Restoring Our Relationship with God: The Essence of Faith
Summary
In our spiritual journey, we often become preoccupied with the symptoms of our spiritual malaise rather than addressing the root cause: our relationship with God. Just as a disease manifests through various symptoms, our spiritual condition reveals itself through our actions and attitudes. However, the core issue is our tendency to forget and despise God, much like the Israelites who, despite witnessing God's miracles, grumbled and longed for the comforts of Egypt. This forgetfulness leads us to insult God's person, despise His will, and underestimate His power.
The greatest commandment, as Jesus taught, is to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. This commandment underscores the importance of our personal relationship with God over mere adherence to rules and regulations. We may be morally upright and religiously observant, yet if we lack a genuine love for God, we are missing the essence of faith. Our actions, no matter how virtuous, cannot substitute for a heartfelt relationship with our Creator.
Moreover, sin leads us to despise God's will, as we prioritize our desires over His divine plan. The Israelites' craving for flesh over manna symbolizes our own tendency to seek personal gratification rather than submitting to God's will. This arrogance blinds us to the blessings God has already provided and leads us to question His wisdom and provision.
We also often underestimate God's power, forgetting that He is the Creator and Sustainer of all things. The Israelites witnessed God's mighty acts, yet they doubted His ability to provide. Similarly, we may acknowledge God's power in theory but fail to trust Him in practice, especially when faced with challenges.
Finally, we must recognize God's hatred of sin. Sin is not merely a violation of rules but a fundamental rejection of God's holiness. God's wrath against sin is not a relic of the past but a present reality. He punishes sin, sometimes by allowing us to experience the consequences of our choices, leading to a life that is loathsome and unfulfilling.
Key Takeaways:
- Our spiritual condition is often masked by symptoms, but the root issue is our relationship with God. We must prioritize loving God with all our being, as this is the essence of faith. [17:14]
- Sin leads us to despise God's will, prioritizing our desires over His divine plan. This arrogance blinds us to the blessings God has already provided and leads us to question His wisdom and provision. [23:28]
- We often underestimate God's power, forgetting that He is the Creator and Sustainer of all things. Trusting in God's power requires us to remember His past faithfulness and rely on Him in our present circumstances. [36:40]
- God's hatred of sin is a present reality, not just a historical concept. Sin is a fundamental rejection of God's holiness, and He punishes it by allowing us to experience the consequences of our choices. [41:11]
- True repentance involves turning away from sin and towards God, acknowledging our need for His forgiveness and grace. In doing so, we find reconciliation and a new nature that seeks to glorify God. [49:26]
Youtube Chapters:
[00:00] - Welcome
[13:54] - Understanding Spiritual Symptoms
[15:19] - Forgetting and Despising God
[16:30] - The Greatest Commandment
[18:04] - Personal Relationship with God
[20:00] - Insulting God with Our Actions
[21:14] - The Essence of Sin
[23:11] - Despising God's Will
[26:10] - Substituting Our Will for God's
[28:07] - Surrendering to God's Will
[31:19] - Despising God's Power
[36:40] - The Folly of Sin
[41:11] - God's Hatred of Sin
[44:13] - Consequences of Sin
[46:02] - Modern World and Sin
[49:26] - Repentance and Reconciliation
Study Guide
Bible Study Discussion Guide
Bible Reading:
1. Deuteronomy 6:5 - "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength."
2. Numbers 11:1-10 - The Israelites' complaints and God's response.
3. Isaiah 40:15-17 - The greatness of God compared to the nations.
---
Observation Questions:
1. What were the Israelites' complaints in Numbers 11, and how did God respond to them? [40:38]
2. According to Deuteronomy 6:5, what is the greatest commandment, and how does it relate to our personal relationship with God? [17:14]
3. How does Isaiah 40:15-17 describe the power and majesty of God compared to the nations? [37:35]
4. In the sermon, what examples were given to illustrate how we might forget or despise God in our daily lives? [21:14]
---
Interpretation Questions:
1. How does the Israelites' longing for the comforts of Egypt reflect our own tendencies to prioritize personal desires over God's will? [23:28]
2. What does it mean to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and why is this considered the essence of faith? [17:14]
3. How can the story of the Israelites' forgetfulness and complaints serve as a warning for us today in trusting God's provision and power? [36:40]
4. What are the consequences of despising God's will and power, as illustrated in the sermon? [44:13]
---
Application Questions:
1. Reflect on a time when you prioritized your desires over God's will. What steps can you take to align your will with God's in the future? [23:28]
2. How can you cultivate a deeper love for God in your daily life, beyond just following rules and regulations? [17:14]
3. Identify an area in your life where you might be underestimating God's power. How can you begin to trust Him more in that area? [36:40]
4. Consider the ways you might be forgetting or neglecting God in your daily routine. What practical changes can you make to keep God at the center of your thoughts and actions? [21:14]
5. How do you respond to the idea that sin is a fundamental rejection of God's holiness? What changes can you make to turn away from sin and towards God? [41:11]
6. In what ways can you remind yourself of God's past faithfulness to strengthen your trust in Him during current challenges? [36:40]
7. How can you actively seek reconciliation with God and others, acknowledging your need for His forgiveness and grace? [49:26]
Devotional
I'm ready to provide the 5-day devotional.
Quotes
Our greatest sin, my friends, is that we forget God altogether. We just forget him and ignore him like these children of Israel as they marched on their way to Canaan. They were tired of this manna, they said. Now the thing we need is some flesh. They never stopped to think that it was God who brought them out and who was leading them and who had given them manna. God is forgotten. [00:15:47]
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy soul and all thy mind and all thy strength. This is the first and the greatest commandment. He didn't expect that, you see. These scribes and Pharisees and lawyers used to argue amongst themselves about particular rules and regulations, and he thought our Lord was going to pick out one of these. Our Lord doesn't. [00:17:04]
You may do this and not do that, and yet you may be insulting God because you've never really sought him. You just want to be a good man, you just want to be a moral man, you may want to be a religious man, but you can be all those and still despise the Lord who's amongst you. [00:18:11]
The vital question is, is my relationship to him one of love? Am I seeking him himself? Am I seeking a knowledge of him? Am I seeking to please him, or have I all got it on a lower plane in terms of some law or some morality or some concepts of my own? [00:20:35]
Sin not only leads us to despise the person of God, it equally leads men to despise the will of God. And here you see the arrogance of sin. That is what these particular people, the children of Israel, were doing at that juncture in their history, wasn't it? It was God's will patently that they should eat the manna. [00:23:11]
God has given the Ten Commandments. There they are, starting with himself and how we should worship him, telling us what we mustn't do, telling us to keep and to honor his day. Oh, not in a mechanical legalistic sense, but that we remember him and are thankful and grateful to him for having ordained that one day in seven we stop everything else and just give it to him. [00:24:48]
The trouble, I say, with every sinner is that he's a fool. He doesn't realize that he's pitting himself against the Lord God Almighty, the ruler of the ends of the Earth, the Creator, artificer, and sustainer of everything that is. His power, and here you see in this very chapter, God makes it perfectly plain and clear to them. [00:35:38]
God hates sin. God abominates sin, and God has made it perfectly plain and clear that he is going to punish sin. Sin is obnoxious in his sight, and he cannot look upon it. He can't dwell near it. God and sin are mutual incompatibilities. It's like light and darkness, and they'll never come together. [00:41:37]
God sometimes punishes sin by giving us so much of what we want that it comes out at our nostrils, and we hate it and loathe it. And I believe he's doing that to the modern world. They've been crying for liberties, liberty in the matter of sex, and they're getting it, and it's coming out at the nostrils, and it's loathsome and offensive and foul before our eyes. [00:44:42]
Turn to God in humble, simple repentance. Confess your sin, and you will hear him telling you that in order to forgive it, he has already punished it in the son of his love, the Lord Jesus Christ. If you have rarely seen the character and the nature of sin, you will be so horrified and so hating it in your heart and mind. [00:48:21]
He will give you an abundant welcome. He will assure you that your sins are forgiven, that he has reconciled you unto himself in his only begotten son who bore your sins in his own body on the tree, and he will give you a new nature which will hate sin and love God and seek only to glorify him and to do his most holy will. [00:49:48]
The greatest insult to the being and the glory in the person of God, yes, but they not only sin, not only leads us to despise the person of God, it equally leads men to despise the will of God. And here you see the arrogance of sin. That is what these particular people, the children of Israel, were doing at that juncture in their history, wasn't it? [00:23:11]
Chatbot
-
I'm an AI bot trained specifically on the sermon from May 25, 2017. Do you have any questions about it?