Totality

Transcript S2E11

Totality

[00:00]

Hello, I'm Tony Kostas, and welcome to Let Into Love.

[00:14] 

In my last episode, I spoke about the simplicity of a relationship with God. Today I want to emphasise the totality of it.

[00:25] 

Unfortunately, for many Christians, relationship with God is something that kind of fits into their lives – to enhance their lives, to give them what they couldn't have otherwise. And because of that, it's something that actually is for your convenience or for your advantage, instead of something that really gives God the one thing that He wants from you, that He can only have if you give it to Him.

And what's that? It's you. You! Every part of you.

[01:02] 

You remember when God gave Israel the Commandments, and then Jesus emphasized the greatest commandment of all – which was that, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, and with all your strength”.

I call that totality! That's what you were made for.

 [01:25] 

If you want relationship with God – and in a sense, like, even when I say that, I don't want to, kind of like, because to me, when I say if you want relationship with God – yes, sure, relationship with God is something that you have to choose to have. But on the other hand, when I talk about wanting a relationship with God, you were made for this. It is impossible for you to have the existence for which you were created without relationship with God.

Now, if you know Him – if you know that you have come to Him through Jesus Christ and God is your God – then this should be even more pertinent to you. Because unfortunately, the lack in the world today … Honestly, you can look at the world around you and say, “Well, the lack in the world today is that there just aren't enough Christians”. “The lack in the world today is that that God is being pushed out of society and Christianity is on the wane.” Or, “Christians that do exist in the world don't seem to be so passionate about God.”

But the real lack in is simply this – and it's the same as has always been throughout history in different forms, in different completely different eras. Whether there was apparently strong presence in – I strong Christian presence in – a society or a country, or there was not.

[02:55] 

And the lack is this: that God, who made you for Himself, can never be fulfilled – and therefore you can never be fulfilled in Him – unless you are completely His.

And that's not a demand. That's a desire from God, because He knows that you are made for Him.

His whole desire … the whole purpose … the whole reason … why He gave us that command to love Him with all our heart, mind, soul and strength, is because that's how He loves you. Because God is love and God has given everything so that you'll belong to Him.

[03:41] 

Now again, if you're a Christian, you know the Gospel and you know what it cost God to send Jesus. And you know what it cost Jesus to come and lay down His life for you. It cost everything. It's a price that we can hardly get our minds around. It's a price that you can feel in your heart at times, more than anything you can comprehend. But unfortunately, then you can sort of register that and get on with maybe just finding out a bit more about what the Bible says about it.

But when you draw close to God – when you draw near to Him because you want to know Him – the more you open your heart to Him, the more you'll find that He will draw you closer to Him. And that process can go on and on. And if you keep responding to God, you'll find what I found when I came to know Jesus when I was 17 years old.

[04:43]

He revealed God to me and I was changed. If you've heard some of my earlier episodes, you know that story – when, as a result of that, I became part of the Christian religious system, because that's what in many cases it is. I entered into a Christian subculture. There were the people that I met, the terminology we used and the things we talked about, the things we got involved in, the programs and the activities, were all very Christian.

But the problem with that is it can be like a change of lifestyle. It can be like, “I used to be into this sort of thing and now I'm into that kind of thing. And I like this kind of thing because I like the people and I like the things that are talked about and they make me feel good and I like knowing God.

But it's not like a choice of lifestyle. In fact, to come to God, to belong to God, is actually a relinquishing of your life.

[05:45] 

Now when Jesus said: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself. Let him take up his cross and let him follow me. Because whoever tries to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”

And this is entry level, that's what Jesus said. That's how Jesus framed His invitation to people to follow Him. Do you really think that 2000 plus years after He said those things that there's any other thing that we should call Christianity or we should call relationship with God?

Unfortunately, that's often the way it ends up. And the reason for that is that it's more convenient often to create a religion or a religious system and to put certain things in place. Make it the kind of thing that some people will want to respond to … that people can find to their liking or that it meets some need of theirs that they can fit into.

[06:53] 

And unfortunately, because at the heart of it there is this beautiful – what we call, if you like, a conversion experience. That's how it was for me at 17 years old. This beautiful experience where you can actually come to God and open your heart to Him. And because of what Jesus did, you'll be changed and you'll know what it is to know God.

I knew it straight away. Even though I didn't understand it. I was changed. And then when I met other people, who’d had the same experience – boy! you know, we're all Christians, we're born-again Christians!

But that's a beginning. That is a beginning birth. That's like a new … the miracle of a new baby being born into this world. It's a wonderful thing, but there's a whole life to live and there's going to be far more for this new being that's come into the world.

[07:48] 

Now, when you come into God's kingdom and you discover relationship with God, the danger is that you will be fitted into a religious system where you will be nurtured … in a sense. You'll be helped … in a sense. Your needs will be met … in a sense.

But the great danger is that the thing for which Jesus laid down his life – that you … and this is you and I or every one of us … were created by God to be sons of God.

[08:25]

You probably know the verse in the Bible: “As many as received Jesus, to them he gave the power to become the sons of God”. That's what you were saved for.

When I was a young Christian, I was told that I was ‘saved to serve’ – and I soon found out different ways that I could serve. But God didn't call me to be a servant. God called me to be a son. And He didn't call you to be a servant. He called you to be a son. 

Yes, you may serve. Jesus “took upon himself the form of a servant”. But that was because He was the Son of God.

And you are called to be a son of God.

[09:07] 

You are called to belong to Him totally – so that the life that you live will not be lived to fulfill some religious aims, or some statement of faith, or some framework in which you as a Christian are told that you should be functioning and acting and behaving and relating.

It was so that you would live in an intensely personal relationship with God that is based on love. That thrives in love. That means that there is nothing that you will not give, nothing that you will not be. Just as God is like that to you.

God gives Himself totally to you and He longs, and He invites, and He looks, and He calls you to give yourself totally to Him!

[10:08] 

And totality is totality!

Now, if you were like even hearing that … if you think, oh, that sounds a bit heavy or that's a bit demanding, or ‘Wow, I didn't think it was going to be like that!’ Well, in a way, if you're in a pretty conventional church setting, I can understand you thinking that. But stop and think about that.

Just imagine … imagine if God was like that. Imagine if God who gave everything, who gave His only Son, and Jesus, who gave Himself – Jesus, who said, “No man takes my life from me, I lay it down of my own accord”. Imagine if they said, ‘oh, this is like, this is going to be too much. Let's just do without it!

Your whole purpose – the purpose of your life in this world, in this life, for the span of your life … let alone heaven, which is for eternity – but your whole purpose, your whole fulfillment, the whole reason for which you were born into this world, was so that you could know God. And, in knowing Him, live a life in total commitment … total abandonment to Him.

[11:23] 

It's a big problem, believe me. It is a big problem. And I know, even as I say things like that, that many people who are Christians … who are … who consider themselves committed Christians … who've had a born again experience … who are active in the church … who study their Bibles and do all the right Christian things … will say, “Whoa! Now let's, you know, let's kind of just keep this in proportion here, because I've got a life to live and I have my plans and I have my intentions in life and I have my future that I have planned out for myself or the things I want to do. Like, are they worth nothing?

Well, actually, I want to say to you, what are you worth? Because you were worth everything to God.

[12:09] 

Do you really think that if you abandon your life to God – and I'm talking … I'm not talking about anything short of that. Like, you go to God personally, you and God. Because the best things that have ever happened to me – and they've kept happening to me in my life – have been just what's happened between me and God. God loves that intensely personal relationship.

And if you say to God, “God, I give up my right to myself. God, I want you to have your way in my life.”

Now, either God is real or He's not. Either God can be trusted or He can't. And if you do believe He's real … if you do believe He can be trusted … then don't you think it's actually ridiculous to not approach Him like that?

[13:01] 

You may know the verse in the Bible that says, whoever comes to God must believe firstly that He is … either that He exists … that He actually is the God of the whole Universe – the living God – and also believe that He is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

So if you diligently seek the God that you know is real, do you think that you'll be led astray?

Do you think you'll end up at a dead-end somewhere? Or do you think … I don't know … I don't know. What else? What can you think? That you're wasting your time, you're wasting your energy, you're being deceived … whatever?

I'm talking about you and God. You can trust Him. He is a vibrant, living being. God is so, so present on this earth. He knows the state of the world. He knows what the people of this world, by and large, have done by trying to live without God. 

We live in a world now that's so much like the days of the Tower of Babel, when people decided they were going to build a tower that went up to Heaven. They were going to be like God.

Even going right back to Adam and Eve, how did the devil fool them to disobey God? He said,

‘God is keeping something from you because God knows that when you eat that fruit, your eyes will be opened and you'll be like Gods.’

[14:31] 

So this world has decided that instead of turning to God, they're going to be their own gods. Instead of embracing the wonderful truth that they are created in God's image – that's the only other alternative. And that's why the world is the way it is. 

But what God is looking for today is not Christian governments. It's not Christian countries. He's looking at individuals who will turn to Him. Come to Him as the living God. Not just people who say, “I'm a believer, I'm a Christian”. Because many Christians right now in the world are anxiously, very anxiously, even panicking, because of what they see going on around … so many things that cause them alarm because they feel impotent. 

But if you are with God, you won't feel impotent because you know that the God of the Universe is with you. 

But you'll be saying to God, “God, if nobody else comes to you, nobody else wants you like this, I do. I am yours. I want you to be glorified in my life.

You don't have to even know what that will amount to. 

My desire for many years now has been… It's kind of like an exaggeration, but I've said to God, “God, if nobody else is living for you, I want to be the one that does.

Not because I want to be special, but because I have got my life to give to Him.

I cannot ultimately decide or control what anybody else does with their life concerning God, but I can be the one who says, “God, I am yours. I want to live for you. I want to be yours. I want to be holy.”

[16:25] 

When the apostle Peter, in his first letter, said: “But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all that you do. For it is written, be holy because I am holy”.

Holy simply means that you are setting your whole life aside for God. You are putting your whole life into His hands. You are making yourself available to Him.

And that is the only rational thing you can do. If you genuinely believe that God is who He says He is, that He gave everything for you so that you could live in relationship with Him, everything else in life is futile and empty, and will not only amount to nothing … but will amount to worse than nothing! Because it will be a waste of everything that you have lived for.

And I don't say that to depress you. I say that, rather, for the opposite. Because it's in your hand not only to be a believer, not only to even do the things that a good Christian does, not only to fill your time and your life or give you money to certain good things. But you have the privilege of giving up your right to yourself in favour of God, and saying, “God, I am yours. I only want to be yours. I put my life in your hands”. And mean it. And trust Him. Trust him. Give Him the opportunity to be your God. That's what God is looking for.

[18:10] 

There's a wonderful verse that I've loved for many years that talks about God's eyes roaming to and fro throughout the whole earth, seeking to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are perfect toward Him.

You come to God. Now, what's a perfect heart? It just means that you are wholehearted – that you are wholehearted about God.That you come to God and you seek God with all your heart.

God has said (it's written in the Bible too) that ‘you will find Me when you seek Me with all your heart.’ Seek God with all your heart. With the intention of giving Him all your life. And if you do that, then God can be glorified in your life. God's will will be done in your life. And the reason, the very reason, for which you were born will be fulfilled.

And you'll have the joy of an intimacy with God that you cannot have in any other way.