Dear First Pres,
In last week’s Weekly letter, I rolled out our new mission. Did you catch that? Our new mission is simple. Our mission is Loving God, Loving Our Neighbor, Making Disciples, and Pursuing Shalom, all in response to the grace and sacrifice of Jesus and only through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.
I love our fourfold mission, but today I just want to focus on the first element: Loving God.
It’s first for a reason. Everything else flows out of this love for God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The more we truly love God, the more we love our neighbors. The more we truly love God, the more urgency we have to lead others into a saving relationship with Christ (making disciples). And the more we truly love God, the more we persevere to see His Kingdom come on earth as it is in Fresno (pursuing shalom). If those other elements of our mission don’t come out of an authentic love for God, they very quickly become religious obligations rather than joyful obedience. They become selfish in nature rather than devoted to the glory of God. They become life-sucking rather than life-giving. That’s why the first element of our church’s mission is Loving God.
But what do we mean when we say, “Loving God?” Here’s what the Session (our leadership board) developed for our website to describe what Loving God looks like:
- To know God not to know of God (Mark 12:30);
- To actively invest in our relationship with Jesus as friend and savior (Phil. 3:10);
- To worship and praise God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Luke 4:8);
- To obey God and to put God first in our lives (John 14:23).
We know that this isn’t a comprehensive statement on what it means to love God, but we do believe that it points us in the right direction. Loving God is about having a personal relationship with God that stimulates worship, praise, obedience, priority, devotion and intimacy.
One of the things that has helped nurture my own love for God is to simply say the words, “I love you” to God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. How often do you simply tell the Lord you love Him? I encourage you to practice that this week.
And, as you tell God you love Him, practice telling Him why you love Him. For me, it might sound like this: “I love you God because you first loved me. I love you Lord because of the way that you touched the leper when you healed him. I love you God because of the way that you have shown such grace to me. I love you Holy Spirit because of the way you have ministered encouragement and endurance to me this year.” Beloved, why do you love God? Have you practiced simply expressing those reasons to the Lord?
One of my dreams for First Presbyterian Church Fresno is that more and more we are a community of people who truly love God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. More than great ministries, biblical scholarship, excellent music, wonderful facilities, growing numbers and strategic success, I long for us to be a community who vibrantly loves the Lord. So many of the other things that we long to see happen in ourselves, in our church, and in our city will be the fruit of being a congregation who nurtures a deep love for God.
So, may the Holy Spirit help us to respond to God’s lavish, everlasting love for us with a vibrant love for Him. May we truly be a congregation fulfilling the first element of our mission: Loving God.
Blessings,
Pastor Jeremy
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