Jilted

I really need to do these right away while they're fresh in my mind.

October 26 was a Friday.
We (my family) visited a church 45 minutes away because we knew of a preaching meeting going on there featuring (sounds weird to say featuring....it wasn't a production) Evangelist Sam Gipp, who is a family friend as well as an excellent preacher. I could listen to this guy all day.

The only problem is he's such a good story teller that I get so into it that I forget to write down what he's saying!

We'll do our best...
First he talked about radiators.
'Member those old clunky ones that take a year or two to warm up?
Now you've got these things that have motion detectors and only run when you come in the door, with lights and what not...Not how a radiator works.
Here's the thing. The radiator does just that. It radiates heat whether you're in the room or not.
But when you enter the room you are now in a position to recieve the heat.
Kind of like God's love. It's not becuase of anything you've done.
If that was the case, then, when you do something unlovable, He would stop loving you.
But his love is just like that radiator; it just keeps doing what it naturally does.
Now go back to the radiator. What if you could take the heat going in all the degrees of a sphere and focus it on one point?
Now you have a laser: a serious cutting tool.
And what if you took all of God's love and focused it on one point?
That's some serious love.
Now keep that in mind and imagine a scenario.
Say you've got an old friend you haven't seen in a long time and then one day you happen to run into him with a lady on his arm.
Insert typical dialogue, i.e. "Hey, how ya doin'" etc.
In the conversation he introduces the lady as his fiance and tells you they're getting married in three months.
Insert typical dialogue, i.e. "Congrats" etc.
Three months later you see the buddy again, and ask him how he likes married life.
"Oh," he responds, " I didn't get married. She just decided she didn't want to be tied down yetwith marriage.. She wanted to have a career and all that."
They call that jilted.
 A year or two later you see the same guy again with another lady on his arm.
 "This is my fiance! We're getting married next month. Now I'm glad the other one left because THIS is the right one!"

Later on you bump into a mutual friend of yours and ask him how the wedding went.
"Oh, you didn't hear? She left him for somebody else."
Man. Gotta feel for this guy.
Especially when you 6 months later you hear a repeat of the whole thing!
This guys was THREE TIMES JILTED.
What's the problem?? He's just looking for someone to focus his love on someone. And he was jilted 3 times.

Now look at Genesis 2:7
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

This is impressive!
All the rest of the universe was spoken into existence.
Genesis 2:8 And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
 He went and PLANTED a garden for man. Not spoke, planted. Didn't have to do that.
 God actually got down in the dirt and FORMED us!

And then he sent his only begotten Son for us dirtballs!
And there he had the focus of his love.
To show his love he:
Gave him the perfect environment.
Genesis 2:15 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
Gave him a job.
Genesis 2:18-19 And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
 And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
Gave him a helpmeet.
Genesis 2:20-24 And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

Also gave him an eternal reign.
Adam is the son of God.
Luke 3:38 Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.
He had fellowship with him.
All this to show his love and what did Adam do in return?
1. Rejected his rule

When you tell a kid what not to do, what do they automatically want to do?
what are teenagers always complaining about?  too many rules.

When Adam rejected this rule he lost the throne he was gonna sit on
lost the fellowship

rejected God's plan
Rejected his fellowship

And then blamed all his problems on God!

Did God have this coming? We all know he didn't. he's perfect.
He did nothing to deserve this.
So it would understandable if he gave up and quit.
But he didn't. He decided to give it another try.

Genesis 12:1-3 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
That's a lot of blessing!
So next he tried to focus his love on Abraham or Israel.
Gave them his blessing
Gave them his protection (know how we know that? they're still here. Miracle!)
Gave them his law (wrote the 10 commandments TO Israel. first time God communicated to man IN WRITING)
Gave them his prophets.
Gave them his written word. (Torah/ old testament) all for them. Specifically to that nation and no other.
Gave them a history of miracles. (Against All Odds- great documentary)
In return,
They rejected his rule (they had a theocracy, and they wanted a monarchy like everybody else).
Rejected his plan (Reuben, Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh wanted tostay on the far side of the Jordan even though the Promised Land was in sight.)
Rejected his fellowship (they went to false gods)and gave the credit of his miracles to idols. This made them worse than the heathen.
And yet he was wiling to give it a third try:

2 Corinthians 11:2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
3. Whosoever will. He didn't pick anybody. Instead he said he'd focus it on anyone who wants it. Now all you have to do is choose it!
Gave us a future meant for someone else (your future is part of a divine plan B)
Gave us our own testament
Gave us a home in heaven
Gave US a chance to reign with him.
Gave us HIS SON.
And what are you doing in return, to show YOUR love for HIM?

All this time I was agreeing with everything he said, and enjoying listening to him with out ever applying anything to myself or realizing that I needed to.
God was/is being jilted three times. Does he deserve any of it? Of course not!!
Does he deserve to be treated the way I treat him?
Too "shy" to speak up for him. Or too proud...
Too lazy to spend much for him. If the day is 24 hours long, I don't even tithe when it comes to time, let alone sacrificial giving.
And I realized that I had a problem with self-righteousness.
That the good stuff I'm doing now for the Lord is so much LESS than he deserves.
I was suddenly struck with the immense debt I owe that I can never repay, and with the thought that I'm not even hardly trying.
Talk about a challenge...

Now I summarized the sermon to give you a basic idea, but if you would like to listen to the full audio sermon ( I highly recommend you do so) comment with your email and I'll send you the file.
Wait till you have a good hour and a half to sit down and listen.
And reflect.