The Elation Of His Love

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much, and hello again dear radio friends. How in the world are you? Everything going alright at your house? Well, some days are not as good as others, I know that. And maybe you’ve struck a rough one, and if you have, just turn to your Blessed Savior, and say dear Lord, see me through this one. For He hath said, this is the scripture on it, for He hath said, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee” and our Lord Jesus told the apostles specifically, that while they were doing His bidding, getting the gospel out, He said, “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world”, so you’re in touch with a God who won’t forsake you. He hasn’t forgotten you, He knows where you live, He cares enough about you to put a separate number assign a separate number to every hair follicle on your head, which is quite a task. It would be easy enough to count the hairs, especially in my case, but He’s assigned a separate number. Jesus said that hairs of your head are all numbered. So, your Heavenly Father cares about you, oh yes He does. You can trust Him to see you through this day or any day. My good friend, Louise Alfors, who worked with me for many years, and she sent me a quote, here it is, “If you were arrested tomorrow for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” Now, that’s pretty good isn’t it? If you were arrested tomorrow for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you? Many of us, it must be admitted, are rather mildly Christian. There’s not too much in our lifestyle that could be used as evidence against us if someone were to try our case. Want to think about that? Let’s be obviously happily, frontally, frankly Christian. One of the phrases that I’ve delighted to use in describing the position that we take is that we are frankly evangelical, frankly evangelical, that is to say, we believe in the fundamentals of the faith, we believe in the in the inerrancy and infallibility of God’s Word the Bible, we believe in the virgin birth of our Lord Jesus, His sinless life, His atoning death, and His bodily resurrection from the grave, and His soon second coming, for His saints, we believe in the oneness of believers all over the world, we believe in the ministry of the indwelling Holy Spirit of God, we believe you ought to look and act and smell like a Christian, your lifestyle should show that you belong to Jesus, these are some of things we stand for, and we do so frankly, frankly evangelical. Oh, let’s be out and out with our Christianity, shall we? You and I? You don’t have to wear a sign nor do you have to go around proclaiming the fact, but you can be happily, frankly, frontally, overtly, enthusiastically, Christian every minute of every day.

Well, you and I are looking at Psalm 116, he said, “What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me?” If you love God you want to do something. It is that simple. If you love a person, you want to show it, right? Oh, my mind goes back to the times when our children were very, very young, and little preschooler just learning to write the alphabet and to draw little pictures and that sort of a thing. And I remember them coming in and handing me a little a little greeting card that they had one or the other of them made, and there was a picture on it and little stick me, walking across a landscape, and very laboriously, probably with the help of Coreen, my good wife, the tiny hands had traced the letters Papa, I love you. Boy, I tell you, just breaks your heart with gratitude. I still have some of those things in the bottom drawer of one of my desks here, and often times when I’m rummaging around for a paper clip or something else, I’ll run across them and read them and my eyes and my heart will fill up. When you love a person, you want to do something to show it, of course you do.

Now, what are you and I doing that shows our love for our Heavenly Father? You want to think about that for a moment? What are we doing that shows our love for our Heavenly Father? Well, we ought to tell Him so, we ought to spend time with Him instead of neglecting Him for other temporal matters. People have said to me, “I know I should read my Bible and pray every day but you see I’m so busy”. What that really is saying is, I think the things that I do in this life are much more important than talking to God with whom I shall spend all eternity. Doesn’t make sense when you put it that way, but that’s what we do. God, I’m too busy or too sleepy, or too tired or whatever to spend time with you. If you really love God, you’ll want to spend time with Him, and the wonderful thing about it is that the more you spend time with God, the more you want to. There is the law of diminishing returns; the less you spend time with God, the less you want to, and the more, the obverse side of that law, the more you spend time with God, the more you enjoy Him, and want to be with Him. Well certainly, that’s a starter, what else? Well find out what God is interested in and get in it, yourself. You want to win a person’s attention and friendship? Get interested in what he is interested in.

A young couple, middle-aged I guess, stopped to talk with me after class, years ago, that I’d been teaching, and they said, “Can we talk to you about our son?”, and I said, “Certainly, what seems to be the problem?”, said we’re just so worried about him, he’s getting now into his teens and he’s sort of, stretching his wings a little, and getting a kind of an independent spirit, and we realize that’s part of growing up but, all he’s always interested in is cars and guns and we’re just afraid he’ll turn out to be a gangster.” And the mother was so troubled about it, her eyes filled up as she said this. Well, I said, “Now that’s interesting. Tell me”, I said to her, “do you know anything about an internal combustion engine of automobile engine?”, she said no, all I know is how to start one and drive it. Well I said, “I’d like to have you do something. You go to the library and get a book that explains how an automobile engine works, and you learn about compression and ignition and valves, and tappets, and pistons, and connecting rods, and bearings, and transmissions, you learn about that. Now, don’t tell anybody, just do it.” And then I said, “Some time, after you’ve mastered it, you just mention some of that to your boy and see what happens.” Then I turned to the husband and I said, “You ever go hunting?” Oh yeah, I go, every season.” Well I said, “Have you ever taken your boy with you?”, “Nah, he’d just get in the way”, well I said, “Now, maybe it might be a good idea if, when hunting season opens you taken him with you, you explain carefully to him, the laws of safety in operating a firearm, and you a spend little time with him just being with him there out on the range. Why don’t you try that?” Well, he said, “Alright”. I talked with him, I supposed nine months or a year later, and they were delighted they said, “Oh, our boys’ getting along so well. Some years past, and then I ran across that family again, and when I inquired about that boy concerning whom they were so worried, you know what I found out? You know what he’s doing now? He’s an Illinois state patrolman and had just been promoted. Oh, he’s a long ways from turning out to be a gangster.

Now, how do you show your love? You get interested in what a person is interested in, and you are rewarded then with real attention on that person’s part. Now you don’t have to try to get God’s attention, He’s always aware of you, but humanly, it stands to reason that you and I ought to show our love for God, by being interested in what He’s interested in. What’s He interested in? He’s interested in people who are real, spiritually real with Him. He said, “He that cometh to God Jesus”, said, “He that cometh to God, must to worship Him, he that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth”. Spirit means religious spiritual reality because of the Holy Spirit, and truth means sincerity, and so He said I want people who, to worship, who are real and who are sincere and who have spiritual life and power. God wants and Jesus said, “The Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is out looking for people who are sincere and who are spiritually real who will worship Him. You want to get interested in what God is interested in? Start there. Examine your own heart and see how much of your Christianity is pretense. Examine your prayers and see how much of them is pure form. Find out for yourself whether there is any spiritual life and reality and deep sincerity in what you say and do in the presence of God, and if there’s a need there, then maybe better get at that. “What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me”. Better get real with God, hadn’t you? Yes, you should. What else is He interested in? God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. God is interested soul winning and evangelism. It’s alright to say, “Well, I support the missionaries and we pay the preacher to do the preaching and we’ll do the praying in the paying, well that’s alright, no problem. I’m always glad for people who pay the preacher, cause I was one and am one. No problem there, but we need to go a little farther. God is interested in soul winning and in world evangelism, and you and I better lineup our interests in line with His, so I ask you beloved, How long has it been since you prayed with anybody for salvation? Oh, you say I’m too I’m too shy. You’re not that shy. You talk about other things. I know that you talk about things with your neighbors and friends. It simply is a matter of being interested enough in Jesus to talk about Him without any stress or strain.

Let the Blessed Spirit of God, fill your life until you are just delighted to share something about the Lord Jesus, as a byproduct of His presence in your life, and you will be showing that you love God because you’re interested now in what He is interested in, the salvation of other people. “What shall I render toward the Lord?” He says, “By Him therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name, but to communicate to do good forget not, that for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.” What does God like? Number one, He likes your praise, number two, He likes your giving, stewardship, and number three, He likes your good works of obedience to Him. “We’re created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them”, Paul says in Ephesians 2:10. So, God likes to see from you, sincere praise, generous giving to His work, and day by day obedience and doing good as He leads you. Well, that’s a start anyway. What shall I render towards the Lord? Something to think about, isn’t it?

Dear Father today, may we please Thee and show our love, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!