Point Zero

Many sermons (or TED talks, motivational speeches, etc) use dot points. These are great at equipping ourselves to grow as people and move forward in our lives, but without a reference point, you could be moving anywhere. 

This is Point Zero, the reference point for all the other points you hear. Let's go straight to scripture:

‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’  Jesus replied: ‘ “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: “Love your neighbour as yourself.”  All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.’
Matt. 22:36‭-‬40 NIVUK

Every dot point that came before Jesus (all the law and the prophets), was covered by 

0. Love God

Even the second, Love each other, is a natural consequence of Point Zero.

So then, what is love? Every person has a different idea of what love means for them. This meaning has been shaped by our genetics, upbringing, and other influences such as friends and media.

I believe that the bible holds the definitive definition of love, and I'm in a lifetime process of actively changing what i believe love means, by recognizing false meanings from my past and present, cutting them out and replacing them with what God says. 

So, what does the bible say? 

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
1 John 4:8 NIVUK

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
1 John 4:16b NIVUK

Try this as an exercise to help you open up some gems in scripture, when you read a verse with the word “God”, re-read that same verse substituting the word “love” in its place,  and vice versa. 

Take a look at these verses:

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
1 Corinthians 13:1‭-‬3 NIVUK

Did you see all the dot points in this passage? Tongues, prophesy,  knowledge and understanding mysteries, powerful faith, life changing generosity, persecution for the kingdom. 

All of these points could make great sermons in themselves, but without Point Zero, they are at best noise, at worst worth nothing. 

As a young pre-teen, I can remember sitting in church while a girl I had grown up with was preaching on joy (also her name). It was when she linked joy and love that I realized, I didn't love God. Not that I didn't want to, I didn't know how to. 

I had grown up in the church, prayed a salvation prayer when I was 5. I don't think our family had missed a single church service (I was in church in my first week of life). I was on the team organizing the churches new pre-teen program.

I knew that none of it had any meaning without loving God. It was one of the first times I heard God's voice “do you want to know how to love me?”

I thought about all the ways I had seen love so far in my life, between my parents, their love for me, even my sisters, my friends and, of course, movies.

“So what do you see that is common”, he said. I saw that I couldn't love someone I didn't know. I knew about God, but I didn't know him, and God desires intimacy more than anything.

I started just talking to God. I talked to myself a lot anyway, but now I knew He was listening… and sometimes he replied. 

I've heard people ask “how do I hear from God?” my answer is the same as learning to talk to any person - talk to him… about everything. If you're still not hearing anything, find out his interests and talk about them. People love to talk about what interests them and God is no different. 

1. Point one : Pursue him

Again:

Jesus replied: ‘ “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”
Matt. 22:37 NIVUK

And some others :

And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.
Jeremiah 29:13 NKJV

I sought the Lord , and He heard me, And delivered me from all my fears.
Psalms 34:4 NKJV

Now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God. Therefore arise and build the sanctuary of the Lord God, to bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord and the holy articles of God into the house that is to be built for the name of the Lord .”
I Chronicles 22:19 NKJV

Then I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the Lord ; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart.
Jeremiah 24:7 NKJV

“For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
Ephesians 5:31‭-‬32 NKJV

This verse starts in the context of instructing husbands how to behave, but concludes here that the husband /wife relationship is a reflection of our relationship with God: He loves to be pursued. 

“Ho! Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; And you who have no money, Come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk Without money and without price. Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live; And I will make an everlasting covenant with you— The sure mercies of David. Seek the Lord while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near. Isaiah 55:1‭, ‬‬3‭, ‬6 NKJV

‘Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Matt. 7:7‭-‬8 NIVUK

Notice each one of these is an Action driven by a Desire.

This is what's known as a biblical principal, where God honours what you ask for, because he said so. As to what to ask for, consider these two examples:

At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, ‘Ask for whatever you want me to give you.’..... So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?’...... I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be. Moreover, I will give you what you have not asked for – both wealth and honour – so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings. 1 Kings 3:5‭, ‬9‭-‬9‭, ‬12‭-‬13 NIVUK

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. Jer. 29:13 NIVUK

The modern parable would be “give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime”.

Each of us have God inspired dreams and desires built in. Seek after the source and

“… all these things will be given to you as well”.
Matt. 6:33 NIVUK

Afterwards Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, ‘This is what the Lord , the God of Israel, says: “Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness.” ’
Exodus 5:1 NIVUK

Moses: children of Israel left Egypt not to seek the promised land, but to spend time with God. 

Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way.’
Exodus 33:3 NIVUK

Then Moses said to him, ‘If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.
Exodus 33:15 NIVUK

What would we do if God promised our prayers would be answered like this? The children of Israel would probably have taken the offer and run. No more desert, no more sand in your pants, no more direct access to God. Moses knew the gifts meant nothing without the giver

2. Point two: Love is an action

‘If you love me, keep my commands.
John 14:15 NIVUK

And again:

Jesus replied, ‘Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.  Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
John 14:23‭-‬24 NIVUK

1st, hear what he says (present tense)

2nd, do it (act in faith)

Once again, how do we hear from God? Spend time working on that relationship. I can't stress this enough, hearing from God comes from relationship with him. It's THE single most important thing you can do. 

Acting on what you hear (breaking through doubt, acting in faith) is the second, and will, in turn, build the relationship, making it easier to hear, making you stronger to do… 

“Love looks like something” - Heidi Baker

This isn't a bible verse, but it comes straight from a walking testimony. Heidi and her husband are missionaries in Mozambique where they collect homeless kids and show them God’s love. This particular phrase came from a girl who had been abused by her family for most of her life, yet after living with the Bakers and experiencing Gods love through them, wanted to go back and share it with the family that had rejected her. 

But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.
1 John 2:5‭-‬6 NIVUK

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.  But someone will say, ‘You have faith; I have deeds.’ Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.
James 2:14‭-‬18 NIVUK

3. Point three: love looks different for different people

Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.
1 Corinthians 12:12 NIVUK

Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues.
1 Corinthians 12:27‭-‬28 NIVUK

Now eagerly desire the greater gifts. And yet I will show you the most excellent way.
1 Corinthians 12:31 NIVUK

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
1 Corinthians 13:4‭-‬7 NIVUK

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13:13 NIVUK

1 Corinthians 12 & 13 should be stuck together. 

The gifts God has given us are great, and varied. There are things I do great, and others I'm really bad at. I love playing music, guitar and singing, but when I add love to the mix, it becomes worship. 

Without love, it's really just noise, that would probably one day send me deaf. 

Evangelism is a vital part of the church, but your attitude towards it is even more important. Loving a person who is going to hell enough to confront their lifestyle (overcoming fear) can have far more impact then preaching in the streets on a soap box.

These gifts look different for each one of us. It's not a time to be jealous of what others have, or to condemn their gifting because it doesn't look like yours, but to grow in what God has for you, and do it through love. 

Your gifting is often a combination of what you are good at, and something God wants you to get good at. If you have a dream that is impossible for you to achieve, it's probably from God. Anything you can achieve in your own strength isn't worth as much as something you need to rely on God for. Step out in faith and He gets the glory for your obedience. 

Again, it's time to build that communication line with God. There is no shortcut.

Change the ‘why’ of what you do. When you are motivated by love to serve, whatever you do becomes worship. 

Worship is our main expression of love, whatever it looks like. It's what we were created to do! Visiting the sick becomes worship. Praying for people becomes worship. Parents: raising kids becomes worship. 

I make guitars. I work in my shed singing as I carefully carve wood, to create an instrument so that someone can play it and create music that honours my Saviour. 

Write novels to the glory of God. 

Wash dishes as an act of praise. 

Make whatever you do an act of worship. 

This is when worship breaks out of the ‘Sunday church meeting’ mentality and becomes a lifestyle. 

I was inspired by St Ignatius and the composer Bach who coined/used the phrase Ad maiorem Dei Gloria - Latin for “for the greater glory of God”. Everything I do should be an act of worship, motivated by love, for the greater glory of God. If I ever forget, it's tattooed on my arm (Prov 7:1-3). 

Let your whole life be an act of worship, giving glory to God. 

So, how do you know when you are in the right place? 

And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues;  they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on people who are ill, and they will get well.’
Mark 16:17‭-‬18 NIVUK

Let's look at another example. The early church needed waiters for tables. This was their requirement list for the job :

Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them
Acts 6:3 NIVUK

Now Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, performed great wonders and signs among the people.
Acts 6:8 NIVUK

Their requirements for kitchen staff were what we would use for an evangelist. But this is what happens when we live a life motivated by love. God is inspired by our faith and obedience, and things that we've previously seen as impossible happen. 

In the bible is called “wonders” and the church of God is seeing more and more of it every day. 

I want to conclude with what we started with. In the words of JC:

Jesus replied: ‘ “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”
Matt. 22:37‭ NIVUK

Photograph by: Jean-Pierre Bazard