God Wants Our Hearts | Deuteronomy 6:4-9 | Coleton Segars

I I'm shifting from I send we send an email every Friday about what we're doing on Sunday, and on Friday I'm going with our series, and I'm gonna teach through Mark and I'm gonna continue going that way.

And Friday evening to Saturday morning, I was like, I just I want to teach something else.

And the other sermon was done, but it wasn't where I wanted it, and I was like, I don't want to present something half baked to the church.

And so I've been thinking about this other thing, and um, and so, anyways, I I'm I'm we're going off series today.

I'm just gonna teach on something else just for uh just for today.

We'll jump back in the series next week.

But um, some of this stuff may be familiar to you.

Uh, there's a part of this uh sermon that I preached before um at this church, but it was like four years ago when y'all were at the Botanic Gardens before I ever worked here.

And um, so there might be some familiarity, but it's also a very different church than it was then.

So uh that was a lot of intro into we're gonna look at Deuteronomy 6, verses 4 through 9.

Deuteronomy 6:4–9

But this is what Moses writes.

It's a famous passage called the Shema.

He says, Hero Israel, Hero Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord alone, excuse me, the Lord is our God, the Lord alone.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength.

These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.

Impress them on your children, talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up, tie them assembles on your hands and bind them on your foreheads, write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates.

This is the word of the Lord.

Uh I remember the first time I told Rainey, my wife, she's not here right now.

Uh first time, I'm excited too.

Um first time I told her I loved her was uh I was 21 and we've been dating for two weeks.

So it was a little fast.

Um, but I've been like in love with her for like two years up to that point.

So honestly, I felt like I waited.

Uh, but we had started dating, and I took her to Backyard Burger because that's where you go to tell people that you love them.

And um, and so I we went to Backyard Burger, and something about the greasy food or something, the fuel that I had, I was like, this is my shot, I'm gonna take it right now.

And so we were leaving, she got in her car, and she was gonna drive away, and I was like, here it is.

So I walk up to her window and I'm like, hey, I just need you to know I love you, and I've loved you for a long time.

And she receives it and she smiles, and then she says, Thanks.

And then she drives away.

And that was that was my first interaction with uh telling someone that you love them and going, like, well, you just ripped my heart out of my chest, but now uh but then she, you know, anyways, it took, I don't know, the next she still hasn't said it.

We're still waiting for her to say she loves me back.

Um one of these days, folks.

Uh it's been 17 years or whatever, but um, but I say all that because it actually did take a period of time.

She was not, she wanted to be, she's not like me.

I'm very impulsive, um, and so she wanted to very methodically figure this out.

And uh she eventually said it, and that was wonderful.

And um, but during the time of my waiting, I never considered telling her, like, hey, I love you, and you need to love me.

Like, you should love me.

Uh, I never commanded her to love me.

Um, that would be weird.

That would probably lead to her not loving me, and so uh I never thought to do that.

And the reason I say that is because that's what this text is.

It is the Lord literally saying, like, I have a command for you, and here it is, you better love me.

Like, it's like this odd thing that's given to the people of Israel and to us, to like, hey, I have a command for you, and my command is love me.

And so, what I want to do today is um really look at three reasons why God wants us to love him, why he actually commands this, because I think it's supposed to be a hopeful thing for us, that he's not commanding us to do a bunch of stuff, he's commanding us to actually, I want your heart, I want you to love me.

So, three reasons why God wants us to love him, and then how we as people can actually grow in our love, grow in our affection for him.

And so those three things.

Um, three reasons why he wants us to love him.

The first, we need to love him, and he wants us to love him because our love ultimately is what he cares about the most.

It's what he wants from us the most.

It is the thing that when he looks at us and it's like, what do you really want from me?

He's like, I genuinely want your affection.

I want a life with you in this relational dynamic with you where you actually feel love and affection for me in the same way that I feel love and am affected in my love for you.

I want you to feel that thing.

So, this text, I said this before, but this text is known as the Shema, and it's a prayer that sums up the greatest commandment that's ever been given.

This is the greatest commandment.

It's even, Jesus even talks about this greatest commandment in the New Testament, but it's the greatest commandment, and the greatest commandment is I want you to love me.

And this is important because I think primarily what people think, think about, sorry, everybody's eyes just went that way, and I was one, what happened?

Um I think it's important for us because I think when we primarily think about like, what does God want me to do?

What does God primarily want me to spend my time doing?

I think some of the things that we think is we think that he just wants us to obey a bunch of rules, make sure you follow a bunch of stuff, list these things off, make sure that you're knocking these points out, crossing the T's, dotting the I's.

Make sure that you're being good, and then that's really all I want from you.

And yet that's not the greatest command.

The greatest command isn't, hey, make sure you're good.

Make sure you stop being bad and start being a good person.

Make sure you do more good than bad.

Like that's not the greatest command.

The greatest command is I genuinely want you to love me.

David Gizak says it like this He says, What God wants most from us is our love.

Now we often think God demands a hundred other things from us our time, our money, our effort, our will, our submission, and so forth.

But God, what what he really wants is our love.

When we really love the Lord with all of our heart, soul, and mind, then everything else is freely given to the Lord.

If we give to the Lord all the rest, money, time, effort, will, and so forth, without giving him our love, it is all wasted and perhaps all is lost.

And that idea of like if you give him all this stuff and you're just obeying the rules or something like that, and you're like, I feel like I'm I'm accomplishing what he wants me to do, and it's like, yeah, you're not, because he doesn't want you to just crush all those different things and do all that stuff.

He really does want our affection.

There's something about that that he really, really loves.

Jesus says this to the church in Ephesus in Revelation 2.

This church is killing it, like they're doing so many great things.

This is what he says.

He's like, I know your deeds, church, your hard work, your perseverance.

I know that you can't tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and you found them false.

You have persevered, you've endured hardships for my name, and you've not grown weary.

All those great things.

And he says, But I hold this against you.

You've forsaken the love that you had for me at first.

Consider how far you've fallen.

Repent and do the things you did at first.

And if you do not repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place.

And so if you think about all these different things, like Jesus, what do you care about in the church?

They're doing all of this stuff, and he's going, That's I love it.

That stuff is great.

But you you don't love me anymore, and that's actually enough.

Even if you keep doing all of these works, you're still doing communion, you're still persevering under persecution, you're still doing all this, you're still preaching the Bible, you're still worshiping every single day, but you've lost the love that you have for me.

He goes, if you don't get this back, I'm going to shut your church down.

It is a church shutting down offense to do all the stuff without any kind of affection.

And he's going, I don't actually, those things are fine, but like I actually want your heart.

I actually want you to love me.

I want there to be something in you that longs to be with me and that there's actual affection for me.

So that's the first thing.

Why should we love him?

It's like that's the thing he wants the most.

Everything else will be thrown in, and we'll get to that in a second, but everything else will be thrown in.

So why should we try to stir our affection for him and actually love him and not just cross T's and dot I's and that kind of stuff?

Why should we just not try and just be obedient but not actually try and have our hearts aimed at him?

It's because what he actually cares about at the end of the day is like, do you love me?

Like, is there actually affection for me in your heart?

So that's the first.

The second reason that he wants us to love him is so that we enjoy him.

He actually wants our life with him to be something that we enjoy.

He does not want this to be a drudgery that you just walk through the Christian life where you don't actually enjoy it.

Verses six through nine talk about this like idea of like, hey, talk about me and have my words like plastered on your walls and on your foreheads and all these different things.

Talk about me when you lie down, when you wake up, when you go on walks, when you sit down, when you like have me constantly on your lips.

And what he's getting to is the idea of like, when you when you love me, if you will love me with your heart, talking about me and having my stuff everywhere will naturally just begin to happen because you talk a ton about the things that you actually love.

My son loves Minecraft.

I learned more about Minecraft and the movie than I need to know about Minecraft, honestly.

I don't need to know this much about Minecraft, but I know it because he loves it and he cannot stop talking about it, even if you want him to.

He just keeps talking about Minecraft or Pokemon.

He really likes Pokemon too.

And so there's this thing, it's like what he is affected by, what his heart is is aimed at, what he loves, he just talks about over and over and over.

And the reason that we do that, the reason that we talk about the things that we love so much is because there's something in them, and saying those words and and speaking about it, that makes us enjoy the thing that we love even more.

He loves Minecraft, but then he talks about it with me, and he you can see his eyes light up even more.

He he begins to love that thing even more.

C.S.

Lewis talks about that.

This is just the natural way that we enjoy the things that we love.

He says, we delight to praise or to talk about.

We delight to talk about uh what we enjoy because the the praise, the words, don't merely express, but they complete our enjoyment.

It is the it is its appointed consummation.

He says, it is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are.

He says, They delight, uh excuse me, the delight they feel is incomplete until it's expressed.

So if it were possible for a person to fully love and delight in the worthiest object of all, and at every moment to give that delight perfect expression, then that person would be in supreme beatitude.

That person would experience supreme happiness, supreme joy.

And so what he's saying is like if you love something and then you want to express that love, the reason you want to talk about how great it is is that it does something in you that makes you enjoy it even more.

And so the reason that God wants us to love him is he's like, I always want to be in your mind.

I want you to love me so that when you talk about me a ton, not because like I need you to talk about me, like it will be the natural thing that you do.

And as you do that, as your love just begins flowing out of you, you know, about me, you will actually enjoy me a lot more.

You will experience life with me in a way that you would otherwise not experience.

And so if you don't love me and then you're like, I'm forced to talk about this thing I hate.

If you've ever had a sales job and you hate what you sell, and I gotta call people and talk to them about this thing that they don't need, they're not, they don't need to spend money for it, and I gotta try and sell it, and I don't even want it.

Like, can you imagine what that's like?

It doesn't make you love the thing, it makes you hate the thing that you have to talk about.

But the other way around is like when you love it, I love it, and I love talking about it.

And then all of a sudden, when you're sharing that with someone else and they begin to enjoy the thing that you love, it strengthens your enjoyment of that thing as well.

And so God wants us to love him, not just so that we talk about him, but so that as we are actually going through life with other people, the thing that we love about him becomes something that we talk about, and then we experience it more and more and more.

And the enjoyment that we have with him is not experienced to the full until it's actually expressed.

And so he's calling us to this thing.

He's like, I genuinely really want this for you, so that it's not work that you have to do, but something that it's natural that you walk into.

Because we naturally talk a ton about the things that we love.

And when we do that, we actually enjoy those things.

And that's what he wants for us.

He wants us to actually enjoy life with him, he wants us to experience that joy.

And so he calls us to love him.

The third, God wants us to love him so that our obedience to him isn't a burden.

We do need to obey, and he does have things that he wants us to follow him in.

But he wants us to love him so that our obedience isn't a burden.

He doesn't want our following of him or our obedience to be this thing, that's this weight that we have to carry.

Because the truth is, when you love something or you love someone, the the things that they you have to do for them are they just naturally move towards that.

Um obedience follows the things that you love.

Um we took Teddy to Disney World one time, and um hopefully we get to do that again.

But uh took him to Disney World and he hates waking up early.

But like at Disney World, if you're gonna you know catch the trolley and get to the thing and uh you know drink the Kool-Aid of Mickey Mouse, like and do the whole thing, like you have to like wake up super early and like get to the thing and do this stuff and eat super early and make sure.

Yes, you have to do all of that.

And uh and so like for him, like he hated waking up early.

But then as soon as we get to Disney World, I'm like, hey man, you gotta wake up early.

He's like, understood, do not mind whatsoever.

What time he woke up before us.

He's like, is it time yet?

I'm like, it's two in the morning.

Pump the brakes, it's way too early.

But he was just so excited, like he loved, he was so excited, there was something about it.

And so obedience to waking up early came naturally to the thing that he was so excited and loved to do.

And so for us, that's why God wants us to, he does want us to do things, but he doesn't want it, he doesn't want it to be this space where we're sitting there going like, all right, let's do it.

I hate you, but whatever.

Like he doesn't want it to be that thing.

He wants our following of him to just be this, of course I would do this.

One, I I love you so much and I trust you completely that whatever you're asking me to do, even though it might be challenging, I'm so excited to do this thing.

And our obedience flows naturally to the things that we love.

This is why Jesus says in John 14, 15, he says, if you love me, you'll obey my commands.

If you love me, you'll obey my commands.

And it's it's easy to read this and to say that, like, if you if you obey my commands, it proves that you love me, which maybe that's true to some extent, but Jesus is saying something else.

He's like, if you love me, the natural response of your life will be obedience.

You will do what I say simply because you love me, because that's what happens.

That's the way that this works.

And so he's not calling us to like do this, do this, do this, do this, and also if you love me, I don't really care, but I just want you to be obedient.

He's not saying that.

He's going, if you would just focus on falling in love with me and having affection for me, all of these things that I'm asking you to do would be things that you would just naturally walk in and you would actually enjoy it because we would actually be doing something together that you also love, and those things would be coming for me.

And so he calls us to love him because our obedience naturally follows the things that we love.

Charles Spurgeon uh talks about the difference in how people follow Jesus.

Um and I want to read this real fast, but and and just you just get to consider like what has been your religious life, okay?

What has been your space in following Jesus?

But this is what he says.

Go to the next slide.

He says, There are those who do not love God, and they attend the church either out of superstitious hope that God will reward them, or superstitious dread that if they don't go to church, God will smite them.

Their service is drudgery, and their worship is weariness.

Their lives reveal and show how they feel.

What a weariness this all is.

But then he says, But they who love God with all their hearts, they find his ways are ways of pleasantness, all his ways are peace.

Such joy, such brimful delight, such overflowing bliss do they discover in their Lord.

That so far from serving him from custom, they would follow him should all the world cast his name out as evil.

We do not fear God because of any compulsion.

It doesn't make us.

Our faith is no burden.

Our following Jesus is no prison.

We are not dragged to holiness, nor driven to duty.

No, our religion is our recreation.

It's what we do for fun.

Our hope is our happiness, and our duty is our delight.

And it's just two very different ways of entering into a relationship with a God that you're like, what do you want from me?

Like, I just want you to do a ton of stuff, and I never really want to see you work in your life or anything like that.

But if you would just crush a handful of stuff, then you know, maybe I'll be nice to you.

But like, that's it, I'll see you later.

Like a terrible boss.

Versus this one is like, honestly, there's there's a lot of things I want to walk you into.

There's a lot of things that I want you to do so that you experience life, but the biggest thing you need to focus on is like you and me, just getting to know one another, you loving me more, all these other things, they will work theirself out.

Because the things that I actually want to see happen in your life and the way that I want them to take shape in your life is from a posture of love, not a posture of a dictator saying, just do this, do this, do this.

And if you see him like that, you see him incorrectly because that's not what he is, and that's not who he is.

He's going, I want you to have affection for me so that these things naturally flow into you, so that when I ask you to do something, there's so much love and trust that when I ask you to do it, you're not sitting there going, like, I don't know you.

I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't know.

No, I don't, you're crazy to even ask me to do that.

Like, I'm not gonna do any of those things, versus like, I I love you so much, like I trust you completely.

I'm gonna do this thing because obedience naturally follows the things that we love.

And so that's what he wants from us.

He wants your love.

He's commanding us, please love me.

It will make life so much easier for you if you would love me.

Our love and our affection are what he cares about the most, so that we ultimately enjoy him and so that we're not burdened by the things that he wants to lead us into, but so that the burden is off of us and we just obey naturally.

And so he calls us to love him.

And so now I think I have four ways to how do we stir our affection?

How do you how do you stir love in your heart for God?

Like, what is that what does that look like?

And the uh this isn't in my notes or in my slides or anything like that, but I would even question for you like on your entrance into faith, what was that a part of it?

Was there something that you were like, there was a there was an affection that I felt for this God?

There was an a I was actually told that that he wanted my affection, or what's your entrance into it's like, look, you better do this or you're gonna burn in hell?

And it's like that's a different kind of experience.

It's a very different onboarding into a space.

Like there's something very, very different.

Or it's like, hey, I I love you so much and I'd love for you to love me too.

Let's do that, and then all of a sudden everything else is gonna work itself out.

Because I think that's what he's calling us into.

Something more than just do this or else.

And so, how do we stir our affection?

The first, you need to find things that actually stir your affection for Jesus.

If you ever had like a kindling or a fire for him, a love for him that you felt, um that's wonderful.

And if that has dwindled, you need to find things that actually stir that back in you, um, that make you feel love for him.

That's what I mean, Jesus says this to the church in Ephesus, is like, consider how far you've fallen.

Remember when you loved me?

I mean, you can think about this in terms of relationships too, like, ah, remember what it was like when you first met that person.

Remember what it was like when you first got married.

Remember what it was like when I mean there's just something there that over time life happens and things happen, and all this stuff takes shape in your relationships with people.

And it's like, man, that just goes away.

And I think that's possible for us as well.

And so we have to find things that stir our affection for Jesus.

A few of mine, um, hearing Teddy sing when he's here, man, I could cry right now.

Like hearing him sing uh worship songs as Chris is belting them out, is just the um the best.

Like he sings them, he shouts them.

He is he literally is like, go on and tell it, but like he would actually be doing that.

So it's always sad when he's not here because he doesn't sing, but he sings.

And uh there was a time when he couldn't talk for like three years.

We were battling, you know, and just walking through that, just going like, he may never talk, he may never do those things, and then now he sings and he makes up silly songs too, but he sings worship stuff, and man, it does something in my heart when I when I hear him sing, stirs my affection for Jesus.

Uh, hearing stories of how God has answered prayer in our church or just in the like people I know, um, hearing how he is still answering prayers, because you can get pretty discouraged, like praying for things and wanting things and watching people get sick and watching marriages dissolve and watching these things happen, and people still waiting and waiting and waiting, and you're praying and praying and praying and asking and going, God, why aren't you moving?

Um, and so watching him answer that.

Adam, uh, I don't think he's here today.

Well, now we know, now you know.

Um, but he was uh he we've been praying for something for him and for so long, and found out last week that uh the the Lord answered the prayer and it's it happened and it was great.

And so uh it was just very encouraging.

It stirred my faith in Jesus.

It was something uh we have a liturgy, a rhythm in our family that if uh God answers a prayer, we get donuts for dinner.

And so Teddy loves when God answers prayers uh because he gets donuts for dinner.

And so, and then like we we you know cheers our donuts.

We have a liturgy for it.

I love liturgy, we have liturgy.

For everything.

We cheers our donuts and be like, why do we get donuts for dinner?

And then all three of us say together, like, because God answers prayer, and then we take bites, and it's wonderful.

And uh, but it's so encouraging, like, one, to pass that on to Teddy is really cool.

But then two, like, if God does something in your life, don't tell me.

But it encouraged my faith.

It makes me love Jesus.

Uh hearing Rainey preach, um, first church in the seven or eight churches we've worked for where Rainey can express her gift of preaching.

Man, that's a kindness just in and of itself.

But like, then her preaching is just makes me love Jesus.

I the one compliment I can give someone that's probably the greatest compliment I can give anyone is like when I'm with you, uh, you you stir my affection for Jesus.

Like you are a person, and our conversations are our time together.

You make me love him, you make him uh worthy and majestic in my life.

You you somehow aim my heart to him.

And dude, she does that.

It is a it's a different kind of thing.

I want her to preach more at this church than I want to preach at this church.

Like I want her to do it so much, but she has an actual full-time job that she cannot do that.

But uh, anyways, she I I love hearing her preach.

And then sitting in my prayer closet until God speaks, uh, those are things that stir my affection for him.

Just sitting there and asking and seeking and waiting and listening to worship music and reading the scriptures and having a question that's not a yes or no question where I'm looking for a sign or a bird to chirp or something like that, but I'm literally trying to listen to the voice of God, and then him speaking is like, you still are real, you still exist, you still do this.

And people don't know this as much and they don't experience this as much, but like this is still who you are.

And so in that space, when he does that for me, um, man, it is a it just it fills me up.

It does something in me.

And so for you, like, what are those things?

Are there things that stir your affection for the God that made the universe?

Is there something that you can press into?

Because I think if he were you were to ask him, like, hey, do you want me to do that stuff that makes me love you?

He'd be like, Yes.

Set aside everything else, do that stuff.

So we need to look for the spaces that stir our affection for him.

Uh second, we need to find the things that steal your affection for Jesus and stay away from those things.

Just find the stuff that makes you not feel loved by him and you don't love it, makes you not love him.

Uh, one of those things is sin.

Sin hardens your heart towards him.

And so if there's if there's a sin that you're like, I think this is fine.

I don't think it's doing much in my life, it's not causing destruction.

It's like actually, it's hard over time, it's going to ice out your heart and your affection for him.

It's gonna put out a flame that's there.

It's not gonna make him not love you, it's gonna make you not love him.

A couple of mine is um things that steal my affection is busyness, overwhelmed just with just the non-stop busyness of life and things like that, that crowds him out.

Um, busyness is one of those things, dwelling on my own sin.

Like my sin is supposed to be forgiven by him, like I'm supposed to know that, and yet I'm still beating myself up over this thing that he has forgotten about, and uh just refusing to receive the forgiveness that he offers.

Um, believing lies, steal like that that God isn't gonna, that he's that he's not real, that he doesn't love me, but like believing the lies of the enemy that that come in, it's like he hates you, you you sinned again, he you're unworthy, and then he he doesn't love you anymore because of these things.

Like if I dwell on those things, it steals the truth that's actually real in the scriptures.

Uh and then honestly, certain people uh just uh steal my affection for Jesus.

No one in this room loves you guys.

Uh, but certain people, like honestly, complainers, if I spend time with people who complain, I start to complain.

I'm like, why am I complaining?

Why do I hate life?

It's like because you're spending time with someone that hates life.

Like there's something, there's a connection there.

And so if you spend time with people that do those things and that don't stir your affection, but actually steal the joy that you have with Him, stay away from them unless you're married to them or they're your kids.

Like, you gotta figure out a way to get out of that deal.

And so uh I've done that a few times.

I'm like, yeah, we don't I don't hang out with that person anymore.

They made me too negative, they stole from me.

I don't want that.

Um I mean, I would share the gospel with them and stuff, but like I just don't want to spend like tons of time with those people.

Um but what is it for you?

What steals your your affection of Jesus?

Are there things in your life that like honestly, this thing just doesn't make me feel full?

This thing steals from me.

And I would stay away from those things.

Press into the ones that make you feel like he loves me and I love him, and then remove the things that don't.

He wants us to follow him, not just like do a bunch of rules like a robot.

He wants our affection.

Uh, third thing, how do we store our affection is practice loving him, which may sound weird, but like I would do loving things for him, to him, uh uh in your relationship with God.

That's actually my again, I don't know how that hits you, but like that's the way it's supposed to go.

Tim Keller says that love is an action that leads to a feeling.

Love is an action that leads to a feeling that's not a feeling you feel that then leads you to act lovingly.

So if you want to feel love for something, begin loving that thing actively and you will begin to love it.

The opposite is also true.

If you want to hate someone, dwell on the bitterness that you hate them with, and you will become, uh go to grow to hate them more and more and more and more.

That will just be something that you do.

And so there's this idea of like practice loving him.

This is why Jesus says to the church in Ephesus, he says, You forsaken, go to this night, like he's like, I hold this against you.

You've forsaken the love that you had at first.

Turn, change your mind.

Do the things you did at first.

Like, practice loving me the way that you did it first.

Do the stuff, whatever made you love me before, go back to those things.

Don't turn away from those things.

Keep doing those things so that you actually stir your affection for me.

Practice doing loving things for God.

Jesus says that if we do loving things, the way that we do that for Him is like if you sir, He's like, if you serve the poor, if you clothe those who don't have food, if you feed the hungry, like if you serve people and not just serve yourself, He's like, anything you do for them, you were doing for me.

You were anything loving towards them that you're doing, whoever they are, and serving people and caring caring for the needy, anything you do, like you're actually doing that stuff for me.

And so if you want to figure out like what does it mean to do something loving for Jesus, to do something for him, is like, well, one is serving other people and like turning the attention away from yourself and turning it outward to someone else, doing something selfless instead of that.

I mean, you'll know this if you've ever been on a mission trip or anything, or or served the homeless, or served the poor, or like done something kind that like nobody knew, but like it feels there's something in there that like it does something in you.

People come back from these mission trips just like I'm just full.

Like there's just something, like I have this love and this affection for not only those people, but like for him, and like I experienced time with the Lord.

It's like, what did you do?

It's like you loved him actively, and so the feeling came from the action, and so practicing loving him is something that he calls us to.

And then last, if you want to stir your affection, grow your affection for him, seek to internalize what Jesus has actually done for you on the cross.

We have to take this Easter ideal that we have and this faith-shaping thing that we claim to believe, and it's got to sink in more and more and more that an actual man who was God took your sin, your punishment, so that you wouldn't have to be punished, took your death and your place and stood in front of you as it was coming towards you, and was like, I'll take it so that you don't have to tell.

Like there's something about that.

It has to sink deeper and become more and more real and less and less ideal in this space where it's like it's an idea that Jesus died on the cross.

Because it's easy to get separated through the years and just go, like, yeah, sometime in history somebody did a thing, and it's like that thing that happened in history is the only thing that's actually gonna really shape your heart and shape your life.

And it can't shift into theory, which is the natural way that it would go, shift into theory.

It needs to shift from theory into reality.

Like this actually happened in history and it happened for me.

Jesus says, excuse me, John says that we love, we love because Jesus first loved us.

And he's not saying I choose to love him because he has loved me.

It's not that.

It's like love begins in our heart for him, it happens.

I feel love for Jesus because he has first loved me.

The way that we grow in our love is by looking at that thing that he did.

We actually experience more love for him because he has first loved us.

And so when you remember what he did, when you remember who you were before you met Jesus, if he has transformed your life, you remember, here is the direction my life was going beforehand, and that's a lot of my story.

Like 17 years, the direction of my life was not headed towards pastoring or getting married or living past 30.

Like I was going to die a drunk fast.

Like that was where I was headed.

And like to see the shift of never gonna have kids, like all this stuff, and like to see the shift that this event happened in my life where I heard this incredible message, met this incredible person, and he has changed the direction of my life and remembering like where I've come from.

Um it stirs my when I I mean, I have a son now, I have a wife now.

Like I should not have those things.

Like looking at the 17 years of my life, y'all would all be like, Well, what's he gonna be?

It's like, uh, probably a washed-up high school baseball player.

Like, that's what he's gonna be.

Everybody, and and maybe a drunk and he'll be on the homeless on the street somewhere.

And that's Colton.

Um, like that would have been what you would have said.

And like, that is, I mean, I guess that could still happen, but that's not where I'm headed right now.

So I'm very thankful for that.

And so when you consider those things in your life, when you understand that every good gift, everything that you would point to and say, what's good in your life right now, anything you would point to is pure undeserved gift that God has given to you.

When that becomes realized and not something that's like, well, I have those things because I worked hard.

I have that stuff because I made good decisions.

I had those things from because of me.

When you realize it's like all that stuff, all those good decisions, all those things, all of those are just pure gifts given to someone who did not deserve them, but he chose to bless those with what they don't deserve instead of giving them what they actually deserve, which is nothing.

And so when that when that becomes not a theory, but an but a real thing for us, it'll stir your affection.

So we have to internalize what Jesus has actually done for us.

And so those are the things.

He wants you to love him.

And it seems uh so odd sometimes to um talk about like that that's important because it seems like it would be more important to say, hey, you know, we just need to shape up.

There's some things that we need to do.

You need to do this, think about your life, where are you struggling?

Like, make sure you do this, this, this, this, and this.

And it's like, man, if your faith turns into what do I have to do in order to either get him to love me or what do I have to do, and you have a list of or a litany of things that you're supposed to like press into, it just becomes drudgery and it becomes work.

And it's supposed to be this thing that's like, I enjoy him, and so I enjoy life with him.

And so I don't ever think about those things.

Augustine said it somewhere, put pull that quote up uh if you can find it, is like, I think I skipped it somewhere.

Do you have it?

Yeah.

Love God and live as you please.

Like that, it's supposed to be free.

I feel like so many Christians don't feel free because they're like, I gotta be, I gotta do this, I gotta make sure I do that, I gotta make sure.

And and Augustine was just saying, like, if you love him, you get to you will live, you get to just there's freedom.

Because what you will choose to do with your life will be things that he also really wants.

And so you're not sitting there going, like, I gotta make sure I I'm obedient, I gotta make sure I don't sin.

And if you spend your life trying not to sin, you're not living with Jesus or as a Christian.

You're living as like this legalist that's trying to like be good enough, and it's like you're not good enough.

We all know that.

Jesus wouldn't have had to die otherwise.

Like, there's something there for you.

And so this idea of like, what's it supposed to be like?

It's like, man, love him and then live in freedom.

And then when you inevitably step into sin, the person that loves you and you love him, you'll find that out pretty fast.

And if you love him, you'll be like, oh my gosh, I did something that hurt you.

I don't want to do that thing that hurts you, versus like, oh, I have to turn away from this thing that I love.

Like, it would be so much freer if we lived this way.

And this is what God is calling us to from Old Testament to New Testament is like, I want your affection.

I want you to love me and then live as you please, because you will live the way that I want you to, because you will actually be walking in this love relationship with me, and that's what I want.

And so I want that for us as well.

And so I encourage you, as much as it can uh you know is up to you, uh stir your affection for him.

If you if you've never had that, ask him for that.

Um, but if you do have affection for him, and one time it was like, man, I used to really love God.

Find a way to get back to that because otherwise your faith will just become a bunch of rules, and Jesus didn't die for rules, and he did not die to make you a good, behaved person.

He died so that he could spend a life with you.

It's for the joy of his spending eternity with us that he went to the cross.

Let me pray.

Father, would you help us to want to see the truth of this, that you love us and you want us to love you?

That you actually desire that we would love you and live as we live as we please because we would live the way that you want us to.

And so, Lord, I pray that you in our hearts that you would stir an affection for you.

Not only would we know how much you love us, while that's important, but that we would actually do what you talked to the church in Ephesus about and say, like, return.

Regain your love that you had for me at first.

I don't care that you're knocking out all the different things and got strong doctrine.

I don't care about any of that.

I want you to love me.

And so, God, I pray that you help us to love you as a church, uh, individually.

Uh God, that there would just be a space in our hearts where we have this affection for you.

So, Lord, would you do that for us in Jesus' name?

Amen.