Wesley's rules: Stay in love with God Rev 2:1-7 1/25/09

Sermon 1/25/09 Wesley's rules: Stay in love with God Rev. 2:1-7

1"To the angle[a] of the church of Ephesus write:
These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands: 2know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. 3You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. 4Yest I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love [left your first love] B5 Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. 6But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. Revelation 2:1-7

Stay in love with God

introduction
The last two weeks we have been talking about John Wesley's three simple rules...
Can we remember them? First, do no harm, Second, do good. And third, stay in love with God.
Today we focus our attention on what it means for us to stay in love with God

What is love....... Love defined

Jesus said, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and Love your neighbor as yourself. Luke 10"27

Author and professor at Oregon State University, Kathleen Dean Moore, answers the question - what does it mean to love a person - by offering us this list which might prove helpful as we think about staying in love with God.

"One. to want to be near it, physically.
Number two. To want to know everything about it--its story, its moods, what it looks like by moonlight.
Number three. To rejoice in the fact of it.
Number four. To fear its loss, and grieve for its injuries.
Give. To protect it- fiercely, mindlessly, futilely, and maybe tragically, but to be helpless to do otherwise.
Six. to be transformed in its presence - lifted, lighter on your feet, transparent, open to everything beautiful and new.
Number sever. To want to be joined with it, taken in by it, lost in it.
Number eight. To want the best for it-- Desperately."

1 Cor 13 Patient, kind, DOES NOT BOAST; not proud, rude, self seeking' no record of wrongs, always protects, trusts, hopes, perseveres

Love is easy to lose or it seems that it is
Rev. 2 - they lost their first love
It can happen pretty fast
Revelation was written to the Christians in 80 or 90 ad.

To lose a love is more than to lose a feeling,
priorities begin to change
Less time spent
Yes, they resisted the way of the Nicolaitians, but still
God became less relevant to them

How do you know if you are losing it?
How do you know if you are still in love with God? with anyone?

Elevator ride with a friend....
Elevator ride with stranger
Elevator ride with Jesus

How do we stay in love with God?
What would we do to stay in love at our home?
Spend time together
Date night
Communicate
Marriage.....an appeal to work on it now....
My wife travels
Can we talk....I want to make this work....

What does it take to stay in love with God
Love is not measured by --Highs and lows -- Mountains and valleys
What I thought and did as a new Christian.....

Not so much about the experiences that we have.....

Its not about how good the sermon is
Don't need music to make you cry every week

The practices of relationship is what are needed to keep a relationship going...
Christian practices

1.. Spend time with him in prayer
Prayer
Getting to know him
It is a growing thing

2. Spend time in submission
Communion rail
Fearless inventory
I give my life to you

3. Spend time in the scriptures
Genesis, Psalms, Proverbs, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John any of the New Testament letters.

4. Devotional reading - Max Lucado, Rob Bell, Bill Hybels, Dave Ramsey

5. Spend time with his people - acts of kindness
Those who love God and those who need a cup of cold water

Wesley claimed that, in visiting the marginalized, we invite them to transform us, to transform our hearts, to transform our understanding, to transform us into instruments of the divine mercy and justice.

An old preacher once said, "I preach at them for years and they do not change, but they go on one mission trip....
Teresa of Avila, The Interior Castle (London: T.Jones, 1852) V, iii, 8: "We cannot know whether we love God, although there may be strong reason for thinking so, but there can be no doubt about whether we love our neighbor or not,"
1 John 4:20 For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.

When you love God, you will love God's people. When you stop loving God's people, it is a sure sign that your heart has grown cold

Acts of kindness are the tangible sign of God's love
When we do this, the world gets it. They see that we are real.

6. We stay in love with God by spend Times of silence

Celebrating creation- 20For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuses. Romans 1"20

God speaks to the souls of his people through creation

Conclusion
God is willing to stay in love with you
God is waiting

Matthew 23: 37 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.

Time after time I was searching for peace in some void
I was trying to blame all my ills on this world I was in
Surface relationships used me till I was done in
But all the while someone was begging to free me from sin

Never again will I search for a fake rainbow's end
Now that I've found the answer my life is just starting to rhyme
Sharing each new day with Him is a breath of fresh life
Oh what I've missed He's been waiting right here all the time

Chorus
He was there all the time
He was there all the time
Waiting patiently in line
He was there all the time

At the end of the day, you know if you are in love with God
It is not a sissy thing, it is a point of meaning and joy
You know if you are happy, you know if you are at peace --- You know it.

This is the blessed opportunity that we have as a Christian. Not simple to know about God, but to stay in love with him.

If you sense today that you are in love with God, wonderful
If you don't then step onto the elevator with Him and strike up a conversation.
He is waiting, and you will be glad that you did.