly can.

With all the power, might, vigor and vehemence, yea violence, I'm capable of, or can bring myself to exert in any way that can be thought of. Now, some people might say that sounds a little selfish. But you know, that's God's will, isn't it?

He said, I'm resolved to endeavor to obtain for myself as much happiness in the other world as I possibly can. Now, there's someone who had a vision. He had a vision of eternity. Of what really mattered.

I wonder if he wrote these resolves on a New Year day or the last day of the year. I don't know for sure. Praise God. We can learn from people in the past, Sam. Praise God. We can look at them and learn from their mistakes and from their successes.

I'm sure Jonathan Evers is a very happy man today. I believe he found what he was looking for. Well, what can we do in 2009 that will really count for something? Loving Jesus. What does it mean to love Jesus?

We have to define this. What do I mean by that? There's many different ideas of what it means to love Jesus. It seems today in this day that we live in. Back starting in the 1980s, there was a whole movement of praise and worship movement swept through the Christian world.

Where there became an emphasis on loving Jesus by praising his name. Worshipping him. And I believe there's a lot of good in that. But I also believe that's not necessarily loving Jesus. And I'm going to show you as we go on why I say that.

Because we all know that we can say something with our mouth that really doesn't have reality. And it can indeed be a wonderful way to love Jesus. To lift up our voices in praise here like we did this morning.

We're loving Jesus today. But like the lover who tells his wife that he loves her when he wants to get something from her or so forth. But then he goes out carousing with his buddies and doesn't pay the bills.

After a while that love sounds kind of empty, doesn't it? In fact, she even grows to where she almost hates to hear it. I've known women like that. They become bitter. You don't love me. If you love me, you would show it to me.

And so loving Jesus is not simply praising his name in a worship song. Although that can be the outflowing of loving Jesus. But is there something more than that as we're seeing here? There's something deeper.

Or some people would feel that it is performing certain acts of service. Maybe witnessing. Giving to the poor. Praying for the sick. Those are good ways to love Jesus. Good ways for the love of Jesus to flow out.

But we can do all those things and not love Jesus. First Corinthians warns us of that. Chapter 13. If we give our body to be burned and have not love, it profits us nothing. You know, if we prophesy, if we do all these great things and don't love, we're just astounding God.

So God challenges us deeper. I want to make this so simple today that every child can understand what I mean by loving Jesus. And what does God's word mean when it says that we are to love him? God's ways don't need to be complicated.

We can make them that way. But I believe that his ways are simple. Jesus said the kingdom of God is of such as these. These little children. These simple ones. We're going to love Jesus. Okay, we're going to love Jesus.

Jesus Christ as the Word of God

Who is he? Turn with me to John chapter 1. John chapter 1. If we're going to love somebody, we have to know who they are. We can't really love somebody if we don't. John chapter 1. Listen to these amazing words here.

Let them come into your heart as if it's the first time you've ever heard them. In the beginning was the word. And the word was with God. And the word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. In the beginning was the word.

And the word was with God. And the word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him. All things were made by the word. And without him was not anything made that was made.

Genesis chapter 1. And God said, let there be light. And God said, let there be stars in the firmament. So forth and so on. In him was life. And the life was the light of men. And if we read on down to John 1 .14, we find out who is this person?

Who is this word? And the word was made flesh. And dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory. The glory as of the only begotten of the father. Full of grace and truth. The word became flesh. This word that was in the beginning with God.

That was God. Through whom all things were made. Became a man. That is an amazing statement. Isn't it? Who is Jesus? Jesus is the word. He's called that several places. He's called that in Revelation chapter 19.

When he comes back. He's going to return in his glory. On the horse and he has a name written across his chest. The word of God. Jesus is the word. Jesus is the word. Loving Jesus is loving the word. Let's take it out of the clouds.

Out of the mystical realm of mystery. Loving Jesus is loving the word. Is it not? Jesus is called the word of God. Loving Jesus. Can that change the way we view reading the Bible? Somebody sees you sitting on the airplane.

Reading your Bible. Oh, but you're reading there. What are you doing there? I'm loving Jesus. I'm reading his word. Jesus is the word. I asked my family last night to help me with this sermon. So I want you to think with me about the Old Testament.

All the things that show forth Christ. In the different books of the Old Testament. He's in there. It's full. Jesus is the word. It's all full of Christ. He's the father. Who created the world into existence.

He's Genesis 3. He's the promised seed. That's going to bruise the serpent's head. He's the ram caught in the thicket. That saved the life of the firstborn. Whom God said to offer. In Exodus, he's the Passover lamb.

He's the rock in the wilderness. He's the manna in the desert. The pillar of fire by night. And the pillar of cloud by day. It's Jesus. He is the word. He's the atoning lamb in Leviticus. He's the serpent on the pole.

In Numbers. That when they looked at it, they were healed. It's full of Jesus Christ. Old Testament and new. Loving Jesus is loving the word. Deuteronomy, he's the saver of life. To those who love God, the blessings.

He's the saver of death. To those who reject the curses. Joshua, he's the captain of the Lord's host. That appeared. Ruth, he's the kinsman redeemer. Samuel, the good shepherd, protecting his sheep from lions and bears.

Slayer of giants. Nehemiah, he's the rebuilder of walls and an intercessor. We could go on and on and on. He's the wisdom of Proverbs. He's the fourth man in the fiery furnace with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.

The despised and rejected savior, Isaiah 53. Isaiah, he's the prophet who loves his unfaithful wife, who cheats on him. That's all points to Jesus. So many different ways. Let me define the word love for you.

I really like to use Webster's 1828 dictionary. I recommend it if you don't have one. This man, I think he must have been a preacher, not just a dictionary writer. But let's read what he said. They had a few.

They had some different dictionary writers back then. Let's read what he said. One hundred and eighty years ago. Love in a general sense to be pleased with, to regard with affection on account of some qualities which excite pleasing sensations or desire of gratification.

We love a friend on account of some qualities which give us pleasure in his society. We love a man who has done us a favor. In either case or in which case gratitude enters into the composition of our affection.

We love our parents and our children on account of their connection with us and on account of many qualities which please us. We love to retire to a cool shade in summer. We love a warm room in winter.

We love to hear an eloquent advocate. This is where it really struck me. He says the Christian loves his Bible as if it is common, something common. He's giving all these common things back then that we all know.

We love a warm room. We love a cold. And of course, we all know that a Christian loves his Bible. A Christian loves his Bible. In short, we love whatever gives us pleasure and delight, whether animal or intellectual.

And if our hearts are right, we love God above all things as the sum of all excellence and all the attributes which can communicate happiness. To intelligent beings. In short, we love whatever gives us pleasure and delight.

That's what we love. I thought about it after reading this. You know, this could be, in a sense, part two of my last message of the sin of not rejoicing. Because when God tells us to rejoice in the Lord always, what he's saying is make God your highest delight, your highest pleasure, the thing that you love.

That's what that means. So in a sense, we're going to maybe define that a little further here. What does it mean to rejoice in the Lord always? What does it mean to delight, to love God? Jesus himself made it absolutely clear when he was on earth what it meant to love him.

Obedience as Evidence of Love for Jesus

We're going to read some of these verses. He left no doubt about it. John 8 31. He said, if you love me, if you if you're he said, you're my disciple indeed. If you continue in my word. What is a real disciple?

It's somebody who continues in my word. He said, I'm your Lord. If you do the things I say. Matthew 7. It just cuts through all the fog and haze that we try to sometimes confuse things with. He was very clear.

I'm your Lord. If you do what I say, you're my disciple. If you continue in my word. If you continue in my word. And. He goes on. John. Five thirty nine. You may just want to write these down as I read them.

Search the scriptures. For in them, you think you have eternal life and they are they which testify of me. Who's telling the Pharisees? I'm the one who's in those scriptures. Just like we read here about all his manifestations.

You think you just because you have that book. That you have eternal life in that. He said that they're testifying about me. But he said, you will not come to me that you might have life. John 6. Sixty three.

He said, it is the spirit that quickeneth the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit. And they are life. He that rejects me and receives not my words as one that judges him.

The word that I have spoken. The same shall judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken of myself. John 12. Forty nine. I'm sorry. I missed the one that was John 12. Forty eight. Now, John 12. Forty nine and 50.

For I have not spoken of myself, but the father which sent me. He gave me a commandment. What I should say and what I should speak. And I know that his commandment is life everlasting. Whatsoever I speak, therefore, even as the father said unto me, so I speak.

The words that I speak to you, they are spirit and they are life. This is the most powerful book in the world. There is no more powerful book. There are some powerful books. Charles Darwin wrote a powerful book.

It was not true. But it was a book that. Has influenced many people. Karl Marx wrote a powerful book that's likewise to this day influences people. No book has ever influenced people like this. That word.

In John one where it says. He was. In him was life. That's the same word that's used in Hebrews four twelve. For the word of God is quick and powerful. Alive and powerful. It's the same word. It's alive.

This book is alive. It has power to change us. Into his image. Loving Jesus. It's loving the word. Do you love the word? Do you love the word? Do I love the word? Do I love Jesus? John fifteen ten. If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love.

Even as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love. That word there is the word. The Greek word. Terros. Terreo. A watch. To guard. To guard from loss or injury properly by keeping the eye upon.

If you keep my commandments, if you keep your eye on my commandments. No, that doesn't mean if you keep every. If you never break one of my commandments, then you'll get to heaven. But what he's saying here is if you keep my commandments in front of your eyes.

And you make them be your light. Your guide. That which. Illuminates your path. Yes. Yes. If you fail, you repent. First John. One nine. But there's something kept in front of you that is your guide. If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love.

Even as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love. And it does mean to do his commandments also. And hereby we do know that we know him. If we keep his commandments. He that says I know him and keepeth not his commandments is a liar.

And the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word in him. Verily is the love of God perfected. First John two five. Who so keeps his word in him. Verily is the love of God perfected. Hereby we know that we are in him.

Whosoever transgresses and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ is not God. He doesn't stay in the teaching of Christ. He have he that abideth in the doctrine of Christ. He that keeps the doctrine of Christ in front of him continues in it.

That's the same word continue that's used in John eight. You continue in my word, you're my disciples indeed. He that abideth, he that continues in the doctrine of Christ. He has both the father and the son.

He that loves the word of God has the father and the son. Do you read the Bible as a love letter? Is it a love letter to you? Or is it a love letter written to someone else? Sometimes we feel that way, don't we?

I had a brother in our home fellowship meeting who shared that. When we were talking about this, he said, sometimes I feel like a farmer who's plowing his field and the wind carries a note, tumbles across the field and it lands up on my tractor.

I grab it and look at it and it's a love letter. Dear John. He said, it doesn't really grab me because I'm not John. It doesn't captivate me. But it's like, well, I'm glad that he's got something going.

I'm glad that somebody loves him. But it's not my love letter. We need to read it like it's our love letter. Because it is. If you're his, if you're saved, if your heart is given to him, then this is your love letter.

Reading the Bible as God's Love Letter

And I read an interesting example of this that I'd like to share with you. Written 30, 40, 50 years ago called How to Read a Book. It was a book on how to read a book. And this fellow teaches you how to read a book.

And maybe most of us might think, well, anybody can know how to read a book. That's not hard. But it's very interesting. It's not as easy as we think. How to read a book well, in other words. Anyway, in an advertisement for this book in the New York Times, I'd like to read to you what it said.

And we all know that a love letter is read very differently than just a newsletter. Right? When my wife and I were courting, she was thousands of miles away in another continent. And we would write letters every week.

It took like two months, I think, for the letters to get there. It might have taken a month. But it was a long time. We didn't have all this fancy electronic stuff back then. We have a stack of letters to this day.

Love letters. I didn't read those letters very casually. I had purpose. I want to find out the intricate shades of meaning that were in there. This person loves me. This is my letter. And one time I got my letter from the mailbox and it was the middle of winter.

I walked out and I was so engrossed in looking at the cover of it and just thinking about it that I slipped it on ice and just went flat on my back right in the middle of the street. I had something else on my mind.

I had a love letter and I was going to go read it as soon as I could. Listen to this. Here's the advertisement. A picture showed a puzzled adolescent perusing a letter with the following copy underneath.

This young man has just received his first love letter. He may have read it three or four times, but he's just beginning to read it as accurately as he would like, would require several dictionaries and a good deal of close work with a few experts of etymology and philology.

However, he will do all right without them. He will ponder over the exact shade of meaning of every word, every comma. She has headed the letter. Dear John, what he asked himself is the exact significance of those words.

Did she refrain from saying dearest because she was bashful? Would my dear have sounded too formal? Gee, maybe she would have said dear so and so to anybody. A worried frown will now appear in his face, but it disappears as soon as he really gets to thinking about the first sentence.

She certainly wouldn't have written that to anybody. And so he works his way through the letter. One moment perched blissfully on a cloud. The next moment huddled miserably behind an eight ball. It has started a hundred questions in his mind.

He could quote it by heart. In fact, he will to himself for weeks to come. Then the advertisement concluded, if people read books with anything like the same concentration, we'd be a race of mental giants.

When something is a love letter to us, it changes how we read it. This is for me. My lover has something to tell me. I wonder what he meant by that. What did he mean by continue in my love? I need to look that one up in the dictionary.

I need to find out what the terms are that he's using here. Because it's written to me. And he loves me. He said something about eternal life. What does that mean? I must do a study on that. Eternal life.

Sometimes we need to remind ourselves. This is God's love letter to me. There's many times I'm sure you and I both have read where we didn't feel that. We just were doing our thing, our duty, our morning devotions.

A principle of how to get more out of the word is to think about it from those different perspectives. This is my lover. He's loving me and I'm reading his letter now. What is my lover telling me? Getting a little ahead of myself there.

Loving Jesus in Daily Faithfulness

As a new Christian, the church I was in showed a video one Friday night of the end times. It was the mark of the beast. They had people who were told to deny Jesus or we'll chop your head off. I was a pretty new Christian.

And I was scared of that. I thought, wow. But I don't know if I could. What would I do? What would I do if that was me? I remember talking to a friend about it a day or two later. He was just sharing from his heart.

He said, you know, I'd gladly give my neck to the Lord. It came down to that. I love Jesus. I'd do that. And I remember inside thinking, whoa, this guy really loves the Lord. I wasn't sure if I loved God.

I wasn't sure if I loved Jesus that much. I was still pretty fearful. Just didn't know. Didn't know what I would do. But you know what? I did love the Word. Because I read it all the time. I love Jesus.

And He was changing me and is changing me. And He wouldn't bring me to that place until I'm ready for that. And maybe I wasn't ready for it right then. I've always prayed, Lord, don't bring me into things I'm not ready for.

Just stop me. I don't know how much my friend loved the Bible. You know, it's easy for us to look at a grand, big event like you're standing in front of the guillotine and they tell you, deny Jesus or you die.

And to think that that's where it comes down to do I love the Lord or not. It's a lot harder to do it every day. To get up every morning say, I'm going to love God today. I'm going to read. I'm going to love the Word today.

I'm going to read it. I'm going to find out what it means. And sometimes when we read the Word it's exciting, thrilling. Amazing, isn't it? Many times it isn't for me. It's just the thing that I do because I love God.

Isn't that the way relationships are of love? I love my wife. I don't always feel like it though. You know how it is. Things happen, busy times, whatever it may be. But I've learned to love her without feelings because I love her.