Love God Supremely — David Servant

A second principle to ensure that next year is going to be your best year yet. Hi, welcome to today's Little Lesson. Thank you so much for joining me. This is another special edition of Little Lessons.

It's our second of 12 special Little Lessons where we're focusing on one theme, and that is what you can do to ensure that next year is going to be the very best year of your life. And if you missed the first special Little Lesson that we did on this theme, please stop right here and go back and watch that one, because some of you don't even believe that it's possible for next year to be the best year of your life.

God's Promise of Increasing Light

And in that first Little Lesson, I tried to show you from scripture that it's very possible. In fact, that's God's will. We read from Proverbs 4 and verse number 18, the path of the righteous is like the light of the dawn.

It shines brighter and brighter until the full day. And that's one of, I guess, a number of promises that I could look at in scripture that would encourage you to believe that things can get better. If the trend has been heading down, that can change.

The trend can start heading back up. One day we're going to be in heaven, those of us who are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. Everybody agrees that when that happens, everything's going to be absolutely wonderful, right?

It's going to be marvelous. Well, what would ever cause us to think that until that time, things have to get worse or the trend has to keep going downward as it has been for however many years it has been going down in your life?

It doesn't have to be that way. And I know there's going to be some nitpicky theologians going to say, yeah, but that's not true for those who are persecuted. Au contraire, monsieur, I did take five years of French.

You're telling me that people who are serving Jesus Christ and are being persecuted for the sake of righteousness aren't having a wonderful, blessed time? Jesus said, blessed are you when men persecute you and revile you and spitefully use you for great is your reward in heaven.

So it's just a matter of your perspective. When the original apostles were persecuted and flogged, they left that place rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer for his name. There's a huge blessing in persecution.

In fact, we might elaborate on that a little bit more in a future Little Lesson in the 11 that we have left, as we're going to be looking at biblical principles as to what you can do to ensure that next year is the best year of your life.

Defining a Truly Blessed Life

Now, when I say next year is going to be the best year of your life, I'm not talking about necessarily material things, although that's nice. It's nice to have all of our needs supplied. It's nice to have more than we need, so we have some to give and invest in the kingdom of God and so forth.

Yeah, that's all a blessing, but that's not the greatest blessing of all. Those who know God's word and who are mature in their faith very much are aware of that. We're going to talk about what it is that really defines a blessed life.

If you don't know, well, take a look in the first part of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus defined for us in the Beatitudes those people who are blessed. I'm going to agree with Jesus on that one. His definition of what a blessed life looks like, I agree with that.

And if I have thoughts that are contrary to that, then my thoughts are wrong, and his thoughts are right. Now, in our last little lesson, the one principle that I tried to get across is because the path of the righteous is like the light of the dawn that gets brighter and brighter until the full day.

The First Principle: Remain on the Path of the Righteous

The first principle is make sure you're on that path. The path, what path? The path of the righteous. That's the path of the people who've repented, believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, submitted to him.

As a consequence, they've been forgiven of all their sins, and God has become their father, and he's broken the power of sin over their life. And the Holy Spirit's come to live inside of them to empower them to live righteously.

That's what the path of the righteous is all about. And it's not a one-time event like it's often promulgated within some so-called Christian circles. That's just the beginning of the journey on the path.

And God didn't take away our free will when we were born again. And so it's our job to stay on the path. So the first principle was do right. And the second principle that I want to share, and this whole lesson is related to that, and that principle is simply this, and you're going to say, well, that's so simple.

Loving God Above Everything Else

Oh, it is so simple, but it's the simple things that are so profound and we need to be reminded of, and when they need to be expanded within our minds to understand how profound they are. The second principle is love God.

If you want to have your best year ever, this coming year, that's one of the keys. Love God more than anything else, more than anyone else. Isn't that contained in scripture somewhere? Sure it is. From the beginning of the Bible until the end of the Bible.

We all, of course, know that Jesus was asked one time, what's the foremost commandment? And he said, well, that's easy. Love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. I love how that commandment is not just love God, but God expands on the idea of how much he wants us to love him.

And it's obvious that he wants us to love him supremely. And that, of course, is what more than anything else will motivate us to keep the first principle, do right. And we're going to look at that connection between those two.

But if we love him supremely, then that just takes care of a lot of things forever. But it also takes care of a lot of things in this life, because we're not be distracted by things that God does not want us to be distracted by.

We're focused and we're in balance. We're where he wants to be. We were created to love God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength. That's supposed to be the normal human experience. Well, you know as well as I do that the normal human experience actually is people hate God and they're rebels without a cause.

But those of us who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and repented, it's a different story. Now, those of us who have accepted Jesus as our personal savior, we could still be rebels without a cause.

And when we die, we'll realize that we were never children of God. But those who have truly repented and become children of God, well, they already love God. And now they're working on loving him with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength.

God's Jealousy and the Call to Exclusive Devotion

Now, let's start at the beginning of the Bible. In the law of Moses, this was made clear to the generation of Israelites that God delivered out of Egypt, took them out of their bondage. It's all metaphorical for us under the new covenant.

But he forbade them to be idolaters and to not fashion anything into an image that would represent a God that they would worship or bow down to. That's so offensive to God. And God said in Exodus 20, verse number five, you shall not worship them or serve them.

For I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God. Now, think about that and let that sink in. Because God never changes. He's perfect. He never changes. When you're perfect, you don't change. You don't need to change.

God is still a jealous God. He doesn't want our hearts divided at all. Not that we wouldn't love other people. No, of course we're going to love other people. We're commanded to love our neighbor as ourself.

Husbands, love your wives and so forth. But we're expected and commanded to love God supremely. Because if we don't, then in a sense, we're guilty of idolatry. And you can make an idol out of anything.

It's anything that we would love more than God. And there's a benefit for that. We keep on reading in Exodus 20 and the very next verse. But he talks about how God shows loving kindness to thousands. And who does he show loving kindness to?

To those who love me and keep my commandments. And those are not two separate things that are not related. No, they're obviously put together for a reason. God shows loving kindness to thousands of people.

But who are those thousands of people that he shows loving kindness to? Who benefits from his loving kindness? It's those who love him and keep his commandments. Because those are actually synonymous things.

If we love him, we will keep his commandments. If we keep his commandments, that's an indication that we love him. Amen. So if you want next year to be the very best year of your life, which I believe you do, then here's something you need to think about.

Loving God Through Obedience

Ponder, meditate upon next year, starting right now. Why would you wait till next year? I'm going to love God supremely. And we could read in Deuteronomy chapter five, verses nine and 10, God says almost the identical thing to the next generation of Israelites, the ones that actually made it into the promised land.

And we can read prayers by Nehemiah and Daniel. Nehemiah prayed in Nehemiah 1 .5, I beseech you, O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who preserves the covenant and loving kindness for those who love him and keep his commandments.

Daniel prayed in Daniel 9, verse four, I prayed to the Lord, my God, and I confess, alas, O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant and loving kindness for those who love him and keep his commandments.

So it pays in this life, as well as in the next life, to love God with all of our heart and to keep his commandments, which relates to the first thing we said in the first do what is right. Jesus said in John 14, verse number 15, you ought to memorize this one.

If you love me, you will keep my commandments. Jesus is stating a fact of how we can tell if we love God, if we keep his commandments. He repeated it just seven verses later. He who has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me.

There you go. And here's the promise. And he who loves me, what will happen? He will be loved by my father and I will love him and will disclose myself to him. See, that's the person who's gotten onto the path of the righteous.

You repent, you start keeping his commandments, start serving him, and then you get loved by the father and loved by Jesus. Well, I thought God so loved the world. He does. But this is obviously speaking of a special love.

Not a merciful love, but an approving kind of love. The kind of love that we all have for the people that we love the most. I mean, we all love everybody. I hope you love everybody. But some people, you love them in a merciful way.

They don't deserve it. But some people, you love them because they deserve to be loved because they're so wonderful and they're so good to you because they love you. And so you reap what you sow. If you sow love, you're going to reap love.

It's the same thing in our relationship with God. If we sow love, we're going to reap love from him. We sow love by keeping his commandments, showing him that we love him. And Jesus says, if you do that, you'll be loved by my father.

Christ's Self-Revelation and the Answered Prayer

I'll love him and I will disclose myself. So Jesus reveals himself. That's... You want to have the best year of your life? Well, that's going to mean Jesus is going to reveal himself more to you. How is that going to happen?

You're going to love God and keep his commandments. Do what's right. Love God. And again, there's promise for this life. Jesus didn't say, I'll disclose myself to him when he gets to heaven. No, I'll disclose myself to him as soon as he does this.

Want to have the best year of your life? Then there's the key. Okay? In one of John's first epistle, he said, whatever we ask, we receive from him. See, this is talking about prayer in this life, not when you get to heaven.

Whatever we ask, we receive from him because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight. You want to have your best year next year? Want to have your prayers answered more frequently?

You know, have the desires of your heart granted to you by God the Father? Here's the secret. Keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight. Principle number one, do right. Principle number two, love God.

Keeping God's Commandments as Evidence of Love

And those two are very much related. John wrote later in his first epistle by this, we know that we love the children of God when we love God and observe his commandments. There they are together again.

For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. So this is how we love God, by keeping his commandments. And John said his commandments are not burdensome. People say, oh, it's so hard to serve God.

Not if you've been born again and the power of sin has been broken over your life and you have the Holy Spirit helping you. It's an entirely different story then. You can walk by the spirit, Paul wrote many times in his epistles.

It's the spirit who empowers us to obey God and to live righteously. Okay? And so this is what matters. And in many Christian circles, keeping the commandments is hardly emphasized at all. And it shows they're way off base at best, heretics at worst, if this was never mentioned.

Because this is a theme from the cover to cover in the Bible. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 7, verse number 19, talking about circumcision. He said, circumcision is nothing. Uncircumcision is nothing. It doesn't make any difference whether you're circumcised or not.

That's immaterial. But what matters, Paul said, is keeping the commandments of God. If you're going to a church and they're not emphasizing ever keeping the commandments of God, find a new church. You're in the wrong place.

Teaching Disciples to Obey Christ

That's something you can do to have your best year yet. Get out of that church where they're hiding the truth from people. If your pastor never emphasizes obedience to the commandments of Jesus Christ, that's what we're supposed to do.

Go make disciples, teaching them to obey all that Christ commanded. If your pastor's never teaching you to obey what Christ commanded, he's not doing what he's supposed to do. Get out of there. Find a new church or start a church and study the commandments of Jesus and then obey him and get blessed and have the best year of your life.

Okay? All right. Well, there's much more, of course, I could say, but I've gone 16 minutes. That's enough for today's little lesson. Thank you so much for joining me. Don't forget, do right. Love God.

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