Follow After HIS Heart*

This weekend we will see the Super Bowl, and then Valentine's Day coming right afterward. Many love football and wait all year for the Super Bowl to be played. Many love the idea of Valentine's Day, and its romantic theme. The first mention of "love" in the Bible comes in Gen. 27:3-4. Isaac tells his son, Esau, to go hunt some venison, "And make me savory meat, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat; that my soul may bless thee before I die." As we can see, love can be for anything. Scripture says, for example, that the love of money is the root of all evil. Rather than what the world loves, however, we will read about how God views and lives love, and the wonderful work He did for us through that love: "Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and everyone that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God towards us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another." (1 Jn. 4:7-11). John also wrote that because God lives in us, His love is perfected in us. He dwells in us, and we in Him because He has given us His Spirit. It is because of this presence and perfecting of His love and Spirit in us, we can face His judgment, not in fear, but in boldness. In that love of God, and His dwelling in us, we are assured that "As He is, so are we in this world." (v. 13-17). We can confess Jesus Christ as the Son of God only because our God, who is love, dwells in us (v. 15-16). Because of this same love that dwells in us, we must love our brother. If we claim to love God, but we hate our brother, we are a liar (v. 20-21). In the world today, there is ethnic and racial hatred, even among those who claim to know Christ. This is not the love of God in us. This is how we know that the love of God is in us: "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous...whosoever keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him." (1 Jn. 5:2-3, 2:5). What does the Word of God command us? Jesus, when asked by one of those questioning Him, 'What is the first commandment?', answered, "The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these." (Mk. 12:28-31). The two greatest commandments are built upon love. We don't see a lot of love for God or for our neighbor today. Again here we see the necessary connection between the Holy Spirit in us, and the operation of love: "And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly...But God commanded his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Rom. 5:5-6). God loved the unlovable enough to die in our place. This was the beginning of salvation. Do we love the unlovable in the same manner? There are those who in near death experiences have seen and experienced hell, but they were brought back by God and given a second chance. We were already walking in the death of trespasses and sin, according to the ways of the world, which is ruled by the prince of the power of the air (Satan). We lived by the lusts of our flesh and of the mind, being children of wrath and disobedience. However "...God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened (meaning made alive) us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus..." (Eph. 2:1-6). It is already done! And it was done for us through the salvation work of His love. We were dead and condemned in our sins, submitted to Satan's rule, but now we are made alive, and seated in heaven in Christ. There is a spiritual Super Bowl between the power of darkness, and the Kingdom of Heaven, but God has already won that battle for our souls, and He did it with love - not just love, but great love. Valentine's Day is represented by red hearts, but the Prophet Jeremiah said that the heart is deceitful above all things. However, there is a heart that represents the love of God in us. God called David, "a man after My own heart". This is the kind of heart that stands before God forever. What kind of heart did David have that God recognized as His own heart? David had a heart that loved God above all else. When he sinned, David turned to God praying that God would cleanse him, restore him, and renew a right spirit within him. He prayed that God would not take His Holy Spirit away from David (see Psalm 51). David said that the sacrifices that God is looking for in him, and in us, are "a broken spirit, and a broken and a contrite heart". A heart that loves God, and has God's love in it, is a heart of repentance (see also 2 Chron. 7:14). Repentance and prayer, not violence as we see today even among believers, will cause God to hear us and heal our land. David also said that his lips, tongue and mouth show forth God's praise and righteousness (v. 14-15). Are these the things coming from our mouths? What is our conversation and behavior like? Is the love of God in them? James wrote that God begat us with His Word of truth, so that we would be a kind of firstfruits among His creation. Because of this: "...let every man be swift to hear, slow to wrath: for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Wherefore, lay apart all filthiness and... naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves...But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein...being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain." (James Ch. 1). As the world waits for and follows after the Super Bowl and Valentine's Day, which are carnal, we follow after God's own heart of love. *Based on Dr. Kenneth E. Stevenson's 2/13/2022 message to the church. To contact us, submit a prayer request, give a praise report, or to support this ministry: P.O. Box 154221, Waco, TX, 76705 OR Everlastingcovenant@ymail.com. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, and endtimeschool.com.