Title: How Do You Love God?
How do you love God?
Text/ Deuteronomy 6:4-5, Exodus 20:22-26, John 4:20-24
1. Introduction
It is said that man is a being who pursues the life he wants to live. But what kind of life do you want to live? They say money, popularity, and power, but Jesus said that all of these things are just like a mist that disappears after a while!. He said that the life of a true man with no regrets, worthwhile, and as green as a tree planted by a stream is “to take up one’s cross, to love God, and to love your neighbor as yourself.”
Augustine, the son of a wealthy family who enjoyed all the pleasures of the world, enjoyed world popularity as a professor of rhetoric at the most prestigious Roman University in antiquity, and lived happily ever after with an outstanding head, healthy body and youth, in the first chapter of his confession, “Lord, I There was no rest for my soul anywhere until I returned!> A true man's life does not consist in money, pleasure, popularity, learning, or youth, but he confesses that it is right to live according to the words of Jesus.
Then, <How to love God and love people?>. Today, I would like to share grace while meditating on the issue of <How to love God?>.
2. All God's love begins with worship
How can you love God? There may be various interpretations of this. However, it can be said that the most important love of God begins with <worship to God>. Because Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Kings, Ezekiel, Haggai, Malachi, and even today’s Gospel of John, the Bible contains the tabernacle blueprint, temple blueprint, sanctification law, sacrificial law, Ezekiel’s new temple blueprint. As we can see from the worship in spirit and truth, it is because he said that the most important way for man to love God is <worship at the temple>.
It is said that a person's heart is the lamp of the Lord, and it searches the depths of a person (Proverbs 20:27). People who love each other know exactly whether this person loves you or not by looking into each other's eyes. Likewise, the measure of how much a person loves God is revealed in <Temple = House of God = Worship at the church>.
Therefore, worship is not a gathering of people who perform rituals once a week, nor is it an event. It is an encounter of love between God and man. Through worship, the love between God and man is confirmed.
3. If so, what is the essence of worship?
first. Worship is God the Creator, the God who saves, the God who is above all, who is in all things, and the God who unifies all things (Ephesians 4:6), the God who fills the heavens and the earth (Jeremiah 23:24), who created all things and provided In the end, we believe and praise the God of all things (Romans 11:36) and the living God (Psalm 46:1), who is our refuge, strength, and great help in trouble.
second. Worship is a time when a person receives the forgiveness of sins from God. Before Jesus came, our sins were forgiven with the blood of sheep and goats (Leviticus 6:7), but after Jesus washed away our sins with the blood of the cross, we confess our sins and receive forgiveness in the name of Jesus Christ (Hebrews 9). :11-15).
third. Worship is an event in which a person receives God's blessing. That is why he said, “I will come and bless you wherever I do my name.” Exodus 20:24. Words cannot describe how vast, wonderful, and amazing the blessings God has given us. For the blessings from God, please refer to Fountains 41 and 94 of the Word.
4. So, how should we worship?
first. God said to me, when you build an altar, you shall not build it on idols of gold or silver, and you shall not build it with stones cut with a chisel, and you shall build an altar of earth (Exodus 20:23-25; Exodus 25:2; Deut 16:16-17). ) said. What does it mean?. It means that you should not be obsessed with pecking stones while pecking stones with a chisel, and not forget the altar itself. This means that preparation for celebrations such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter cannot overwhelm the worship service itself.
second. Since God is a Spirit, we must worship in spirit and truth (John 4:24). Although there is a form of godliness, it should not be worship without the power of godliness (2 Timothy 3:5). God said that those who honor Him will also be honored (1 Samuel 2:29-30), and those who do not honor Him will put dung on their faces and remove them from the earth (Mal. 2:3). This is because God looks at the heart of man (1 Samuel 16:7, Ephesians 6:9, Romans 2:9-11, Colossians 3:25, 1 Peter 1:17).
third. Those who worship God cannot go out empty-handed. Each person was told to give according to the blessings they received from God (Exodus 23:15, Deuteronomy 16:16-17). Even when I go to see a physical adult, no one goes empty-handed. How much more will you be before God?
Weekly <Fountain of the Word>