Increase Your Love for Christ By Concentrating On His Love for You!

"There is nothing you can to do make God love you more! There is nothing you can do to make God love you less! His love is Unconditional, Impartial, Everlasting, Infinite, Perfect!"   -Richard C. Halverson. 

Someone once said, “The greatness of a soul is determined by what it loves most.”  If becoming a great soul, becoming a great saint, and being greatly used by God are dependent on great love for Christ, then this becomes a vital question: "How can we increase our love for Christ?"  I like to think that the Bible gives us a clue when it says in 1 John 4:19, “We love, because He first loved us.” That is, we will not be able to increase our love for Christ by focusing on our feelings for Him, but by concentrating on His love for us and His goodness to us.

In today's message, I want to help you become a greater soul by increasing your love for Jesus Christ. To do that, I want to show you five wonderful things Christ does for believers. You'll need to open your Bibles and turn to Ephesians 5:22. Throughout Ephesians 5:22-33, which is a passage on marriage, Paul the apostle intertwines teaching about a man’s relationship to his wife, with teaching about the church’s relationship to Christ. He uses our relationship with Christ to illustrate how husbands and wives should relate to one another.

In the process the Holy Spirit reveals some precious truths about the wonderful things Christ does for believers. First, Christ leads you (Ephesians 5:22-24; Hebrews 13:17). “Head,” as used here, is a figure of speech which means authority or leader. Your head has the authority to lead your body through life. Without signals from your head your hands can’t move, your legs can’t walk, your mouth can’t talk. Your body doesn't know how to take care of itself and what to do without instructions from your head.

In the same way, Christ, as our spiritual “head”, gives leadership, to the members of His body. We badly need Christ our head to lead us through life. As our head, Jesus is constantly giving us signals, leading us where He want’s us to go. How does Christ lead you into His will? There are several ways He does this, but I’ll give you three important ones. He leads us: 1) Through His word (Psalm 119:105); 2) Through spiritual leaders (Hebrews 13:7); 3) Through giving us godly desires (Psalm 37:4).

The second precious truth is: Christ loves you (Ephesians 5:25). It is a terrible thing to feel unloved. Christ’s love for you is so great that it prompted Him to die for you! And, Christ wants you to feel His intense love for you (Philippians 2:1,2). The third truth is: Christ sanctifies you (Ephesians 5:25-27; Romans 5:8; John 13:17). Christ died for our church so that He might give us new life and begin the process of making us holy (Ephesians 5:26a). Christ’s purpose in dying for us was to cleanse us initially in giving us a new nature and then to sanctify us.

He loves us too much to leave us in our sin. He will always work to make you a more godly Christian. And, he will bring suffering into your life if necessary to accomplish His great purpose. Christ knows that the holier you are, the happier you will be (John 13:17). Christ’s ultimate purpose in dying for us is to someday present us to Himself holy and blameless in heaven (Ephesians 5:27).

The fourth truth is: Christ nourishes you (Ephesians 5:28-30; 1 Corinthians 12:27). To nourish means to provide the food and other necessities of life and health. Jesus Christ constantly provides you with all the resources you need to be a strong and healthy Christian. Christ also constantly provides you with all the resources you need for life on earth. He does this because we are members of His own body. Christ nourishes us because when He does so, He is merely taking care of His own body! In the same way, Christ can never hate you, or me because we are literally members of His own body!

The fifth, and final truth I will talk about today is: Christ cherishes you (Ephesians 5:29,30; 1 Thessalonians 2:7). To cherish means to tenderly care for someone. Its literal meaning is “to keep warm”. Then it came to have the figurative idea of giving tender care and loving protection to someone who is dear to you. The same Greek word is used in 1 Thessalonians 2:7 of a nursing mother tenderly caring for own babies.

This is the kind of tender care God’s word says that Jesus Christ is giving to you and to me. We need Jesus’ cherishing protection because living the Christian life can be hard, and living on this earth is dangerous, and we are weak and dependent. But, we can be sure that Jesus is with us constantly, providing tender care.

In closing today's message, if you want to love Christ more, the best way to grow in your love for Him is to meditate on the wonderful things He does for you all the time. And remember, because we are members of Christ’s body, He does five wonderful things for us:

• Christ leads us.
• Christ loves us.
• Christ sanctifies us.
• Christ nourishes us.
• Christ cherishes us.

Christ cherishes and protects us because we are His own body. Christ could never ignore the needs of a member of His own body. You are precious to Christ as part of His very own body; so you can be sure Christ will always tenderly guard you and watch over you.

Scripture: Isaiah 41:13; 1 John 4:10; Romans 5:8; Jeremiah 31:3; 1 Corinthians 13:13; Psalm 103:11; Malachi 3:17 

Prayer: Dear Lord, please help me remember that one's mission in life is not to try and out do others, but to push and out do ourselves. 

-special thanks to Rod Rogers

Have a blessed day!

Cara