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Do You Love Him? · Stornoway Free Church of Scotland - Sermons

• 0:00
  The psalm that we read together, Psalm 116.
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  I'm going to look at the whole of this psalm together.
• 0:06
  We'll just read at the beginning.
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  I love the Lord because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy.
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  Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
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  As you go through this psalm, you find the recurring theme of calling on the Lord
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  and praying to the Lord, crying out to the Lord, recurring again and again.
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  It's a reminder to us of the great blessing and privilege that there is
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  in having the Lord to be called upon, being able to come in prayer to God.
• 0:43
  But we can all acknowledge, I'm sure, there are times when maybe prayer is a struggle for us all.
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  A time when we find it hard to come to God in prayer.
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  Maybe we feel angry towards God.
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  We feel undeserving of God.
• 1:00
  We feel just a distance from God at times.
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  For a number of different reasons, we can find prayer a struggle at different times.
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  The words won't come.
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  We're easily distracted.
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  We start thinking about other things.
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  We fall out of the habit and the routine of coming regularly to God in prayer.
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  And it leads us to ask the question then, what can we do?
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  We know we're struggling.
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  We know maybe finding it hard.
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  What can we do about it?
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  How can we get back into that intimate bond with God?
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  How can we get back into that close relationship with him?
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  In coming to him regularly and lovingly and with great joy, coming to him in prayer.
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  Well, we have God's word.
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  And that is where we come to.
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  If we are struggling and finding prayer hard, we come to God.
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  We don't stay away feeling he won't want to hear us.
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  We don't stay away feeling we're not deserving of him.
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  We are to come to him.
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  And we are to come through his word.
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  Because his word, it brings us back to him in such an intimate way.
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  And especially in so often as you look at the Psalms, you find the Psalms help us once again to come and even just pray through the Psalms.
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  Reading the Psalms, we're reading them in a prayerful sense.
• 2:28
  And this Psalm that we've been reading together here, Psalm 116, it reminds us of that great relationship that the Psalmist had here with God.
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  Everything wasn't straightforward.
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  Everything wasn't perfect.
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  Things were hard for the Psalmist.
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  And yet the opening words of this Psalm reminds us of that great relationship and that great intimacy that every Christian has with the Lord.
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  I love the Lord.
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  I love the Lord because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy.
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  There's this wonderful reminder from the outset that God listens to his people as they pray.
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  And so as we come to God's word, if we're struggling ourselves to pray, as we read through this Psalm or other Psalms or other parts of Scripture,
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  we find that God's word begins to melt our hearts, reminds us maybe not so much of our love for him first, but of his love for us.
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  Of what a wonderful God we have.
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  And so if you find yourself in that situation, if you are in that situation, then come to a Psalm like this and read through it, meditate on it,
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  and not just be challenged by it, but be moved by it, by the love of God towards his people.
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  The first few words there, I love the Lord.
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  That's what we're going to focus on this evening, our love for the Lord.
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  And that question, do you love him?
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  Because the Psalmist is able to say here, he does.
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  And he goes on to expand on that by giving reasons why he does.
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  And that's why we want to look together at this evening.
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  Do you love the Lord?
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  And if you do love him, how much?
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  How much do you love him?
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  The gospel and the word of God, it often asks us these questions.
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  You find Jesus so often challenging crowds of people with deep and meaningful questions.
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  Not just those who are his followers, those who are close to him, but those who are his enemies.
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  He challenges them often with searching questions.
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  For example, in Matthew 22, verse 41.
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  There, Jesus is with a crowd of Pharisees, those who are antagonistic towards him.
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  And he asks them a searching question.
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  He says to them, what do you think about the Christ?
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  Whose son is he?
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  They're hearing so much about the Christ, the Messiah, but they don't realize he's there before them.
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  And so what does he say to them?
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  What do you think about the Christ?
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  It's not searching.
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  We think of that question for ourselves tonight.
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  What do you think about the Christ?
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  How would you answer that yourself?
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  Well, there's so many searching questions.
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  And this psalm highlights for us other searching questions too.
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  And there's three questions arising from this psalm that I want us to think about this evening.
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  The first question is, do you love him?
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  The second question is, why would you love him?
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  And the third question is, how can you love him?
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  So the first question we think about is, do you love him?
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  And when we think about coming to God in prayer and our struggle sometimes to come to God in prayer,
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  this is where we have to begin.
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  Do you love him?
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  When we feel a distance sometimes from God or an unworthiness of coming to God, ask yourself this, do you love him?
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  And when you think of that question, do you love him?
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  Is there a particular part of scripture it takes you to?
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  Or a particular individual it makes you maybe think about?
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  Well, it brings us to the New Testament and to Peter.
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  And when Jesus had risen from the grave and he appeared before Peter and he restored Peter,
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  but he restored him with this challenging question.
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  Do you love me?
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  Put yourself in Peter's shoes after all that he had been through, after all that he had seen, after denying the Lord Jesus.
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  And then Jesus, John 21, verse 15, it says,
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  When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?
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  And what was Peter's response?
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  He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you.
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  You know that I love you.
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  Now, to us, as we read these verses in John, we see the word love.
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  But when you read it in the Greek, there's two different words used.
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  When Jesus asks the question, do you love me?
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  He uses a word called agape.
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  And that's a deep, a deep, deep love.
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  A love that goes beyond any love that we can imagine.
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  It's a love that's rooted in God, rooted in Christ.
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  A love that's unconditioned.
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  A love that is no matter what.
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  That's what Jesus is asking him.
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  Simon, do you love me?
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  This agape love.
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  But what you notice with Peter is when he says, you know that I love you, he doesn't use the same word.
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  He uses the word phileo, which means like a love between friends.
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  A friendship love.
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  A close bond of love, but not with the same depth of this agape love that Jesus is asking him.
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  And Jesus asks him this question three times.
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  The second time he asks it in the same way.
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  Simon, do you love me?
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  With this agape love.
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  And Peter's response, the second time is the same.
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  You know I love you.
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  Phileo love.
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  A friendship.
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  A close love.
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  And the third time Jesus asks him, Simon, do you love me?
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  The third time he uses phileo.
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  This friendship love Jesus is asking about now.
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  And Peter replies that third time in the same way.
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  Lord, you know that I love you.
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  Phileo love.
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  It's almost like he doesn't quite have the depth of love that he knows he should.
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  Because of all that he's gone through.
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  Because of all that he experiences.
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  He almost can't come to say, Lord, I love you.
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  With this agape love, I've let you down.
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  I've failed you in so many ways.
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  But Jesus comes to him, seeking to restore him to that way.
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  And praying that you would come to love him with this agape.
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  This deep love.
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  Now, why do we go there?
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  Well, because in this psalm, the word used in that verse, verse one, I love the Lord, is agape.
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  This deep, rich, unconditional love.
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  And it's this love that the Lord wants his people to have.
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  To come more than phileo love.
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  This friendship love.
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  But to come to this depth of love.
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  To love God, no matter what.
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  To see our sins as they are.
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  But to know that he loves us.
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  And to say, I love, agape love, the Lord with all my heart.
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  Because he has heard my voice and my prayer.
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  And so that's the challenge for us in these opening words.
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  I love the Lord because he has heard my voice.
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  Now, there's no doubt Peter would have gone on to love the Lord in that way.
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  To love the Lord and serve him with all his heart.
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  And that's what Jesus was doing in restoring him.
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  Moving him on from just that close bond of relationship, of friendship, to this agape love.
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  And that's the love that as Christians we are to have towards him.
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  Because that's the love he has towards us.
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  And in the opening four verses, the reasons for the psalmist delight is clear for us.
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  He loves the Lord because he has heard his voice.
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  Am I pleased for mercy?
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  He inclined his ear to me.
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  Therefore, I will call on him as long as I live.
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  This relationship is there.
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  This depth of relationship is there.
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  And that's where we are to come to.
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  That's the Lord that we are to come to.
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  And we are struggling to pray.
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  To remind ourselves of what God has done for us.
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  The psalmist here is saying,
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  I love the Lord because he has heard me.
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  And I will call on him no matter what.
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  No matter what comes my way.
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  I will call on the Lord.
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  I will pray to him no matter what.
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  Because I love the Lord.
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  That is this depth of relationship.
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  So whatever our circumstances, this is the relationship we have with our Lord, with our Father.
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  That we can love him with his love because he has loved us with it.
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  So whether we are going through hardships or highs, whatever it is, we can enjoy this relationship with God.
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  And you just look through the Psalms.
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  You see it so often in the Psalms, the varying experience of the psalmist.
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  And so often as you're reading through the Psalms, whether it's challenging times or joyous times, the real heart of the matter, the question is the relationship with God.
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  And so whether the psalmist is angry with God and questioning God, or whether he's rejoicing in God, there is always this certainty, this surety that God is there.
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  And that's why we remind ourselves again and again, that God is with us.
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  David in the Psalms, for example, he so often shows how varying our emotions can be and our experiences can be.
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  And yet the constant nature of God.
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  Psalm 142, it speaks of David being surrounded by enemies.
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  And yet in verse 4, he says, look to the right and see, there is none who takes notice of me.
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  No refuge remains to me.
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  No one cares for my soul.
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  There's no one there for him.
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  But then verse 5 says, I cry to you, O Lord.
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  I say, you are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.
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  The Lord is with him.
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  Despite being surrounded by enemies, the Lord is with him.
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  In Psalm 18, which we sang together, that psalm is in the experience of David having been delivered from his enemies.
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  And he says there, I love you, O Lord, my strength.
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  The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
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  The Lord is there with him.
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  You see two differing experiences.
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  Enemy surrounding and everyone's deserted him, yet the Lord is with him.
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  In one instance, delivered from the enemy and rejoicing in God.
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  In the other, I love you, Lord, O Lord, my strength.
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  So whatever our circumstances, do we not have reason to rejoice in God?
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  Isaac Watts, he was a famous minister and a hymn writer.
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  And he had to leave the ministry in his late 30s due to ill health.
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  And he spent pretty much the rest of his days confined to house.
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  He couldn't serve the Lord in the same way as he had done.
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  And yet he was inspired to write various hymns over the years.
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  Five years after he left the ministry, he wrote the hymn, I Love the Lord.
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  And it's a paraphrase of Psalm 116.
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  And as him says this,
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  I love the Lord, he heard my cry and pitied every groan.
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  Long as I live and troubles rise, I've hasten to his throne.
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  I love the Lord who heard my cry and chased my grief away.
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  O let my heart no more despair while I have breath to pray.
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  Despite the situation and the circumstances of where he was and how his lot had changed so quickly,
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  he was still able to hasten to the throne, to pray while he had breath and to rejoice and say,
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  I love the Lord.
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  He heard my cry and pitied every groan.
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  So the question is, do you love the Lord?
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  Do you love that he hears your prayer?
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  And do you hasten to his throne?
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  That is where we are to come, to come to him.
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  Even if we are struggling to pray, to know that we love him because he first loved us.
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  The psalmist goes on here and he says to us, why would you love him?
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  And in verse 5 down to verse 11, he outlines for us various ways where we can delight in God and why we should love him.
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  And the first way is this.
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  Do we know who God is?
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  Do we know God as he is?
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  Gracious is the Lord and righteous.
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  Our God is merciful.
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  Look at the way he starts.
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  It's all about the Lord.
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  Gracious is the Lord.
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  Righteous and merciful.
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  As a reminder to us here, as we come to God, we remind ourselves who we are praying to.
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  The Lord is the one who is gracious.
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  The Lord is the one who is righteous.
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  Our God is merciful.
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  The Lord preserves the simple.
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  He is there for all.
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  So we begin by looking to God.
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  Reminding ourselves of who he is.
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  And again, it's a great reminder to ourselves as we pray to always begin with our focus on God.
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  Just like the Lord's prayer.
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  An outline for how we are to pray.
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  As the disciples were asking us in their own struggles to pray.
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  Lord, teach us to pray.
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  For the Lord Jesus said, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name.
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  It begins with the Lord.
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  Our Father who art in heaven.
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  Our Father who art in heaven.
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  And so he goes on.
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  The focus is first and foremost on the Lord.
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  Because in prayer we can so easily make it just a list of requests.
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  And we go through our requests and feel that we have prayed to God.
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  That we are in this close relationship with him just because we've brought all our requests before him.
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  And that is part of our prayer.
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  But the first part of prayer is always adoration.
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  Always looking and reminding ourselves who God is.
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  If we just begin with a request, we can so easily forget the one who is able to answer our prayers.
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  And so the psalmist here is reminding himself almost who the Lord is.
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  Gracious, righteous, merciful.
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  The one who preserves.
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  The one who has rescued.
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  He has delivered all of these things.
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  He's kept them from stumbling.
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  He goes on with this list.
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  It is the Lord who has done all of these things.
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  Who can compare to this God?
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  There is no one.
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  We pray to the only one who is able to do any of these things.
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  Gracious, righteous, merciful, preserving, bountifully just.
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  And all of these things.
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  He is the only one who is able to do it.
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  And so he's humbled before God.
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  And so should we.
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  So should we be as we come to him in prayer.
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  Be humbled before him for who he is.
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  Who can compare to this God?
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  Just like Job in the Old Testament.
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  In chapter 38, verse 4.
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  The Lord is saying to him.
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  Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
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  You know, can anyone thus say that we have made anything of the created world that we see around us?
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  Where were we when he made it?
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  We were nothing.
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  We were no one.
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  This is the God who has made the heaven and the earth.
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  He has made all of these things.
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  And we are reminded here in verse 8 too.
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  He has delivered my soul from death.
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  My eyes from tears.
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  My feet from stumbling.
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  Where would we be without this God?
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  Lost.
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  Completely lost.
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  Completely lost.
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  And yet here is the Lord.
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  The one we are looking to.
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  And who longs to be in relationship with us.
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  There is no one else who compares.
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  In the love of God towards us as we see in Christ Jesus.
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  How he has rescued us from death.
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  How he has come to save us from our sin.
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  With that agape love.
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  That unconditional, undeserved love.
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  That he has brought to us.
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  In 1 John 4 verse 9.
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  In this, the love of God was made manifest among us.
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  That God sent his only son into the world.
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  So we might live through him.
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  Away from death to life found in him.
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  So there is this nature of who God is.
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  And who we are in comparison.
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  We are nothing.
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  And yet God longs for us to be in that relationship.
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  To come to him.
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  Why should we love him?
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  Well, because of who he is.
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  And what he has done for us.
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  Do you love him?
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  The third thing we see in this psalm.
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  The final thing is.
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  How can we love him?
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  The psalmist brings things to a close in this psalm.
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  With a question for himself.
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  What shall I render?
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  In verse 12.
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  What shall I render to the Lord?
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  For all his benefits to me?
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  What can I possibly give to God?
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  For all his benefits.
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  For all his love towards me.
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  We feel maybe we can offer nothing.
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  What can we possibly give to God?
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  Who has loved us in such a way.
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  Well, the psalmist as he began says.
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  I love the Lord.
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  Because he heard my voice.
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  And my pleas for mercy.
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  So what can we give to the Lord?
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  For all his benefits.
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  We can come to him.
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  We can worship him.
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  And that's the first thing that the psalmist answers his own question with.
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  I will lift up the cup of salvation.
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  And call on the name of the Lord.
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  I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people.
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  You have this sense of the psalmist reminding himself.
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  Going on.
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  I will call on the name of the Lord all my days.
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  No matter what.
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  I will keep coming back to the Lord.
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  I will lift up the cup of the salvation.
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  I will call on the name of the Lord.
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  I will keep coming back.
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  I will worship him with all my heart.
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  There's a sense of public worship.
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  And there's also this sense of private worship.
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  And that's how we are to live ourselves as well.
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  What shall we give to the Lord for all his benefits?
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  I will give public worship to him.
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  I will make clear to all that I love the Lord because he has heard my voice.
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  And I will make it clear to all that I will love the Lord no matter what.
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  No matter my situation.
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  So people would say, well, it's easy for you to worship God when things are going well.
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  But what a witness it is to still say, I love the Lord because he has heard my voice and my prayers.
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  But even when things are going wrong with us, even when things are hard for us, we will still say, I will still call on the name of the Lord.
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  I will still lift up the cup of salvation.
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  I will still pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people.
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  I will love the Lord no matter what.
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  Because that's the love he showed to me.
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  That's the love that Christ showed to me.
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  He loved no matter what.
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  Even in the garden of Gethsemane, as he was praying with the Father, not my will, but yours be done.
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  Even as he went to the cross and suffered there in our place, they said to him, he could call down anyone to come and help him at that point.
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  But no, thy will be done.
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  No matter what.
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  That is the love of Christ to us.
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  That agape love.
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  And so that is the love that we are to show to him.
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  To give our worship.
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  To give our all for him.
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  And so is that the love that we have for him.
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  Is that the love that we are seeing in ourselves towards him?
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  Do we love him in that way?
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  This is a living sacrifice.
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  This is what Romans 12 verse 1 and 2 speaks of.
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  Being living sacrifices to God.
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  Loving God no matter what.
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  And that is the way that we witness to those around us.
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  That is the way we show that we love the Lord.
• 27:08
  No matter what.
• 27:10
  Dwight Moody once said, show me a church where there is love.
• 27:16
  And I will show you a church that is a power in the community.
• 27:20
  The love that he was speaking there was a love for the Lord.
• 27:25
  A love for the brethren.
• 27:27
  And a love for the lost.
• 27:30
  Show me a church where there is love.
• 27:32
  And I will show you a church that is a power in the community.
• 27:37
  And we think of where we started.
• 27:40
  When we think of the idea of maybe we're struggling to pray.
• 27:45
  Well, the more you go through this psalm, the more you realize how much reason we have to love God.
• 27:52
  And where that love leads us.
• 27:55
  How can we show our love for God?
• 27:58
  It's about public worship, but it's also about service of thanksgiving.
• 28:03
  In verse 17, I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the Lord.
• 28:09
  I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people.
• 28:17
  He is saying this in light of what?
• 28:20
  Of being a servant.
• 28:22
  In verse 16.
• 28:25
  Oh Lord, I am your servant.
• 28:29
  I love the Lord because he has heard my voice.
• 28:34
  And now he is saying, Oh Lord, I am your servant.
• 28:39
  I am your servant.
• 28:42
  I will love you and I will show your love in worship and in service for you.
• 28:49
  This is the great depth of the love that God had for us.
• 28:57
  Being returned by his people.
• 29:01
  By loving the Lord with all our hearts.
• 29:04
  By being his servant.
• 29:06
  By worshiping him with all our hearts.
• 29:10
  Going back to another hymn that Isaac Watts wrote.
• 29:15
  Love, so amazing, so divine.
• 29:19
  Demands my soul, my life, my all.
• 29:24
  That's exactly what this psalm is saying.
• 29:29
  I love the Lord with all my heart.
• 29:33
  Do you?
• 29:34
  Do you?
• 29:34
  Do you love the Lord with all your heart?
• 29:39
  Do you worship him with all that you are?
• 29:42
  Do you serve him as you ought?
• 29:48
  When we come back to the heart.
• 29:50
  The love of God for us.
• 29:53
  Drives us in prayer.
• 29:55
  The call on the name of the Lord.
• 29:57
  And to love him in the same way.
• 30:00
  With all our hearts.
• 30:02
  With all our souls.
• 30:04
  And with all that we are.
• 30:06
  So may the Lord help us to pray.
• 30:10
  And help us to see the wonder of his grace.
• 30:14
  And the wonder of his love.
• 30:16
  And to serve him with all our hearts.
• 30:19
  Let us pray.
• 30:22
  Our Father in heaven, we rejoice in your love for us.
• 30:27
  We thank you for the depth of it.
• 30:29
  For it being unconditional.
• 30:31
  For Lord, that you showed mercy.
• 30:33
  Even when we were your enemies, you loved us.
• 30:37
  And you brought us by your grace.
• 30:39
  And by your mercy to see your love shown to us in Christ Jesus, your son.
• 30:46
  And we pray, Lord, that you will help us.
• 30:49
  To see him always before us.
• 30:51
  To set him before us always.
• 30:54
  So we will be able to call upon the name of the Lord.
• 30:57
  That we will be able to pray more earnestly.
• 31:01
  Recognizing our unworthiness of it.
• 31:03
  But yet, oh Lord, knowing that it is a love.
• 31:06
  For your people.
• 31:08
  So Lord, help us that we will love you.
• 31:11
  Love you with all our hearts.
• 31:13
  For you have heard our prayers.
• 31:15
  You have heard our cries for mercy.
• 31:17
  And so Lord, teach us always to pray.
• 31:21
  And to look to you.
• 31:22
  We ask it in Jesus' name.
• 31:24
  Amen.
• 31:25
  Amen.
• 31:25
  We can conclude.
• 31:30
  We can conclude.
• 31:30
  We can conclude.