09/18/2024
What Kind of Love Do You Have For God?
In Sunday’s message about Job, I talked about how important relationship is when it comes to getting answers to our questions about God. The question that Job is really being tested on is this: can he love God for who God is—or does he only love God for what God can do for him?
It got me thinking about the various kinds of love.
1. There is the love we offer because I get something positive in return. This is a relatively selfish and transactional kind of love.
2. There is the love I offer because I enjoy our time together; because you are funny, interesting, insightful. I am even pleased when good things happen to you—especially when I am part of those good things or when those good things make you more generous or affectionate toward me. This is slightly better, at least the one I love matters a little more, even it is still a bit self-serving.
3. And finally, there is the love I have for you simply because of who you are. I love you because are my child, you are my spouse, my parent, my church, my country. This is the kind of love of which God is worthy. This is the kind of all-encompassing love that God brought us into this world to share and enjoy with Him.
At one point, Job’s wife tells him to curse God and die. His friends tell him to just admit that you’re a sinner and God is just in punishing you. But Job has too much integrity and too much faithfulness to do either. In the end, Job sticks with God, learning first hand what it means to be loved for who he is and what it means to love God for who God is. In that sense, it is a book that ends more or less happily ever after.
Archived Posts
One of the Longest Benedictions I Ran Out of Time to Share
Maybe you know the story of how Joseph and Mary accidentally left Jesus at the gas station on their way home from Jerusalem. Well, not the gas station bathroom in Jesus’ case. Joe and Mary are far down the road before they realize Jesus isn’t with them...
So many quips and quotes...
So little time to preach
I wonder what Mary and Martha’s phones might look like:
* Martha = the open browser with 27 tabs
* Mary = the single window that matters
* Psalm 46 = God saying, “Close the tabs.”
Quotable Outtakes That Didn’t Make the Sermon This Week
“When you try to control everything, you don’t just exhaust yourself—you quietly replace trust in God with trust in you.” & more
There is a challenge when it comes to preaching the Word of God.
Preachers are called to open up and interpret the word—inspired and written down thousands of years ago—and make it relevant to a very different world. On top of that there’s a degree of persuasion that goes along with the process.
What Jessica Really Meant to Say in Her Sermon…
When Jessica or Rick or a guest preacher takes the pulpit it’s hard for me to write a One More Thing Blog. I can’t share with you what didn’t make it into the sermon because I have no idea, not having written or delivered it.
Jesus Keeps On Ruining Funerals!
I didn’t have anything this last week that didn’t end up in the sermon. No catchy illustrations that didn’t make the cut. No theological insights that slowed down the main point. No one can ruin a funeral like Jesus. Told as I saw it and that was it. So I did some quick research and I thought I’d share just a reminder of what Easter is all about.
When I Don’t Get To Give My Benediction
Yesterday’s sermon talked about how we are in the thrall of self-centeredness—caught in a system that rewards those who climb to the top, even when you have to climb on the back of others. I talked about a famous sermon by Dr. Martin Luther King, ....