How much does the love of God impact you on a daily basis? It\u2019s easy to say, \u201cYeah, I know God loves me. He sent Jesus to die for my sins.\u201d But, how often do you think about all that His love means, and all that His love did and does for you? I have often said to new missionaries when they come to the mission field, \u201cThe gospel is not just something we give away to the lost, it is something that should impact our lives every moment of every day!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Matt 6:19-21, 24 19\u201cDo not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 24\u201cNo one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Paul Tripp does a great job talking through these verses in chapter 4 of his book, \u201cInstruments in the Redeemers Hands.\u201d He says we learn three principles in this passage (Matthew 6:19\u201324).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The things we set our hearts on never remain under our control. Instead, they capture, control, and enslave us. This is the danger of earth-bound treasure. Taming your heart and it\u2019s passions needs to be the target of your spiritual growth plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Matt 6:22-23 The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n If your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. If the focus of your live is healthy; if what occupies your \u201csights\u201d is healthy, so will be your life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The eye is the lamp of your body! Tripp said, \u201c the thing that you treasure, will control your behavior.\u201d What you focus on, what fills your eyes, is what you treasure. We aren\u2019t talking about something you happen to glance at as you are driving down the road. We\u2019re talking about what you focus on, \u201cthe apple of your eye,\u201d the \u201ctreasure of your heart,\u201d what you spend your free moments thinking about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus finishes his challenge with Matt 6:24, \u201cYou can\u2019t serve two masters.\u201d Either our eyes are focused on Christ, or they are focused on something else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Matt 6:25-29 Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus gives a practical example of what He is talking about. So many people worry and are anxious about their basic necessities, food, clothes, housing, money to pay the bills, etc. How much of your thoughts are occupied with those things? When we can\u2019t see where the money is going to come from, we can certainly become consumed with worry. Even as missionaries, we fall into this from time to time. This anxiety can consume you to where that\u2019s what your life is bound up in and it becomes all you can think about. But, isn\u2019t life more than that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m reminded of why I began this study. 2 Corinthians 3:18, as we behold Chirst, and learn from Him, we will become like Him. So, what can we learn from Jesus here? How did Jesus live? Jesus didn\u2019t even have a place to lay his head. (Matt 8:20) Jesus knew by experience that He could trust the Father. He had abandoned Himself to the Father in everything He said and did. (John 5:19-20) He lived to do His Father\u2019s will, not His own. (John 5:30), and the Father\u2019s will. As Jesus said these words to His disciples and the crowds, He was living them out right in front of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n His own life aside, Jesus gave a couple examples from creation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Matt 6:30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n God the Father is a loving, and generous father! Jesus knew that. Jesus experienced that! He is speaking out of the incredible love relationship He experienced with His Father! \u201cWill he not MUCH MORE clothe you!\u201d O you of little faith.\u201d By faith we know, as Jesus did, God\u2019s deep, deep love for us. By faith we need to abide in His love! We need to stand on it with absolute confidence, and yield our emotions and and thinking to the truth when we are tempted to think or feel otherwise!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Matt 6:31-32 31Therefore do not be anxious, saying, \u2018What shall we eat?\u2019 or \u2018What shall we drink?\u2019 or \u2018What shall we wear?\u2019 32For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This is a conscious choice that we make. \u201cDo not be anxious.\u201d Choose to believe what God has said. Choose to believe the experience you have seen of God\u2019s love displayed in your life in the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We should be different than the world. The world is occupied with all of these things. Their eyes are filled with the latest and greatest this world has to offer. That should not be our focus. That should not be what our eyes focus on and get fixed on!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Matt 6:33-34 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 34\u201cTherefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I like what Andrew Murray said in chapter 23 of Abiding in Christ. \u201cIf Christ finds us willing to trust ourselves and our interests to His love, if in that trust we give up all care for our own will and honour, if we make it our glory to exercise and confess absolute dependence on Him in all things, if we are content to have no life but in Him, He will do for us what the Father did for Him. He will lay His glory on us so that we can glorify Him in everything we do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus lived this out. He lived in complete dependence on His Father. He had complete confidence in His Father\u2019s love for Him, and rested in that through every event He faced. In chapter 22 of Abiding in Christ, Andrew Murray reminds us that \u201cThis love of God to His Son must serve, as the mirror in which you can learn just how much Jesus loves you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus acknowledged in John 3:35 that “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand.” As Jesus prepared for the last supper with His disciples in John 13:1 Jesus expressed the same love to His disciples. Murray went on to say, \u201cWhen it was needed, He sacrificed His throne and crown for you: He did not count His own life and blood too dear to give for you. His righteousness, His Spirit, His glory, even His throne, all are yours.\u201d This love holds nothing, nothing back. O wondrous love! He loves us as the Father loved Him. He offers this love as our daily dwelling place, if we would only choose to abide there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As I ask these questions of myself, I encourage you to ask them too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The other day, we sang 2 songs that really challenged me after reading this passage. Here are the words, and how they impacted me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Goodness of God -Bethel Music<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I love You, Lord Lord, your mercy never fails! All of my days I have been held in your hands. God\u2019s love holds me! From the moment I wake, until I lay my head down, it\u2019s God\u2019s love that sustains me. All my life He has been faithful! All my life He has been so, so good! It\u2019s the confidence in His love that should give me rest and peace no matter what I am facing!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lord I need you – Matt Maher<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Lord I come, I confess It\u2019s the love of God that will give me rest! Without the confidence in God\u2019s love for me, I will fall apart! It\u2019s His love that guides my heart! Lord, I do need you. I need to rest and abide in your love! Every hour, every moment, It\u2019s God\u2019s love that is my defense and my righteousness!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I know I take the love of God for granted. I am too often like those I described in the beginning. I know Jesus paid the penalty for my sins but, His love for me does not impact my life moment by moment. Because that\u2019s true, instead of His life being the source of everything I do, it\u2019s easy for self to be the source.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I want the love of Christ to impact my life more. That will only happen as I abide in His love by meditating on it, thinking about it, and sharing that with others. In chapter 21 of Abiding in Christ, Andrew Murray said, \u201cAs we abide in Christ, (as we meditate on His love) our occupation with our self diminishes and our own thoughts and wishes become captivated by the thoughts and wishes of Christ. As we abide, like-mindedness to Christ grows. Everything is yielded to the power of His life in us, that it may exercise its sanctifying influence even on ordinary wishes and desires.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The power to change is in the implementation and integration. We can talk all we want, make lots of plans, but until we do something about it, and develop habits that integrate those truths, we will never change. What is the one thing I need to do as a result of this study today? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Preface: How much does the love of God impact you on a daily basis? It\u2019s easy to say, \u201cYeah, I know God loves me. He sent Jesus to die for my sins.\u201d But, how often do you think about all that His love means, and all that His love did and does for you? 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Every human being is a worshiper, in active pursuit of the thing that rules his heart. This worship shapes everything we do and say, who we are, and how we live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
The Purpose:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The Plan: <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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For Your mercy never fails me
All my days, I’ve been held in Your hands
From the moment that I wake up
Until I lay my head
Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God
And all my life You have been faithful
And all my life You have been so, so good
With every breath that I am able
Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n\n
Bowing here, I find my rest
Without You, I fall apart
You’re the one that guides my heart
Lord, I need You, oh, I need You
Every hour, I need You
My one defense, my righteousness
Oh God, how I need You<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n\n
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The Power; Implement and Integrate<\/h2>\n\n\n\n