I seek God. Every day. Some days more than others. These are typically the very good days or the very bad days.

Why?

It’s a legitimate question. If you are a secular humanist, you probably think me a little quaint and naive. If you are a Christian, you seek him too. But, did you ever ask yourself, why? Seeking God is not looking for an answer to an immediate physical need like food, water, shelter, or security. God is not a physically obvious goal. God is a spiritual destination. The need for God is not physical; but, the need is compelling. With the exception of a few committed secular humanists (I have known 2 in my lifetime), that need is almost universal. You feel it too. Where does it come from?

The first answer is that I sense a deficiency in myself. There is clearly something missing in me. I wake up and walk out into a world that I did not create. Things happen to me that I did not cause. I interact with people in ways that I do not control. I sense that I am a tiny component of a giant ecosystem, an ecosystem that is beyond my control, an ecosystem that will easily go on after my physical death. I am not in charge. That leaves two possibilities: it’s all a giant cosmic accident or there is a creative intelligence behind it. I’ve seen enough accidents to know that this world is not an accident. So, I seek the creative intelligence behind this world.

Nothing new here.

But, why Christianity? There are hundreds of other options.

First, Christianity teaches that there is a part of me that will live on after my physical death. This is a truth that I sense in my heart. This truth too is almost universal. It is incredibly rare to meet someone who believes that death is the end. Most religions include an afterlife. But, Christianity stands alone in one regard. It is exclusive. Christianity teaches that there is a paradise and the only criteria for admission is belief in Christ. Even worse, Christianity teaches that there is a literal burning hell for those who deny Christ. This exclusivity offends a great many people. Fair enough. But is that the right question? Instead of asking, “do I approve of exclusivity?” We should be asking, “is exclusivity true?” The teaching of Christianity fills the intellectual void in my world. Furthermore, it is safe, in that, unlike any other religion, it immunizes me from eternity in hell.

Second, I seek God because I love his plan for me. I love his justice and mercy. I love the fact that he promises to make it all right……in the end. I love the fact that he has prepared a place for me……a wide, open, spacious place. I seek God out of love.

Third, I fear God. God is the creator. He created me. He created our incredibly complex, interconnected ecosystem. He created eternity. He created paradise. But, God also created hell. According to Jesus, hell is not some kind of metaphor. It is a literal pit of fire and it is eternal. And that is a bad thing. So, who decides where your soul will spend eternity? It is not Satan. If Satan were the gatekeeper of hell, we would all be doomed. No, the decision on your eternity rests with God. Fear is an entirely appropriate response to an entity who can and will send you to hell. Christians try to dance around this issue. Pastors avoid it like the plague. It is clearly not popular. But, is it true? Jesus endorses hell. That is good enough for me.

I seek God, primarily in the Bible. I seek him because I love him, his justice, his mercy, and his promise of paradise. But, in the background, I seek God because I fear his threat of hell. I seek him because he fills a gaping intellectual void in my physical and spiritual life.

God, paradise, and eternity complete me. In my heart, I know this.

Nothing else does.

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Jesus explaining the way to God, John 14:6,ESV

“In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”

Jesus explaining paradise, John 14:2-3, ESV

‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’

Jesus describing the experience of a man in hell, Luke 16: 24-26, ESV

My Bible reading this morning includes 1 Corinthians 13. This has to be one of my favorite passages in the entire Bible. You’ve heard it many times. In it, Paul describes love in great detail and with great specificity. I’m not sure, but this passage was probably read when Cindy and I were being married.

Over the years, when I have read this passage, I have have always thought about Cindy and about our relationship. I have measured my performance as a husband and father against it. And I have often fallen short. No surprise there. But, this morning, I had an epiphany.

The overriding message of the Bible is that we are required to love. This passage tells us in detail how to go about it. So far, so good.

But, the greatest command in the Bible is not to love our spouse, though we must do that as well. The greatest command in the Bible is to love God.

Until this morning, I have never used 1 Corinthians 13 to measure my performance in loving God. And that is the challenge this week. I want us both to love God with a love that is consistent with Paul’s description.

Love is:

Patient
Kind
Not arrogant
Not rude
Doesn’t insist on having its own way
Not irritable
Not resentful
Doesn’t enjoy wrong
Seeks truth
Bears all misfortunes
Believes all things
Hopes
Endures
Never ends

I fear that I often fail to love God in the way Paul describes. No doubt you fail as well. So here is 1 Corinthians 13 as it applies to loving God:

I will be patient when I wait, perhaps for a lifetime, for God to answer a prayer.

I will be gentle and unassuming with God.

I will remember that I am the servant, not the sovereign.

I will treat God with respect…..and not misuse his name.

I will put God’s plan for me ahead of my plans.

I won’t gripe or be angry when God overrides my plan.

I will resist wrongdoing; mine, as well as others.

I will seek the truth, even when it is inconvenient

When things go wrong, I will trust God to make them right……in the end.

I will accept the word of God as truth, even when I don’t understand it.

I will live my life in the hope of seeing God, face to face, in paradise, no matter what goes wrong before l get there.

I will accept the reality of eternity as my true home.

It turns out that there is a lot more to loving God than I realized.

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

Paul, 1 Corinthians 13: 4-12, ESV

God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, Angels, Cherubim, Seraphim, Satan.

You get the idea.

But, have you ever met an eternal being…….face to face? Have you ever had a conversation with an eternal being?

You’d be surprised.

The fact is that everyone you meet is an eternal being. Our bodies will age and ultimately fail. But, our spirit is eternal. Every one of us is both a physical being and a spiritual being. Every one of us has a spiritual nature that is eternal. We put a lot of effort into taking care of our bodies…….and our body will still die. But, how much of our effort and our resources do we spend on our spirit?

Eternity is huge, in fact, endless. But our temporal, physical life is very brief……..figuratively, the blink of an eye. What, then, should be the focus of our efforts? Philosophers talk about ” the urgency of the immediate”. This is a very real thing. It is normal. The joys and problems that are right in front of us draw a great deal of our attention and effort. For most of us, the immediate gets the vast majority of our effort. For some of us, it gets the entirety. This is human nature.

But, is that distribution of effort wise? Is it right?

If our physical life is extremely short and our spiritual life is eternal……endless, shouldn’t most of our effort go into supporting our spirit? Perhaps, the amount of time and effort that we actually spend planning our day, our week, our career, our retirement is out of proportion to the amount of time and effort we should spend planning our spirit for its eternity. So far……so good.

But, there is another side to this coin.

What about the time and effort that we spend on the eternal beings who surround us? Is it possible that our neglect of the thousands of eternal spirits around us is just as big of a problem as our neglect of our own spirit?

Every one of these spirits is important to God. Every one of these spirits is loved and valued by God equally. God loves and values the drug dealers and the human traffickers just as much as he loves and values me.

Let that sink in.

It sheds an entirely new light on the issue of evangelism.

I probably won’t bake up a batch of brownies and take it and a Bible to my local gang-banger. But, maybe I can spend a little more effort in praying for them…….in loving them.

Consider this:

A minute praying for and loving a gang-banger could do as much to promote God’s kingdom as a minute praying for your pastor.

Or

You could pray for and love someone in the periphery of your world who is a real, first class, gold plated jerk.

Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Jesus explaining love in the sermon on the mount, Matthew 5:44-48, ESV

First, let me get one thing clear.

I am not a fan…….of New York City.

Sure, it has a lot of great theaters and museums. But, it is noisy, dirty, crime-ridden, and way too full of people, many of whom are just not nice. I’d rather spend a day in my backyard.

Now, imagine that you are sitting down to breakfast with your 12 year old son. Jesus appears to you. He tells you to take your son to Times Square……….and kill him.

That would never happen, you say. And yet, that is exactly what happened to Isaac. Isaac loved his son. He had plans for his son. He would do anything to protect his son. And then, God showed up with God’s plan for Isaac’s son.

Kill him.

Our plan……..God’s plan.

Things are just fine when the two plans agree. But, what about when they don’t agree? It all comes down to one simple question:”Who is in charge here?”

It all comes down to sovereignty, a word we don’t hear much in our modern society. Even worse, we don’t recognize its validity. We live in a secular humanist culture where we are at the top of the pyramid. We are sovereign. If someone tells us something. The very first thing that we ask ourselves is, “Do I agree with this…….. do I like this?”

What is the most hated thing that a child hears from his parent?

“Because I said so!”

What is a very common reply from the child?

“You are not the boss of me!”

Sovereignty…….who is in charge here.

Christianity says God is sovereign. Secular humanism says I am sovereign. We talk a good line about following God. But, what if God walked up to you and said, “Sell everything, go to Africa, and wait for further instructions.” What would you do? Your answer will define your understanding of sovereignty. Your answer will define your commitment to the sovereignty of God. Quite frankly, I find this terrifying. The “African scenario” drove me away from Christianity for decades. It drove me away from Jesus because I was not willing to relinquish my sovereignty to God. I was not willing to put God’s plan ahead of mine.

I still struggle with sovereignty. God is probably not going to ask you to kill your child. But, what if an illegal showed up at your door and asked for a place to stay for a night or two?

God is sovereign……..full stop…….end of conversation.

If…….when……he does something that we don’t like…..God is sovereign. If…….when……he asks us to do something that we don’t want to do……God is still sovereign. We need to get comfortable with this idea now.

We will spend eternity experiencing it.

All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?”

Daniel, 4:35, ESV

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Job, 1:21, ESV