Questions? We also have a welcome desk just outside of the worship center here. And there is somebody there that would love to talk to you and just answer any questions that you might have.
Also, if you are new or newer to Hope Niagara and you want to learn more, you're invited to come to our Discover Newcomers Lunch called Discover Hope today at 1230, just down in the Fellowship Hall after Second Service. You can come, you can meet the staff, you can hear the video. vision and just hear all about what God is doing here at Hope Niagara. And then once you have completed Discover, you're invited to join us for Hope Essentials, which will be taking place the next two Sundays during first service.
So September 29th and October 6th at 845. Hope Essentials is a class taught by two of our elders, and it will give you a solid understanding of what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ, to help you learn what it means to live out the 5G life here at Hope. Bible Church Niagara. Once you have completed step one, discover hope, and step two, hope essentials, you are able to start serving and join a small group, which we believe to be vital parts of the 5G life here at Hope. Next, we have our monthly churchwide prayer and praise meeting next week, Sunday, September 29th at 6 p.m. We hold these meetings on the last Sunday of every month, and this is a really important gather time for us as a church to worship.
God and to come to him in prayer together and we're really excited and I know for myself and for many others it's just a really sweet and encouraging time and a great way to get to know other people here at Hope. And lastly we are celebrating 13 years of God's goodness here at Hope Niagara. Yeah let's clap for that. We are so excited to celebrate together for our Fall Family Day at Agape Valley Bible Camp from 3 to 6 p.m.
on Sunday, October 6th. And when you say Fall Family Day, we mean church family. So everyone is excited, is invited.
to come and to celebrate with our church family for this free event. There's going to be cider and donuts and hay rides and just all that good fall stuff. But be sure to bring like a lawn chair and any fun outdoor games that you might want to play.
And as always, be sure to check out our events page on hopeniagra.ca just to keep up with all the events happening here at Hope. I'll invite you to stand now as we worship together. Hope is stirring, hearts are yearning for you. We long for you.
Because when we see you, we find strength to face the day. In your presence, all our fears are washed away, washed away. Hosanna, Hosanna. Hosanna, you are the God who saves us, worthy of all our praises.
Hosanna, Hosanna, come have your way among us. We welcome you here, Lord Jesus. Hear the sound of hearts returning to you, return to you. In your kingdom, broken lives are for you. You make us new.
When we see you, we find strength to face the day. In your presence, all our fears... I watched you wait washed away you are the god who saves us worthy of all our praises come out your way We welcome you here, Lord Jesus. When we see you, we find strength to face the day.
In your presence, all our fears are washed away. When we see you, we find strength to face the day. In your presence, all our fears are washed away, washed away. Hosanna. Hosanna, you are the God who saves us, worthy of all our praises.
Hosanna. Hosanna, Hosanna. Come have your way among us. We welcome you here, Lord Jesus.
Hosanna, Hosanna. You are the God who saves us. Worthy of all our praise. Hosanna, Hosanna Come have your way among us We welcome you here, Lord Jesus The mountain that lay between us, how high the mountain, I could not climb.
Desperation, I turned to heaven and spoke your name into the night. And through the darkness, your loving kindness tore through the shadows of my soul. It is finished, the end is written, Jesus Christ, my living God. I'm so green of mercy, when I could fathom such boundless peace. My God of ages, step down from glory, bear my sin.
As I've spoken, I am forgiven. I'm yours forever, Jesus Christ, my living. He's the one who set thee free, hallelujah. Death has lost its grip on me. You have broken every chain.
There's salvation in you. Hallelujah, death has lost its grip on me. You let go in every chain.
There's salvation in your name. Jesus Christ, my living hope. Seal the promise, the buried body, and to leave the silence, the roaring lion, where the grave has no claim on you. Morning. I seal the promise, oh very body, as you breathe.
Out of the silence, the warning I am. Declare the grave has no claim on me. Jesus, yours is the victory, yeah.
Hallelujah, praise the one you saved. set me free hallelujah death has lost its grip on me you have broken every chain there's salvation Jesus Christ, my living hope. Hallelujah, praise the one who set me free.
Hallelujah, death has lost its grip on me. You have broken every chain. There's salvation in your name. Jesus Christ, my living hope.
My living hope. Jesus Christ, my living hope. God, you are my living hope.
God, we thank you that you are our living hope. We thank you for your mercy, for your love, and for your kindness to us. And we pray, Lord, that you would draw us nearer to you, Lord, into deeper intimacy, Lord, deeper knowledge of you, Lord, deeper obedience, deeper relationship. And we pray this in the name of your son, Jesus Christ.
Amen. Amen, church. You may be seated. If you haven't met me before, my name is Andrew Restrepo. I am the church planting resident here at Hope Niagara.
And I'm just going to share a quick passage with you in 1 Timothy chapter 6 verses 17 to 19. Paul says to Timothy, As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasures for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life. In this passage, Pastor Paul, Apostle Paul, is addressing his protege Timothy, and he is telling him on how to instruct believers who are rich and wealthy.
But in sharing these instructions to Timothy, Paul is also sharing some wonderful truths about God that inform us when it comes to our giving. Paul provides a contrast to Timothy between riches and between God. He says that riches are uncertain.
but that God is wonderful, richly providing for us everything to enjoy. And he also teaches us that when we give to others and that when we give to the church, when we are generous, that we ourselves are storing up treasures for the future. And so while there are many reasons for us to give, namely that it is commanded in the Bible and that it helps the church and that we are able to help one another, one of the major...
reasons we ought to give to God is because he is worthy of it. It is because of the goodness of God, that he had mercy on you when you did not deserve mercy, that he showed you love when you were still an enemy of God. This is the main reason we ought to give to God, out of gratitude for his goodness.
And so while we commit ourselves to giving just in the next moment, I ask you to reflect on your own life. How has God been good to you? Has he been good to you in big ways? Has he been good to you in small ways?
If you think about it, God has provided everything that you have in your life. God has been merciful to you. He even put air in your lungs today so that you could come to church today. And so I'm going to invite the ushers forward. And as I pray, I pray that you would give to God today out of a place of gratitude for his goodness towards you.
Let's pray. heavenly father we thank you for your love towards us we thank you that you are a good god who lavishes us richly with good wonderful gifts and god as we commit to give to you today because it is commanded and because we are grateful to you we pray god that you would be glorified in our lives god would you exalt yourself in our lives would we be light and salt on this earth you Would we make your name known in St. Catharines and amongst everyone in our spheres of influence because you are worthy of it all. Lord, we thank you. We pray that you would bless this offering and that you would glorify yourself in our lives.
In the name of Jesus, we pray, amen. Amen, will you stand with us again? Hallelujah, oh God Almighty For the Lord God Almighty reigns, Alleluia, Holy, Holy God of...
Worthy is the Lamb, worthy is the Lamb of God. I've got a mind Lord God Almighty, raise the air holy. Worthy is the Lamb Worthy is the Lamb You are holy Holy Are you Lord God Almighty Worthy is the Lamb Worthy is the Lamb Worthy is the Lamb Worthy is the Lamb Amen Lord Jesus, you are worthy.
God, as we reflect on what we have just sung, hallelujah, we rejoice, we exult in you, because our Lord, our God, the Almighty reigns. Lord, I pray that that truth by your Spirit would minister peace to us right now. What peace there is in knowing, O God, that you reign and rule.
There is nothing beyond your sovereign power. Lord, speak peace to your people now. Help us in this moment right now to be still and to rest in you.
Lord, to take the burdens and the worries and the concerns and the fears and the anxieties and lay them on mighty shoulders. To surrender ourselves to you, our great, tender, gentle, mighty God. We love that you reign and rule.
We love that you are holy. Holy are you, Lord God Almighty. Worthy is the Lamb. Worthy is the Lamb. You are holy.
Holy is the Lord. Are you Lord God? Worthy is the Lamb. It's you, Jesus.
Yes. Worthy is the Lamb. You are worthy, Lord. And now, we pray, Lord Jesus, that you would speak as we read words that you have spoken, that you've given to us by the Spirit in your Word and Scriptures.
I pray that your voice would be heard, believed, obeyed, treasured. Lord, come and meet us now in the preaching of your Word. I ask this in Jesus'name.
Amen. Amen. Please take your seats.
Well, good morning, friends. We're going to... The third of three messages in our series on the mission statement of our church and our text today is Mark chapter 12, the gospel of Mark chapter 12. If you've got a Bible with you, I encourage you to turn there with me, Mark chapter 12, verses 28 to 34. If you don't have a Bible with you, right nearby, if you just look under the seats in front of you, you should within... There's not here.
There's not there. Oh, we failed you. I'm sorry. There's not one there.
You got your own. Oh, okay. All right.
We're good. So maybe there isn't one. There should be a Bible nearby, okay? And if you can't find one under the pews, just take the one that's in your neighbor's hands away from them. Use it yourself, okay?
Let's just see where they're at in their walk with Jesus, okay? Try that on. And Mark chapter 12, verses 28 and 34. Like I said, third and final message in our mini-series. But an important series on our mission statement, just called Our Mission, where we are, we're looking at this statement that we have that is, it's the summary statement of why we exist as a church. And really, it's a summary of what we believe the Bible teaches us we're to do, that we're to be about as a local church.
Do you know the mission statement? Do you have it memorized? Don't worry, you don't have to have it memorized.
It's going to go on the screen right here. The mission of Hope Bible Church Niagara, so our purpose, like why do all this? Why Hope Niagara?
Why labor together? Why pray together? Why give? Why serve like this? Why do this?
Well, this is why. To glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission in the spirit of the Great Commandment. Now those three phases, this month we've turned into three sermons. Week one, our mission is to glorify God. That's our primary purpose in this life.
In fact, that's the primary reason for you, is for you to know God and to enjoy him forever, to glorify him. When God is glorified, we, as theologians say, we are satisfied that we have gladness, the greatest source of gladness and joy that you will ever find anywhere. is the gladness and the joy and the satisfaction that you find in God.
When he reveals himself, the beauty of his perfections, the wonder of his power, the amazingness of his grace, all of his many perfections, as you see with the eyes of your heart and perceive them, that is the glory of God shining to you, and you glorify him by responding back accordingly with worship and obedience and giving your life unto him. Our ambition is... that God would be glorified.
He deserves it, and that is where we find our greatest delight is in glorifying Him. The greatest pleasure we have is in our great eternal God. We're made for that.
That's our purpose, to glorify God. Now, in particular, in terms of our mission together, what we do, our aim is to glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission. That is...
Jesus, this commission that Jesus gave his disciples that have been given to us to make disciples of Jesus Christ, to make disciples who make disciples who make disciples. We want to glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission. Now today, the third message, the third part of this, in the spirit of the Great Commandment, in the spirit of the Great Commandment, to glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission.
That's what we aim to do in the spirit of the great commandment. That's the way that we aim to do it. And that's what we're looking at today. It's really important, we believe, this series, for several reasons, positively, that we would be united together and encouraged together to share together a common passion. by remembering and studying from scripture why it is that we do this local church hope niagara negatively we want to avoid what happens when we get distracted into secondary things positively we want to be like these these rowers here isn't that a great graphic props to nathaniel de leon who helps me with these graphics what a great i love this visual i we were working on this series.
I said, what about rowers? Because I thought of rowers and how there is, everybody's got a part to play. There's even, you can't see it, but this guy, he's sitting in the front of the boat.
Looks like he's got the easiest job, just sitting there right along banging a drum, but he's got an important job, keeping everybody in sync together, working together, striving, laboring for a common cause. That's what we're after, to be clear together and therefore united together based on God's word on this mission that God has given us. One of the things.
that Christians... And churches battle with and struggle with is the issue of staying focused. Staying focused on what matters most.
There's all kinds of great ideas that come about. Folks come into church with agendas. There's opportunities that abound, and lots of them are good things.
But we can't do everything. And we believe by conviction we shouldn't do everything. But instead, we need to do this one thing, this mission.
Many churches and leaders and church members wear out and get watered down because when it comes to purpose, they're scattered. And they get distracted from doing the main thing. December 29th, 1972, Eastern Airlines Flight 401. was approaching Miami International Airport for landing.
The pilot engaged the landing gear, and as the landing gear deployed, he saw on the dash on his instruments that the indicator light for the forward landing gear didn't come on. So when it didn't come on, he and the co-pilot and the engineer were puzzled by this. Like, what does that mean?
Maybe it didn't engage. I mean, if you try to land a plane and the front landing gear isn't out... Bad, bad news. So let's try it again. There was three crew members officially.
There was a fourth one that was there as well. A fourth crew member. All together, let's try it again. They cycled it through again, tried to engage the landing gear.
Same thing happens. The light doesn't come on. Well, what does this mean? Well, we've got to figure this out.
So the pilot set the plane on autopilot and set it to cruise at an altitude of 2,000 feet. And then all four of them... The pilot, the co-pilot, the engineer, and the extra, all four of them set to work trying to figure out what's going on here. Is it down?
Is it not? Is it the gauge? Is it a real issue?
Well, what's going on here? Looking at manuals and talking together about it. They even tried to go down. One of them tried to go down and get a visual to see if the landing gear had come out. And as they're working with this and deliberating and talking about it, suddenly the plane crashed.
And 101 out of 176 souls on that flight perished when the plane slammed into the Florida Everglades. It turned out, when the investigators investigated, what had happened was that the indicator light bulb had burned out. The landing gear was working fine.
But what happened in that cockpit is that the folks who had a mission to do... got preoccupied and all distracted, all of them, from the main thing, namely flying the plane. They had inadvertently disengaged the autopilot and being preoccupied and distracted, they didn't notice that the plane was losing altitude until they hit the ground. The purpose of our series today...
of this our series this month and the message today is to help us be focused on the main thing and today it's our mission statement and the way that we believe God calls us to fulfill our mission namely in the spirit of the great commandment our text three days before the crucifixion of Jesus that's where we're at when Mark where we're reading from Mark, Mark 12 and 28. Three days before the crucifixion of Jesus, Jesus is in the temple. He is being bombarded with questions from religious leaders, most of whom hated him. They were jealous of him.
They were envious of him. And of course, we recognize there was a real spiritual battle going on there, but what was transpiring in this moment is Jesus was in the temple. He's being bombarded with questions, but they weren't honest questions. They were...
questions that were being asked of him to try to get to trip him to trip him up you know to get him to say something that would discredit him sort of like present-day politics right just try to bombard this person get them to say something that will be a stick that we can beat them with repeatedly and and to discredit them and that's kind of what was going on with Jesus except for in this moment Mark tells us about a particular questioner who came it seems with not an attacking attitude but a genuine attitude asking a very important question. Mark 12 and 28. And one of the scribes, so he's a religious leader, but notice, it says, and one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he, Jesus, answered them well, he asked them, Which commandment is most important of all? In other words, of all the commandments that God has given, what's the foremost? What's the primary one?
Now, in the rabbinic tradition, they counted 613 commandments. So you see his question. There's a lot of commandments.
What one would you say, Jesus, is the foremost, the most important one, the one that supersedes the rest? Verse 29, Jesus answered, The most important is, hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, with all your strength. And the second is this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.
Do you see that verse 30 and 31 that we just read? When we talk about the great commandment, this is what we're talking about. You see why Christians call it the great commandment?
Because Jesus says this is the greatest commandment of all the mandates God has given. This is the most important one. These two.
To love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength, verse 30, and then verse 31, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these. Verse 32, and the scribe said to him, You are right, teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other beside him.
And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength, And to love one's neighbor as oneself is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. Do you catch what he's saying here? This religious leader is different from a lot of his contemporaries.
This religious leader understood something that's vitally important to know about having a relationship with God. That God's ambition, his desire, is not religious activity. but a real faith relationship with people who would trust in him.
He recognizes that, yes, well, in the old covenant, God has commanded there to be sacrifices, made this religious leader understood something. He saw something with the eyes of his heart that you and I need to see, that God is not pleased with mere religious exercises. He's not looking for people who merely externally quote-unquote worship. He's looking for worshipers.
He wants you. Understanding this, seeing that he understood this, notice what happens in verse 34. And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, you are not far from the kingdom of God. What a statement. He's like, when it comes to a saving relationship with God, when it comes to having a home in heaven, you are really close.
You're really near. You're not far. What needs to happen?
Well, he needs to confess Jesus. He needs to embrace Christ Jesus as Savior. He needs to surrender his life unto him, entrusting the weight of his soul on Jesus.
And the moment that he does, well, then he would be there. But Jesus looks at him and says, you're close. You're very close.
Then notice how the end of the text ends. And after that, so imagine the crowd seeing this whole, and all these opponents seeing and hearing this conversation. And after that, no one dared to ask him any more questions.
We better watch out. Someone might get saved. So they shut it down. In light of the Great Commission.
What it says in our mission statement is that we want to glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission in the spirit of the Great Commandment. I said the Great Commission. In light of the Great Commandment, our belief is that our mission must be carried out in love.
In love. How we live, how we serve, how we share Jesus, how we disciple. Our lives are to be marked by love.
In our mission statement, when it says, in the spirit of the great commandment, it means like with an attitude of love. Like that's our motive. That's our methodology is to do what we do in love, powered by love and expressions of love. That's what I mean by in the spirit of the great commandment.
Like, you know, we just had the Olympics this summer, and you may have heard the phrase something about the Olympic spirit. Talking about, you know, there's sort of an attitude there. What is the Olympic spirit?
Well... Good competition and fair play and integrity and no cheating and unity and all that kind of stuff. That's generally what people mean when they talk about the Olympic spirit. What we mean when we talk about the spirit of the great commandment, we mean an attitude, a perspective, a way of living and conducting and carrying ourselves.
As we do our mission, we believe it's to be carried out in love. Particularly, firstly, carried out in love for God. Right?
Verse 30, isn't that pretty clear? And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. Now, these terms here, I do believe there is some nuance, but I also believe that the meaning here would understand.
is he's talking about your whole person, like all of you, to love God fully, to love God with every part of your being in person. Do you see, loved ones, that God's claim on your life life in Jesus is all of you. And for some, that's an important thing to hear because for some, you've got an interest in God. You've got maybe a heart for God, but you're still hedging. You've still got some parts of you you're not making available to God.
You're not opening up to him. There's maybe parts of your conduct or your attitude, things that you quietly treasure that he disapproves of. And you've got kind of a partition up. You're like, oh God, you're going to have all of me, but not this part of me.
No, God's claiming your life. Life in Christ is all of you, the totality of your being. And here particularly, we're commanded with all of our being to love him. Do you love God with all of your being? Love the Lord your God with all your heart.
Your heart is the center of your will, like your desires, your emotional life. Like, you know, when you tell your spouse Valentine's Day, you get the card and the flowers, and it says something like, I love you with all of my heart. What do you mean by that?
It's like, well, everything I got, like I got. I got feelings for you, baby, and I'm just can't. I give you these flowers and this card and these chocolates to just tell you that you're the one. And from the heart, like I got affections for you. With all my heart, it's for God.
With all your soul. Your soul, the word there, soul, could be literally rendered to breathe. In other words, your life. Your whole life.
Like every breath I take. Every day I live, every moment I have, my passion, my desire, my life is for you. Love you with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my mind.
Your intellect, your intellectual capacities, your thinking, your brain and your capacity to think, it's for God. Did you know that? The greatest, highest calling, the greatest, highest use of your mind is to engage and to express. and to live in love for God. It's this capacity God's given you.
Do you see what he's given you? To have a mind to think, to reflect on the beauties of your God, his perfections. To marvel at him and to creatively and genuinely express to him worship and work for him, living your life for him.
This mind and then strength with all your strength. That's your energy, your vitality. God wants your heart.
He wants your mind. God wants your body. All of your body, your eyes, your ears, your mouth, your hands, your sexual organs, your feet, all of you.
It's for him. It's an instrument by which I'm to express and show love for God, to enjoy him with the totality of my being. What a high calling, isn't it? To me, the most challenging and convicting word in verse 30 is the one that's repeated four times. It's the word, all.
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your heart. all your mind, all your strength. I read that, and I just think, I just pray. In fact, I've been praying and preparing. God, have mercy on me.
God, forgive me. Because you know what my problem is? My problem is that I love God with some of my heart, with some of my mind, with some of my soul, with some of my strength.
And I read this command and I think, God have mercy on me. I have fallen so short of loving you like you deserve and really like I am made to enjoy. loving you. Thankfully, when it comes to addressing that conviction, we're not on our own.
As we understand elsewhere in scripture, our love for God does not originate with ourselves. So if you're like me and you're feeling convicted reading verse 30 and you're just feeling like, I have so fallen, I haven't loved God, your next thing is like, what am I going to do with this? And the answer isn't merely, well, just try harder. Although there can indeed and there ought to be some effort. You see the word strength there and you're like, I can't be passive.
But it's helpful and important to know that our love for God doesn't just come from ourselves. Actually, the love that we have for Him comes ultimately from Him. as he loves us and reveals his beauty and his wonder to us, loving us, he works in our hearts to move us to love him.
Let me show you 1 John 4 verse 10. In this is love, John says, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Have you used the word propitiation anywhere in your life this week? You might want to be careful how you say it.
It could come out wrong and you could be saying a bad word maybe. But propitiation, it's a wonderful word we read in the Bible. And you're probably only going to hear it. here at church or in small group.
What it means is this. God sent his son Jesus into the world to be the propitiation for our sins. God, in his holiness, encountering you and your sin, he is angry, righteously angry about you and your sin. And the Bible tells us that, in fact, God has a righteous wrath. Wrath concerning our sin.
Wrath that on judgment day will be poured out on us. And it will be fittingly measured. Our treason against an eternal God has eternal consequence under his righteous wrath.
It's a sin. a terrifying thing. But God did not want that to be the end of the story. And in his great love, he sent a rescuer, God the Son, Christ Jesus himself. He came, he sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sin.
That is to say, that when Jesus died on the cross, He took upon himself the wrath that was rightly aimed at you. Jesus took it for you. So that the anger that God has about you and your sin, the wrath that was waiting to be poured out on you, was instead poured out on Jesus.
And so like a sponge that soaks up a puddle, when Jesus died on the cross, he absorbed, he soaked up the wrath. wrath of God so that his wrath concerning your sin is spent entirely on Jesus and there's none left for you. God is Jesus in dying propitiated God. He satisfied God's anger.
The gun of the barrel, the gun of God's judgment was unloaded on Jesus and now there's no wrath for you. And so you're saved from the wrath to come. And the barrier is removed. This is God's love for you. He begins by telling, this verse goes, and this is love, not that we have loved God.
It didn't start with me. It started with God. He is the initiator.
Why is it that I love God? Where does this love for God come? It comes ultimately from him. His love for me awakens now my love for him. And that's where many of you are today.
You hear this good news and you're rejoicing with me at the great love of God who's done this for you, sacrificially. So. Selflessly.
Stunningly. He loves you. That's where your love comes from.
It comes from him. And when you put your trust in Jesus, Jesus says, there's lots of things that happens in that moment when you trust in Jesus. But when you turn away from your sin and you put your trust in Jesus, asking Jesus to be your Savior.
Jesus says, when that happens, you are born again, or you have new birth. And one of the things that happens in that moment is the Holy Spirit of God moves into your life and makes you new, changes you on the inside out. In fact, Peter, when he begins his epistle, 1 Peter, he begins with this song of praise, praising God. for what he's done for us, that he's caused us to be born again to a living hope. Notice how one of the ways he describes what's happened to us.
He says to these believers, he says, though you have not seen him, you love him. Isn't that true of lots of you today? I mean, anybody seen Jesus? But you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and notice and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
You see, something happened. inside of you. What happened is the Holy Spirit happened inside of you.
You've got a new heart now where now you, even though you haven't seen Jesus, you love Jesus. See, something has happened here. This love that you have for him, God did something.
to awaken your love. So the love that we want to have for him now, we see actually doesn't originate with ourselves. Okay, I gotta try to love him.
No, no, it comes by looking to him. In fact, if today you find that your love is cold, what you need to do is return to the fire. I used to, in our old house, I used to have a wood stove.
Anybody here have a wood stove? Oh, I'm so jealous. I used to have this wood stove, and it was like... it was the one thing I would like about winter.
I hate winter so much. And it's coming too. Anyway, not yet. I had this wood stove, and isn't it true that there's nothing like wood heat? There's just nothing like it.
There's just this radiant warmth that just gets to your bones. It's wonderful. I feel better just thinking about it. You get near that wood stove and it's just, you just feel the warmth.
But then you get up and you go upstairs, you go to the other end of the house and it's cool. In fact, it's freezing up here. I want to be warm again.
Where do I go? I go back to the fire. As you think about this today, if you're aware that your heart has grown cold, what do you do?
You go back to the source. You go to the heat. You seek out the...
fire, you draw near to God. Cry out to him. Cry out to him. In fact, pray something like, Lord, just like you came and found me far from you in my filth in the first place, Lord, come again and find me here out in the cold. See, in doing that, you do what James says.
He says, draw near to God and he will draw near to you. So if your heart is cold today, just like I see God's command here to love him with everything I've got. I have to confess my heart is cold and distant. Then come back near to the fire, seek him. When Jesus was rebuking the church at Ephesus because their hearts had grown cold, they had wandered away from loving God.
He told them, hey, remember. Remember from where you began. Remember from where you have fallen.
In other words, go back to that place of remembering my love for you. Remember that. Go back and remember what I have done for you.
The propitiation for your sins. The one who came, who rescued you from darkness. Brought you into the kingdom of light. Remember my mercy for you. Draw near to God again.
Remember, go back to that place. Ask God, say, God, would you refresh and renew my world? wonder my amazement at you and heat my cold heart up with your love. Remember, our mission must be carried out by love, firstly love for God.
And there's, I think there's an important principle that undergirds this, that we need to see. And it's this, when it comes to serving God, because we're thinking mission here, and the way we do it, having love for God. So as you think about serving God, make sure you understand this very important principle.
God does not need your help, but he wants your heart. And that's what this text is about, to love God with everything you have. What does God want from me? Well, God doesn't need my help, right? Like, God is not, like, He's not scratching His head in heaven.
Like, He is not on hold right now with call assistance. Right? Like heaven's not going broke.
He's not trying to raise money. Like he's very, in fact, the Bible tells us that God says himself, Psalm 50 verse 12, he says, if I was hungry, I would not tell you for the world and its fullness are mine. God's like, I'm actually good.
I'm okay. Did you know that God created the heavens and the earth, all the universe without your input? Did you know? Like, did you know he made everything that there is without you coming along and offering assistance? He made everything.
He's always managed perfectly fine because he is all-sufficient and all-powerful. Acts 17, 24 and 25, it says, served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. He is totally self-sufficient. It's not like you and me.
I mean, we need help with everything, right? I think I need help with all kinds of stuff. I need help making decisions. I need help fixing things.
I think especially vehicles. Vehicles in my life. I have been very thankful to have some people in my life throughout my entire driving career who know how to fix vehicles.
Because when the car breaks, I don't know what I know it's broken but I don't know what to do I'm not a fix it handy kind of person right my friends when stuff breaks they don't call me to come help because they know I'm useless so they don't I mean I love them I'll show up I'll bring coffee I'll pray but I don't I don't know how to fix this you should call somebody you can in fact I got a friend of mine who um we've been buddies since we were teenagers and uh he would say you know early days when I first started driving I had some really bad bad vehicles that broke a lot and uh I'd be calling him all the time if he would probably say say, it goes something like this. He's like, I call, oh, hey, Ross, where are you stranded now? Where are you? I'll come find you, come help you out, because I don't know how to fix it, but man, he knew how, and that's the kind of help I often need. People that know what they're doing, have the ability, have the skill, but God's not like that.
You and I are like that, but he is not lacking. He's all-wise, he's all-powerful, he's all-sufficient. So how then do we serve him?
What's this service all about? Well, it's not our help he wants, it's our heart. hearts.
You see, that's the point of mission, is for us to know and to enjoy God in serving him. Listen to what he says through the prophet Hosea, 6 verse 6. For I desire steadfast love, not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. He is not looking for mere acts of worship, but worshipers. He's looking for you.
This religious leader who was speaking to Jesus stood out as different from the rest of the religious leaders that were in that place. Because a lot of them had gone a long way, their hearts had gone a long way from God. Jesus said this, Matthew 15, verses 7 to 9. He said to these religious leaders, you hypocrites. Well did Isaiah prophesy of you when he said, this people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are not. hearts are far from me.
And I wonder today, is that true of you and me? Are we singing beautiful songs together with our lips, but our hearts are far from him? Loved ones come back near to the fire. You say, well, how do I know?
How do I know if my heart is far from God? I would say to that you, I think if your heart's far from God, you know. But, some particulars... I think you know your heart's far from God when he becomes a subject you study instead of someone you savor. Your heart's far from God when he is a topic you discuss instead of a father you adore.
Your heart's far from God when he becomes kind of an idea instead of one who in your mind and heart is glorious. When he becomes a cause. for which you fight instead of a savor you cherish, when he becomes part of your life, when he should be the purpose of your life. How many of you are old enough to remember when Diana, Princess Diana, and then Prince Charles got engaged? How many of you are old enough to remember?
All right, there's a few of you. And some of you, your hands should be up. Some of you. A bunch of you remember.
So you might remember. When they got engaged, there was this really famous BBC interview with them. And the interviewer asked them a question, something like this.
He said to the couple, they're there on the screen, he says, can you find a way to sum up how you feel today? And then there's like this awkward silence just for a moment, and he said, he prompted them, presumably love, of course, presumably love. And Diana responded, oh, of course.
And then, Charles. said, whatever love means. Now, some of your eyebrows went up. Yeah, yeah, I think a lot of eyebrows went up. Now, listen, listen.
Let's not be too hard on Charles. Okay, we live in a world... in which understanding even what love is is very skewed, very twisted. There's lots of confusion.
But I think even a very passive observer could have seen that response that day and that, Houston, we have a problem here. This is not a good sign. What I'm saying is, I think if your heart's far from God, you probably know.
So come back to the fire. Jesus invites you to it, and don't miss this great commandment, he commands you to it. This is not some small thing. This isn't something just for a pocket of Christians, supersonic, on-fire Christians to have. This is to be the norm.
That we love him, love him. So, come to the fire. The mission that we have must be carried out in love. Love for God, but also, verse 31, love for who? For people.
Love for people. Did you see that? The second is this. It's really curious because the questioner just asked Jesus, what's the most important commandment? And in Jesus' answer, he gives the top two commandments, which tells us these two in the mind of Jesus, in the mind of God, are vitally connected.
So he says, the second is this, you shall love your neighbor neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these. Our mission must be carried out in love for God and in love for people.
Now your neighbor here, to love your neighbor, your neighbor is, we understand from the rest of the New Testament, it's this. Your neighbor is the person, the people that God puts in your path. It could be any number of people. It could be your neighbor, neighbor, like the person who lives beside you or the person who lives underneath you or above you.
But it could also be the person, the people. who live with you. They could be your neighbor. Could be people down the street. Could be people on your hockey team.
Could be people in the office. People in your classroom. The people who fix your car.
The people who check you out at the grocery store. Well, they don't check you out. Well, maybe they do. I mean, you know what I mean. Like, check, beep, beep.
Check you, check you out. You get, could be anybody in your life that you cross paths with. The people that are in your life.
This is your, your neighbor. And what does Jesus say? He says, you shall love your neighbor. Well, What does that look like? How do I love my neighbor?
Can you just take it out from the abstract and make it concrete? Jesus is like, no problem. Love your neighbor as yourself. Oh, okay.
Love my neighbor as myself. So just as I might show care, compassion, concern for me, my needs, I will show that to the people that God has put in my life. So I can ask, I'm in a situation, I can just ask myself, if I was this person, what would I want me to do right now?
And that's what I'd do. If I was this person, what would I hope that I would say right now? Well, then there's a guide in what to say. If I was this group or these people or this individual, huh?
How would I want me to respond here? Well, then that's the way. It's loving as I would love myself. And this kind of love is firstly and foremostly to be shown in the local church.
Not exclusively, but especially. You say, you got a verse for that, Pastor? Yeah, I do. John 13, 34 and 35, Jesus, on the night before he was crucified, said to his disciples, a new commandment I give you, that you love one another. To his disciples, that you love one another.
Just as I have loved you, there's the source. Just as I have loved you, there's the source. You see, there's mission there, isn't there? We do have things to say.
There's a message. we are to share and to declare. But we also see here that part of carrying out our mission is in how we treat one another, is evidence that there's something going on here. Christ is among us.
We've got a testimony in how we treat each other. So that's why I say to show love for people, you know, we carry out our mission must be carried out in love for people, especially in a local church. Paul says in Galatians 6 verse 10, he says, so then as we have opportunity, let's Let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. Where's the household of faith? It's right here amongst our brothers and sisters, the church.
Our mission is to be carried out in love for people. hand in hand. When I'm loving God genuinely, truly, out of that totality, as he pours out his love into me and I love him back, what's going to happen then is that an evidence of loving God is going to appear.
in my life in loving people, which leads us to this very important principle too. Love for God leads to love for people. Love for God leads to love for people. Loving people is a visible expression in your life of loving God, which for some of us today ought to land on us as wonderfully refreshing and encouraging, because again, just...
Just like our love for God does not originate with us, our love for one another, our love for people in our lives does not originate with us, but starts with God, comes from God. This is what Paul said. Have a look at this verse.
This is really important. Paul here is talking about his mission. That's what we're talking about, our mission. Notice what he says about his mission.
He says, So Paul... Why do you do what you do? Sharing the gospel.
Pouring your heart out into churches. Making disciples and make disciples. Why do you do that?
Because of the love of Jesus. The love of Jesus controls us. It compels us.
This is why. Because Jesus loves us. And it makes us then love people.
For the love of Christ controls us because we have concluded this. That one, namely Jesus, has died for all. Amen? Therefore all have died.
That is when you trust. You see, the source of my love, the wellspring of my love doesn't come from me priming my own pump, but is rather it's filled by God's love for me, which, by the way, is great help for your marriage. How do you love your spouse, love your husband, love your wife, in those days, in those seasons where love ain't exactly flowing? If you've been married for more than a half an hour, you know what I'm talking about. We can get into this place in our marriages where...
We feel like not loving the other person because they haven't been loving or kind or respectful or tender toward me and that does something in our sinful hearts, it gets in there and we get all weird and strange. And we forget things like how much this person really does love me. And we get in this weird, messy place of being cold and huffy and withdrawn.
And not when company comes over. Not at church. But you know, in the car, when no one else is around.
But here's the wonderful thing. Listen, think of the resource that Jesus is for you in so many ways, including your marriage. When you know Jesus, husbands, wives, when you know Jesus.
You have a love that keeps on flowing into your life, that fills up the reservoir. So listen, you don't need your wife to love you back. You want her to love you. You're not going to be all passive, like, this is cool, love this marriage, we're good, long live Jesus, we're good. No, that's not the message.
But you see, how do I love the person when I don't feel like it? You turn to Jesus. He fills the well. So what powers the marriage of believers is not the niceness of two friendly individuals. But the very power of the risen Savior, whose presence is mediated by the Holy Spirit who dwells in them, who pours out the love of God into their hearts, so out of their heart comes love that comes first from God.
So you can love, even in the days when you're not feeling loved, you can love to the glory of God. This applies to your friendships, dude, not just marriage. You got a sibling that you find hard to love? Don't point at them. It's not nice.
nice. Do you got people in your life? Listen, do you have people in your life that are hard to love?
Everybody does. If you can't think of anybody, then you're probably that person for everybody else. Just saying. So how do you love those people? Well, you'll glorify God by loving them with the love that He supplies for you in Jesus.
And the one who looks good in it isn't you. It's the Savior who fills up your love. Anybody here ever been to Buc-ee's? Who's been to Buc-ee's?
You know what I mean, Buc-ee's in the U.S.? First service is a whole pile of people. Second service, you guys don't travel very much.
Who's been to Buc-ee's? Anybody know? Okay, so you know what I'm talking about here.
Yeah, Buc-ee's. Now, Buc-ee's, my family, we've all been to Buc-ee's. And it's this, if you don't know what it is, it's this chain of, it's so hard to describe. I mean, at root, I guess it's gas stations, but it's more than gas stations.
Like, it's this chain of, like, just think, like, Costco meets En Route meets, like, Chick-fil-A meets, like, something that would be surely near the gates of heaven. Like, it's incredible. It's this just. huge supermarket. They've got food there.
They've got beverage. The bathrooms in Buc-ee's are the, I'm not making this up, they are the cleanest public washrooms I've ever seen in my life. They're cleaner than most of our own private bathrooms at home.
It's incredible. Buc-ee's, they've got all kinds of food stuff, but they've also got lots of clothing. And we were in one visit we did to Buc-ee's.
It was actually our first time there. And Leanne was going through some, looking at some clothing. And she's like, Ross, Ross, come here, come here.
I got to show you something. And she found this shirt, and she took a picture holding this shirt. Can we get that picture here?
Jesus loves you, and I'm trying. Now, it just occurred to me last night when I was looking at this picture that Leanne wanted me to hold that shirt while she took my picture. Like, should I?
Maybe we should discuss that together. Jesus loves you, and I'm trying. I wrote this down in my notes.
Because Jesus loves me, there is hope for my efforts. So yes, we do try to love, but our efforts are powered by the love of Jesus. So friends, personally, and then collectively as a church, how will we love people in our lives?
our lives who are difficult to love. How will we as a church love people in an impossible culture where there is so much confusion and frankly so much animosity and so much Contempt. And nothing new under the sun. Real persecution. That has come our way.
That will come our way. How will we ever. Do what we do.
In the spirit of the great commandment. We'll do it being powered up. By the love that God gives us. As we love him.
Our mission is to glorify God. Through the fulfillment of the great commission. In the spirit. In the way of the great commandment.
Amen. which means that this is to be carried out in love. Dear friend, listen, God must be first. He must be first. He must be our great treasure, our great joy, our great gladness, our great satisfaction.
I read this text and I think, God forgive me. God forgive me for treating other things, other endeavors, as somehow more important than you, more satisfying than you. God forgive me. and I seek to draw near to the fire again.
And then as I do so, that leads to loving people. So I think, God, help me. Help me to genuinely love the people. you've put in my life.
And I'd be remiss if I didn't say this. We've talked about the love of God that a believer has. I'd be remiss if I didn't say to you, there is a God who loves you. He loves you. He loves you not only with words, he's loved you in action.
That Christ Jesus came into the world to bring you to himself. And as we talk about loving God and loving others, none of this is going to have... any relevance in your life unless you first yourself come into a love relationship with the living God, which you can do today.
To be loved supremely and fully and enduringly by the living God, there is... is nothing better. I want to warmly appeal to you to come today into a love relationship with God by putting your trust in Jesus. Say, Lord Jesus, come and bring me today into this relationship with you. I need you and I want you and I ask this in Jesus'name.
You pray a prayer like that. Why don't we pray together as we close? So, Father, I pray that you would today, today, Lord, refresh and renew our love for you.
And that as you do it, Lord, you would equip us and empower us to love the people, the image-bearing people. that you've put in our lives. Lord, help us to love your blood-bought sheep, our brothers and sisters, our forever family.
Lord, we pray that we will be a church that is marked by love, love for you, and genuine, real love for each other. And Lord, that you would help us, that you would use this as a testimony to a watching world. And Lord, we pray this and ask this in Jesus'name. Amen. With a thousand tongues to lift one cry, then from north to south and east to west, we hear Christ be magnified.
The whole earth echoes Him in us. His name would burst from sea and sky, rivers to the mountaintops, we hear Christ be met. Christ be magnified, let His praise arise. Christ be magnified in me.
Oh, Christ be magnified, the altar of my life. Christ be magnified in me. Every creature finds its inmost melody Every human, but its native, must sing pride Ice be magnified in me.
Ice be magnified in me. I stand strong and worship you, if it puts me in a fire. Rejoice, cause you're there too. I won't be formed by feelings, I'm hold fast to what is true. The cross brings transformation, we'll be provided.
It's just a doorway to resurrection life. If I join you in your suffering, then I'll join you when you rise. When you return in glory, and all the angels in the stands, my heart will still be singing, and my song will be the same. Oh, Christ.
I see you magnified, that is his praise and pride. I see you magnified in me. I, the answer of my life. As we close this service, just like every week, there'll be some men and women here that would be honored to pray with you for anything in your life, maybe even in response to what you've heard today. But before we dismiss, I want to do something just for a moment, just a little different from normal.
We've just spent three weeks talking about our mission statement, our purpose, the reason that we're here. To glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission in the spirit of the Great Commandment. I'd like to just right now together as a gathered church to invite you to join with me to recommit to that mission together today.
To almost like renew our vows kind of before the Lord in prayer. So I'm going to pray and at the conclusion of my prayer if you're with me then you just say amen. Okay so let me just pray.
So Lord God, you have shown us in your word. You have given us this call for Hope Bible Church Niagara. We exist to glorify you through the fulfillment of the Great Commission in the spirit of the Great Commandment. Lord God, by faith we ask you for grace to do this. But we together by faith...
Again, in unity, we commit ourselves to this singular purpose, asking that you make it our deep passion. And together, Lord, we say to you as your people, we're in. We're all in. For this reason, for this goal, on this mission. And if you agree with me, loved ones, then say, Amen.
Amen. Amen. God be with you. You are loved. Go in peace.
That's it, that's my day, it's as Christ as one So I can't waste tomorrow, tomorrow