0:01 Good afternoon family. So good to see everyone today. I thought I'd kick off my sharing today with a very simple question. If you could pick one area in your Christian life that you would like to see improve in the next 12 months, 0:17 what would it be? Just think of one area in your Christian life that you would like to improve in the next 12 months. What would that be? And for some they might say, "Oh, I hope that my church sharing is is better." Okay. And for others, they might say, 0:32 "Well, I want to be a better parent, more patient with my kids." Okay? Others might say, "Hey, maybe I want to know the Bible more." Great. And as I thought of that question for myself, the way I want to answer this is I hope that in 0:46 the next 12 months I can love Jesus more. That's the answer I I want. And as I look at the Christians that have gone ahead of me in the faith, that's one thing about their lives that has really stood out to me. It's not so much their 0:59 ministry. They might have great ministries, but really at the heart of that ministry is a heart that loves the Lord. And I say that's what I want. I want to follow in those those footsteps. And that's what I want to talk about 1:11 today. Some good examples of those who have a good relationship with the Lord, some bad examples, and some ways in which we can grow in our love for the Lord. And as I share this today, I also want to share from the perspective of 1:25 not being an expert because I see that in my own life. This is an area where there's much growing that needs to be done. But at the same time, I want to share some of the things which have challenged me in this area. And I hope 1:37 that we together as a church, as a family can grow towards loving the Lord more. So that's the purpose of my my sharing today. So as I think of someone who loves the Lord, one of the examples that comes to my mind is is Moses. Moses is someone 1:55 for me who who loves the Lord. And in the New Testament, there's a story once where someone asked Jesus, "Jesus, what is the greatest commandment in the in the law?" And what he answered was, "You have to love the Lord with all your 2:08 heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength. That is the greatest commandment." Now, where did that quotation come from? Well, that actually was a quotation from from Moses in Deuteronomy. So, if you could turn with 2:19 me to Deuteronomy. Let's look at chapter 6 and verse 5. Let's start there. Deuteronomy chapter 6 and verse 5. Deuteronomy 6 verse 5. Moses says, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with 2:39 all your soul and with all your might." And this is the verse which Jesus picked and said this is the most important thing. Now it's interesting about this verse is that this is something that Moses spoke in the book of Deuteronomy. 2:51 And Deuteronomy was a series of speeches which Moses gave to the Israelites before they enter the the promised land. And so you could say Moses was towards the end of his life after all these years of serving the Lord. What is the 3:03 thing that's that's most important? And I think of it like this that if we knew a godly man in our lives and let's say this godly man or woman has served the Lord for so many years and you ask him hey what is the one or two things that 3:16 you've learned that's really important whatever they say I'm sure we would treat it like gold because they have those years of experience backing it up and in the same way that's the way I see this verse that this is something that 3:27 Moses learned through all his years of being with the Lord what is most important is to love him and if you look for this this commandment to love the Lord is. What's interesting is that it's actually not in any of the previous 3:37 books. So, it's not in Exodus, it's not in Leviticus, it's not in Numbers. If you look for it, it's not there. But in the book of Deuteronomy, Moses mentioned it about eight times or so. Why is that? And I believe that this is something 3:49 that he learned through his experience walking with the Lord all these years. What is the most important thing? And that's to love the Lord. And that's why I want to take this seriously because it's from someone like Moses who learned 3:59 through his experience. Now, Moses is a very popular character, especially in our Sunday schools. And so, let me ask another question. If you could pick one part of Moses's life that you could have, what would it be? And I think some 4:15 somebody might say, "Well, I want to be like Moses and park the Red Sea." Okay, that's that's cool. Or I might want to be like Moses and cause hail to come from from heaven and cause some plagues, cause some miracles. Okay, that's fine. 4:28 But I'll share the thing about Moses that I think is so uh beautiful. So turn with me to Exodus chapter 33. This is not what's commonly thought of uh about Moses in the world. But I like this description of Moses in Exodus 4:44 33 and 11. This talks about the time that Moses goes out to uh it's called the tent of meeting to speak to the Lord. And I love the description of the way Moses talks to the Lord. Exodus 33 and verse 11 and it says this, "Thus the Lord used to speak to 5:02 Moses face to face just as a friend speaks to his friend." What a beautiful phrase. The Lord spoke to Moses face to face just as a man speaks to his friend. You know how there's some people in in your life that maybe you don't know so 5:17 well. And so when you talk to them after about five minutes in conversation, you're like, "Hey, I I don't know what else to say." It's a very tough conversation. But there's also other people whom you might know really well 5:27 and you really love and you could talk to them for hours and hours and it's like the time just doesn't go anywhere. It's so wonderful. And that's the type of description that I see here for Moses when he talks about his relationship 5:38 with the Lord like that as a friend. And I I think one example I think of this is when Moses went up to um the mountain to talk to the Lord. And so we know that around Exodus chapter 24:25, Moses goes up uh to the mountain and to be with the 5:53 Lord for 40 days and 40 nights. And I was thinking, what's he talking to the Lord about for that amount of time? It's a long time, right? 40 days, 40 nights. What's he talking to the to the Lord about? Now, we know that I'm sure at 6:06 that time he must have told talked to the Lord about the commandments, how to build a tabernacle, some of the rules and regulations. Fine. But isn't there some time left out of those 40 days to talk about something else? What did he 6:18 talk about? And it's not just a not that he only go to the mountain once. He actually went up uh twice for 40 days. So what happened was he first went up for 40 days and then he came back down because of the incident of the golden 6:31 calf. And after that Moses went back up for another 40 days with the Lord. And so you could think, Lord, you've been with him for 80 days. What are you talking about? And the Bible doesn't say, but what really stood out to me 6:44 about that is that the Lord must have really enjoyed Moses's presence. And Moses must have really enjoyed the Lord's presence. Especially that second time that he went up there, he already talked about all the commandments and 6:55 all the regulations. What's there to talk about? I don't know. But maybe the Lord said, "Hey, just just stay with me. Stay with me for 40 days. We just want to spend some time together." And I see that's the type of relationship that um 7:07 L the Lord and and Moses had together. such an intimate friendship and it challenges me. That's the type of life that I want to seek for because Moses was a leader. He was busy. He had ministry. He had so much things going 7:18 on. But what was the heart that he had underlying all of that? It was his relationship with the Lord. And that's what's so so beautiful about his life. So I also want to share another example of a leader who was also very busy and 7:31 who also did a lot of things but didn't have that relationship with the Lord. And let's see what the Lord says about that. And so if you could turn with me to Revelation, okay, Revelation chapter 2. So this is a contrast to the type of 7:46 leader Moses is. And this is the letter to the church in Ephesus. Okay, so we can go through that. Revelations chapter 2. Revelation chapter 2. And so here it says in verse one, to the angel of the church in Ephesus. And so you can think 8:04 of angel as the leader or the elder in the church. And so what about this elder in in Ephesus? So let's look at verse two. The Lord says, "I know your deeds and your toil and your perseverance." So to put that in today's term, imagine a a 8:21 leader in a church or someone in a church who does a lot. Maybe he spends a lot of time preparing for his sermons and when people need help, he goes and he or she goes and helps them. And then when there's activities in the church, 8:32 they're planning and organizing great good things. And then not only do they work hard for the church and for the Lord, it says in the second part of that verse, "And you cannot tolerate evil men and you put to test those who call 8:46 themselves apostles and they are not. And you found them to be false." And so, not only do they work hard, but they look at who's coming into the church, and they have discernment. They say, "Hey, these are people who are not 8:58 following the the Lord the way they should be. There's evil here." And they even put to test those who are false prophets and false apostles and and put them away. And not only does it take discernment, but there's also courage 9:09 that this elder has to be able to say no to these people. So those are also really good characteristics. And then in verse three, and you have perseverance and have endured for my name's sake and have not grown weary. And I like the 9:22 Living Bible translation. It says, "You have patiently suffered for me without quitting." And so, in other words, there was persecution and yet they were faithful to the Lord. And what is the conclusion of all this in verse four? 9:37 This is what the Lord says. But I have this against you that you have left your first love. Therefore, remember from where you have fallen and repent and do the deeds you did you did at first. And so what stands out to me about this 9:51 passage is it challenges me to change my definition of what repentance is. Because often when I think about repentance, I think of, oh Lord, maybe I spoke some word in in anger. Uh maybe I did something wrong. Um and I say, 10:06 "Lord, I'm sorry. I I repent." That's usually what I think of when it comes to repentance. But I believe that the Lord is trying to call me and trying to call us higher and say we need to change that meaning of repentance. What is 10:17 repentance? when we lose that love for Jesus, that first love for Jesus, that's a time to to repent. And so, that's a that's a challenge to me. And that's the first thing. The second thing about this verse that still still stands out to me 10:31 is that it it's reminder for me to be careful about ministry. That ministry is a good thing, but it's not the best thing. Okay? And if something a good thing like ministry keeps us from the Lord, then that's not a good thing at 10:45 all. And so what I see here is this person is so active and they do all these things and it's not like this leader is rejecting Jesus. Okay? It's not like he says no to Jesus, but he left his first love. It's almost like he 10:57 got drawn away and almost like didn't realize it. And I've seen how this can be possible in our lives, especially with things like ministry and church activities. Um I remember a couple months ago, it was pretty busy at at 11:10 church. We had a lot of activities going on and a lot of meetings. And I remember thinking at that time, oh yeah, I'm I'm really spiritual. I'm I'm I'm doing all these things. I'm in all these meetings, you know, great. And but I realized at 11:20 the end of that period, I was like, hey, I I don't think I checked in on the Lord. I don't think I said hi Jesus even once during that time. And it was just a reminder to me that I can be so busy doing good things, but I missed the best 11:32 thing, which is the Lord Jesus himself. And a good contrast of this of someone who was so busy, but yet maintained his time with the Lord is the Lord Jesus. And I'll share another contrasting example here. So, if you could turn with 11:45 me to Luke chapter 5. What did Jesus do when his life got busy? What did Jesus do when his life and his ministry got busy? So, Luke chapter 5. Okay, let's look at verse 15. Luke 5 and verse 12:05 15, it says this about Jesus. But the news about him was spreading even farther and large crowds were gathering to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. So you can see that people were hearing more and more about Jesus 12:19 as crowds were getting bigger and more people were demanding Jesus's time and his his help. That's a great thing. But what does Jesus do? I love the contrast here in verse 16. But Jesus himself would often slip away into the 12:32 wilderness and pray. And I love Paul Washer's explanation of the word a slip away. And he was saying how a man doesn't slip away to do something that he doesn't like, but he slips away to do something that he he loves to do. For 12:45 example, a man slips away to go to the basketball game. A man slips away to go to the barbecue. No man slips away to throw out the garbage, for example. And what does Jesus slip away to? He slips away into the wilderness to to pray. And 13:01 as I was thinking about that, I realized that all of us slip away. All of us, no matter how busy it is during day, all of us slip away to something. But the question is, what is that something we slip away to? And practically, one of 13:14 the challenges I found in my life is that it's very easy to slip away into the distractions of this this world, especially on our mobile devices these days. There's so much of of news, there's so much of social media, so much 13:25 of the latest basketball highlights, for example. There's nothing wrong with those things. But if I slip into those things as my default, then that could be a problem because I remember there's there's days where I was so busy all day 13:39 at work with meetings and then I have, you know, family responsibilities, take care of the kids and then finally I have a few moments where I can slip away and take a break. And in those moments, I've noticed there's that big tendency to go, 13:51 hey, let's see that latest basketball highlight. What happened in that game? And if I keep doing that, what I realize that there could be days going by where I'm not even saying hello to the Lord. And so I think it's it's important that 14:04 when we slip away, we slip away. We make sure we find time to slip away to Jesus. That's what he did here in his example. And I want to I want to learn and follow that. And if we do that, that'll preserve our relationship with the Lord, 14:15 especially in the midst of all the busyiness that we all all face. So that was an example of a a good example and also a bad example um of following the Lord. And now I want to talk a bit about how do we grow in our love for the Lord. 14:29 And so if we want to grow in loving Jesus more, what are some simple practical things that we can do? And the first thing I'll say is that we know in 1 John 4 that we love because he first loved us. So as we've heard in church, 14:41 the more we understand God's love for us, the more we'll naturally love him back. And so as we read the Bible, that's a great way for us to see how Jesus and how God has loved us. So we want to read the Bible not just for 14:55 information, but we want to read the Bible to see Jesus as more beautiful. And that's what helps us to love him more. So I want to share one simple example of that. So if you could turn with me to Isaiah Isaiah 52, okay, and verse 14. Isaiah 15:12 52 and verse 14. So, this is a prophecy about Jesus in the future and how he was going to suffer. Isaiah 52:14, it says this, "Just as many were astonished at you, my people, so his appearance was 15:29 marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men." And so, I'll read the Living Bible Translation. It says, "They shall see my servant beaten and bloodied, so disfigured, one could scarcely know it was a person standing 15:46 there." And the phrase I want to point out here is more than any man or more than the sons of man. So in this particular passage, what this is telling me is that Jesus was going to suffer a a beating. How bad was that beating? A 16:00 beating more than any man has taken before. That's why he was so disfigured that like he says here, we couldn't even tell it was it was a person. And I believe that principle of more than any man, more than the sons of man was 16:13 something that applied to all parts of Jesus's life. Just as another example, we know that Jesus came to earth and he was born in a manger. But how many do people do we know have a baby that was born in a manger? I don't think any of 16:25 us in history probably had that happen. But Jesus did that more than the sons of men. Why? So that he could come down and help us. So that principle more than any man is something I believe can be applied to so many areas of Jesus life. 16:38 And I believe that when we go to heaven and we find out just exactly how he lived on earth. We'll find out for example in his workplace maybe he had a difficult customer more than any man difficult customers more than any of us 16:49 that we could have ever imagined. Or maybe he had so many responsibilities in home more than any man. And this is I believe that hidden life of the Jesus that we can't exactly see now but when we go to heaven I believe we'll be 17:01 amazed. It's like, "Wow, Lord, you suffered so much more than the sons of men." Now, why did he do that? And I believe that he did that so that he could be a help to us. And so, let me give an example. We have a lot of uh 17:15 children and we have a teens and a uh college kids right now. And I know one thing that's on your mind is exams, okay? Final exams are coming. What to do? Now, let's say, for example, you're taking a class next semester. Okay? And 17:28 I want to help you. Now, there's two ways I can help you. One way I can help you is to say, "Okay, when you have a problem with your exam, give me a call and I'll tell you what I know about it and, you know, encourage you." And 17:38 that's one way to help you. Now, the other way I can help you is to say, "Hey, I'm actually going to take the class that you're going to take the semester before. So, before you take your class, I'm going to take that class. And when I take that class, I'm 17:50 going to do all the problem sets. I'm going to do all the homework. I'm going to do all the exams. And I'm going to feel the exact type of pressure that you will feel once you take that class. and then I'm going to help you. And that's 18:01 exactly what Jesus has has done for us when he come came to this earth more than any man. He endured all these things. Why? So he could be a help to us. So he could be a sympathetic high priest. And that's just something that 18:12 stood out to me. That phrase that helped me to see Jesus as a bit more beautiful. So that's just one example. And the other thing that we can do to love Jesus more is that we can see just how much he's forgiven us for our 18:26 sins. And so I want to point us to the story in Luke chapter 7. If you could turn with me there, uh Luke chapter 7. And this is a story of Jesus visiting one of the the Pharisees. And a woman came and she was a sinner and she was 18:44 she brought some perfume and she um put on Jesus' feet and she was crying and um wiping his feet with her her tears. And at the end of that story in Luke 7, Jesus says these these words uh verse 47, Luke 7:47, "For this 19:01 reason I say to you, her sins which are many have been forgiven, for she loved much, but he who is forgiven little loves little." And that's also a challenge to me that we all have been forgiven much, but the question is how 19:16 much do we realize how much we're forgiven? And I'll just ask a simple question. What is what are you more grateful for? Okay, if let's say you owe a million dollars to the bank today and the bank says, "Hey, I forgive you of 19:28 your debt." Would you be more grateful for that forgiveness of the million dollars as opposed to what God has done to forgive us for our sins? Now, if I were honest, and I'll say honestly, I'd probably be more thankful for for the 19:41 bank just in my my heart. And why? Because I'm seeing that Lord, this is an area of my life where I need revelation. I know the facts. I know in my head that the forgiveness of sins is greater, but in my heart it's not a reality yet to 19:54 have that type of gratefulness towards it. And so just a reminder that Lord, I can know all these things in my head, but I really need revelation just as a simple example like that to say, Lord, I want to be more grateful for your 20:06 forgiveness of sins for me than for any earthly loan that I might I might have. And if we're thankful for the Lord, that's the one good indication that we realize how much he's uh forgiven us. I remember a couple years ago at church, 20:20 we did this activity where we had everyone record a video and we said, "Hey, why NCCF? Why Jesus?" And I I remember what our brother Arnaldo had shared that time. He said, "Why?" The question shouldn't be why Jesus, but it 20:33 should be why Arnaldo. In other words, why me? Lord, why still me after all these years? Uh maybe I've sinned. I've my sins in the past. All these reasons. Why me? Why do you still love me? That I believe is a good mark of someone who 20:47 appreciates Lord how much you've forgiven us. Um I'll show you an example in the Bible that of someone who who was like that. If you turn just a couple pages over to Luke chapter 5, okay, Luke chapter 5, this is the story of of Jesus uh being with Simon 21:04 Peter and there was he's going to call them to be his disciples. Okay? And so Jesus um has Peter throw down the the net for a catch of fish. And there was a lot of fish that came up. But I I love Peter's reaction to this. Okay. In verse 21:19 8, when he saw that, he fell down at Jesus's feet saying, "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man, oh Lord." So I put myself in that place and say, "Hey, Lord, if I'm fishing and all of a sudden my boat is filled with fish, what 21:32 would be my reaction be like?" I'd say, "Lord, that's great. Of course I should do it. I'm a good guy. I deserve the all that fish. But not Peter. Peter's reaction was, "No, Lord, go away from me for I am a sinful man." So, see how 21:45 Peter, he saw that sinfulness that he has in his past. He said, "Lord, I'm not worthy of you." And then Jesus says to him, "Now you are worthy to be my disciple. Now you're ready to come with me and be a follower, be a fisher of 21:56 men." And so that's the attitude I want to learn from from Peter that yes, Lord, you forgive me for my sins, but I don't want to forget what you forgive me of. and I want to have that spirit of gratitude towards you. And that is 22:07 something we can do to grow in our love for the Lord. So, let me close by going back to to Moses. If you turn with me to Deuteronomy and chapter 30, Deuteronomy chapter 30, we've heard that promises are like checks that we can cash in. And 22:23 this I still feel is the the biggest check uh for me. Deuteronomy chapter 30 verse verse 6. Deuteronomy 30:6. This is the biggest check. It says, "Moreover, the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants to love the Lord your 22:41 God with all your heart, with all your soul so that you may live." And we realize that loving the Lord is not something we can do on our own strengths. We need to ask the Lord for help. And here's a promise from the Lord 22:52 that says, "Hey, I will circumcise your heart and I will help you to love me with all your heart." The question is, who does this promise who is this promise given to? And if you look at the context of this verse, it's actually the 23:04 Lord Moses here speaking about the people after they've sinned and they've been banished away into different countries. And in that place of sin, once they've turned around, the Lord says, "I'm going to give you this wonderful promise." So, it's actually 23:16 not for someone who's been faithful all the time. It's an encouragement to me that even if we're unfaithful to the Lord in the past, we can turn around and then the Lord can say, "Hey, this promise is also for you that I will 23:26 circumcise your heart to love you that you will love me with all your strength um and all your heart." And so lastly, we look at the end of Deuteronomy chap 30 uh and verse 15. I'll end with this phrase from from Moses. He says, "I've 23:41 set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity." And so in other words, Moses is saying here, I'm going to set something before you. This is a life or death matter. Okay? We know that when it says life or death, it 23:54 means something very serious like if you do it right, you'll live. If you do it wrong, you will die. That's what's a life and death matter. And what does Moses say is a life and death matter. Okay? So here's what let's talk about 24:05 what death is. Okay? What is uh what is death? Okay. Um verse 17. Here's death. If your heart turns away and you will not obey and you are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall 24:21 surely perish. So what is death? Death, I believe the danger we face in NCCF is not that we will reject Jesus, but as it says here in verse 17, that we are drawn away. We might be drawn away because of ministry. We might be drawn away because 24:34 of family or job. We're drawn away and enticed away from the Lord. That's the danger we in the church face. And what is the opposite of that? the opposite of his life. And what is life? Verse 20, by loving the Lord your God, obeying his 24:48 voice, by holding fast to him, this is your life. And so what this verse tells me is that if I want life, I have to love the Lord and obey him. And if I choose that, it says here in verse 20 that this is your life. So in other 25:02 words, everything outside of God is death. That's the way I saw this for me. Everything outside of God is death. Because if I just love my my family or I just love my job or even just my ministry at the end, what is it? It's 25:15 death. But if I love the Lord alone, that's what's going to give me life. And so that's what's challenged me. Um again, as I said earlier, as I speak this today, um I feel like I'm speaking to myself because I there's a lot of 25:26 this that I want to improve, but I believe that the Lord will help me to to grow in this area. Uh so thank you for letting me share.
