Here is my latest Sermon, preached it twice in the last two weeks :-) And I'm about to start working on the sequel, "The Ways God Promises To Love Us After We accept His Offer."
The Ultimate Romance
When a person is single and of a certain age suddenly love
and romance become very interesting. Us single people, we spend far too much
time considering the topic. I think married people do too – it has been my
experience that married people can’t seem to believe that it is possible to be
single and happy. As soon as one of my single friends gets married, I can
almost guarantee that within moments of sliding the ring on the finger they
will be turning around and telling me that I must copy them if I wish to be
completely fulfilled in life.
However there is a problem with this – marriage requires two
people. It is not actually possible to get married by yourself. So then all my
friends tell me that I must put myself out there and find my husband. So the
question I am forced to ask is “How? How does one find a marriage partner?”
In the Bible we see two basic patterns for finding a
marriage partner, these two patterns are the extremes of a continuum, many
people fit somewhere between them.
1.
First we have the ‘Hunters’. These people go out
searching and hunting, trying to find a wife or husband. Jacob is an example of
this, he left his family in Canaan and went to visit his Uncle Laban. When he
left he had two reasons for his trip, one was to find a wife who believed in
the same God he did. The other reason was to stay alive. You can read the full
story in Genesis chapters 27 and 29. When Jacob arrived in Harran he
immediately met Laban’s daughter Rachel and fell in love, within a month he was engaged to her – but he had to
work for 14 years to earn her hand in marriage.
2.
I call the people who follow the second pattern
‘Waiters’. These people are not actively searching for a husband or wife. They
are simply going about their daily lives and God brings their partner to them. In
the story of Isaac and Rebecca, Rebecca is an example of a ‘waiter.’ She goes
to the well one day to collect water for her family and she has no idea that
God is about to blow her future wide open. At the well she meets a stranger who
asks her for a drink of water. Being a kind girl she gives him the requested
drink and waters all his camels as well, not realising that she has just
fulfilled the sign this stranger has asked God for to identify the girl who is
to be the wife of Isaac.
The man gives her expensive gifts and she
invites him back to stay in her family’s home. Once the man arrives at her home
he reveals his mission. Everybody acknowledges that God has been guiding in
this situation and that it is obvious that God plans for Rebecca to go and
marry Isaac. But they still turn to Rebecca and ask her “Will you go with this
man?” I want you to remember that question, we will come back to it.
(You can read the full story for yourself
in Genesis chapter 24 – I highly recommend it. It is one of the most beautiful
stories in the Bible.)
Now Isaac, I have trouble classifying him, he
was not out searching for a wife for himself, but he did have other people who
he trusted actively searching for him. So maybe he fits with the hunters better
than with the waiters … On the other hand he did just trustingly wait at home
without any say in the result of the search – he simply a deeply loved the girl
that was brought to him … so maybe he is a waiter … I’m really not sure.
There is however one person in the Bible who I have no
problems at all classifying. That person is God. He is most definitely 100%
Hunter, and when you examine the ways that God shows His love for us, I think
it is safe to say that God is the most romantic being in the universe.
Consider:
1.
He loved
us first, in fact He loved us when we were his enemies.
Romans 5:8
But God demonstrates his own love
for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Ephesians 2:1-5
1As for you, you were
dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which
you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of
the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are
disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at
one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires
and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But
because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made
us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by
grace you have been saved.
God looked down from Heaven and He saw us and He loved us.
We were not thinking about Him, we had no desire to know or love Him, some of
us hated Him. But, He loved us anyway. So …
2.
He made
the first move – He told us He loved us – without worrying about whether we
returned His love or not.
Jeremiah 31:3
The Lord hath appeared
of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an
everlasting love: therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee.
Again, looking down on us from Heaven, God knew it was
impossible for us to comprehend His true character; that we could not
appreciate Him for who He truly was, so He sent us Jesus …
3.
He came
here to be with us, so that we could see His character, so that we could
see what he is really like and so that He could demonstrate His love to
us.
Matthew 4:23-24
23 Jesus
went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good
news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and illness among the
people. 24 News about him spread all over Syria,
and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those
suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the
paralysed; and he healed them.
Consider, when Jesus was here on earth every single thing he
did was done in love. From healing the sick, lame, blind, to forgiving sins and
raising the dead. Both implicitly and explicitly He showed us God’s character
and God’s love. And this still was not
enough. God knew that even if we returned His love there was no way we could
come to Him, so
4.
He made a
way for us to choose. He gave everything He has to win us. Jesus gave His
life, He died and was resurrected just so that we can have the choice to
be with Him, or not.
John 3:16
For God so loved the world,
that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not
perish, but have everlasting life.
What I find most amazing is that Jesus did this before we
even realised we needed or wanted Him. He did everything possible so that we
could have a chance to choose Him, and even then having given us our choice
5.
He never
forces us to come to Him. He respects our choice.
Joshua 24:14-15
14 ‘Now
fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the
gods your ancestors worshipped beyond the River Euphrates and in Egypt, and
serve the Lord. 15 But if serving
the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this
day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the
Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as
for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.’
If we choose Him He is exceedingly happy, but if we choose
against Him, well he will not force us ... but
6.
He never
gives up, He is persistent.
Romans 8:35,38-39
35 Who
shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution
or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? … 38 For
I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor
demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither
height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate
us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Revelation 3:20
Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and
opens the door, I will come in
and eat with that person, and they with me.
Let’s review, God tries to win our hearts in six ways:
Review: 6 Ways God
tries to win our love.
1.
He loved us first
2.
He made the first move
3.
He came here to be with us
4.
He made a way for us to choose
5.
He never forces us to come to Him
6.
He never gives up
Think about this list of things our romantic God has done,
just to be able to have a chance to win us for Himself. If you think
this list is amazing, then you should see the list of the way God promises to
love us after we agree to be His – that list is simply … wonderful.
The questions to each of us is the same one that was asked
of Rebecca, “Will you go with this man?”
Now you may be asking, ”Why is she saying all this? We are
all good SDA’s, we’ve been baptised, we’ve already said yes to Him.”
The reason I’m saying this is because from my own experience
I know it is possible to look like a good Christian and do and say all the
right things and still not have a heart connection with God. Plus even when we do form that heart connection
it needs to be renewed each and every day. Every morning when we wake up the
question our Guardian Angel is asking us is “Will you go with this man today?”
“Will you go with this man?”
I’ve slowly learned that there is no comparison between the
days when I go with that man and the days go on my own. Even the hard days are
better with Him.
So How about you? “Will you go with this man?”
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