Father Lord in the name of Jesus, we magnify You, we honor You, we bless Your name, we thank You for the privilege of life and health, we thank You for appearing before You this morning both physically and online, thank You Lord, and as we have asked You, we seek Your face, please give us oil, fresh oil, fresh anointing, fresh unction to function, fresh love for You as we continue to grow, and help us to walk in that which You have commanded us, that is in love, so shall it be in the mighty name of Jesus. Praise the Lord!
I want to appreciate the Lord God Almighty; I want to appreciate APICR for giving the privilege to stand before his children this morning, I take this not for granted at all and I pray that the Lord God Almighty will continue to enlarge and increase you sir in Jesus name.
So we’ll continue for the month of November, our Explosive Growth Drive and the theme for the entire program is First Love. Today we’re going to be talking about Loving God Firstly, and what this says to every one of us is that God has to come first no matter what, no matter the situation, and that grace to be able to stand in the midst of challenges and to remember that whatever it is life throws at us, that we need to put God first, so will it be in the name of Jesus.
Our text is taken from Matthew 6:33, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you,” the Lord bless the reading and the hearing of His word in Jesus name.
Talking about Explosive Growth Drive, we have Vision 2032 which by the grace of God is almost in seven years if the Lord tarries, and what we should know is not just a matter of numbers, we are looking at it in the context that it is a love mandate, what we are told to do, not only that we’re counting but to show that we’re loving God.
And another thing is to have that compassion for souls; we are not to be selfish. We know the Bible says that love is not selfish, so it’s not a matter of ‘if I make it to heaven, I don’t want to know what happens to every other person,’the Lord will help us in the mighty name of Jesus.
Love is a fundamental characteristic of the nature of God and not only is it an attribute of God, is a commandment like we have said and love involves sacrifice. We cannot say – even human beings before we start talking about God that we are commanded to love, it’s not possible for any one of us to say he or she loves another person without sacrifice, it doesn’t work that way; whether it is our spouse, whether it’s our parents, whether it’s our brother in church, whoever, our children, we need to give something up.
It just does not work that you say you love somebody and you are not willing to let something go, and that is how it is for God. Jesus Christ made the ultimate sacrifice for you and I for humanity, He went to the cross, shed His blood, the Bible says that He knew no sin and He did not even think about it, He just went, so sometimes when we are talking about loving God firstly, because sometimes maybe issues of life and some person has offended us and some people are saying until Jesus comes, they are not going to forgive or that they will settle it in heaven as if heaven is the place for settlement of offenses. We need to remember that Jesus who did not do anything, He died for us, the Lord will help us in the mighty name of Jesus.
Our Bible text is part of what we call the Sermon on the Mount, and it says we should seek first the kingdom of God; means that first above every other thing, we need to focus on God Almighty, the Bible says and His righteousness, that is we need to live according to His principles not according to what we feel like doing, not according to pretending to be who we are not so that everybody in church thinks we are Christians.
Jesus Christ must forever be our first love and it says that all these things, that is everything that we are thinking about we should remember that our sufficiency is of God. The Bible says that it’s not of him that willeth or runneth but the Lord that showeth mercy, so when we remember that God first, God is our priority, things will just fall into place and so shall it be for every one of us in the mighty name of Jesus.
Now we go on to believers and our ability to love; is now talking about believers and how we are able to show love. The truth of the matter if we want to be honest is that some of us struggle to show love and it’s not like maybe we are condemning any person, some people grew up with no love shown to them, so they struggle to accept how to release themselves and love another person. Some people don’t even love themselves, they feel as if it’s finished, nothing can get worse, so that anything happens and it just happens.
Some people have just lost faith in humanity; some people are complaining about how their life’s journey has been, their foundation and all of that, so they struggle to love. But that is why for any one of us, our prayer is that any person who is struggling in that place of love, whether from foundation, whether in a present relationship, whether in the church, wherever it is that we may find ourselves, that the Holy Spirit Himself will pour His balm on our hearts so that we are able to not only accept the love of God, but we’re able to show love to even those who may not be so easy to love in the mighty name of Jesus.
And that is why for every one of us, we need to know that – you know we’re talking about believers and our ability to love, that when we give our lives to Christ by the grace of God and which some of us will do this morning to the glory of His name, that we experience the new birth.
According to Ezekiel 36: 25- 27, it’s talking about the fact that the heart of flesh replaces the heart of stone, the old life. There’s one Bible verse which when we’re talking about giving our lives to Christ and doing according to His will, we talk about 2 Corinthians 5: 15-17, the Bible says, and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. 16Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh, yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.
17Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: all things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. Our prayer for every one of us that that intention to be able to walk in the line that old things are passed away, that we leave behind unforgiveness, we leave behind the ways of life, things that we used to do that do not glorify God, that that way to be able to work so that our hearts will be that which will please God in the new birth, the Lord will continually give to every one of us in the mighty name of Jesus.
Under believers and our ability to love, God gave us the Holy Spirit at the new birth which we have said, that is why we can cry Abba father, Galatians 4: 4-6. One thing the Holy Spirit does when as believers – we are still talking about believers and our ability to love, is that the Holy Spirit enables us a whole lot of things, we cannot do it in our flesh.
We can think, “Oh, I need to do this, I want to do that,” but without the help of the Holy Spirit, it can get tedious, so we need to know that it is the Holy Spirit that pours that love for God into our hearts. And that is why when we are praying, we should always remember, ‘Holy Spirit, help me, Holy Spirit, please hold my right hand, I don’t know how to go on this journey, I don’t know how to walk, I don’t know what to do, I don’t know in which direction, I don’t know who can even help me, You are my help, You are my source, You are my support, help me walk this journey,’ and when we pray, He always shows up. The Lord will show up for every one of us in the mighty name of Jesus.
It is the Holy Spirit that can help us to obey God; a whole lot of things happen in life, sometimes we are bent on doing something, that’s why sometimes even as believers we say ‘oh yes I’m praying about it,’ but we need to ask ourselves, I’m asking myself too, are you sure you are truly praying about it or you’ve already decided on what you want to do?
You know sometimes we’ve concluded, in fact, we’ve started working towards what we want to do, then we now remember, ‘Father I’m asking You, tell me the way to go,’ but we’ve already taken that decision, so we need the help of the Holy Spirit. I don’t want to be on my own journey so that I’m not walking in circles, so it is that putting God as our priority that will make us remember before I go into whatever project, whether before I go into this business relationship, whether is before I accept to go into courtship with this male or female, whether which school I want to go, which business I want to do, which country if I want to relocate or should I even relocate at all, Holy Spirit help me, let me know what I’m doing, You are the One that knows the beginning from the end and the end from the beginning.
It may look rosy, it may look glorious, it may look as if that is the best decision I will ever take, but the prayer that the Holy Spirit should open our eyes to see what we are not seeing, to see even what the professionals and the intellectuals are not seeing, the Lord will give it unto us so that we do not walk in error, so that we’ll fulfill purpose and so that again we align with the fact of putting God as our priority in the name of Jesus we have prayed.
So we are now going to talk about how do we practice it? You know our topic is Loving God Firstly, so how do we go about it? There are a whole lot of things, it’s easy for us to say just like sometimes they joke about inspirational speakers that they would tell you there’s nothing you cannot do, just think it and it is happening, but sometimes we need to just say God, I know that I’ve heard this thing, is this how this thing will work?
So how do we practice loving God? We’re going to give some examples, we talked about loving God as priority, according to Matthew 10:37, the Bible says he that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me, meaning that number one, God is number one, not father, not mother, not husband, not wife, not children, which some of us unfortunately place above even loving God.
Some of us have made mini gods in our own lives, and I pray that the Lord will show every one of us mercy so that we can align ourselves with the purpose of God for our lives by loving Him firstly in the name of Jesus.
So practicing to loving God, love communes. To commune goes beyond even communication, just like when we have a holy communion and everything, commune means to communicate intimately, it goes beyond the ordinary, it goes beyond ‘I’m talking to you, you are talking to me,’ it’s an intimate relationship, and when we commune, our hearts are aligned to each other.
In management, when we talk about effective communication, effective communication means that somebody passes knowledge, maybe ideas, opinions or something to another person, that person must understand the message that was passed to him and not only understand, the person must show that we have a meeting of minds. So that’s why sometimes maybe when we are angry or we are talking to somebody and we’re just shouting, that is not communication of anything because the person being shouted at is already confused, does not even know whether what he or she did is not even sure anymore.
So when we want to practice loving God, we have to communicate with Him and that is why God called us His friends. John 15: 14 & 15, ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. 15Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you, if we love God we’ll want to be with Him all the time.
You know we talked about the fact that love communes, we’ll not want to rush out of His presence, I know that every one of us are rushing to go somewhere in the morning or wherever it is, maybe we are tired, we get out of bed late, we’re rushing for time, and before we even bring our Bibles out to pray, we’ve already said, “God, I have only 3 minutes, after that, I need to run.” We may not say it out, but our heart is saying it that ‘no, the way this morning is going, 2 minutes,’ we don’t do that, that is not intimate communication. Praise the Lord!
And for some of us, I know there are lots of apps or something talking about read the Bible in one month, read the Bible in two weeks and everything, it’s a good practice, but one thing we need to remember is it’s not a competition for speed reading. When we want to have that intimate communication with God, we can read, every time we read the Bible, the Holy Spirit shows us something, we can read and if we have already reached verse 23 and we feel I’ve read up to verse 23, I’m not feeling it, there’s nothing wrong in going back to verse one or verse 11.
So, it’s not who gets there first but who the Holy Spirit has impacted and touched for good to show that we have that relationship. The Lord will help every one of us in the mighty name of Jesus.
Another thing that we need to do, (still talking about practicing loving God as our priority) is that love obeys. Obedience is proof that we love God, when we say we love God, we have to be willing, ready, and able to obey Him. It may be hard, it may be difficult, there may be some things that we get and we are like, “Oh my God, am I going to be able to do this,” but we’re not doing it in our strength.
There’s one prayer sometimes that I say, even sometimes I feel, “Oh my goodness, this is hard,” but what do we do? If we believe God, we have to serve Him, and what is that prayer? I will just say, “Father, let Your will be done in this situation,” but sometimes are we willing to accept that will? Because if it’s not going the way we want to think that ah not like this one now, God, but it should not be like that, it may be hard, we are human beings, we are dealing with the flesh but we have to just obey because God knows where He’s taking us.
All those things that we think this is a very brilliant idea, to God this is just a waste of time because I have something better ahead, why are you wasting your time with the bare necessities, the basics, you are just wasting your time on things that are not lasting, the Lord will help us in the mighty name of Jesus.
We cannot ignore God, we cannot ignore the prompting of the Holy Spirit, we cannot take His grace for granted. And according to John 14:15, it says, if you love me, keep my commandments, so if you say how many people love God this morning? I want to believe all our hands will be up in the air, but He says if you love me, obey. That grace to obey, the Lord will give every one of us in the mighty name of Jesus.
Another way of practicing loving God as our priority is that love serves. You know we talk about the human being relationship, even amongst human beings in our different relationship, if we do not want to serve, then we are not exhibiting the love of Christ and we’re not exhibiting love in that relationship. If it’s always all about me, so long as I have my space, I do what I want to do, I do not care for the feelings of another person, I do not care for how the other person is even going to achieve his dream, let me just do mine and move on, we need to be able to show love by serving other people.
When we are talking about serving, not serving eye-service serving, it has to come from our heart, we have to know that I’m doing this as a sacrifice because I love that person. Praise the Lord! Jesus Christ served His disciples, we are going to read John 13: 13-15, the Bible says, you call me Teacher and Lord: and rightly so; for that is what I am. 14Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet; you also should wash one another’s feet. 15I have set you an example, that you should do as I have done to you.
Jesus Christ was serving others, and the word of God says in verse 15 which we just read, it says, I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you, we are all his disciples by the grace of God Almighty. He has given us that example to exhibit love by serving, the Lord will help us to get that understanding. And this has nothing to do with ‘I’m his senior, when we went to school together, I was more intelligent; if not for the way they are doing this hierarchy, I gave my life to Christ about 17 years before him, I’m not going to agree to serve him because it doesn’t work that way,’ we are not dragging position, we are not dragging authority because it’s God that places somebody in authority and in position.
The Bible tells us that promotion comes not from the east or west but from Lord God Almighty, so for any one of us struggling with serving another person and thinking it’s not his fault, it’s not her fault, we need the Holy Spirit to quicken us. Holy Spirit help me, this is how it is and I am going to serve the way You served, I will serve so that I don’t disobey You, that is the word of God and it will work for us in the mighty name of Jesus.
Then another thing that we need to do is love gives and sometimes it’s not always all about money. Love is never stingy, we need to be able to give; a Christian who does not want to give is unlikely to reap the fullness of God’s blessings because we have copious Bible passages telling us about giving.
So part of giving is our time, some people still say even today that oh the church service is too long, do this and that, but if we have a business that they said this business if you don’t sit for a course for 5 hours you won’t get certified, and if you don’t get certified you are not going to get that promotion, we’ll sit down no matter what, but when it comes to things of God that is when we start rationalizing and some of us start saying God sees my heart, I want to do it oh but we pray to know that what I’m doing I’m doing it for God, I’m not doing it so that somebody will praise me, so that somebody will see that oh when that sister starts praying, so that somebody will not say that oh when it comes to speaking in tongues, we are giving to God and we need to give our talents, our energy.
When we talk about talents, sometimes when is announced in the church we need somebody to do this, we need somebody to do that, there’s no person that does not have one talent or the other that God has given us. Can we please just pray about it and say, I can do this for God, let me even start from somewhere, because all these things at the end, the Bible says that every one of us will give accounts.
What did you do with your talent? What did I do with my talent? Perhaps God gave us some of these talents because He wants us to use it in the household of faith, of course, we can use it to make money but to impact the lives of people as brethren in the church. I pray that the Holy Spirit will remind us all those talents we have that we think is nothing but which will really assist in the work of this great commission in the mighty name of Jesus.
Another thing is love is at work when we give to the needy, when we support other people, when we support the love of God, the children of God, because love is a demonstration of our love for God. We’ve talked about love, sacrifices, talking about practicing loving God as our priority, and talking about sacrifices, we’ll read what Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 11: 23- 27.
Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool), I am more; in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. 24Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. 25Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; 26In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; 27In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.
Is like, wow, all this for the sake of Christ and we are not saying that everybody needs to go to prison, physical prison, because there are some situations of life, for Christ we need to do it, if we need to show that compassion for souls, we need to be able to place ourselves in some situations that God help me even as I’m in this situation, but one thing we need to please note is that talking about persecution, there’s a difference between being persecuted for the sake of the gospel or being persecuted for wrongdoing; even in the church, we cannot disrespect lawful authority in church and say they are persecuting me, that is not the type of persecution – for the sake of the gospel.
We need to know because some people even maybe in their departments or something that they are being persecuted, we need to know where do we draw the line. We’re talking about for the sake of the gospel not because we’re being told to do something and we do not want to do it, or we feel another person is supposed to be doing it, the Lord will help us in the name of Jesus.
We have examples in the Bible, Stephen the disciple, he was stoned to death for the sake of Christ, that can be found in Acts 7: 54-60. James, one of the apostles was killed for the sake of Christ, that is in Acts 12: 1 & 2; then we have the story of Paul and Silas, they were in prison, they were singing with the way they tied them, making melody, Acts 16: 19 – 24.
So we need to look what exactly am I suffering for? For the sake of the gospel, and to pray that we believe God will show us what He wants us to know from this experience, not to complain, not to say it’s not fair, not to say am I the only one? But that His name will be glorified and that everything we are doing will take us to a good ending for us to make heaven at last in the mighty name of Jesus.
So I said this for every one of us is a call to action on loving God firstly: is a call for demonstration of our claimed love for Christ; we claim we love Christ, it is time to actually show it, the way we serve Him and in our lifestyle. Then it is a call to honor the claim of our salvation.
I will read John 15: 1 & 2, the Bible says, I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. 2Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. My prayer is that the Lord God Almighty will enable us to bring more fruit even as we do His work and engage in the great commission in the mighty name of Jesus.
And I want to say that if Jesus were to ask every one of us one question this morning, just one question that was asked in John 21: 15-17, what will be our answer? We are going to read that Bible passage so that we’ll consider in our minds, so when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. 16He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, “Feed my sheep.
17He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, feed my sheep.
God is asking every one of us this question this morning, asking that do we love Him? As we are saying yes, He said we should feed His sheep. The Lord will help us to feed His sheep, to undertake or the great commission to show Him love by our service and our lifestyle, the Lord will give onto every one of us in the might name of Jesus.
We have some prayers, please can we kindly stand up to pray, we are going to start by praying that the Lord should please have mercy upon us. My Father and my God, please have mercy upon me in every and any way that I have not even shown this love that I am proclaiming, in any way that I do things without even showing that You are my priority, oh Lord, my Father and my God, show mercy upon me.
Forgive me, do not let it stand in the way of my reaping from the benefits of being Your child; do not let my conduct be a distraction to other people by saying ‘and this person calls himself/herself a Christian,’ Father have mercy upon me, help me, support me, guide me. I’m very sorry for ways that I have not put You first in every decision I take, from ways that I have not put You first when I’m serving You, from things that I am doing that is even denying this love that I proclaim with my mouth, Father, Lord, please show me mercy in the mighty name of Jesus.
Say Father, as the deer pants for water, please let my love for You be ever fresh and ever fervent. As the deer pants for water, Father, my love for You, let it be ever fresh, let it not be, ‘oh, I used to love the Lord when I just gave my life to Christ, let it not be, oh, I love the Lord because He blessed me with the fruit of the womb, let it not be, I love the Lord because He gave me a new job, He promoted me,’ every single moment of the day, Father Lord, I pray that my love for You will be ever fresh, that my love for You will be ever fervent. So shall it be in the mighty name of Jesus.
We have a kingdom assignment we call the great commission as we were told, we are going to say Father, please let me not fail in my duty and my responsibility on kingdom assignment. I have an obligation, it is a commandment, it is compulsory, Father Lord, please let me not fail in my responsibility, in my obligation, help me to do that which You have commanded me. I do not have an option, it is not a choice, Father Lord, help me, I will not fail in my kingdom assignment. So shall it be in the mighty name of Jesus.
We are going to say Father, please let me be fruitful both spiritually and materially. Father, let me be fruitful, let me not be thrown away, let me not be discarded, let me not wander out of Your presence. Father, please let me be fruitful, Father, help me to be fruitful, so shall it be in the mighty name of Jesus.
Before we make the altar call, as we approach His throne of grace and mercy, whatever personal petition we have this morning as concerning loving God firstly, can we please whisper it into God’s ears now because He’s ready and positioned to meet us at every point of our need. [Prayers] And so shall it be in the mighty name of Jesus. Our prayers will become testimonies in Jesus name.
Is there any one of us right now who has taken that decision that I have to reposition myself, I have to alter my program, I have to change the way I’m working, I want to love God firstly, if there’s anyone amongst us right now who wants to
[Altar call]
Father Lord in the name of Jesus, we honor You Lord, we appreciate You, we bless Your name, we thank You for Your word which You have brought forth this morning, Father Lord, should there be anything that we have been doing that is not demonstrating this love for You, please reposition us from this morning in the mighty name of Jesus.
Help us to be able to stand in the place of prayer, in the place of service, in the place of praise, in the place of thanksgiving, no matter what in the mighty name of Jesus. And Father, we pray more importantly that for every one of us, for His church as a whole, none of us will fail to reign and rule with Him in eternity. So shall it be in the mighty name of Jesus. Praise the Lord!
