Two in just a few minutes. Okay. Alright. But before we get to the message, I want to this chorus to the song Ian just sang, I wanna read the words to you. It says, I know God makes no mistakes.

He leads in every path I take along the way that's leading me to home. Though at times my heart would break, there's a purpose in every change he makes that others would see my life and know that God makes no mistakes. This I don't know if you can see it on the screen up here. Copyright 1981 by Kim Moore. Now that's a name you don't know.

Kim Moore was a student at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. She was preparing for her wedding and she got the call that her husband to be had just died in a car accident. Some time, I don't know if it was right after, but, she wrote the words to this song. I know God makes no mistakes. What a testimony.

Reminds me of It Is Well With My Soul and the story that goes with that. So many beautiful songs have been written from people's hearts who who had to go through terrible trials, but those trials brought them to a greater realization of how wonderful it is to know Jesus and that God doesn't make mistakes. He knows what he's doing and we need to trust him. We need to trust in the God who made us trust in the savior who loves us and died for us. It is about a person, not just a doctrine.

And that's what I wanna spend some time on this morning, is to talk about relationship that we are to have with a person. Because I'm afraid all too often, Christianity becomes more about a doctrine, a conviction, a teaching, and not about person, but the Christian life, our salvation, everything. It's all about a person, not just a doctrine. And so, we're looking at a few passage of scriptures to remind us about that and I pray that you will consider as we do. Do you treat Jesus more like a doctrine or you treat Jesus more like a person?

And I think if we'll treat him more like a person, then it will make a profound difference in our life. Revelation three twenty, Jesus said, behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open that door, I will come into him and will sup with him and he with me. Let's go to the Lord in prayer once more. Lord, thank you for this time.

Thank you for the opportunity together here in the fellowship with one another and with you today. Lord, I pray as your word goes forth that you would direct. I pray, Lord, that you would work in our hearts, that you would open up our minds, Lord, that you would, help us to see your love for us, who you are, and that we might take this opportunity to be drawn closer to you today, not in our doctrine so much as in our relationship with the person Jesus Christ. Thank you. And Lord, may you be glorified in all that's said and done in this service.

In Jesus' name we do pray. Amen. In Revelation three twenty, Jesus is talking as a person. And he says, as a person, I stand at your door and what? Knock.

Knock. Why? Because I want to talk with you, Because I want to fellowship with you. Because I want to have relationship with you. That's who Jesus is.

He wants to have a relationship. He wants to talk. He wants to to fellowship with his creation and with those for whom he died. And so he stands at the door of our life and he says, will you let me in? I want to get to know you and I want you to get to know me.

This passage along with many others declares the personhood of Christ and his desire to fellowship with you today. He says, come on to me and I will give you rest. He says, he that abideth in me the same bringeth forth much fruit. He says, he that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. Those words are not spoken from a doctrinal dissertation.

They're spoken from the heart of a person who is pleading with us to get to know him, to let him into our life, to treat him not as a religion and not as a doctrine, but as a person. To so many people today, Jesus is a doctrine in which one must believe but not a person to fellowship with or a person to love or to serve or to follow. The gospel is not a formula or a set of beliefs, but the good news that Jesus came and died for sinners, then rose again and offers thereby to deliver us whom he loves from sin and hell. If we will trust him with our soul. If we will choose him as our Lord.

It's about our relationship with God and with the person Jesus Christ. The Christian faith is not so much a set of doctrines which we agree to, though that's how sometimes we often treat it. It is not a list of rules that we follow, though that's oftentimes the way people think about it, particularly those outside the faith. It is faith in a what's the keyword today? Person.

Faith in a person whom we love, whom we trust and serve each day. That's the Christian life. Faith in a person whom we love. A person whom we trust, and a person whom we serve. I don't serve a list of rules.

I serve a person that loves me and that I can trust. A person we can grow to love more and trust more each day like we would any other relationship with a person. A person we can talk to. A person we can learn from. In this case, by reading his what?

His words. Again, don't think of this just as a book of doctrines. This is his word. Expresses his love. This is his communication with us, the God of heaven and the savior of mankind.

A person who will lead us by his spirit if we will yield ourselves and listen to him. Look if you would, or up here you can look, Micah six eight says this. Micah boils down the Christian life, the life of faith, wasn't called the Christian life in the Old Testament, but he boils it down to this. He has showed the old man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee? What does God desire of you whom he made, whom he loves?

But to do justly, in other words, to do good, to do right, to love mercy, to be a people of what? Compassion. To do justly, to love mercy, and to what? To walk humbly with thy God. Not just to follow rules, not just to have the right doctrines, but to walk day by day, hand in hand in fellowship humbly with the God of heaven.

Humbly, I say, because the God of heaven for some reason wants to walk with me and wants to walk with you. That is humbling. But that is what God desires. Walking with God is an action you do with a person. It reveals to us what God expects and desires and deserves and that is for people who will talk to him.

A people who will listen to him. A people who will serve him and who enjoy fellowship with him. Jesus the person, not just Jesus the belief. Revelation chapter two, if you turn there, John writes to in Revelation two to several churches in what today is Turkey. Back then, it was called Asia Minor.

First church that he wrote to is the Church of Ephesus. We've been talking about in our in our Thursday Bible study the last couple of weeks. It was a place where Paul went and helped to start a church, the church of Ephesus. Decades later, John writes that church here as he begins the book of Revelation. Under the angel of the church of Ephesus write, these things sayeth he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks.

That person by the way, it is described there without getting into too much detail today is Jesus. Okay? Jesus is speaking. Verse one, I know thy works and thy labor and thy patience and how thou canst not bear them which are evil. And thou hast tried them which say they are apostles and are not and has found them liars and has borne and has patience and for my name's sake has labored and has not fainted.

Boy, that sounds really good. God, Jesus has all of these nice things to say about this church. In verse six, if you look, but this thou hast that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans which I also hate, that was a group of false teachers. He also says here in verse six. So several good things about the church at Ephesus.

However, there is something that is of concern. Verse four. Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first, what? Love. Nevertheless, I have somewhat something against thee.

There is a problem. You have left your first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works or else I will come into thee quickly and will remove thy candlestick out of his place except thou repent. Does that sound like it's a big deal? Yeah.

God says, remember, repent, come back to me or else I will remove your candlestick. Candlestick represents the testimony of their church in that area. Testimony that God needed, but a testimony they would lose if they couldn't see the error of their way and they didn't come back to their first love. What love had diminished or fallen off for the Ephesians? What was John talking about when he said you've left your first love?

Well, apparently, it wasn't taking a stand for accurate doctrine for they were praised for doing that. Apparently, it wasn't their worth ethic or their lack of ministry for they were praised for doing that. So, what did John mean? What love was lacking? Well, I think the word first is an indication.

Who should be first in the life of every Christian? Jesus. He put us first when he died for us on the cross. What was the problem? Problem was their love for Christ.

Not their staying true to the doctrine of Christ, not their busyness and working and ministering for Christ, but their fellowship, their relationship, their love for Christ. Their love for Christ meaning the time they spent with him, the closeness that they shared with him, and the loyalty they felt for him. Because he isn't just the doctrine. He is a what? He's a person.

He's a person. Their love for Christ had grown cold. Their relationship with Christ had grown distant. Not because Christ had left them for he had not, but because they weren't talking. They weren't spending time.

They weren't fellowshipping with him. And therefore, their their service to him became more rote and routine and not close and personal. Does this happen in other relationships? Yes, it does. It happens when friends stop talking to each other.

When spouses start getting so busy with other things that they don't have time for who? For each other. And as they spend time doing other things, and as they don't talk as much, their relationship begins to grow cold and to feel what? Distant. That's right.

Do Christians ever feel that way? Oh, yeah. Sometimes, we get comfortable feeling that way. Does God get comfortable? No.

Should we? No. We should not be satisfied with a distant relationship with God. And we should not leave our first love. We should not view Christ as a belief in a doctrine but not a what?

But not a person to love and to cherish and to fellowship with. Jesus is a person and a person who demonstrated incredible love for us, deserves our love in return, not just belief and obedience, but also what? But also love. This he deserves and this he desires. What does Jesus desire?

He desires your love. Deuteronomy six four and five says, hear, Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might. What does that tell us? That tells me this. God, and this by the way, was repeated by Jesus in the New Testament and he called it the what?

The first and the greatest commandment. The first and the greatest commandment. What is it that God desires most of all from you and from me? He desires our what? He tells us.

He wants our love. He wants a close relationship with us. He wants our love. Israel, when this was written, had spent forty years wandering in the wilderness because they didn't trust in the promise of God to deliver the Canaanites into their hands. The fear of the Canaanites overcame their what?

Their love and trust for who? For God. In the New Testament works, we're told this, perfect love casts out fear. Perfect love casts out fear. We hesitate to do what we need to do, what we know to do.

We become complacent because we fear stepping out. We fear for whom? For ourselves. But perfect love casts out fear. Why?

Because if I love the person enough, then my love for them will overcome my personal what? Fear for self. That's true in many relationship. It's also true with God. Do you love him enough to step out in faith and face your fears, to confess your sins, to deal with your sin, to say yes to what he is asking?

Or does fear win because your love is not what? Because your love is not strong enough. That's what happened to Israel. Their love was not strong enough. Their love and trust in God was not great enough and so therefore, they turned and ran in fear.

And forty years they wandered in the wilderness. And now, a new generation is coming to the borders of Canaan. They're at Mount Nebo on the other side of the Jordan River and what is one of the first things Moses says to them as he begins to recite the law for the second generation is this, here is what God wants from you. He wants you to love him and he wants you to teach your children to do the same. That's what God wants.

That's what he desires from you. Because if you love him and you cheat your children to love him, then all the other things will take care of themselves. But if you don't love him, if he doesn't have first place in your heart, if your relationship is distant, then you're gonna have trouble keeping his commandments, doing what he says, trusting him if you're not close to him. That's what Moses is telling them. God desires their love.

God desires whose love? Our love. That's what God wants most of all. God demonstrated his love when he sent his son to die on the cross for our sins. Are you demonstrating yours?

Is it there to be demonstrated? Is our Christian life about a growing relationship with a person we love or just the doctrine we believe in? And trust me, your Christian life is gonna be much different based upon the answer to that question. If it's just about a doctrine, if it's just about rules, then you're gonna have a very, very difficult time being motivated. But if it's about a person you love, then that makes a difference.

I do many things for my wife that I don't do for anybody else because I love her more than most everybody else. That helps. It helps in our relationship with God too. He desires for us to spend time with him, to talk with him, to please him, to stand up for him, to listen to him, to trust him. Person.

He desire his desires are reflected in ours. Do you not desire for someone to spend time with you, to talk with you, to stand up for you, to be there for you, to listen to you, to trust you. We were created in his what? Image. And as we have these desires, so does he.

And we need to share those desires with him. We need to practice those desires in our walk with him. He desires our love. Secondly, this morning, he what? He deserves our love.

First John four nineteen says, we love him because he what? First of love loved us. It is God who demonstrated his love by the sacrifice of his son. But God commended or demonstrated his love for us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. When we were unlovable, he loved us.

When we couldn't do anything to fix us, he sent his son to earth to do for us that which we could not do for ourselves. More than anything, Jesus deserves and desires our love and loyalty. Service, yes, but out of a heart of love and close fellowship and trust in a person. Yes, the just shall live by faith, but faith that grows into love and friendship. Are you friends with Jesus?

Yes, he is your Lord. Yes, he is your creator, but he wants to be your friend. If you had to list your friends on a piece of paper, would you put down Jesus? If not, consider this, maybe we're treating Jesus more like a doctrine and not a person. Not only does he deserve our love and our friendship and our loyalty who has forgiven us all our sins, But he also deserves as a person our trust.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean on into your own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. He desires as a person your trust. He desires that you trust him.

That as he speaks with you and as he guides you and as he loves and teaches you, that as a person, not just as a doctrine, not just as a a list of rules on a piece of paper, but as a friend and a confidant and an advisor that you listen and you trust him. When he asks you to do this that you say, yes, because I what? Because I trust you. This was the situation with Joshua. He took over after Moses went off the scene.

He led them into the promised land. And he was looking at Jericho thinking, what am I going to do with this walled city, with these chariots, with these great army? They're far more advanced than their weaponry. They have a a wall that is impenetrable. Jesus came to Joshua, the captain of the hosts of the army of the Lord and said to Joshua, here's what you do.

You go and you tell the people to walk around the city once a a day for six days and on the seventh to walk around at seven times, you shout praise at the end of it and the walls will what? They'll fall down and I'll give you the city. Joshua believed, trusted, followed, not a revelation on a piece of paper, but the words of his friend and his Lord and his advisor, his maker, and he did what God said to do. He trusted him. Do you trust Jesus?

Do you trust the person who gave his life for you? Do you trust the person who knows what is around the bend? Do you trust the person who has promised never to leave you nor forsake you? Will you let him guide you? He says, if you love me, keep my commandments.

What does that mean? Means this, Jesus says, if you love me, me the person, trust me and do what I say. When we were kids, our parents would ask us to do this and do that or tell us don't go here and don't go there and don't do that. Our extent of obedience often had something to do with our amount of trust that we put in them. And sometimes as kids, it wasn't nearly as great as it should have been.

The more distant our relationship with our parents, the less likely for us to do what? For us to trust and keep their commandments. The closer our relationship with our parents, the more likely we were to listen to what they had to say. Is the same not true in the Christian life? The more distant you are from Jesus, the less likely you are to what?

To trust him. The closer you are to Jesus, the more likely you are to what? To love and trust him. That's right. He deserves your love.

He deserves your trust. He deserves your what? Your service. Your service. Second Corinthians five fourteen and fifteen.

Paul writes, for the love of Christ constraineth us, moves us on, moves us forward because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead. And that he died for all that we that that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again. Again, how was Paul treating Jesus? He's treating Jesus not as a doctrine on a piece of paper. He's treating Jesus as a person.

A person who he loves, a person who loved him, a person he desires to please and to serve. Paul here declares that it is his love that his love for Christ results from Christ's love, mercy, and grace shown him. And it is that love for Christ that pushes him what? Forward. That causes him to get up the next morning.

That causes him to step out in trust and encourage to share the gospel in the face, in Paul's case, in the face of grave danger time and time and time again. Why did he do it? Was it because it was a cause? Was it because it was a religion? Was it his doctrine?

Or was it his relationship with who? Jesus. What was it? It was his relationship with Jesus. It was his love for Christ, that closeness that started on the road to Damascus.

When a loving God reached down from heaven and stopped him dead in his tracks, who was headed for an eternity in the hottest place in hell, God stopped him. God told him of his love. God showed him and God changed his life and God changed his eternity. God gave him another chance. And every day, that person whom he met on the road to Damascus, that person who spoke to him from heaven, that person and his love compelled Paul to get up and go the next day, to share that love with other people.

First Corinthians thirteen thirteen, Paul wrote this, and now abideth faith, hope, charity these three, but the greatest of these is charity. What's the word charity mean? Love. If you have a newer translation in English, it reads, now abideth faith, hope, and love. The greatest of these is love.

The greatest of these is love. Faith provides us with the opportunity to know the love of who? The love of Jesus Christ, to enter into that love through faith. Hope hope is faith in that which is to come. But one day we won't need faith because we'll see him what?

Face to face. One way one day we won't need hope because we will be in heaven. But we'll always need what? We'll always need love And love, love you Lord your God with all your heart and your soul and your mind. That is the first and greatest commandment Because God, Jesus, he needs your faith, but he wants your love.

And what a difference it will make in your life and mine if we'll follow our faith up with love. What did you do yesterday to demonstrate your love for Christ? Maybe I could ask you, what did you do yesterday to demonstrate your love for your spouse or last week? Hopefully, you did something if you have a spouse. How about God?

What did you do yesterday? What will you do today to demonstrate your love for Christ? To draw closer to him, to treat him as a person, to think of him as a person. Do you really love him as a person? Or have you kind of fallen into the same trap as the Ephesians, treating him as a job or a duty or merely a doctrine?

What does your heart say? What do your actions show? Have you lost your first love? And I think to a degree that is true for many of us. The day we came to Christ to give be saved, we came to Christ as a person who loves us and would receive us if we would accept him and we did and we loved him for it.

But to too many of us, that love has grown cold. It's become about the list and the teachings and the and and there's nothing wrong with the doctrines, you need to know them. But don't forget about the what? The person behind it. The person who deserves your love today.

And if that has diminished, if you have left your first love, what does God say? He says, repent. Go back. Do the first works. Get to know me.

Spend time with me. Love me. Follow me. I'm here. Don't treat me like I'm not.

Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, thank you Lord for your word today and thank you for your love for us. Thank you for your patience with us. Thank you that you've promised you'll never leave us nor forsake us. Lord, forgive us for, in some measure, in our relationship and fellowship with you may be forsaking you, putting distance between us and you forgetting that you're a person who wants to spend time with us, who wants to help us, not just a a doctrine.

Lord, forgive us for putting other things in your place. Lord, help us to find that that love that's missing. Help us to think about the words, oh, how I love Jesus when we sing. And Lord, to spend time getting to love you more. Thank you.

We pray if there's one here today that hasn't experienced that love, They've yet to accept Christ, the person, as their Lord and savior. I pray that they would come. We could share with them today how they might be saved through faith in Jesus and know it. And Lord, the rest of us, may we consider our love and our relationship with you today and what we need to do to get it back where it needs to be. In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.