"Our Transforming Love"

I was just able to listen to the message I missed this past Sunday. (as soon as the messages are up, I will be sure to link them to my posts.) I think this was my favorite message Don preached so far. I thought I would put up a few quotes here. 

"Love is the soil from which all Christian character grows."

"If I could sum up my entire message in one line it would be; Love is the God given Gospel purchased engine of change in our lives."

"When love is planted and pursued, sin is starved, stifled and drowned by the goodness and the work and the fruitfulness of God's Love planted in our heart."

"Sin is starved by virtue of what we are pursuing in grace!"

"We are not called primarily to be preoccupied with the patterns of sin in our lives. We are called to be attentive to the progress of God's grace in our lives." 

"Not to grow lazy or lax in any sense, but to give our full attention, yes in a sense, to give an account of what God is doing, and in the process of what God is doing, there will be evidence of areas that there needs to be greater attention......"

It's the language of Hebrews 10:24

"We stand blameless before Christ, but there is still good stuff to be stirred up, but let's stir it up!!"

Hebrews 12:1&2 

Don shared a story of someone who said they were struggling to worship on Sunday(not here, in other contexts) and feeling not worthy or ready to worship......"where have we gotten those kinds of ideas from, that we grow worthy of worship rather than worship to grow. What do we need when we are down trodden and very aware of our sin? WE NEED A BIG VIEW OF GOD! We don't get ourselves ready for worship, we worship to get ourselves ready for life - we raise our eyes to The One who is Big Enough, Rich Enough, and Delightful Enough to get our attention and reshape our lives, from there we go out renewed aware of the worthiness we have in Christ. We don't grow so that we can worship, we worship so we can grow, and part of the problem is that so much of the spiritual instruction of our day points us to ourselves- the titiles of our books have "us" in them instead of God in them."

Then Don shares a quote from, C.S. Lewis' essay,  "Weight of Glory"

If you asked twenty good men today what they thought the highest of the virtues, nineteen of them would reply, Unselfishness. But if you had asked almost any of the great Christians of old, he would have replied, Love. You see what has happened? A negative term has been substituted for a positive, and this is of more than philological importance. The negative idea of Unselfisheness carries with it the suggestion not primarily of securing good things for others, but of going without them ourselves, as if our abstinence and not their happiness was the important point. I do not think this is the Christian virtue of Love. 

"We have become so self-absorbed in our spiritual pursuits we live in ourselves - we've been called to love, we've been called not to reflect deeply on what we need to change, not to reflect deeply on what's wrong, but to reflect deeply on what is available. To be amazed that the very love of God can be displayed and delivered a step further into other lives through our lives - that we can draw attention to Him and we can draw attention to others......."

"The expression of Christian fellowship shaped by love dynamically alters us.....it transforms us!!"

"Loving fellowship is not a duty or an obligation, it's a delightful expression of God himself in our lives - and it's a dramatic experience of growth because love covers a multitude of sins....."