JESUS, WILL YOU BE MINE?

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! We are hopefully aware of the truth that God is more than willing to make us His. So evident in the life and sacrifice of His Son Jesus on our behalf. But is it really? During this session we will explore God's great love for us and His desire to make us His most special Valentine. We will also explore the possibility of making Jesus our most special Valentine. God has given us His heart. Will we give Him ours? Oh Father, please give us eyes to see Your heart for us as portrayed in the life of Jesus. Holy Spirit, please help us to give our heart to God, in this we will be able to say with assurance that Jesus is our very first (top priority) love. Let us experience this most awesome of all love affairs first hand. In Jesus name....AMEN.

Before we discover together the very love of God as lived out before us in Christ Jesus, let us briefly lay some ground work about the Lord's divine plan of salvation and why we need a savior. This will help us to rightly understand how we got ourselves into this mess of needing forgiveness. How Jesus is more than just a scapegoat on our behalf, but actually a bridge between the old and new covenant's. By the way, a real good book on the old and new covenant is "The Covenant Unveiled" by David Wilkerson. Holy Spirit please help me to write this because this is a most life saving subject and I am not interested in what Kenny G. has to say. Give us ears to hear please Dear Sir.

In the beginning, in the very beginning, God decided that He wanted a family. Children to love. Children to love Him. When that was decided we do not know. But it was mutually agreed upon that we would be created in His image and likeness. (Genesis 1:26 ) The very real and physical image of Jesus and the likeness of the Almighty Father. Eternal beings originally destined to fellowship with God spirit to Spirit. Holy beings with a free will. Children with purpose. Children with power who would rule and reign. Of course sin changed all that. For four thousand years anyway. Until Jesus came.

All this was talked about in the very beginning of God's Word. God knew we would sin. In fact it was necessary because without that choice we would be mere robots and God wanted us to give Him our love as a choice. God knew we would need a Savior way back in the Garden of Eden. (Genesis 3:15 ) He also knew when that Savior would come, who He would be and that His blood would have to be shed to bring us back to right standing with Him...our Daddy. Without the shedding of blood their is no remission of sin. (Hebrews 9:22 ) That is the way God set up things. He is God after all. God showed right off that He wanted us to be His Valentine. His special love. First, He created us in His image. Secondly, when we messed up He promised to make it right. It would be made right in the death and resurrection of His most precious and only begotten Son, Jesus.

Let's touch on the old and new covenant for a moment before we get to how God is crazy in love with us. After Adam sinned a covenant with God and man was formed beginning with Abraham. This lasted about four thousand years, and remains in effect to this very day. Covenant, a mutual agreement, a contract. And believe me, with God, covenant is ever so binding. Anyway, why it took four thousand years before we were offered Jesus in order to restore us to right standing with God I do not know. I do know this, the old covenant was filled with rules and regulations which man could not keep completely. It was a means to show man that holiness comes from God and it is never possible to achieve it on our own merit, good works or even keeping rules set down by Him or some other religion. And boy our nation sure has a good number of those types of institutions.

Why are we talking about covenant during a Valentine's message? Glad you asked. Well, I asked too because I am just going with the flow of the Holy Spirit at this point and I kind of want to know. Here is some of the answer. To me covenant is God showing He is interested in us, sold out to our cause of well-being and His agreement(or contract with man) is always filled with the most wonderful promises of blessings He will bestow upon us. The greatest of these covenant promises is found throughout the Old Testament. It was the promise of sending His Son Jesus to save us from hell. To reconcile us to Himself. To restore our fellowship with Him. To forgive us of our sins. And so, so much more. Yes, the Old Testament is full of prophecies, types and shadows concerning the Messiah....King Jesus. Even throughout the Old Covenant we can hear God crying out..."I love you so much and have made you Mine. Will you please make Me yours?"

And then came the birth of Jesus. Even in that we see God's great love for us as He humbled Himself and became a man. Jesus, born of the Holy Spirit, completely and perfectly fulfilling the laws of the Old Covenant. Proving that He Himself, and He alone, is the rightful One to be called Messiah and Savior. God legally took back what the devil had stolen from Him....His family. He did this through the shedding of sinless blood. He did it through a man..Christ Jesus. Jesus is called the second Adam. A man had to legally redeem us from what a man (the first Adam) had gotten us into. So even at the Birth of Jesus we can hear God calling to us again.() And of course with this good news we can hear ever so plainly, "I love you so much and have made you Mine. Will you please make Me yours?"

A hush fell over the crowd that day as the Teacher was about to speak. But seeing that the thousands of people gathered were so hungry, Jesus took the fish and loaves and fed them. Jesus was whispering even then, "I love you so much and have made you Mine. Will you please make Me yours?"

Oh woman, your accusers are no longer here. Neither do I accuse you. I forgive you, go and sin no more. Lazarus, come forth from the grave. Unwrap him and let him go. The lepers went away with great joy as the Anointed One healed them and made them whole. The demon possessed man was freed and put in his right mind. The woman with the issue of blood was healed after 12 years of misery in her body. Jesus whispered to the prostitute. He whispered to Lazarus. He whispered to the lepers. He whispered to the demon possessed man. He whispered to the woman with the issue of blood, "I love you so much and have made you Mine. Will you please make Me Yours?" And He whispers still. Can you not hear?

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing." Jesus said this in Luke 13:34. Can you hear the sadness in His voice? Yes, Jesus came to set the religious free. To bridge the gap between the law of the Old Covenant and grace of the New Covenant. But the Jewish people did not recognize Him as Messiah. After all the prophecies pertaining to Him. After all the love, compassion and miracles Jesus displayed among them they still desired religion. They still desired to waste their time trying to make themselves holy with their observances and good works. Jesus was whispering to them too. And He still does today.."I love you so much and have made you Mine. Will you make Me yours?"

As you look upon my disfigured face, my bruised body and the ridicule I have taken upon myself (the King of Glory) for your sakes do you still not see my love for you? Lifted up upon the cruel and rugged cross of the Romans I still look at you through tear stained eyes and love you. Listen, as I suffer the greatest anguish of all. Can you not hear me scream out as all of your sin was placed upon me? As the curse you have been under was placed wholly upon me. The scream was not from the pain. It was because my Father left me alone for a brief moment as the judgement of your sin was placed upon me. But even then as I breathed my last and said "It is finished," I still was whispering to you.."I love you so much and have made You mine. Will you make Me yours?"

And the question remains even until this day. Will I hear? Will you? Yes we will! Oh Jesus, we will give ourselves to You this day. You have made us Yours. Now we say with great joy....Jesus, will You be my Valentine?