Loving God ... Your Ultimate Attainment

[Transcript]

Loving God … Your Ultimate Attainment 

Welcome to Led Into Love! 

I'm Tony Kostas, and I'm here to share with you the wonder … the amazing reality of what it is to live in a love relationship with God. 

This is way beyond religion. It's way beyond human concepts. But this is God's gift to you. This is your opportunity. This is for you. 

If you have a heart's desire for God … God's eyes scan this world, because he is constantly looking for those who are looking for him. 

And the closer you are to him already, the more He wants to respond to you. 

And the further you are from him – but still wishing that you could know Him – the more he will do to draw you to himself. 

Please join me for this first episode, when I'll share more about my relationship with God – how I came to know him the way that I do …and what this can mean for you. 

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I'd like to start by making one very absolute statement. And that is that all relationship with God must be experiential. 

God is a person. I know he's not a human, but he's a person. He's the Ultimate Person – and even though people talk pretty freely about having a personal relationship with God or with Jesus, I really want to lay this down very clearly. 

Because in this first episode and in other episodes to come, I'm going to be sharing aspects of my own experience of God – my own relationship with God – how it began, what it's been like, what it's like now. 

So, I need to make this very clear to you, because for many people … and I know in my case when, at the age of 17, I first made a personal response to God in a Billy Graham Crusade, right in the city that I'm sitting in right now – Melbourne, Australia. When Billy Graham came to this city in 1959, the whole place was buzzing. And I went to hear him out of sheer curiosity. 

I grew up in a family that was Greek. My mother and father were both Greek immigrants in Australia. And in that family – because we were Greek … partly for religious reasons and very much for cultural reasons, I was very aware that there was a God – because the Greek Orthodox Church was my church. It was part of being Greek, and my mother was quite religious. So I never doubted there was a God. 

And I remember times when I was quite young – pretty well through most of my childhood – when I had these urges or these desires to know God. But that was kind of something that I felt as a child, but it was an abstract beyond that. I went along to church whenever the family went – which wasn't anything like every Sunday – usually on certain occasions and feast days. 

Then, when I was in my early teens, I became an altar boy, and that was an expression of my desire to get a bit closer to God – thinking that, well, maybe if I'm in the church and I'm in that environment where all the stuff goes on… all that happens. 

If you happen to know anything about the Greek Orthodox Church, it's rather like other older churches, particularly like the Catholic Church. There's a lot of ceremony, a lot of ritual, a lot of symbolism – and, for an altar boy, you're really close to where it's all happening. 

But that really didn't draw me, in any personal sense, closer to God. 

Now, the truth be known, I didn't know what a personal relationship with God looked like, so I guess I was just hoping something would happen. 

But then, when I was 17 and Billy Graham came to town, and I heard about it. (You couldn't miss it, really, because it was splashed across the front pages of our newspapers. Wouldn't happen these days, but it sure happened back there!)  And I went along one night to hear Billy Graham preach. I went by myself. I went out of sheer curiosity. 

I had never been to anything like an evangelistic rally in my life. I had never known anything of that nature – even though I would have said I was a Christian. 

By the time it got to the end of that sermon – that message that Billy Graham preached – and the invitation was given …and those of you who are familiar, particularly with old time evangelism, you know what it's like. 

The invitation was given, the choir was singing the old hymn: ‘Just as I Am’ – and I realized that I wanted to respond. I didn't expect that! I was scared! 

I remember hoping that there weren't any TV cameras filming, because I didn't want anybody that I knew to maybe one day see me on a news bulletin or something, making a response at the Billy Graham Crusade! But when it got to the last verse and Billy Graham said: “If you're going to come, come now,” I knew that I wanted to make that response. So, I got out of my seat, and I went forward. 

And again, if you know how those sorts of evangelistic crusades operate, someone came to me after we'd all gathered at the front – in front of the platform where Billy Graham had been preaching – someone came to me … tried to explain to me what had happened. But my mind was kind of in a bit of a daze. I didn't take in anything that he said. 

But the first thing of that night that stands out in my mind – and has never left me – was as I walked home that night… and it was about a 20 minutes or so walk home … As I walked home, I knew that something had changed. I felt like I was walking on air!

Now that was the very beginning. That was like something that I didn't know could happen. If I talk about it now, it's almost like if a baby could remember the moment it was born, then it would be just like that. He could talk about that for the rest of his life!  People could say: “That's great … you were born …it's a miracle. But you can't live in your babyhood!” 

So when, that night, I came home – and woke up the next morning – I still knew what had happened the night before. But I could not have explained any of it to anybody. I didn't know one verse of the Bible. I didn't remember anything that was said to me. 

And for me, the memory is that it was halfway through that day. (At that time, I was an apprentice aircraft mechanic. I worked at the airport. I worked amongst a bunch of guys that you wouldn't actually call godly!) But as I got halfway through that day, I was suddenly struck by the fact that, without even thinking about it, not one swear-word had passed my lips. That wasn't characteristic of me, and it sure wasn't characteristic of that environment. 

Now, again, you might think that's a small thing. You might think it's a bit of a weird thing. But all I'm telling you is that was the first time when I realized, what had happened the night before had actually changed me – not just consciously, but even subconsciously. 

Okay, now let's move fast-forward from there! I've got a lot to share with you, and in this first episode I'm not intending to give you a bio or a memoir – because I want to talk to you about the present time. But I want you to know that there was a time back there when I first could say: “I have met Jesus,” or “I have come to God”. 

In no time – because of the way that those crusades used to work – I was followed up by a local church.  Which, in my environment at that time, was an Anglican church – or used to be called the Church of England. (In America, it's the Episcopal Church.)

 I was followed-up and began to go to church … to that church. Something my Greek Orthodox parents didn't understand, and they weren't very happy about it. But I went along. And as a result of being this new Christian, I was ‘the new kid on the block’. 

Even at that church, there were other people – some young people who'd been to the Crusade and they were experiencing what I was. But that sort of plunged me into the Christian subculture that I didn't really know existed. And in that Christian subculture, I discovered that there was a whole way of living – a whole jargon – a whole lot of activities and things that you became a part of and became involved in. That changed my world!

Now, because everybody that I was meeting – apart from the few young people that were in that church, who had come through the same Crusade as I did … but as you move into that environment … that Christian environment, I discovered that everybody had been there ahead of me. So, I was the new kid on the block! Whatever people said: ‘you should do this’ … ‘you should believe this’ … ‘you should be like this’ … ‘you should …whatever’ – I did it!  Because, for me, I was the one who had had an experience, and I wanted to make the most of it. 

As the years went on, I realized, of course, that really was a beginning. It was a birth. Jesus talked about being born again. When a man came to Jesus once – a man called Nicodemus (you know all about it if you're a Christian, because it's right there in John, chapter 3, and it's one of the best-known passages of the Bible). 

When this man came to Jesus, because he was trying to figure out: ‘How do you do these things that you do, and where do these things – these words that you say – come from?’ 

And Jesus said to him, “Unless you're born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God”. Nicodemus… I guess he was unsatisfied … he was probably shocked, and he probably thought: “That's a stupid thing to say!” So he said to Jesus: “How can a man go back into his mother's womb and be born? What do you mean, ‘you must be born again’?” 

And Jesus simply said to him: “It is by the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God moves like the wind. You don't know where it comes from, you don't know where it goes. But that's what it's like for every person that is born of the Spirit.” 

Now, many of you listening to me would probably know very well the term ‘born-again Christian’. If you're a born-again Christian, you know that's just more than a term. If you're not a born-again Christian, you've probably heard it round the place anyway! 

But what does it mean to really know God? Because, with that, came the very common thing amongst Christians, which was the terminology. Like: “Hey, do you know the Lord? Do you know God?” And I'd say, “Sure. I've had this experience. I went forward at the Crusade, and I know that I know God,” because my life was changed. 

But with that comes the merging into a cultural setting where you take on trappings. It's inevitable … it's inevitable amongst people. 

Now, I don't want to talk about those so much, but I really want to come right back to my opening statement and say to you that there is no personal relationship with God that is not experiential. And by that, I don't mean an initial experience. I mean ongoing experience. 

I've been married, going on for 59 years. I remember when I first met the girl I married. I remember what it was like to fall in love. And I've known what it's been like to spend most of our lives together. 

And I tell you now, that if my relationship with my wife was anything less than experiential …well, I don't know what it would be like, but we would be strangers! We might as well not be living under the same roof. But it would not be a marriage! 

Now, relationship with God is experiential because that's what God's always wanted when he made man in his own image. His passion … his desire … was to have this being – the only creature in all his creation that he made into his own image with his own hands and breathed his life into. Adam and Eve were meant to live forever!  They were not meant to die – even the mortal death that we know, because they were already immortal! 

Again, if you're a Christian, or if you know your Bible, or if you know that doctrine of Christianity or that story of Christianity… you know. 

And if you're not a Christian, if you know what is in the Bible, and if you know the very first book of the Bible, Genesis, you know that it didn't take very long for Adam and Eve to do something that God knew they could do. And that is to exercise the free-will that He had given them …to make a decision that took them away from Him. 

But let's get right back to God and the reason why he made man – and why he made you therefore … because he longs for a living relationship with a living being that he can have the deepest, richest, and most loving, constant, experiential relationship with. 

Now, I can tell you after many, many years, that it's not ‘Bible knowledge’ … it's not what you say or subscribe to … it's not a lot of activity that's in the name of Jesus, or in the name of a church, or in the name of Christianity. It's not anything that you do, or say, or know, or learn. 

It is what actually exists between you – a living being made in God's image – and the Living God who made you. 

When you know Him like that, and when you live like that, there is no greater attainment! 

When Jesus was asked at one time by a man who said, “Which is the greatest commandment of all that we should keep?” and he was talking about God's commandments – and Jesus said: “The greatest commandment is that you shall love the Lord your God with all your mind, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. There is no greater commandment than this.” 

You want to know what is the greatest attainment that you can have? What is it that you can not only reach to, but you can attain and live in forever? It's very simple. It's loving God with your whole being. There is nothing greater than that! 

I can say to you now that – tell me anything that you think a Christian ought to be doing … or you think Christians do … or preachers do … or pastors do … or evangelists do – it's a pretty good chance I'll say to you: I've been there, I've done that. 

Sometimes God has led me into it, sometimes I thought I had to do it because that's what you do. But nothing that I have learnt. Nothing that I have said. Nothing that I have even believed with my mind (even believed with my heart – if it only stayed there and it didn't get lived out) … but nothing, could possibly mean or lead me into, or cultivate the experiential, personal relationship with God that I was made to have …and you were made to have. 

Now, that's my whole desire with this Led into Love podcast. 

I've called the podcast ‘Led into Love’ because that's already the name of a book that I wrote. And it's not a book of Christian doctrine, it's not a book of teaching. It's a book that details my experience of being called by God in 1970 to take a journey that was going to lead me all the way to what was, then, the Soviet Union …to Russia …to Moscow, for Him. And that was that whole time … because it was a whole time … it was a long time. It was seven months of traveling, but it was a faith adventure with God. And that was a big-turning point in my life. But it was particularly so, because there were so many things that happened during that time, which is why I eventually ended up writing the book about it. 

But the reason why I called it ‘Led Into Love’ is because – more than anything else … more than the lovely, exciting experiences I had of God's leading and God's provision, and the things that were happening, and the people I was meeting … and going all the way to Russia ... but the thing that mattered most was that along the way, God changed me from a servant into a lover. 

Up until then I was, in every way that I knew how, living a life close to God. And by then I was in full-time ministry and leadership. But I was still stuck in the whole concept of working for God, serving God, doing God's work. And then … in the course of this journey … at a time when I was traveling the long way around to get to Russia … and I was traveling in Canada and preaching in various churches … God began to work a change in my life. 

And, one day, that climaxed when he led me to the 12th chapter of the Gospel of John – when Jesus went to the home of his dear friends, Mary and her sister Martha and their brother Lazarus. And there in that home, something beautiful happened. 

Now you probably know the story … this amazing story … this beautiful story, of Jesus being in that home. Martha, who was the impeccable hostess, was fussing about to make sure that everything happened just right. Lazarus, the faithful friend, just wanted to sit and be close to his friend Jesus. Mary, who just knew that she didn't want to miss one word that came out of Jesus’ mouth, sat there rapt, giving Him her full attention. 

Martha was busy and preoccupied. Lazarus was content to be with his friend. But Mary couldn't resist pouring on Jesus the most precious possession she had. That's when she took that bottle of ointment, poured it on his feet and wiped his feet with her hair. This was offensive to one person in particular – Judas, the disciple, who was the treasurer, who kept the money … ran the finances … of that little group that was Jesus and his disciples. And he was apparently really offended because she was wasting money on pouring it on the feet of Jesus when she could have given it to feed the poor. And he spoke up that this was not a good thing! 

And Jesus didn't correct Mary for doing it. Jesus rebuked Judas, because Judas wasn't really worrying about the poor. Judas was actually fiddling the books. Judas, who looked after the money, was very nicely collecting some for himself, and he saw some of the gain to him disappearing! 

But let's get back to what Mary did, because Mary was the one – the only one – in that house, who not just delighted Jesus, but literally poured out on Jesus what he longed for from everybody that he called – what God longs for from you … what God has longed for from me … what I have discovered is the best thing I can give him all the time. And that is the love of my heart. And believe me, that love is a love beyond all loves! It's the love that… according to the Bible … there's a verse that says ‘God's love is shed abroad in our hearts’. 

You can love God … if you want to! 

If God has given us a commandment to love him with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, how can you love him if you were not able? How could God saddle you with something, if love was not actually a choice that you make? 

Because, right at its core, love is not an emotional feeling. True love, godly love, loving God, is something you choose, because he means more to you than anybody else. 

And that's how I feel... No! I was going to say ‘how I feel about him’ – but I'm not going to say that. It's not how I feel about him. That's how I love him. That's how I know him. He showed me the joy, the thrill – not of serving him – not of doing more work for him – not of winning more souls – not of knowing my Bible better …or any of the things that so often Christians strive for … sincere Christians like I was. Like I am now – but now I know where it's to come from. I know what it's all about. 

The thing that is going to be wonderful throughout Eternity, is going to be that I will be in his presence …able to see him and be close to him.  Now, I tell you – Heaven's not going to be an exciting place if you don't love Jesus!

But loving Jesus is something that starts right here and now. And I'm particularly concerned for you. If you are a Christian and you know the desire of your heart … you have a longing to know him … to be his … to live for him … to not miss anything of what he wants for you. 

Well, if you want to do God's will, then the thing you must do more than anything else – because it will become the core of everything else that you end up doing or saying or being – is that you come to God and by your choice you abandon yourself to Him – and you love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, and with all your strength. 

I've loved sharing that with you on this first podcast – this first Led into Love podcast – and I'm looking forward to sharing much more with you in episodes to come. 

But right now, this is Tony Kostas …until next time.