12/13/2023 0 Comments Pure hearts and living waterIt does not delight in evil but rejoices in the truth. “Love is patient, kind, does not envy, does not boast, is not proud, does not dishonor others, is not self-seeking, not easily angered, keeps no record of wrong. Think of how 1 Corinthians 13 describes love: And God’s love does not waver based on the likableness or the worthiness of the person He loves. But it’s when we surrender to God - we repent, we pray for his mercy and forgiveness and heart transformation – then we love like more and more like God loves. I want it to be the other person’s fault that I can’t love them well. This is a daunting conclusion for me, but I can’t get away from it. If our hearts were pure through our surrender to the truth of God’s Word and resulting work God does in our life, we could love each other deeply from a pure heart. But in order for that to happen, we must first surrender ourselves so that our hearts are pure. We often talk about how the world needs more love. Peter says that’s the process God uses, and on the other side of it we emerge as holy lovers of truth and of others. This love happens after God purifies our hearts, and He does it through our surrender, our obedience to His Word. A holy love – a love set apart from any other kind of love – has to come from a holy God. Specifically, how do we get this kind of holy love, and what does it look like when it is displayed in our lives? So if we are going to talk about living holy lives that fulfill God’s purpose of revealing himself to the world through us, we are going to need to talk about living loving lives. ![]() 24 For as Isaiah said, ‘All life is like the grass, and its glory like a flower The grass will wither and die and the flower falls, 25 But the word of the Lord will endure forever.’ This is the word that has been preached to you. 23 You have been reborn-not from seed that eventually dies but from seed that is eternal-through the word of God that lives and endures forever. So love each other deeply (earnestly – at full stretch) from a pure heart. And it turns out that’s the next thing Peter wrote, so that worked out pretty well.Ģ2 Now that you have taken care to purify your souls through your submission to the truth (“obedience to God, which the knowledge of the truth demands”), you can experience real love for each other. I started jotting down some notes, and I quickly realized it was all leading me back to one thing: love. Should there be a holy glow about me that convicts or shames everyone around me?.Does this mean we create a Christian sub-culture in everything?.Does that mean if the culture does it, I can’t do it?.It’s one thing to say, “As a child of God, you are holy and set apart now live as those holy and set apart.” It’s another thing to put skin on those bones. We are called to live in God’s design for our holiness to reveal His holiness.Īfter last week’s message about being set apart, I was thinking there needed to be a follow-up sermon on what characterizes this holiness. ![]() You can be “grafted in” through the acceptance of the divinity and lordship of Christ and your surrender to Him and His will.įollowers of Jesus are ‘peculiar people’ (1 Peter 2:9) who are set apart to be the way in which God reveals Himself to the world. Paul, in Galatians 6:16, refers to followers of Jesus as the “Israel of God.” The idea is that you don’t have to be born Jewish to be one of God’s holy, chosen people.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |