God Likes You

Pastor Don Jaques

October 25, 2015

Don Miller, Blue Like Jazz, p. 77Ultimately, we do what we love to do. I like to think that I do things for the right reasons, but I don’t, I do things because I do or don’t

love doing them. Because of sin, because I am self-addicted, living in the wreckage of the fall, my body, my heart, and my affections are prone to love things that kill me.

[My friend] Tony says Jesus gives us the ability to love the things we should love, the things of Heaven. Tony says that when people who follow Jesus love the right things, they help create God’s kingdom on earth, and that is something beautiful.

I found myself trying to love the right things without God’s help, and it was impossible. I tried to go one week without thinking a negative thought about another human being, and I couldn’t do it.

Before I tried that experiment, I thought I was a nice person, but after trying it, I realized I thought bad things about people all day long, and that, like Tony says, my natural desire was to love darkness.

My answer to this dilemma was self-discipline. I figured I could just make myself do good things, think good thoughts about other people, but that was no easier than walking up to a complete stranger and falling in love with them.

I could go through the motions for a while, but sooner or later my heart would testify to its true love: darkness. Then I would get up and try again. The cycle was dehumanizing.

Don Miller, Blue Like Jazz, p. 85-86On a given Sunday there are dozens of nonbelievers at our church, and each week [Pastor] Rick shares with them the patient love of God. He talks about Jesus as if he knows Him, as if he has talked to Him on the phone earlier that morning.

Rick loves God because he accepts God’s unconditional love first. Rick says that I will love God because he first loved me. I will obey God because I love God. But if I cannot accept God’s love, I cannot love Him in return, and I cannot obey Him.

Self-discipline will never make us feel righteous or clean; accepting God’s love will. The ability to accept God’s unconditional grace and ferocious love is all the fuel we

need to obey Him in return.

…Our “behavior” will not be changed long with self-discipline, but fall in love and a human will accomplish what he never thought possible.

The laziest of men will swim the English channel to win his woman. I think what Rick said is worth repeating: that by accepting God’s love for us, we fall in love with Him, and only then do we have the fuel we need to obey.

Connecting the dots…

1. The only way to obey God over the long haul is to love Him.

2. The first step to loving Him is to receive His love for you.

3. The first step to receiving His love for you is to understand He likes you.

He likes children.

Mark 10:13-16 People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.

He likes children.

Mark 10:15-16 NIV

15 I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” 16And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.

He likes even those whowill fail Him.

Mark 10:17 NIV

As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

He likes even those whowill fail Him.

Mark 10:18-19 NIV

18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good — except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.’”

He likes even those whowill fail Him.

Mark 10:20-21 NIV

“Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.” 21 Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

He likes even those whowill fail Him.

Mark 10:22 NIV

At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.

He likes even those whowill fail Him.

Mark 10:23-24 NIV

23 Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” 24 The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!

He likes “unholy” people.

Luke 7:34 34 “The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and “sinners.”’

He liked you before you did one thing for Him.

Rom. 5:6-8 NIV

6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

May you be encouraged to view God’s heart for you in this way – that He is really on your side. And may you allow that same heart for people to invade your heart. May the work of the Holy Spirit first show you where you don’t yet like people like God does and then may His power begin to change you. May it change you when you’re waiting in line at the grocery store, or in the ferry line, or walking around your neighborhood, or sitting at work or at school, or on your next trip to downtown Seattle, or even – when you’re here at church.