Summer Vibes 3 | Love Song

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Whoa.

Got really quiet in here.

Praise the Lord.

Wasn't that a beautiful anthem that we just sung?

Come on.

That was just awesome.

Hallelujah.

I love the series that we're doing and uh summer vibes and songs.

And uh I just think that God has given us so many creative artists that actually awaken our heart.

And uh it's a real skill in being able to pen words that inspire, isn't it?

Yeah, the thought process that goes into some of the songs.

I'm excited.

I don't know if you heard through all of the commotion of greeting everybody.

The song that we chose this morning was uh Lionel Ritchie, and uh it's called Lady.

And um we're going back to the 80s here, right?

But yeah, they were the good years.

Yeah.

Right?

The good years.

No, this is this is a good year.

Praise the Lord.

I can remember, and this morning I want to take a little bit of license and do something very different.

I want to approach my message as if God was talking to us versus me, right, and my relationship externally to my wife or to the past or whatever.

Um, but I can remember in in 1980 I had the 68 Firebird, and uh it was fast.

It was uh it was a really nice car.

And uh I would turn down the windows, roll down, you didn't have to push buttons in this one, you know, and roll down the windows, but it had a 400 engine in it with hood scoop and fins on the back and big fat boots, and when it sat at a traffic light, that thing would just rumble.

Right?

And I would turn on the radio, turn on the stereo, right?

Tape deck, had a cassette deck, right?

If you don't know what that is, there's a bunch of them hanging on the wall out here in the in the entranceway, right?

And uh I had this tape, one of the many tapes that I had, but one of them was Kenny Rogers' Greatest Hits.

And uh on Kenny Rogers' Greatest Hits, he would sing this song by Lionel Ritchie.

Lionel Ritchie wrote this song, Lady.

And I'd be sitting there with in my car and flying down the road.

You're not supposed to speed today, ladies and gentlemen, but in those days we were allowed to take a little bit of license, right?

And the louder the music was, and you know, I'd be singing this song, Lady, you know, at the top of my voice, and just just loving it, right?

And uh why though?

Because when you listen to certain songs, all of a sudden they awaken or they inspire something inside of you, right?

And uh you move from reality to you know head dreams or whatever, I don't know, but you're inspired.

There's something that um, you know, catches your attention.

And you remember those days, you know, and then all of a sudden the tape would go, right?

And then you hit eject and you'd have to get your pencil out and you'd have to wind the tape back up, right?

Because it was all eaten inside, not my favorite tape, oh no, right?

It's like, you know, and you try to, yeah, and we did this while we were driving, right?

It was just like crazy.

Do you remember the first time that you fell in love?

Right?

Do you remember, do you remember that sliding your hand over and that, you know, hanging on, touching somebody's hand?

And do you remember, do you remember when your heart was awakened, right?

To you know, that that you're attracted to somebody and man, your heart starts to beat.

Am I like, does anybody in the remember this?

That was a long time ago, wasn't it?

No, I know.

You know, it's like it's so close, it's so real.

Do you remember you know what happens?

You know, you're you're working hard or you're doing your stuff, and then all of a sudden you notice a lady or you're a lady and you notice a guy, and uh, things get foggy, right?

Your heart beats, you know, and you don't care anymore about mom and dads, you don't care about work, you're just like in a one-track mind, you know, you just want to go, and we would drive miles just to go see, get a glimpse.

Some of you are nodding, and some of you are like, ah, no way, right?

You know, there's something about love, right, that uh that just draws us, that draws us, and these songs, you know, they take us back.

So when I sit, uh still today, like I'll sit and I'll watch Lisa.

That's my wife.

Right?

And she inspires me.

Like I just sit there and I she doesn't know that I'm sitting there watching her.

Sometimes she knows, right?

But there's something that happens in my heart that has been awakened but gets reignited.

Getting quiet in here.

It's called love.

Right?

There ought to be something going on in our life that actually inspires us and takes us right out of this world to a whole new vista inside of our heart and inside of our mind.

And this is what happens.

Where does this love come from?

Where does it come from?

It's an incredible gift from God.

Right?

And if it's, you know, if it's not our reality, don't wake me up because I just I just think it's a such a precious thing to have, to have our something inside you that's that's magnetic, something inside you that's drawn, something inside of you that just wants to get together, right?

And there's times where I've had to drive miles to get a glimpse of her or to get together because of work or whatever it is that you're away, and your heart just longs to be there.

Can you relate?

Yeah?

Where does this love come from?

And we see in scripture that there's all kinds of stories, that powerful stories that restore us and put us in awe of this, the source of this love, and that's God.

And the people, the stories.

You know that a story in scripture doesn't arrive in scripture unless it has something in it that points toward Christ, his attributes, his, like all through the pages of scripture, it wasn't just a historical story about Song of Solomon and his perverted idea of what this girl's doing in the grape vineyard.

It's a reflection.

The stories are in the Bible because they're a reflection of the heart of God.

That's what got them into the Bible, right?

So when we read in Scripture these stories about Hosea, right?

What an incredible story about the love of a man for a woman, no matter what she does.

And how restorative and how powerful that love is, because he's awakened inside by this pursuit, even though he's conflicted in his head.

Come on, right?

God with his kids, David is touched by God in the Psalms, and his heart ignites and is inspired by what he says in his poetry toward the Lord.

And we read that stuff, and sometimes I sit there and read it, and I'm like, oh yeah, like, you know, what the heck were you thinking, David?

You know?

But other times I get into his mindset, I get into his heart, and I get to see what he sees.

And I hear what he hears, and my heart awakens to this love.

You see it, Jesus and the tax collectors, Jesus and the harlots, you see him personally, how he's attracted and inspired to brokenness, and he wants to do something fantastic and great.

You know, all of our fairy tales that we watch in the movies are always about a great king that loves a pauper or you know, somebody, there's greatness and there's brokenness, and it's the marriage of the two that just go, we just go, ah, ah, right?

And our heart is awakened.

And so, you know, God in scripture, this is this is amazing.

He calls us his bride.

He calls us his bride.

This is the creator of the universe.

This is the one that can do anything that he wants to do.

He can move mountains, he can move rivers, he can shift things, he can stop the sun, like he can stop.

Whatever he wants to do, he can do.

He's built the universe.

It's all on his design and plan.

And he's the one that says, hey baby, you're mine.

I love you.

We're gonna get married.

You're my pursuit.

You're the one that I care about.

There's an affection inside of me, not an infection, an affection inside of me, an attraction that that is irresistible.

And I'm drawn to you.

I'm attracted.

I'm attracted to you.

We see, you know, I know that I don't see Ben here, but I see Naomi here.

You're getting married in what?

Like less than 30 27 days, right?

Are you excited?

Yeah?

Look at her just beaming, right?

Just beaming.

It's awesome.

Love is an amazing thing.

There's there's a few stories in scripture that I just want to allude to and take us on this little journey this morning.

And the first one is in Genesis chapter 24.

Genesis 24 · chapter mention

And in Genesis 24, we see Abraham, and he he wants a wife for his son.

And he gets his servant, who's in charge of everything that he has, and he goes through this covenant process that I won't describe here on stage, but he gets his son to grab him and say, Promise me that you'll go look for a bride for my son Isaac.

Right?

And the servant is in charge of everything that Abraham has.

And Abraham goes, the servant gathers ten camels and he goes on this journey.

And when he was talking to Abraham, Abraham, he says to Abraham, What if she doesn't want to come to where we are?

Shall we take Isaac to that place?

And Abraham said, Promise me that you will not take my son back there, but she must follow you.

So this servant is going out looking for somebody that wants to follow him to something great, right?

And he goes out and then he asks God, he says, God, I really need your help because this is a really important task.

And would you give me favor?

And so he lays out the conditions and says, When I go to the well with my camels and I'm thirsty and I ask for a drink, will it be the woman that actually says, I'll give you a drink, but I'll also give your camels a drink too?

So he was looking for somebody that was willing to serve.

He was looking for somebody that was willing to go the extra mile in this relationship.

And what's fascinating about this is that the server, the servant of Abraham, he's got these camels and he's got gifts, and he meets this woman and he has the favor of God and he watches her, asks her for a drink, and he knows instantly in his heart, this is the girl.

This is the girl, right?

And he pulls out, without even mom and dad there, he pulls out a nose ring and he pulls out a whole bunch of gold bracelets and stuff and gives it to this girl.

And he's he comes bearing gifts.

And then when he meets up with the family, he unloads a bunch more gifts.

And this whole story, in a very real sense, is a it actually happened into Isaac's benefit.

He got himself a beautiful wife, right?

But in the story, it's actually an analogy of the pursuit of the Holy Spirit looking and preparing, calling out and preparing a bride for the Son Christ, Jesus Christ.

Right?

And he comes, and the Holy Spirit is engaged in this process.

And uh, you know, I was doing a devotional quite recently, and the word that came to mind was to inspire.

And the whole the to inspire means to breathe into, to bring life.

And the Holy Spirit is in this process, and he gets to see life brought into this girl, and life brought into Isaac, and he invites her into his into the son's destiny.

And we see this with God that he sent out his Holy Spirit in the earth today, preparing the lover of God.

Come on.

The church, the passion of his heart, the one that loves us, the one that wants to prepare us, to change us, to shift us, to make us clean and holy and acceptable.

It's the work of the Holy Spirit.

And daily the Holy Spirit comes into our life and wants to inspire us and ignite us and get us to think about what it would be like.

Come on.

So often we're caught up in what's at the present, what's so demanding, was so physically consuming with our time, we we forget that there's a process going on here.

There's a huge process that's captured the heart of God.

And he wants us inspired with him and his destiny and his plan and what he's doing in our life.

He wants to awaken us to love.

There's another story we see in Song of Solomon.

It's not a book that I've spent a whole lot of time in.

Um, but you know, in chapter four of Solomon, Song of Solomon, Solomon is giving this list, he's attracted to this woman.

Right?

He says, Your teeth, girly, are like sheep, you know, and your hair, your lips are like scarlet, and he's he's your breasts are, and he goes into this definition of, you know, and he's naming her attributes all the way down.

He's admiring this woman.

Right?

And he's, and this is what it says in chapter 5.

It says that his heart was ravished.

His heart was ravished.

I looked up the meaning of that word, and it was like it was, it was seized.

It was it was, you know, by force.

She was so attractive that the force of that attraction seized his heart, and he was captivated by the beauty of this woman.

And the story goes on that he comes to visit her, but she's already taken off her shoes and she's locked the door and she's bathed and she's got her and she's in bed, and it's almost like she's inconvenienced that he has come.

And I think to myself, sometimes, you know, wouldn't it be horrible if if my phone rang and I see it's Lisa and I just slide it off because I'm inconvenienced.

Right?

Because of the one I love.

It's just like I'm busy.

Right?

And I think that God, whether he's calling us or whether he's sending his Holy Spirit, he's there.

He wants to whisper in our ear, he wants to hear our sound, he wants to speak to us, he wants us to hear his sound.

Because his heart is ravished.

That must be God calling there.

His heart is ravished, he's so attracted, he's so longing.

He's so longing.

I don't I don't know, like I don't know if he can hardly wait.

There's something in his heart that's filled with anticipation that he's looking around on the earth going, yeah, baby.

You're mine.

You're mine.

In Ephesians chapter 5, verse 25 to 29, it says, Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her.

Ephesians 5:25–29

That he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that he might present her to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing.

But that she should be holy and without blemish.

So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own body.

He who loves his wife loves himself.

For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes it and cherishes it just as the Lord does with the church.

Saylah, think about that.

The Lord nourishes and cherishes the church.

He nourishes it.

This is the God of heaven.

This is the creator.

This is this is amazing that He He you know He loves us in such a powerful way.

Right?

Have you ever I remember when I was a kid and uh I was riding my bicycle down the road.

And some of you can relate to this, and I'm like, you know, pedal down the road, take my hands off the handlebar, whoa, grab the handlebars, right?

Then you pedal some more and you take your hands off the handlebars, and right?

And I can remember, you know, riding around on my seat with my hands up like this, going, you know, look at this, and then hitting some gravel.

Instantly my wheel turned, right?

And there I was, like I learned how to fly.

Right?

And I'm like, I got gravel in my knees, my palms are like, you know, they're just all barked up, and I can hardly pick up my bike.

I'm shaking so hard, and I come home, and you know, my mom washes.

I think she wished she could have said a few things, but because I was hurt, she washes my hands and knees, right?

She takes the gravel out and she she nourishes, she cherishes me, right, in spite of me falling.

How many of us have fell?

How many of us have even thought, look at me go?

Right?

Hands off the handlebar, and you're just going down the road and you're just the proudest punch, and the next thing you know, your face is in the dirt.

Look at me go.

Right?

And there's somebody there to pick you up, there's somebody there to wash you off, there's somebody there to clean you up, there's somebody there that says, I care about you.

We're not gonna let this momentary, temporary little incident affect your destiny, son.

Come on.

That's what the scripture is all about.

He nourishes and he cherishes and he washes.

And it's his Holy Spirit that cleans us, and he wants to give us glimpses of how much he cares about us.

No matter what has happened in our life, no matter how many bikes we've fallen off of, he's there picking us up because of his great, great love.

I have had the opportunity, and in August, you're gonna meet Larry and Francine from Africa, and they're bringing David and Gideon here, the pastors that do a lot of our work over there.

But I've had the opportunity to be in Africa, and they have this thing called a dowry, right?

And a dowry is where you pay the man's family or the man has to pay the price for the woman, right?

And the price is negotiable, but it's determined, oftentimes the dowry is determined upon her value.

So how much money has the family spent on her in education?

Is she educated?

Does she come with money?

Does she come with influence?

Does she come with affluence?

And that's the decision on how valuable she is, and therefore you can buy her or have a dowry for five cows, or you can negotiate for ten cows and some blankets and some rubber boots, or if she's got great value, you know, you could be indebted to the family for a long time.

Right?

And I just put myself into the heart and mind of God, where he wants to redeem, he wants to purchase, he wants.

Wants to buy his kids.

He wants to pay the price for them.

And there wasn't enough planets.

There wasn't enough land.

There wasn't enough gold.

There wasn't enough silver.

He looked around and there wasn't enough people for the sacrifice of the one that he loved.

So he said, Take me, I'll go.

I'll pay the price.

You are worth it to me.

You're so valuable to me that there's not a physical thing in this world that's big enough that could cover your debt, but I can.

And I'm going to put that on display for throughout all of eternity, how precious you are to me because I love you.

I've chosen you.

You are mine.

My heart beats for you.

My heart longs to be united to you.

What an amazing, what an amazing thing to know that there's nothing in the physical world that was more valuable.

And so he took his own power, his own nature, and he said, I'm pure, I'm holy, there's nothing like me, I'm the best, and I will go and I'll lay down my life because I love you.

What a fantastic thing.

In Ezekiel chapter 16, he he Ezekiel pens these words in his description of the children of Israel.

Ezekiel 16 · chapter mention

And he's, he's doing what I'm doing this morning.

He puts himself in the heart and mind of God, and this is how he writes about God looking down on his children.

In verse 4 to 14, it says, As for your nativity, on the day you were born, your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed in water to cleanse you.

You were not rubbed with salt nor wrapped in swaddling clothes.

No eye pitied you to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you, but you were thrown out into the open field when you yourself were loath on the day you were born.

When I passed by you and saw you struggling in your own blood, I said to you, in your blood, live.

Yes, I said to you in your blood, live.

And I made you thrive like a plant in the field, and you grew and matured and became very beautiful.

Your breasts were formed, your hair grew, but you were naked and bare.

Then I passed by you again and looked upon you, and indeed your time was the time of love.

So I spread my wing over you and covered you your nakedness.

Yes, I swore in an oath to you and entered into a covenant with you, and you became mine, says the Lord God.

Then I washed you in water, yes, I thoroughly washed off your blood, and I anointed you with oil, I clothed you in embroidered cloth, and gave you sandals of badger skin, I clothed you with fine linen and covered you with silk.

I adorned you with ornaments, put bracelets on your wrists and a chain on your neck, I put a jewel in your nose, earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head.

Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothes was of fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth.

You ate pastry of fine flour, honey, and oil.

You're exceedingly beautiful and succeeded to royalty.

Your fame went out among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through my slender, splendor, which I had bestowed on you, says the Lord.

Like this is this is how he views the shaping of his bride, the people that he loves, that he wants to.

Each one of us have a story of brokenness, each one of us have a story of rejection, each one of us has a story of being cast out or thrown out.

And God just comes in and he washes and he cleans and he lifts us up and he starts speaking beauty and royalty and greatness, and he sends his Holy Spirit to give gifts.

The gifts that he gives are not like the gifts that we give.

You know, I often think about how I pray and I say, Lord bless me.

My car is broken down.

Oh, would you fix?

Would you help?

You know, and my my world is small.

I told you a vision that I had a few years ago where I was riding on my quad in the bush, and I was looking for elk, and all of a sudden, and while I was driving on my quad, I had an eye, uh, an open eye vision.

I was sitting there hunting, I was looking, looking, looking, and I saw myself sitting beside the throne room of heaven.

I saw myself sitting beside God, and there was a great big hole in heaven, and there was a ladder in front of me, and there was angels going up and down the ladder, and they were bringing boxes, and they were going down, and then they came back up and they had the boxes in their hand, and I'm like, what's going on?

So I walked over to the hole to watch, and they were walking, they're coming down to earth, and they had these gifts, and they were walking and they were handing them to people, and they're like, No, I'm okay.

I got no, no, no, thanks.

I'm good.

I'm good.

I got enough.

No, I'm I'm good, right?

No, really, it's it's okay, right?

And they would come back up, and I looked at the boxes and I said, Love.

I said forgiveness.

One gift was mercy, one was grace.

And I'm like, oh Lord.

How you long to bestow upon us the gifts that you have that are different than the gifts that we want.

And how they'll shape us and mold us to become the person that He wants us to be because they're from Him.

They're through Him.

They're for Him.

For His glory, for His beauty and for His splendor, which actually only lifts us up and makes us look that much more beautiful and that much more glorious.

It's a never-ending song.

Zephaniah chapter 3, verse 17 says, The Lord your God in your midst, the mighty one will save.

Zephaniah 3:17

He will rejoice over you with gladness, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.

You know how the Lord sings over you?

You know, I was thinking about this this morning.

I was thinking about this.

We sing songs of salvation, and I'm so grateful.

How many of you are grateful to be saved?

Right?

If you were out in the lake drowning and somebody threw you a life ring, you'd grab it and you'd go, man, thank you.

Right?

I was out on a boat once with Lisa and uh another family and a baby.

We were watching the fireworks July 1st out in the lake, and uh all of a sudden somebody said to me, Is there supposed to be water in the boat?

I'm like, maybe a little bit.

I turned around and the pack backpack was floating in the back of the boat.

I thought, well, you know what, you know, we'll just pull the plug and drive out of it, like you know, start the engine, and then the water would drain out, right?

No, it's too late.

The battery was underwater, the motor was underwater, and the boat was going down.

I said, We're sinking.

It was 11 o'clock at night, and this fireworks going off, and I'm like, hey, we're sinking.

Help us.

Yeah, happy Canada Day too, bro.

I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, stop.

We're sinking.

Help! Oh, they're sinking.

So a boat came over, and you know, first thing the baby goes off, then our company goes off, and then my wife goes off, and the boat is like this, and it's just the nose is sticking out, and I step off the boat, the lights are on, it's underneath in the lake.

Anyways, I'm grateful that somebody came and saved me.

Right?

Are you grateful you've been saved?

Right.

But there's a whole other level when you get to marry the one that saved you.

There's a whole other level of intimacy when that person all of a sudden there's a divine attraction in your heart is awakened and is ravished because you love this person.

Do you get it?

Like salvation is absolutely fantastic.

But marriage, union, to be united to the king of the universe, to be one with him, to be intimate with him, to be called his own?

What a beautiful thing.

This is this is our destiny.

This is what he's calling us to.

I have, I want us to listen.

Can we do this?

Can we can we play this video?

I'm gonna set this video up.

This is Lionel Richie singing his song that he wrote.

Would you close your eyes for a minute?

Would you think about it as if God was singing to you?

I'm not gonna get weird on your nothing, but just let it inspire you for a moment.

Close your eyes.

You have made me what I am, and I'm your love.

I love you.

Let me hold you in my heart.

You have come to my life, baby.

And I don't know what he is singing, but I know what scripture says.

And this morning's message, I believe, was just to awaken our heart, to inspire us to know, to know, to know, that you ravish his heart, that he is so engaged, preoccupied with the love of his life, and that he loves us.

He loves you, he loves me.

We know us, we know ourselves, we know where we don't fit the bill.

As a matter of fact, in our mind we come up with a lot of excuses of why we don't qualify.

We look at our attitudes, we look at our sin, we look at the things that we may have done.

And it's almost that like that gives us an excuse to keep him distant.

But he doesn't want to be distant.

He wants to hear the whisper in his ear of us drawing near and talking to him.

He loves us so immensely that he wants to put, he wants us to put the excuses behind us and get over them.

No longer use them, no longer allow them to speak to our head, speak to our mind, and hold us back from who he is and what he wants to do in our life.

I want my heart to be inspired.

I can never meet up to him, but I want his inspiration in me to draw closer to him.

I want to see him, I want to hear his voice, I want to know.

How do I know he's speaking to me?

It's in the word.

It's in what I see, how great things are that he's made.

It's in the church, it's in his body when we love and encourage and build.

And my invitation to us, I'm speaking to a mature church, but there might be people here that say, hey, I don't know the love that you're talking about, I don't know what this all means, but I would like to have that.

I'm here to tell you that your creator, your designer, the one that holds us, that knows our heart, he knows your thoughts.

He says, I care about the lilies of the field, I care about the birds, I care about so much, and I know what's going on.

I'm not missing out on you.

I know you.

And I want a relationship, you and me.

I want a relationship with you.

I'm calling you out.

Don't let the excuses of your past stop you from the amazing future that he has in store for you.

So if you're sitting here today and you don't know that, we want you to be assured that God loves you in an incredible, powerful way.

And he looks at you and says, You're my lady.

I love you.

And I want to be in a relationship with you.

Would you close your eyes with me?

Would you say this?

Jesus.

Thank you for your love for me.

Thank you for all that you went through.

To show me your love.

You've become the sacrifice for my sin.

So I could live and be free from that sin.

I invite you into my heart.

I invite you into my life.

And I want to get to know you.

Because apparently you're amazing.

So come on in.

Amen.

Thank you for listening.

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