In Pursuit of His Love
/God’s love pursues His people. Throughout the pages of both the Old and New Testaments, we could hear or see the repeated theme: God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. When I want to understand God’s love, I look to Jesus. He is my example. I consider the visible representation of the God, and I consider how God’s love played out through Jesus’ life and actions, and the final act on the cross.
Offended/fall away
I consider how He came to His own but His own received Him not (JN 1;11). On the way, Jesus told them, “Tonight all of you will desert me. For the Scriptures say, ‘God will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’ (Matt 26:31).
1. The first thing that sticks out to me about God’s love revealed through Jesus is that: He just kept loving
if anyone ever had a right to be offended, hurt, harbor bitterness or be unforgiving, it was Jesus.
His own nation rejected Him. His own disciples forsook Him. According to earthly, human standards, He had a right. But He didn’t come to reveal earthly wisdom, which is sensual and devilish. He came to deliver the wisdom and knowledge of God’s love towards us, and how His love is to manifest in and through us:
John 13:34-35
34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. 35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
As the Lord was leading my prayer session yesterday, I found myself saying, “Lord, the reality of your existence and the power of your word becomes so clearly evident on earth, when I allow your word and will to work in me.”
Let’s talk about pain, heartache, rejection or offenses for a second: someone raped you, lied about you, cheated you. You have been mistreated and you been carrying a spirit of rejection around on you, but when you come into contact with the truth of the New Covenant and yield to the truth of God’s word that says that Christ is being formed in you through the power of the Holy Spirit. And you get out of your feelz, and you let your flesh be crucified, so that the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit can have its way in you. Now, you begin to receive your healing…
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.
When people wrong you, an offense wants to climb up in your heart and wants to sit in there and play around with you. It wants to fester like a boil. It wants to irritate you and it will, let me say it again, it will have an affect on your life. Let me say something as a Pastor, but with the mouth of a prophet… stop that!! Stop letting an offense embolden a spirit of rejection in you. Stop allowing bitterness in your heart come out of you to the point where you always feel like you have to defend yourself. Let the Holy Spirit heal you. Let the cross kill you! Let Christ be formed in you.
Because I can see Him hanging there with His body torn. He’s naked, He’s alone, His people helped put Him there. They scoff at Him, His disciples forsake Him, my sin causes the Father’s face to turn from Him, and there He bleeds and dies, and oh yeah-He saves one more, “today you will be with me in Paradise,” and He does what He wants me to do:
Luke 6:27-28. 1/2 of us can’t even love our own brothers and sisters
27 But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, 28 Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.
That’s my Jesus, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do!”
Let me let you in on a little secret Christian. If you don’t understand how the Holy Spirit works in crucifying your flesh so that the fruit of the Spirit can be produced in your life, you won’t even know to place your faith in the finished work of the Lord. Once you know that, if you refuse to yield to the process, you will just persist in the flesh, you won’t really help the kingdom of God, rather you will just walk around on this rock called earth helping the devil more than you are helping the Lord, and one day you will stand before God and give an account for how you refused to let Christ be formed in you:
That’s a good preacher, because I’m going to tell you right now, “I’m more concerned about the Holy Spirit’s feelings than I am yours.”
John 13:34-35
34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. 35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
2. The second thing about God’s love—how does His heart feel?
Like a lovesick husband (lovesick because He’s relentless, never mind whether she wants to be pursued- she’s His, and He doesn’t plan on letting her go), there He is every page you turn pursuing the love of His life.
And so many times when you turn the pages of this love story saga, you find His arms empty. His bride is elusive. He calls but she does not respond. He loves but she does not reciprocate. But He tries harder and harder and refuses to give up. So much so that sometimes she seems to pretend it’s a game. She imagines in her mind, I wonder how far I can go, and He will still have me? And maybe if I feel His presence less, I will come a little closer and make sure that He is still there, and then I feel Him again… Oh, there He is, and like a runaway bride, she starts again, chase me my love. This is so much fun…
He is so different than we are. He loves us even when we cheat, even when we reduce Him to last on our list. He pursues us until the day that we read and it enters our hearts:
Romans 2:4
…despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?
I can’t shake it out of my ears—the time, so long ago when I was praying, and He said to me, “What about me son? What about me and what I want?” Those words ring in my ears and even after hearing them, I have done the same, “Here I am Lord, come and get me…”
When I slow down long enough to think about my own life and His goodness towards me, I can’t help but say to Him, “Why Lord? Why do I do that to you? You’re so good to me! Help me Lord!”
I believe that God wants His people to know how His heart feels. I definitely believe that He wants His ministers to know how He feels. I believe thats one of the reasons that He gave us the book of Hosea.
Hosea 1:2-3
2 The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea. And the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the LORD. 3 So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; which conceived, and bare him a son.
She ends up having 3 children for him:
A son named Jezreel- God sows
And 2 daughters:
Loruhamah- no mercy— for I will have no more mercy upon the house of Israel; but I will utterly take them away v6
Loammi—not my people—for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God v9
That’s one of the things that breaks my heart. In that He loves so much; yet, He is so misunderstood. He gave us His Son. Jesus poured out His life for the world on the cross. He gave us the Spirit of Grace, but one day, He will say, No more mercy, no more time for me to pursue you with my love. The door is closed, entry denied. For you are not my people because you did not make me your God.
Go and take yourself a wife that will cheat on you Hosea because I need a prophet to feel what I feel, because I need a mouth to speak my heart to a people that keep breaking it.
He proves His love again…
Hosea 3:1-2
1 Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine. 2 So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley:
He purchased her back for the price of a slave. She had done to Hosea what God knew she would. She bore him children and then ran away like Israel did to God, and now, Hosea’s wife finds herself sold as a slave; for the price that was paid equals the 30 shekels required to purchase a slave. Her sin had caused her slavery, and God required that Hosea put God’s heart in his chest and go and purchase her back off the slave market of sin.
Most scholars agree that that a homer and a half of barley equals 15 shekels, so 15 shekels of barley plus 15 pieces of silver equaled 30 pieces of silver, which was the price of a slave.
Exodus 21:32
If the ox gores a male or female slave, the owner shall give his or her master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.
Isn’t that something Hosea paid the price of 30 pieces of silver to purchase back his wife and Jesus purchased His bride with His life, which was valued by the religious Pharisees at 30 pieces of silver— the price of a slave
What I’m saying is that this is what Jesus did for us. He purchased us out of the slavery of sin:
Matthew 20:28
Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.
Ransom— Lutron— the price for redeeming slaves and captives
Conclusion
Galatians 5:22
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
His love doesn’t look like ours
1 John 3:1-3
1 Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
Manner- potopos— pote when pou- where
An extremely literal translation of this word would be: when and where did this come from?
