The Grand-Master Key to Life
by Ken Pierpont
Monday PM—6:45-7:30
Introduction: Introduce yourself. Lois 43 years. Four and Four 20 Grands… Bittersweet Farm. Pastor 43 years. Five books. Spoken here three years in a row 🙂
Maybe one reason we have such a huge tribe is because I wanted a lot of people to love me… [story] Crying in the night… deep longing for love…
What is the Greatest Theological Truth in the Bible? We are going to talk about that tonight. The Grand Master Key to Life. [story] The Most Important Truth in the Bible. Karl Barth—Jesus Loves Me This I Know…
Paul’s Prayers in Eph. 1:15-23; 3:14-21…
How can I be strengthened with might by God’s power in the inner person? (3:16)
How can I be filled with all the fulness of God? (3:19)
How can these powerful things be true about you? Through spiritual enlightenment… the pinnacle of which is an on-going, growing enlightenment of God’s love for you. Three chapters of things that are TRUE before he says anything about things we should DO.
Know how much God loves you.. we are going to study God’s Love.. (Eph. 3:17-19A)
[story] young boy who longed for loved…
Ed Kimball—That man was Dwight Moody
Henry Morehouse—converted pickpocket—a deeper understanding and experience of the love of God. He went from one end of the Bible to the other showing the scope of God’s love… we are going to do that this week.
[story] Sandy Adams Rock—does God love me like a good father…
Let me pray for us that we would have an enlightenment and understand the size and scope of God’s love for us.
[story] RWYA
Read Psalm 139 tonight and in the morning.
Tuesday AM The Most Important Truth in the Bible: God Loves You.
I know I need to be scolded. I need to be corrected. I need to be instructed and exhorted I need to be called to repentance. But I also need for you the preacher to take me by the hand and let me walk off the size of my inheritance as a child of God. I need every now and then to run my fingers through the unsearchable riches of the treasury of God’s grace sing the doxology and go home. -Fred Craddock
When we are enlightened about God’s we are strengthened with might by his power in the inner being and we are filled with all the fullness of God. [ill] When I met Lois she was broken, wounded. Still is. Alcoholic dad. (Brokenness—how we are effected by sin, around us, against us, within us). “I miss you” card… [ill] I’d just like to get close to your wife… me too. 🙂 But God has not left us to wonder, let me show you…
How do I know God loves me?
—Mystical experiences. [ill] Daisies. Bears. Trains whistles in the night. “Bowlights” sunshine on the rock over the lake. Northern lights. Heart-shaped rocks. The call of the Loon on a northern lake.
—An inner witness/voice. My sheep hear my voice.
—Providential circumstances. [ill] loving the outdoors and speaking at camps.
—God’s overruling providence in your life. (Psalm 139) [ill] Bittersweet Farm. Good from Evil and Sweet from Bitter.
—The Witness of the Scriptures. “Hesed”
OT. Exodus 34:6-7, Psalm 139, Psalm 103, Psalm 136 26Xin26 verses
All of the Old Testament foreshadows something more…
NT crowning evidence—the death of Jesus for our sin.
—God expressed his love in his son, Jesus, who died for us.
-““For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
-“By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.” (1 John 3:16)
-“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 4:7–10)
-1 John 4:16-18 Abiding in God’s love
-Eph. 1:4, 2:3, 3:14
-Romans 5:8, 8:31-39 [story] You will never find the bottom of God’s love.
When you believe that Jesus died for your sins… [ill] Chafer 33 Things
Justification—Courtroom
Redemption—Slave Market
Propitiation—Pagan Temple
Imputation—Counting Table
Reconciliation—Battle Field
Adoption—Town Dump
So if you were paying close attention you know that what we said last night was God loves you and what we said this morning is… You know God’s loves you because the whole Bible tells you so—especially the death of Jesus.
The death of Christ for us is the great consumption, culmination of God’s expression of love for us. The most important truth in the Bible is that God loves me. the Bible tells me so…and I know God loves me because the whole Bible tells me so and Jesus died for me. Amassing things happen when that really dawns on us…
[story] RWYA
Now you know the most important truth in the Bible. God Loves You. You are ready for the Grand Master Key to the Universe—to all of life. That will be tonight.
Tuesday PM The Grand Master Key to Life
Introduction: Only God knows what will happen when a person thinks deeply about God’s love for them—when God’s love dawns on them. Only God knows what will happened when you have a fresh revelation of God’s love for you. [ill] Mike Oatis: East Grand Rapids “Jesus Loves You.” [story] Bill Newman Circuit Rider. I met at Camp. Northern Lights. Testimony: Dad leaves. Mom sees sign. Youth outing AT.
—What is the most important truth in the Bible: God loves you.
—How do we know: the Bible says so and God sent his son Jesus to die.
—This bring us to the Grand Master Key to the Universe: [ill] The Grand Master Key
The Greatest Commandment. Mark 12:28-34 Tell the story of the Greatest Commandment. Love God
The Sinful Woman. Illustration of this: Luke 7:36-48—When we are aware of how great our sin is and how great is mercy is, then we love him deeply.
—So the most important truth in the Bible is God loves you…
—The Grand Master Key to all of life: Love him back…
Conclusion: [ill] God is not a Magic 8Ball. [ill] God is not your ride and your ticket to Great America. [ill] Kyle’s communion devotion… North Manitou Island and the hunk of driftwood.
Wednesday AM The Worst Thing That Can Ever Happen
Johnson Canyon. The Word is like Water from the Mountain saved up and flowing down into your life.
Look me up: Ken Pierpont… books. Sermons. Audio and Video. Free e-mail newsletter. Blog. Story Podcast. Man Podcast.
Let’s start with a little informal quiz:
—What is the most important truth in the Bible.
—where does the Bible say that?
—What is the Grand Master Key to life… love him back
—where does the Bible say that?
—today our one point is going to answer the question: What is the worst thing that could ever happen to a person….
Satan wants to tempt you to commit spiritual adultery.
[ill] Iwo Jima—the enemy will not stop after flag raised
[Ill] Travis Bouucher—one of the greatest tragedies I ever heard of…
“You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”?” (James 4:4–5)
God has a righteous jealousy over us.
Everything is tied to love—
—Garden was a place of intimacy with God.
—You can see this in David’s life. Psalm 42, 63 We are hard-wired for emotional and spiritual intimacy with God. Look at the language David used… language of spiritual affection.
—Why makes sin, sin. Broken intimacy with God.
—What make forgiveness sweet—it restores intimacy with God.
—Why is salvation a free gift and not something we have to earn… grace comes from love.
—What is the fulfillment of the whole law. (Romans, James, John) love.
—Why do we serve him… out of love
—what make heaven heaven?
The Apostle of love—John. He was originally a son of thunder, calling down fire and a little ambitions and competitive with others… but he grew because of his intimacy with Jesus. In John he does not name himself but calls himself “the disciple who Jesus loved.”
—Love in the Gospel of John. (Special emphasis on Last Supper, the only one that talks about foot washing. Emphasis on intimacy, love for Jesus). For God so loved…
—Love in the Apocalypse—Eph. Left first love—ends God is WITH man again…
—Love in the Letters, his last words—love. An old man returning to Ephthesus carried in a chair. Simple message: God loves you. Love him back. Love one another. If you don’t get this love thing, you are not really saved.
“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” (1 John 2:15–17, ESV)
To love someone or something instead of God.
To look to someone or something else for what only God can do.
Spiritual Adultery and Spiritual Idolatry
[ill] stealing cupcakes….
Psalm 139–Search me
[ill] and eating from the dumpster
Only Jesus can fulfill the deepest longings of our heart. To look elsewhere is a great tragedy.
Wednesday Evening
Breakfast with Jesus… (Return to Love) John 21:1-19
Introduction: [story] Stole Candy Bar… forgiveness and restoration.
When our fellowship is broken, Satan wants to bury you with guilt and shame. He want to crush you with blackmail. He wants you to feel like God is angry and demanding and impatient with you and that you can’t really ever be restored and enjoy intimate fellowship with God again. But God wants to restore your intimacy and fellowship even more than you do.
Jesus on the Shore (John 21:
—Tell the story. Fishing. Nothing. Change. Big catch. Jesus. Breakfast.
Breakfast with Jesus
—If you were Jesus what would you have said to Peter?
—Of all the things Jesus could s CDd lol o V have said he said, “Do you love me?”
—Peter denied Jesus at a fire of coals in the courtyard of the High Priest. Jesus restored Peter over another fire of coals.
—Jesus arranged to restore Peter over breakfast.
—Jesus chose to restore Peter with a series of questions.
—Tell me you love me.
—Let’s get back to work.
—Peter denied Jesus three times. Jesus illicit affirmation from Peter three times.
How to Keep the Campfire Burning All Your Life:
—Saved
—Consecration
—Seasonal renewals of consecration. [ill] Jacob’s Ladder
—Monthly communion observance
—Weekly reminders of eternal things
—Daily habits of the heart. [story] The Chair… his life was
changed in the chair and they passed it on to their children when he died.
—Moment-by-moment Intimacy with the Lord…
—Intimacy restored when broken. Return to fellowship and to service.
The way of restoration after the betrayal of sinful failure is receiving God’s love and retuning to service.
Concluding: When our fellowship is broken Satan wants to blackmail us and push us to rdespair…. Jesus died for our restoration. [story] What About the Duck.
Thursday AM—What Happens When You Love God? What Good is Loving God?
Greatest Truth: Jesus Loves Me
Grand Master: Love Him Back
Greatest Tragedy: not to love him, but something else
What Happens When I love God: Good Things.
Many ways to study the Bible. Flyover. Full Books drilling down. Topical. (Highlighter approach—what if we take a highlighter to the love of God in the Bible. What would we learn? SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY OF LOVE… A rich Bible search/study is to look for results of loving God in the Scriptures. Here are some examples:
I. Good Comes Into Our Lives Immediately.
If it is good for you, He can prosper you. ““And if you will indeed obey my commandments that I command you today, to love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, he will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil. And he will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you shall eat and be full.” (Deuteronomy 11:13–15, ESV)
If it is good for you, he can compensate for any loss or lack or need with something greater. “Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?” (James 2:5, ESV)
If it is good for you, He can protect you. “For if you will be careful to do all this commandment that I command you to do, loving the Lord your God, walking in all his ways, and holding fast to him, then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than you. Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours. Your territory shall be from the wilderness to the Lebanon and from the River, the river Euphrates, to the western sea. No one shall be able to stand against you. The Lord your God will lay the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land that you shall tread, as he promised you.” (Deuteronomy 11:22–25, ESV)
[ill] Finding Bittersweet
He will become your very life. “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”” (Deuteronomy 30:19–20, ESV) See also: “When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” (Colossians 3:4, ESV)
You will immediately begin to experience a deepening intimacy with God which is very satisfying. “But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.” (1 Corinthians 8:3, ESV)
“Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” (John 14:22–23, ESV)
Loving God brings special fellowship with God… intimacy with God.
“Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”” (John 14:21, ESV)
“But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”— these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.” (1 Corinthians 2:9–10, ESV)
II. Good for Generations to Come. When you love God it has a profound effect for good on your children and the generations to follow.
““You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.” (Exodus 20:4–6, ESV)
III. Good Even in Evil Times. When you love God he turns evil to good and bitter to sweet.
“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” (Romans 8:28–29, ESV)
Six Questions to Ask Your Soul When Bad Things Happen:
—What Good can come from this
—What quality of Christlikeness is being formed in me.
—How can I glorify God in this?
—Who can I help with what I am learning?
—How does God want me to think about this?
—How does God want me to talk about this?
IV. Good Forever. Unimaginably wonderful things are in your future forever.
“But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”—” (1 Corinthians 2:9, ESV)
God Rewards Forever Those Who Love Him. “Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.” (2 Timothy 4:8, ESV)
We can love him when we don’t see him so that we will be filled with profound joy when we do see him one day. “Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,” (1 Peter 1:8)
In this way we see why worldliness is so foolish and godliness is so wise. “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” (1 John 2:15–17)
“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.” (Psalm 1, ESV) (The godly are stable forever)
That is why we often have a sense of longings unfulfilled. We are not fully satisfied now, even believers, but as C. S. Lewis said in his address captured in The Weight of Glory; we are not satisfied now… “…but all the pages of the New Testament rustle with the rumors that it will not aways be so…”. Later he says; “One day-one day the door upon which we have been knocking all our lives will open at last…”
Lewis said that in this life we are in the outside world and one day we will be invited to follow Jesus “Inside” into the ultimate world. In his address The Weight of Glory he said; “I cleft has opened in the the pitiless walls of the world, and we are invited to follow our great Captain inside.” Some day, God willing, we will get IN.
[ill] Standing on the bridge of a ship watching the path of moonlight on the Pacific. Later walking at evening and hearing the bells of Oxford… the nudge toward Christ… “I suspected that all the yearnings for I knew not what that I had ever felt—when autumn leaves were burning in the twilight, when wild geese flew crying overhead, when I looked up at bare branches against the stars, when spring arrived on an April morning—were in truth yearnings for him. For God. I yearned towards him.” -VanAuken.
[ill] “Our wantings are our best havings.” (C.S.Lewis)
Paul understood this. You just see it everywhere in his writing. “Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible.” (Ephesians 6:24, ESV)
To be restored after failure is to be reconciled in love to Christ. (John 21 Peter’s Breakfast with Jesus)
Intimacy with God is the way we defeat sin. Pray. Obey. Mediate, Worship. Love! “No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.” (1 John 3:6, ESV)
To be fulfilled is to be fulfilled in God. Yaweh. (Genesis 29:31) Leah had six sons and a daughter. There were twelve tribes of Israel. Half of them came through Leah including the tribe of Judah… Jesus! God works through unloved people who are not movie stars and beauty queens.
There is no greater path to joy, than loving God. Fulness of joy and life abundant.
“that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.” (1 John 1:3–4, ESV)
“These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” (John 15:11, ESV)
“Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”” (John 14:21, ESV)
(Q) God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in Him. See and Savor Jesus Christ.
Loving God Simplifies, Focuses, Orders, Brings Peace to My Life. I have found that devoting myself to Christ and to his kingdom, loving God… “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33, ESV) …don’t worry about these other things. Concentrate of the Father’s love and knowledge of you. ““Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:7–11, ESV)
Close: Unimaginable growing good in this life, in the coming generations, through eternity. [ill] Margaret Clarkson story.
[ill] The Life of Margaret Clarkson who leaned the love of Jesus.
—Desire to be a missionary
—Assignment in remote difficult place. Loneliness. So Send I You. (Read)
—Life of service, illness, teacher, Cottage on Severn River.
—Writing books, nature, hymns
—Singleness and Sex
—Toward the end of her life a new version of So Send I You… (Read)
1) So send I you to labour unrewarded,
To serve unpaid, unloved, unsought, unknown,
To bear rebuke, to suffer scorn and scoffing–
So send I you to toil for Me alone.
2) So send I you to loneliness and longing,
With heart a-hung’ring for the loved and known,
Forsaking home and kindred, friend and dear one–
So send I you to know My love alone.
3) So send I you to hearts made hard by hatred,
To eyes made blind because they will not see ,
To spend–though it be blood–to spend and spare not–
So send I you to taste of Calvary.
1) So send I you–by grace made strong to triumph,
O’er hosts of hell, o’er darkness, death, and sin,
My name to bear, and in that name to conquer–
So send I you, my victory to win.
2) So send I you–my strength to know in weakness,
My joy in grief, my perfect peace in pain,
To prove My pow’r, My grace, My promised presence–
So send I you, eternal fruit to gain.
3) So send I you–to bear My cross with patience,
And then one day with joy to lay it down,
To hear My voice, ‘Well done, My faithful servant–
Come, share My throne, My kingdom, and My crown!
When You Love God:
Good in this life
Good for generations
Good even in evil days
Good forever
Introduction: Well I feel like I just finished a marathon. I took my vacation weeks and travelled around speaking to young people and families and camps. One in Ohio, two in Michigan and one in Wisconsin. When I could I took grandchildren with me. My goal in life if the nudge everyone I meet every day a little closer to Jesus. This week I did that at my beloved Camp Barakel way up in the tip of northern Michigan on the blue waters of Shear Lake nestled in the Huron National Forest. I introduced my first-born to his wife there at Barakel years ago. Last week I returned with two of their sons for a week. Last week was my 23 year in a row to preach there. On the last night of camp their is alway is always a fire bowl and a time of testimonies. Often I am asked: “How do I keep the campfire burning until next year?”
Review: This summer we have been in a series of messages called with the same name as my most recent book: Between the Fires: How to Keep the Fire of Faith Burning All Your Life.
Let me refresh your memory by way of review.
Step One: Be Genuinely Saved.
Two: Consecrate Yourself to God.
Three: Practice Seasonal Renewals of Consecration. Barakel Retreats. Selah retreats. Concerts.
Four: Weekly Reminders of Eternal Things.
Five: Observe Daily Habits of the Heart [story] The Chair… his life was
changed in the chair and they passed it on to their children when he died.
Six: Learn to Live in Moment-by-Moment Intimacy with God.
Learn to live with a warm God-awareness all the time. We were designed for intimacy with God. We were made to love God. This is the most important thing I am going to say to help you keep the fire of your faith burning all you life: Love for God is the fire in the “campfire.” Emotions are surely a part of it, but it goes way beyond emotions. It would be what Jonathan Edwards called “affections.” We might call it passion for God or love for God. In the New Testament it is variously called Communion with God, Walking with God, Abiding in Christ, or Fellowship.
When I talk about keeping the campfire burning all your life or keeping the fire of your faith burning all you life I am taking about a life-long love for and continual trust in God.
We were made to love God and walk with him. We were made for friendship, fellowship, intimacy with God.
—Adam and Eve in the original garden enjoyed this fellowship, this intimacy with God. They walked with God in the cool of the day. When they sinned they hid and their intimacy, the enjoyment of their fellowship was broken.
—The Great Patriarch Abraham, the progenitor of the whole Jewish nation was called by God to enjoy the blessing of God and to bless all the families of the earth. Abraham was called a friend of God.
—Moses. God gave the law and delivered his people from bondage through Moses and Moses had in intimate relationship with God. All of his life his face showed the evidence of fellowship with God. He glowed with the glory of God. He met God face-to-face.
—Enoch was called a friend of God. He walked with God and God took him.
—Job was called a friend of God, even though he had to endure devastating hardship he never renounced his love for God. He never abandoned his trust in God. Job loved God and kept in fellowship with God. Don’t forget Job had been enjoying unbroken bliss in the presence of God for thousand of years now. I promise you the pain of his losses and hardships were forgotten if not immediately upon entering the presence of God multiplied human life-times ago. [ill] We went through a great hardship, an injustice. It was real but now it is a story we love to tell. [ill] last night people coming up to me at the wedding saying “You are the Bittersweet guy. I loved that book.”
—David, the mighty King of Israel was called a man after God’s own heart
even though his sins were great. Still his heart was tender to God and he spoke of God and sang of God and wrote of God in affectional terms, in intimate terms.
“As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?”” (Psalm 42:1–3, ESV)
“O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands. My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips, when I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night; for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy. My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.” (Psalm 63:1–8, ESV)
There was not an ounce of weakness in this love. His love for God was robust, full, emotional, spiritual, affectional. It was deep like a wellspring in his soul. God loved David. David loved God. Even his Psalms of penitence show that David was deeply grieved over his sin because it interrupted the joy of his salvation. “Restore to me the joy of my salvation. Renew a right spirit in me. Cast me not away from your presence…”
In Psalm 139 David writes some of the most beautiful and comforting poetry ever penned by any man. In this song he exalts in God’s love and care for him. David sings God knows me. God Understands Me In the end expressed his horror at the idea of anything coming between him and God, any sin that would interfere with the enjoyment of fellowship with God.
“Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” (Psalm 139:23–24, ESV)
—The Apostle John loved to call himself the disciple whom Jesus loved. He love to be physically close to Jesus. I spoke about him in affectional terms all his life. The Gospel of John tells the story. The Apocalypse of John reminds us that Jesus is standing at the door and knocking and if anyone invited him in he/ she will enjoy fellowship, intimacy, the love of God
In John 15 in the passage about the fruit and the vine he said over and over again that nothing in the Christian life is possible unless we abide in Christ… He described the whole Christian life as walking with Christ, walking in love, walking in light, living with and in and for Christ. If you read the promises and the warnings attached to what John called abiding in Christ you will realize, John knew the Christian life is nothing more and nothing less than keeping in love with Jesus. Keeping the fire of faith burning is staying in an unbroken sense of fellowship with Christ. He called it abiding in Christ. Abiding is living with Christ. It is not an occasional duty or a meeting that you attend when you aren’t busy with other things you love more.
—Peter learned to love God deeply. When Jesus restored Peter after his denial he did it in the most intimate way over an outdoor breakfast by the shore on the Sea of Galilee early one morning and he did it with a simple phrase repeated three times: Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me? Jesus taught Peter that the essence of following, the heart of restoration after failure can be illustrated by stirring up the embers of a low-burning fire.
The heart of the Christian life can be summarized in this simple phrase. Do you love Jesus?
—Luke noticed this and recorded the story in the seventh chapter of his gospel in the story of Simon the Phrase and the Sinful Woman. She expressed her great gratitude and love for Jesus in pure and intimate acts of worshipful love. “Then turning toward the woman he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.” And he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”” (Luke 7:44–48, ESV)
Learn from the sinful woman and the cold-hearted pharisee. God is not honored by cold religious hearts who have never experience the breath-taking mercy of God. Full heads and Cold hearts do not honor God. Busy hands and cold hearts do not please God. They do not honor God.He is honored by the love of those he has forgiven a great debt. He sees our shame and grief and remorse and penitence and he lifts us to our feet and holds us in a warm embrace and sends us on our way under the wide-open sky in the bright sunshine of his loving kindness. He is looking for men and women who love him out of grateful hearts because the the debt he paid and the freedom from the slavery of sin he offered when he redeemed us with the ransom-price of his love.
—Paul understood the primacy, the priority of love. In his first letter the Corinthians he had a special way of describing being a Christian. He said: “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:9, ESV) He described being a Christian as being in fellowship, being in love, in communion with Christ. He said; My determined purpose is to know him in the power of his resurrection, in the fellowship—communion of his suffering… and be like him. Phil. 3:10
—Jude said: “Keep yourself in the love of God.” He knew that God’s love would never fail. He was not implying that God’s love is fickle or fragile or temporary but he knew the human tendency to wander away from the influence and experience of his love. He knew the human danger of let our love grow cold and the fire of our faith to burn low. I have always said, “The sunshine of God’s love shines through the windows of your life every day. Go curl up in that spot of sunshine and let the light of God and the love of God warm your soul every day before you do anything else.
To cultivate love and affection for God, to stir the fire of love let me highlight
three things in the Scripture that are necessary to deepen our love for God, or intimacy with God.
1—Time With God. Intimacy with God is deepened by Time with God. [story] Driving with Dad to his brother’s funeral. “I wish our trip was five hours longer.”
2—Transparency with God. Intimacy with God is deepened by Transparency with God. This John liked to call “walking in the light” Walking in the light is walking in love. You are not going to shock or surprise God by telling him what is on your heart. Be open with God. Be honest with God. When you do that you will deepen your love and intimacy with God.
3—Trust in God. Intimacy with Christ requires Trust in God. Trustful submission. Willing and eager obedience. Trust and Obey—there is not other way to be happy in Jesus…
Especially in your troubles: Isaiah 43:2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, nor will the flame burn you. Hebrews 13:5 “Be content… have I not said, ‘I will never leave you, nor will I ever forsake you…”
[story] Pastor Samuel Chen… time alone with God. “I Come to the Garden Alone… and he walks with me and he talks with me and he tells me I am his own.”
A sense of the presence of the Lord, moment-by-moment intimacy with the Lord is not only a help in trouble it is a help in temptation. [ill] Chapel in the Woods: Fight sin with Prayer, Obedience, Meditation, Worship and most important of all Love—Intimacy with God.
—John Ortberg said: “Many Christians expend so much energy and worry trying not to sin. The goal is not to try to sin less. In all your efforts to keep from sinning, what are you focusing on? Sin. God wants you to focus on him. To be with him. “Abide in me.” Just relax and learn to enjoy his presence. Every day is a collection of moments, 86,400 seconds in a day. How many of them can you live with God? Start where you are and grow from there. God wants to be with you every moment.”
Jeremiah was deeply aware of the continual presence of God even in great hardship and rejection. “Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord.” (Jeremiah 23:24, ESV) We live every moment and draw every breath in the full light of his presence. When we cultivate a moment-by- moment awareness of that it will have an inside-out transformational effect.
Psalm 118:24 “This is a day that the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it.” 1 Thess. 4:11 quiet life- work with your hands… whatever you do, eat, drink to glory of God. Mountains and Oceans are wonderful but most of us don’t live near them. Christmas and Easter are wonderful but there are 363 other days of the year. It is good to have extraordinary places to meet with God, but it may be more important to have ordinary places to meet with God as a part of your every day routine. Chair. Window. Cab of Truck. Car. Shower. Bed. Bedroom. Kitchen table with coffee…
John Ballie, A Diary of Private Prayer: “Give me, O God, this day a strong and vivid sense that you are by my side. In multitude or in solitude in business and leisure, in my downsitting and in my uprising, may I ever be are of Thine accompanying presence. By Thy grace, O God, I will go.
The great CMA pastor in his classic book A Knowledge of the Holy ended a chapter twitch this prayer: O God and Father, I repent of my sinful preoccupation with visible things. The world has been too much with me. You were here and I did not now it. I have been blind to Your Presence. Open my eyes that I may behold You in and around me. For Christ’s sake, Amen.
Join me in a similar Prayer: God help us to learn to walk with you in unbroken intimacy. Help us to experience and to enjoy fellowship with you. Show us the secret of communion with God. Give us a blessed sense in our hearts of the reality of our union with Christ. Help us to abide in Christ. Give us a blessed God-consciousness in all we do. Heighten our duties and chores with the reality of your presence. Lighten our burdens with a mindfulness of your presence. Inspire our service with a vision of the joy it brings to your heart. Infuse our prayers with a confidence that you are leaning toward us and listening with your heart.
Remind us that even when we are surrounded by enemies we live under the shadow of the Almighty… Help us to live, as the reformed rediscovered, Coram Deo, with a sense of your presence, your smiling presence, your love and unflagging mercy. Help us to bask in it like the first warm sunshine of spring on our neck. Help us to spend time with you, be transparent with you, and trust you with all our hearts. Lord, keep our love for you burning all our lives. Through Christ our Lord, Amen.
Thursday PM
Ways to Love God
Review:
What is the most important truth in all the Bible
What is the grand master key
What is the worst thing that can happen
What happens when you learn to love God… Good things!
For the rest of our sessions: How can I learn to love God. What would that look like.
[ill] I feel closer to God outdoors…. Discover Your Love God Language, but more important, discover God’s love language: Worship under the open sky but don’t use it as an excuse for disobedience to my commands. When you create your own universe then you can write your own Bible. God loves you and he knows your heart and desires and he knows and cares about wha you love… “Delight yourself in the Lord he will give you the desires of your heart…” (Psalm 37) But above all he is God and we should know and care about what he loves and what delights his heart.
1—Speak God’s Love Language. Obey God. John 14-15. Keep his commands before you. This is how you ABIDE—live in God. How to have a burning heart. (Luke 24)
““If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (John 14:15, ESV) “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”” (John 14:21, ESV) “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.” (1 John 5:3, ESV)
Faithful assembly. Baptism. The Lord’s Supper. Confession. Restoration. Mercy. Make disciples. When we are in love with Jesus his commandments are not grievous or burdensome.
[ill] Go clean your room. Jesus didn’t say memorize my commands or judge my commands or know the greek word for my commands or make up song about my commands or quiz each other on my commands. He didn’t say form little clubs and print tee shirts. He said, Do what I say. Obey. Follow. Observe. He tied it to joy and life but he still has every right to expect obedience.
2—Love God by Loving Others. John 13–15 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”” (John 13:34–35, ESV) Show Love, Honor, Humility, and Mercy.
Follow Jesus. Help Others Follow Jesus. Build a Christian home on love expressed in obedience to the commands of Jesus. Jesus is the head of this home. He is the silent listener to every conversation.
[story] I will burn this Church to the ground. Luke 6:27-28
3—Give God Time and Attention. Jesus did this often—“…rising up a great while before day he went out to a solitary place…” Early in the morning. Late at night. Living Godward “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart…” Sometimes you can set other things aside, sometimes you can seek him through the other things. [ill] Return to North Manitou Island… stories of the progress of the gospel in Michigan. Hiawatha Land Mission. Maranatha. Turn your bed into an altar (Psalm 5)
What would make you feel loved? What would make Jesus feel loved.
What is your current test of obedience/love? How can I love you today, Jesus. Ask the Spirit to tell you.
North Manitou Island Adventure: if you don’t follow the directions, you are very likely to get lost. It’s not enough to have the map laminated on your wall… You have to follow it, or you and those you love will get lost
—lets pull over and stop for the night here… my God invade our dreams even if our rock is a pillow.
Friday Morning: More Ways to Love God.
[ill] We still have a clock hanging in our kitchen I bought our second year of marriage. For years it just hung on the wall and didn’t work. One day we were driving through the Ohio Amish Country. Clock Shop. Rusted main spring. Replace. Now it rings and works… It needed some regular maintenance and winding. All relationships are like this. Relationships require attention.
You must cultivate communion, fellowship, and intimacy with God and holy affections for God. Keep working on your love… If you don’t keep tending the garden of your love it will be overcome with weeds –The cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, the desires of other things entering in chokes out the word and it becomes unfruitful…”
-John 15:9 stay in love with Jesus “…abide in my love…”
-Jude 1:21 “…keep yourselves in the love of God…” (ill) Holly in patch of sun
-I John 5:21 “…keep yourself from idols…”
“Christianity isn’t working for me.” You aren’t living the Jesus way. You are not really following Jesus. But you are not walking in continual obedience. [story] My “workout” routine. Going to gym. Getting carrot juice. Walking around and talking to people. Going home.
“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.” —G K Chesterton
So now hear the word of the Lord again…
-John 15:9 stay in love with Jesus “abide in my love…”
-Jude 1:21 “keep yourselves in the love of God…”
-I John 5:21 “keep yourself from idols…”
The Psalms Give Us A Pattern to Love God:
4—Meditate on His Good Qualities. Psalm 8 God is Bigger Than Any Giant You Face. Psalm 103 Bless the Lord in your soul and don’t forget his benefits. To love someone you want to chose to think often and well about them. See and Savior Jesus Christ. A Knowledge of the Holy. Reading etc. Listen to preaching and podcasts. Listen to books. Watch videos. Then Praise Him for who he is. “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:18, ESV)
5—Communicate with Him. Listen to God. Talk to God. Talk about God. Teach Psalm 19 Prayer… “…pray without ceasing…” Read or listen to Scripture to love God and let God love you. Saturate your mind with biblical truth. Read, study and meditate on the Bible in order to deepen your love for God. Make frequent use of the Psalms. Praise him. Speak of him. Think of him. Sing of him. Journal. Write out prayers to God. Read Valley of Vision and A Diary of Private Prayer. (www.kenpierpont.com)
Concluding Story: Marriage Revival: I saw it in my parents. I experienced it in 2004… [ill] She would look me in the eyes we would go out and eat together etc. Mackinaw Island. God was in it! So it is with our fellowship with God. When we have a reveal of affection for God we have a new, fresh, deeper love for each other. A renewed love for God pulls all kinds of things into is wonderful wake!
Friday Night
Review Quickly
6—Spend time around others who love him. Watch what they do and imitate them.
The Principle of Imitation:
You will tend to become like
whoever you train yourself to admire
Who do you want to be like?
He who walks with wise men will be wise,
But the companion of fools will be destroyed.
Proverbs 13:20
Ultimately we want to be like Jesus, but we are “wired” to imitate others we can physically see. God intends for us to find others with admirable qualities of holiness and be like them.
“He who walks with wise men will be wise…”
- Galatians 4:19 My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you
- Luke 6:40 “A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher.
- 1 Corinthians 4:16 Therefore I urge you, imitate me.
- Philippians 3:17 Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern.
- Philippians 4:9 The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.
- 1 Thessalonians 1:6 And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit,
- 2 Thessalonians 3:9 not because we do not have authority, but to make ourselves an example of how you should follow us.
- 1 Timothy 1:16 However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life.
- 1 Timothy 4:12 Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.
- Hebrews 13:7 Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct.
- 1 Peter 5:3 nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock;
- Acts 20:28-38 This is why older, godly Christians are so important in a Christian fellowship.
Here is how the process works:
1. the behavior is modeled
2. the behavior is admired and imitated
3. I accept by faith that the behavior is God’s will
4. I trust the prompting/enabling power of the Holy Spirit
5. I repeat the behavior (Romans 6:18ff)
6. I continue over a prolonged period of time
7. I am among others who support the behavior
8. Over a period of time it becomes the behavior I deeply desire. (affections)
“…A companion of fools will be destroyed.”
- Proverbs 12:26 The righteous should choose his friends carefully, For the way of the wicked leads them astray.
- Proverbs 22:24 Make no friendship with an angry man, And with a furious man do not go
- 1 Corinthians 5:11 But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person.
- 1 Corinthians 15:33 Do not be deceived: “Evil company corrupts good habits.”
You don’t need many friends.
What kind of friends do you need?
1. You need friends who fear God and obey Him. Psalm 119:63 I am a companion of all who fear You, And of those who keep Your precepts.
2. You need friends who refresh you in the things of the Lord. 2 Timothy 1:16 The Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain;
3. You need friends who will stimulate you to love and good works. Hebrews 10:24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works…
7—Give Gifts to God. Deeds done in his name. “…as you have done it unto the least of these… you have done it to me.” (Matthew) Pray to God when you give or when you drop money in the offering plate. Tell him you love him then.
8—Recognize aids to communion. (2 Cor. 12:7-10) See hardships as a aid to communion. In other words there are trials and difficulties that come into your life and they are blessings in disguise because they help you see that you need to live in uninterrupted fellowship with Jesus. “I need Thee every hour…”
9—Never let anything come between you and God. Confess sin. Have a tender conscience. “Search me and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me. Lead me in the way everlasting.” Guard your heart. “Because iniquity will abound the love of many will grow cold.” Have I ever promised you anything and didn’t keep my promise. Is there any hurt I haven’t made right. (ill) Kyle asking me out for coffee to have me ask him questions I used to ask him.
—Genuine Salvation
—Consecration (Bethel-Jacob)
—Seasonal Renewals of Consecration
—Weekly Reminders of Eternal Things (Ps. 72)
—Daily Habits of the Heart
—Moment-by-Moment Intimacy with the Lord. Coram Deo… live with an awareness of the presence of the Lord all the time.
[story] Walk close all the way home.
Let me pray a blessing upon you.
May the Lord Bless You and Keep You
May the Lord Cause His Face to Shine Upon You
May the Lord Keep You in All of Your Ways
And …according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” (Ephesians 3:14–21, ESV)
…and may you walk close all the way home… 
