To Know Jesus is to Love Him, Part 4

Loving Jesus must be and must begin and sustain by a decision, not by a feeling or when you get around to it, when you feel like it. It has to begin with the mind, with a decision.

It should not stop there. It needs to go on, for loving Jesus deeply must capture your imagination. Loving Jesus deeply must capture our ability and the gift of visualization. Welcome to Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef, author of the new book released earlier this month, Never Give Up. Now in just a moment, Dr. Youssef continues his encouraging audio series called To Know Jesus is to Love Him, where you'll open to Matthew chapter 22, and you'll find Jesus offering instructions to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind. Please do remember that Leading the Way is listener supported, meaning that Dr. Youssef relies on your prayers and on your financial gifts to sustain and grow the reach into this community and into communities just like this all around the world. Learn ways to stand with Dr. Youssef when you call 866-626-4356 or when you go to ltw.org.

More help engaging with the ministry just a little later, but right now, Dr. Michael Youssef. Scientists have been telling us for many years that the two sides of our brains respond differently to different stimuli. In fact, the left hemisphere of the brain is a side that is associated with logical analysis and rational judgment.

The right side of the brain is where you find the visual imagery and the word pictures and emotional responses, etc. But regardless of which side of the brain is dominant in each of us, imagination, which is on the right side, is indispensable for all the believers. So what is imagination? And why is it important for loving Jesus intimately? See, imagination is the capacity to make us connect between the visible and the invisible.

It does. It is the ability to make connection between earth and heaven. And that's why you hear people say, well, there's so much heavenly minded of no earthly good.

See, as Lois came in and said, no, only those who are heavenly minded are of any earthly value. It is the ability to make the connection between this world and the next world, the world to come, the seen and the unseen. In fact, if you read the scripture and you look at it from this point of view, you discover this connection between those two operations and they go in tandem. They operate together.

What are the two operations? Well, the information and the imagination. They have to go together in a believer's life. Sadly, because of the incredible technological advances that we have in our culture today, imagination gets cut out in our devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ. Most people rely strictly on information, on what they read in the scripture, basically as informational material, head knowledge if you like. But why must the two information and imagination go together?

Why are they both necessary to be together in intimacy and in love for the Lord Jesus Christ? Because information keeps us grounded, while imagination lifts our heads above the clouds. Information puts us in a harness, but imagination catapels us into the mystery.

Information reduces life into what is seen or here and now, but imagination expands life to what it can be. And regardless of the right side, left side of the brain, both information and imagination must come together, must operate together in continuous love and intimacy for the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, we saw in the last message, the Bible said that to love Jesus with all your mind and with all your heart and with all your soul. That means to love Jesus with the information you gain from the scripture and with the imagination of what's in the scripture. And as we saw in the last message, I started with the mind, how to love Jesus with your mind because the mind is the battlefield.

When you win the battle in the mind, you're going to win the battle. When your mind is transformed and renewed by the power of the word of God, then you're able to use your imagination in growing in your love for Jesus. Well, that's why we saw in the last message that loving Jesus must be and must begin and sustain by a decision.

Not by a feeling or when you get around to it, when you feel it, when you feel like it. It has to begin with the mind, with the decision. But I said it doesn't stop there.

It should not stop there. It needs to go on for loving Jesus deeply must capture your imagination. Loving Jesus deeply must capture our ability and the gift of visualization. What's this visualization stuff? Because there are some people who use the gift of visualization and imagination for evil, it does not mean that God's children can use it for good.

Which is what was intended for. You see, because evil uses visualization, some Christians have thrown the baby with the bathwater. And they say no imagination, no visualization, only information. Fill your head with information. But why?

Why? In fact, like all of God's gift, imagination and visualization, all of God's gift can be used for good or evil. But as believing parents, we need to teach our children how to love Jesus with their imagination. Here's a word of advice to those who are inclined only to draw visual imagery of the scripture.

They need to use logical analysis in response to the word of God. And for those who only use logical analysis in their studying of the word of God, they need to develop visual imagery of the word of God. For true growing in love for Jesus, you need both. For true intimacy with Jesus, you need to develop both gifts and they must work in tandem. But the question still remains, well how do I love Jesus with my imagination? How can I love Jesus with visualization?

Before I answer the question, I want you to listen to something very, very, very important. You must never, never, never try to imagine things that are not in the scripture. Must never try to imagine things that are not in the word of God. I merely take the word of God from the pages of the scripture and develop a word picture in my head as I develop in my love for Jesus. There are many times I am sitting, spending time with the word of God and I do this. When I get to the book of Revelation, I cannot tell you, I start reading about heaven. I just see what John saw through his eyes and the magnificent picture of heaven. And all of the stuff that was going on right now in the very presence of God and my mind is really filled with such expectations for that day. I want to share one of those things that I do in imagining in my love for Jesus, using my imagination and my growth and love for Him. And that's the cross. I allow the Holy Spirit of God to draw a picture in my imagination. I imagine how He must have felt just before the crucifixion.

That's very important. I often think of how He must have felt when His dearest friends have abandoned Him. I visualize how He must have felt when Judas, who was with Him for three and one third of a year, sold Him for a price of a slave. I visualize how He must have felt when the chief disciple, the head man, denied any knowledge of Him three times. I often take time to visualize how my Lord felt when Peter denied Him.

Because the Scripture said on the third time, after He denied Him the third time, the Bible said, and He turned and He looked at Peter. I visualize what that looked like. I imagine the look of pain, the look of hurt, the look of anguish.

I imagine the look of deep disappointment, the look of inner agony. And then I petition the Holy Spirit of God to help me and to empower me never to deny my Lord no matter what the cost. You see, as fully God, Jesus knew that His disciples are going to run out on Him.

As fully God, He knew that they're all going to deny Him and run away in the time of trouble. But as man, a very man, He must have felt so deeply the anguish that He suffered. I visualize what it was like for the God of glory to be slapped across the face, the most humiliating and the most insulting thing you do to a person at that time in that part of the world. I visualize how He must have felt when one of His creatures spat upon Him. I visualize what it was like during that miserable night that I could never forget that sight.

Because it's not a basement in Caiaphas' house like your basement, but it is a dungeon, four walls. They dropped him from a hall and there he spent that night in that dungeon in Caiaphas' house before the crucifixion. Reciting Psalm 22, I visualize how He walked two and a half miles from trial site to trial site and then I stop and I remind myself that He did this for me and He did it for you. I try to imagine what it must be like to sweat blood as a result of a traumatic emotional stress and He did this for me. I try to imagine the pre-cross crucifixion flogging which was used by the Romans to exhaust the victim, to exhaust the condemned person prior to the crucifixion. I try to imagine these Roman whips that have leather straps and at the end of each one of those straps there is a small bone, a sheep bone. At the end of each one of those is designed to tear the skin and I stop and I say, He did this for me. The Romans generally stripped their victims of their clothes and then they tied their hands above an upright post.

The back, the buttocks and the legs, they get flogged first and He did this for me. And as the flogging continued, these little sheep bones at the end of each of the straps would cut into the skin until the underlying skeletal muscle begin to tear and He did this for me. And then came the crucifixion itself, oh my, the upright wooden post weighs about 200 pounds and that always was in place, was dug in and kept in place. But the horizontal crossbar which weighs about 100 pounds is what the victim carried. It was customary back then that the condemned man carries that crossbar to the place of the crucifixion because the post was already in location. The God of the universe who created all of the trees in the forest carried that crossbar after being flogged. I try to imagine the lack of food and water and sleep for a long period of time and the sheer exhaustion. And then after all of that carrying that 100 pound crossbar for one third of a mile on his bare shoulders. And I remind myself, He did this for me and for you. Then at the sight of the execution, by law, the Romans would give the condemned person a bitter tasting, liquid, bitter drink.

It helps as a mild decedative. And then when he got to the place of the crucifixion, they would throw him on the ground, on his bare back, preparing to nail his wrists on the crossbar. His wounds from the scourging would be torn and become contaminated with the dirt.

And he did this for me. With outstretched arms, his wrist was nailed to those crossbars with about five to seven inch spikes. And the reason they hammered them in the wrists, not the palm of the hand, is because the palm would tear. But nailing the wrists made the crucified person hang on the cross much longer. After both wrists have been fastened to that crossbar, the crossbar is lifted with the victim on it.

And then they would nail his feet directly into the fixed post. And he did all of this for me. Now here's a fact, Jesus did not have to leave the splendor of heaven. He did not have to lay down his robe of glory.

He did not have to come to earth. But he did it for me and for you. He said, I have authority to lay it down, I have authority to lay it down, but it is my decision, it is my will to lay it down for you.

So that his blood pays the penalty that is rightfully yours and mine. Someone here might say, well Michael, lots of people tortured and suffered. Yes, two things, don't ever forget, they didn't have a choice.

He did. And secondly, they were not the God of glory and the God of power and might. None of them were the creator God. None of them.

Now whether you have a right side brain, left side brain dominance, it makes no difference. You cannot escape the imagery of the cross and you cannot escape the visualization of the cross which can only deepen your love for Jesus. Which can only create more intimacy with Jesus. Why? Because he did it for whom?

For me and for you. Someone here might say, well Michael, I hear what you're saying about the gift of visualization, I hear what you're saying about the gift of imagination. But would that be the same as the Buddhist meditation? Listen carefully. There's a world of difference. You see the Buddhists when they meditate they tell you to empty your mind from any distracting thoughts and focus attention on what just comes to your mind naturally.

No one in a million know to this gobbledygook. The only thing I can do is I use my Christian imagination and visualization. And when my mind, my imagination are filled with the love of Jesus Christ and all that he went through, all the other junk is going to come out.

It's going to crowd it out. So we fill our minds with Jesus. We don't empty our mind. We fill our imagination with the one who died for you. We fill our heart and soul with his indescribable love which can only ignite a deeper love for him. Amen? Here's an important thing that you need to do after you fill your imagination and your visualization with whatever is in the Scripture.

I'll only just use the cross as an example. You need to ask yourself some questions. Do I love him in the same way he loved me? Do I love him with my all? Do I love him sacrificially? Do I love him unconditionally? Do I love him with my energy?

Do I love him with my possessions? Do I love him with my time? Do I love him with my emotions? Do I love him with my words? Do I love him with all of me? Do I love him with my imagination? For certain, he loved me with all of his. Other times, the different scenarios that I try to visualize that help me understand and comprehend.

You often heard me say this, no imagery, no human imagery or illustration is perfect, none. But it helps you as you think through the incredible love that He has for you. I often visualize myself standing before a judge in the court and he pronounced me guilty. And ten million dollars is the fine on my life. There's no way I can save my life.

It's an impossibility. But somebody comes along whose total net worth is ten million dollars and he goes and sells everything he has and he pays for my penalty. I want to ask you a question, answer it truthfully. I want you to think about it. How am I going to spend the rest of my life in relationship to that person who just saved me physically?

Think about that. How am I going to spend my life for the rest of my life? I'm going to take him home. I'm going to think with gratitude at every waking moment.

I'm filled with thanksgiving. Every dollar that I earn, I want to share with him. Every meal that I eat, I want to share with him. Every joy that I receive, I want to share with him.

Every blessing I get, I want to share with him. And if I could do that for the rest of my life, I would still feel that I did not do enough. As I said, no imagery is perfect. This one is not perfect. But if you fill your mind with love and gratitude to a human being who saved you physically, how much more would you deeply love the one who saved you eternally?

How much more? How much more my gratitude and thanksgiving and deeper love for the one who paid my penalty? How much more should that ignite in me and in my imagination a love that is now equal? The one who loved me and redeemed me and justified me and forgave me and adopted me and saved me. That is why I use my imagination as well as my mind in deepening my love for Jesus. I want to tell you something. You cannot love Jesus with your imagination on the run. You just can't do it. To love Jesus deeply and intimately with your imagination takes time, takes energy, takes emotions, takes intellect, takes you all.

After all, he loved you with his all. You're listening to Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef and some powerful words about how Jesus loves with his all. Listen to Leading the Way audio on the radio online by subscribing to the podcast or using the Leading the Way app.

You can learn more about all of these at ltw.org when you click on the Listen link. Earlier, I mentioned Dr. Youssef's newest book. It's called Never Give Up. This is an engaging read that will uncover keys to spiritual endurance, help you overcome spiritual burnout, provide tools to live confidently for Christ in a culture that vehemently stands against Christian values, and most importantly, this book will challenge you and equip you to never give up. Learn the keys to spiritual endurance, overcome spiritual burnout, and train up the next generation to stand firm on biblical truth with Dr. Youssef's new book Never Give Up.

At the end of his life, imprisoned in a Roman dungeon, the apostle Paul urged his young disciple Timothy, Never give up on prayer. Never give up on biblical truth. Never give up on the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. In his brand new book Never Give Up, Dr. Michael Youssef unpacks Paul's rich words of encouragement found in 2 Timothy, words that will help you endure, flourish, and thrive in the midst of doubt, danger, and despair. In this encouraging book, Dr. Youssef unveils four unique aspects of what it means to never give up biblical truth, a timely message as Christians around the world face mounting pressure to compromise their faith and abandon their biblical values. Dr. Youssef also shares personal examples from his life and ministry of how he found the strength to stand for Christ amid the pressure to compromise.

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