A Relational Priority

Scripture: Psalm 122:1-2

I was glad when they said to me, "Let us go to the house of the LORD."  Our feet are standing Within your gates, O Jerusalem,

Insights: Yesterday in my sermon I focused and emphasized the concept of the phraseology of “let us go” and how it ought to be more like, “we will go to the house of the Lord again and again and again and again and again.”  After that I spoke a little about the expectations of one in love with another individual.  I then proceeded to explain our motive in a relationship to meet those expectations is love.  In other words, because we love the other person, we desire to please them.  This concept ought to be true of our relationship with the Lord as well.  We ought to obey and serve Him out of love and not some guilt driven obligation.  From this perspective understand that I now move to the other side of my mouth to speak about church expectations.  The church in our day has lowered its expectations so low that people just walk over the bar.  In other words, if you want to come to church, okay, then you will come.  If something better comes along, like sleeping in, then okay, you will do that also.  We do not have the same zeal and passion that David is communicating in Psalm 122 about being in a relationship with the Lord.  We keep dumbing down the gospel and wonder why the church is the way it is.  We then justify our decisions and say, “Things have changed and that (whatever that is) won’t work today.”  And in some aspects that statement is true.  We, however, have allowed it to step in and become the catch phrase for every decision that lowers the bar of what it means to be a true biblical disciple of Jesus.  It is for this reason that John Eldridge wrote Waking the Dead or David Platt wrote Radical or Francis Chan wrote Crazy Love or Kyle Idleman wrote Not a Fan or Marva Dawn wrote, Reaching Out without Dumbing Down and A Royal “Waste” of Time.  Beloved, we must not lower our standards of discipleship for the sake of crowds and convenience.  We must walk in obedience to the commands of the Lord Jesus and those commands will always push us outside of our comfort zone.  Let us rise up and faithful pursue Jesus with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength.  To God be the glory!

Questions:

1. Have you entered into a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ?
2. Are you excited to worship the Lord with the body of Christ?

Prayer: Father, help my heart today to seek You.  You are the only One that matters.  Let my love for You grow and grow and grow.  Let my excitement and zeal for You be the driving force behind every one of my decisions in life.  May my life bring You glory.  Amen.