Resound Church Leah Ramirez
To Love With All Our Soul July 19, 2009
God is after love. From the very beginning this has been about love. As the drama unfolds, we see His love for us. This is what awakens our love for Him. To understand how to respond to the command to love God with all of our soul, we must see how He loved us with the full force of His disposition. There is nothing passive about God. He restrains Himself. He suffers long for us. But He is not passive. He is committed, absolutely committed, by working in every circumstance to bring us into awareness of His disposition and love. If we think back, we can see Him all along our journey.
I. TO LOVE WITH ALL OUR SOUL
Mark 12
28And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” 29Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’
A. God declares Himself to be singular in His intentions toward us. He is undivided. He is One.
B. And then He commands us to love Him with no division in our own lives. He commands us to love with ALL our heart (affections), soul (personality), mind (thoughts) and strength (resources).
C. He is declares Himself undivided in purpose and intention. He declares His obsession and commands us to live into seeking Him as the Great Obsession.
D. Each of us has a different struggle according to our personality and circumstances. We each have a different assignment in giving our love to God.
E. Jesus loved us with all His soul as expressed in His humility (Phil. 2:6-8). Understanding Jesus’ humility inspires and instructs us to ask for the Spirit’s help to love God in the way He loves us. Meekness is power and privilege under control. It speaks of restraint in the use of power except to promote love. Meekness is not to be confused with weakness which is the absence of strength.
F. The life of the Godhead flows forever from meekness. Jesus put on display the riches of God’s humility. How can One so strong stoop so low in such concern for us?
Mark 11
29 Learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly (humble, NIV, NAS) in heart…
Mark 10
45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve…
II. JESUS DID NOT TAKE ON HUMILITY…HE IS HUMBLE
Phil. 2
3 Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. 4 Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. 5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it something to be grasped, to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. 9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him…
A. The humility of Jesus made manifest in His incarnation openly displayed His abandonment in loving us. Thus, our abandonment in loving Him is also deeply rooted in humility.
B. From eternity, Jesus has been in the form of God which means He shared glory with the Father. The pre-existent Christ in the form of God was equal with but distinguished from the Father. Being in the form of God, Jesus eternally possessed all glory and privileges of being God.
John 17
5 Glorify Me…with Yourself, with the glory I had with You before the world was.
Hebrews 1
3 Who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person…
Col. 1
15 He is the image of the invisible God...
C. In the incarnation, Jesus now has two natures being fully God and fully man. Jesus was never ever less than God but lived as if He was never more than a man. He always retained His deity.
D. He did not view the humility required in His incarnation as something that took anything essential from His core identity as a servant filled with love. In it, He denied Himself privileges. He did not deny His core identity but rather expressed His true heart of servanthood.
E. God’s core identity is love expressed in humility. Jesus’ main identity is not in His power and uniqueness.
F. Jesus did not insist on His rights to live free from rejection, pain and humiliation.
G. It was precisely because Jesus was in the form of God that He sought to give and serve. What most expresses His glory is love and humility. He saw nothing un-Godlike in washing the feet of people. It expressed His true God-like self. He saw lowly tasks as an opportunity to show who He was as a humble God. To serve is at the core of who God is.
2 Cor. 8
9 Our Lord Jesus Christ…though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.
H. Jesus did not come as the God of jasper and rainbow glory (Rev. 4:3) but as man who expressed this glory. He wanted to identify with man not just dazzle us. He could not do this without becoming man.
I. We are by nature preoccupied with our image and being recognized for our good traits. Jesus embraces a position where everyone totally underestimated Him and His abilities. When they saw Him they saw nothing to distinguish Him. He was totally ordinary in every sense. Are we willing to be undistinguished?
John 13
3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, 4 rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself…5 and began to wash the disciples' feet...14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. 16 Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. 17 If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
J. The eternal government of God is servant hood. When He takes the scroll He pledges the leadership of the earth forever to servant rulers who will perpetually wash the feet of others. When Jesus returns at the Second Coming it will be all about love. He will gird Himself to serve His creation forever. As the reigning king, He loves to use His power to enrich the ones He loves.
Luke 12
37 Blessed are those servants whom the Master, when He comes, will find watching…He will gird Himself and have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them.
III. THE CALL TO COME CLOSE
Isaiah 55
55:1“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. 2Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. 3Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. 4Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples…
6“Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; 7let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. 8For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. 9For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 11so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
A. God extends an invitation to all who are thirsty. He calls all the poor of spirit. He invites us to buy from Him though we have nothing. He extends to us our dignity. Though we have nothing to trade, we are brought invited in with dignity that He bestows.
B. Then we hear the question that arises from God’s heart. The Lord asks man, ‘Why do you pursue what can never satisfy.’
C. He extends the invitation to life. If you would only hear me you soul would live. Your life would be electrified. If you would come and incline your ear…. Stop talking, stop doing. Come hear. He’s declaring life to us. He knows he is what we are desperate for. We wonder how He can be so sure… He made us!
D. And then He gives a promise of absolute certainty. ‘My Word will accomplish…’
E. How do we partner with God? How do we buy? Listening is primary. We have been invited into humility.
John 16
13When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
F. The Holy Spirit is listening and declaring the will of Jesus.
John 6
38For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.
G. Jesus is doing the will of the Father
John 6
40For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
H. The Father is honoring the Son.
I. The Godhead functions in absolute humility. They submit to one another. They never seek a separate honor for themselves. They are One. The core reality of God is humility. Love is humility.
IV. THE UPSIDE DOWN KINGDOM
Genesis 18
17The Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, 18seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? 19For I have chosen[6] him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.” 20Then the Lord said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, 21I will go down to see whether they have done altogether[7] according to the outcry that has come to me. And if not, I will know.”
22So the men turned from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord. 23Then Abraham drew near and said, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? 24Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city. Will you then sweep away the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it? 25Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” 26And the Lord said, “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”
27Abraham answered and said, “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. 28Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking. Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?” And he said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.” 29Again he spoke to him and said, “Suppose forty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of forty I will not do it.” 30Then he said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak. Suppose thirty are found there.” He answered, “I will not do it, if I find thirty there.” 31He said, “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord. Suppose twenty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of twenty I will not destroy it.” 32Then he said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak again but this once. Suppose ten are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.” 33And the Lord went his way, when he had finished speaking to Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.
A. This is the place of partnering. It is asking. It begins with a question on the Lord’s very nature… and from this personal inquiry a question for the land. Partnership begins with a desire to know and understand the inner workings of God’s heart.
B. There is nothing arrogant on Abraham’s part. God is not interested in partnering with our good ideas and humanistic efforts. He’s after an anguish of soul. He is jealous for us. Where is the man or woman who is jealous for the name of the Lord? For His reputation?
Oh let not the Lord be angry…
C. This is not an even partnership. God is letting Abraham in to the secret place… the mysteries of the eternal plan. God is the one who invites Abraham into His council. He is allowing Abraham to have a voice before Him. He is allowing and making the way. Abraham could never have earned that place before the Lord. It was the Lord Himself who desired the partnership.
D. This is our eternal role in partnership. This is love. We are brought in not because of our lofty position and wonderful insight, but because He desires us. Because He is humble, He allows us to have influence before Him.