Worshiping at the Temple of Love

If you asked the average American what is the greatest kind of love, the answer most given would be:
The Love Between a Husband and Wife
Or
The Love Between a Parent and Children
Or
The Love of Family.

For Example:
7 out of 10 people say Christmas is about family.
21% of all books of fiction sold are romance novels.
More songs and movies about romantic love than any other theme.
In 2012 survey 2 out of 3 people involved in church said that love of family was the single most important thing in their lives.

Look at what God says in Jeremiah 31:3: “The Lord appeared to them from a distance. I have loved you with a love that lasts forever. And so with unfailing love I have drawn you to Myself.”

No one else loves me like that.
No one else loves you like that.

The story of Jacob and Rachel and Leah in Genesis is very interesting. It is a picture of why romantic love cannot totally satisfy us and why we need God’s love.

The story is that Jacob falls in love with Rachel and works seven years for the right to marry her.

In Genesis 29:20 we see the depth of Jacob’s love for Rachel. It says, “So Jacob served for seven years for Rachel, and they seemed only a few days to him because of the love he had for her.”

Wow, that is Hallmark sappy!

But in the very next verse, Genesis 29:21, Jacob says, “Give me my wife that I may go into her, for my time is complete.”

Not so Hallmark.

But Laban, Rachel’s father, decided that it would not be proper etiquette to give Rachel, the young daughter, in marriage before her older sister Leah got married. So Laban made a switch and gave Leah to Jacob as his wife. When Jacob figured it out it was too late. They were married and so he agreed to work another seven years to get Rachel as his wife.

Leah was unloved by Jacob and she knew it. She pursued ways to make Jacob to love her.

The names she gave her sons reflect her deep desire to earn Jacob’s love.

The first son was Rueben which means the Lord has seen my misery. Leah was feeling and living as a victim.

The second son was Simeon which means I am not loved so God gave me another son. Leah is desperate.

The third son is Levi which means my husband will become attached to me. Leah was doing all she could to get Jacob to love her.

But then a change occurs in Leah. She names her fourth son Judah. Judah means Praise the Lord. Leah stops seeking to get Jacob to love her and seeks God’s love.

Leah realized that even if Jacob suddenly realized that he loved her that would not satisfy her need to be loved. Only God’s love fills up the hole in our lives.

Another great thing about God’s love is that you don’t have to earn it. God loves you. He loves you all the time. He loves you no matter how you act. He loves you not based on you, but based on Him.

Then in Genesis 22 we have the story of Abraham and Isaac.

God tells Abraham to go and sacrifice his son Isaac. Isaac was the most precious thing in Abraham’s life. He was his only son. He was the son of the Promise. He was the son that God had promised and through whom God would fulfill everything He had told Abraham would happen.

So what was Abraham’s response? - FAITH!

Abraham showed faith by obey God quickly.

Abraham showed faith by telling his servants that he and Isaac would go worship and they both would return.

Abraham showed faith by telling Isaac that God would provide the sacrifice.

Abraham showed faith by putting Isaac on the altar.

God will always ask you to replace what you love most with Him. God will ask you to sacrifice ANYTHING that may come between you and Him.

God says in Exodus 20:3: “You must not have any other god before Me.”

God says in Exodus 20:12: “Honor your father and mother.”

God says honor your parents, but WORSHIP ME.

In Mark 12 Jesus is asked what is the greatest commandment. Jesus’ answer in verse 31 is, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”

Jesus indicates that loving God must come before loving anyone else.

In Matthew 12 Jesus is told that His mother and brothers have come to see Him. Jesus is in a house teaching His disciples. In verses 48 through 50 we read Jesus’ response to that message. He says, “Who is my mother, and who are brothers? And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, Here are My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.”

Jesus elevates our connection by faith with our connection by biology. He is basically saying that Jesus’ blood connects us with each more strongly than human blood does. Following Jesus is what our marriages and families are to center around.

Jesus tells His disciples a truth in Luke 14:26 that must have rocked their world. He says, “You cannot be My disciples, unless you love Me more than you love your father and mother, your wife and children, and your brothers and sisters. You cannot follow Me unless you love Me more than you love your own life.”

Jesus makes it very clear to be a true disciple and follower of His, we have to love Him more than we love our parents, our spouse, our children (even our grandchildren), and even our own life.

Jesus in Luke 12:31 says that we are to seek His kingdom and then trust Him to provide what we need. We are to trust Him to provide not only the physical things of life but also the love we need.

Jesus is to be our IDENITY.

In Acts 17:27-28 Paul says, “He has done this so they would look to God, somehow reach for Him, and find Him. In fact, He is never far from any one of us. Certainly, we live, move, and exist because of Him.”

We are not to identify ourselves as the world does. We are to see ourselves as who we are in Jesus.

In 1 Corinthians 8:5-6 Paul talks about who God is and how we can relate to Him. He says, “Even if there are so-called “gods” whether in heaven or on earth, and even though there are many of those “gods” and “lords,” yet there is only one God, the Father, who is the Creator of all things and for whom we live; and there is only one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things were created and though whom we live.”

God is Creator so we relate to Him as His creation.
God is Father so we relate to Him as His children.
God is Lord so we relate to Him as His servants.

Jesus is to be our EVERYTHING.

When Jesus is our everything He makes us holy and gives us joy.

Acts 2:28
You will teach me how to live a holy life. Being with You will fill me with joy.

When Jesus is our everything our life is in Him and we receive all that He has promised to give us.

Colossians 3:3-4
For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ (who is your life) appears, then you too will be revealed in glory with Him.

Worshiping in the Temple of Love with its gods of Romantic Love and Family will lead to:
Heartache
Disappointment
Depression

Those gods lead there because they can not fill up our need for love. You and I were created to be filled up with God’s love and no other love no matter how good, healthy, and big can fill us up. Those gods also lead there because their love is not perfect and God’s love is perfect and according to 1 John 4:18 perfect love drives away fear.

So Worshiping in the Temple of God, making Jesus your God leads to:
Hope
Completeness
Joy

Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls is allowing nothing, no matter how good it may look and feel, to come between us and God’s love for us. Nothing hindering us from loving God with all that we are.

The Temple of Love or The Temple of God - YOU CHOOSE!

Centered on Jesus Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls
Joe