A Loving Relationship
A sermon continuing the series on faith, by Apostle Aje Pelser, Harvester Reformational Church, Cape Town, 10th of October 2021.

Ways to cultivate a loving relationship with God and people too!

1. Release your faith through a centre of love.
A loving relationship with God, creates a channel for your faith.
Faith works through love. You need to believe God loves you.
Gal 5:6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.

2. Use hope as an anchor.
Hope does not disappoint because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
Rom 5:5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
Hope directs our faith into God’s presence and anchors our mind, will and emotions while faith is working on our relationship of love.
Heb 6:19 This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil,
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Heb 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

3. Seek after God’s heart
Seek after God’s heart in every situation and overcome by faith.
David was beloved of God and he killed the giant that mocked God and his people.
Giant: Exposure.
Demonic Splendour that seeks to uncover your nakedness, mock you and your faith, and take you to exile – Goliath.
Strategy: Love.
Understand you are God’s beloved, you overcome him by accepting God’s beloved Son and by becoming part of God’s beloved Church where you are well accepted in the Beloved.
John 3:16; Eph. 1:6
David’s heart was after God to do all his will. A loving relationship seeks the heart of the one loved. If we truly love God as God loves us, we will seek out His heart on a matter and act according to His love.
Act 13:22 And when He had removed him, He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, ‘I HAVE FOUND DAVID THE SON OF JESSE, A MAN AFTER MY OWN HEART, WHO WILL DO ALL MY WILL.’
Act 13:23 From this man’s seed, according to the promise, God raised up for Israel a Savior—Jesus—
Seeking after God’s loving heart brings salvation in any area of life.

4. Do a love check according to the scriptural definition of love:
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
1Co 13:4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;
1Co 13:5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;
1Co 13:6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;
1Co 13:7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1Co 13:8 Love never fails.

For example: when kindness is lacking in a relationship, there needs to be a renewal of first love for the trust to be restored.

5. Make a sacrifice.
Greater love has no man than to lay down his life for his friend.
Joh 15:12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
Joh 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.

Rom 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
Many Christians have forgotten that they are a living sacrifice, and what that means in this day and age. In the last days, men will be lovers of self, versus lovers of God, lovers of pleasure instead of God. More often today, people seek their own versus seeking the kingdom. It is symptomatic of this age we are living in that people will neglect God and the gathering of the saints in pursuit of their own passions and desires. Many people are no longer after God’s heart and this will have repercussions.
The deception is: “Live for yourself and be happy.” The truth is: “Live for God led by the Spirit and experience pleasures forevermore.”

Psa 16:11 You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

To conclude:
1. Release your faith through the channel of love.
2. Use hope like an anchor.
3. Seek God’s heart in the matter.
4. Do a love check.
5. Make a sacrifice.