Walk in the Light by Following the Light

Matt. 22:34-40, Mark 12:28-31

Good morning everybody! I said good morning everybody! Man, I am so excited to be up here today talking with you all. I’ve been really looking forward to this day, where I get to speak to you from the Word and from my heart. Today we are going to be talking about Walking in the Light, by Following the Light, and we’re going to be looking at a passage in Matthew and Mark, but first, we must define the Light. The light is Jesus, it’s that simple. Did you know that Jesus is called the light of the world? John 1:4-5 says this, “In him (Jesus) was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.” Again in verse 9 John says, “The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.” Jesus says this about himself in John 8:12, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Did you also know that Jesus is the author and perfecter of our faith? In Hebrews 12:2 it says, “Let us fix our eyes upon Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” If Jesus is the author/creator/designer of our faith, and he is also The Light, wouldn’t it make the most sense to follow what he says??? So let’s get exceedingly practical this morning. Let’s follow our light, Jesus, and listen to what HE says, about walking in the light.

Our passages today are Matthew 22:34-40 and Mark 12:28-31. These are parallel passages that give us the same account, but in slightly different words. So set the stage for the scene we’re about to walk into. You guys know who the Pharisees were right? Those super uppity rule followers that were supposed to be teaching people about God, but instead were always grumping at people for not following the Law; which really meant the extra rules they put into place to make it look like you were really holy? Yeah those guys. Well, one of those Pharisees comes and asks Jesus this question, “What is the greatest commandment?” Now on the surface this doesn’t seem like that big of a deal, but this Pharisee asks Jesus this question because he and his buddies overheard that Jesus had silenced this other group called the Sadducees. The Sadducees were a little different from the Pharisees in how they believed about God, but they didn’t like Jesus much either. All that to say, Jesus shut down the Sadducees who were trying to get him all tripped up in his words, so the Pharisees thought they would give it a shot. So we pick up the story here in Matthew 22:34-40.

“Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the Law, tested him with this question, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?” Jesus replied, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hand on these two commandments.”

The Gospel of Mark has this same account in it, and in chapter 12 verses 28-31 Mark writes, “One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” “The most important one,” Jesus replied, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

So, when Jesus is asked, “What is the greatest commandment?” Matthew and Mark both show us that Jesus responds by first quoting what is called the Shema, from Deuteronomy 6:5. The Shema is something that all of the Jewish people listening to this conversation would have known. It is like their statement of faith, and it is something that they recited every single day as a way of starting from a place of focus on God, and it is something that is still recited by devoted Jews today. Let’s read what Jesus says again in Mark 12, “: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’” Jesus is like, ‘Listen, this is a first things first kind of deal. Everything has to start from right here. The most important commandment is that we have to love God completely, with everything we’ve got.’ And Jesus is so good, that he doesn’t want us to be confused at all, so he breaks it down for us.

First, we have to love God with all of our heart. Everybody say HEART! When you think of your heart, what do you think of? Immediately we might think of the strong muscular organ in our chest that is pumping blood through our body, keeping us alive. Some of us might start thinking of our hearts in a more emotional kind of way; like it is the place where our emotions stem from. In the time the Bible was written, the heart could also stand for the center of a person, or the “inner self” of a person especially when it comes to emotion. In this particular case Jesus says to love the Lord your God with all your heart, he is saying that we should love God with all of our affections. You know that feeling that you have for someone when you just love them and you can help it. You know what I’m talking about? That feeling you get for someone where no matter how mad they make you, or how irritating they are, you just can’t help but love them? All the parents in the room know what I’m talking about! You kids, man, are so irritating sometimes, but we just can’t help but love you. THAT is what Jesus is saying! He is saying, listen, love God so deep in your heart, that no matter what you have going on, no matter how messed up everything feels, no matter how frustrated you are with him because he’s not answering your prayers the way you want him to, or he hasn’t given you what you wanted, or he is making you wait longer than you want to… When you stop, and really think about God, and who he is, and what he’s done, you cannot help but LOVE him deeply, with all of your heart, with all those ushy, gushy feelings of affection you have inside. How do we get there? You have to spend time with him, getting to know him, being willing to listen to him.

Next, we need to love God with all of our soul. Everybody say SOUL! Now everybody say PSUKAY! Psukay is the Greek word that is used for soul, and it means life, soul, or self; the part of us that was breathed in by God. This can also be used to mean the center of oneself, or the center of one’s will or desire. So, if we think about loving God with all of our will and our desires, what does that look like? Are the things that we desire God honoring? Does our will, yearn for things that are good, or things that are maybe not so good? When we are presented with an opportunity to do something that could be fun, but in our gut we know is wrong, what do we do? Does your will for your life, line up with the will that GOD has for your life? You see, God doesn’t just want our affections, he wants us to love him by consciously making choices that show our love for him. Isn’t that what he has done for us? Romans 5:8 says, “God demonstrated his love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” God chose us. Not because of lovey feelings, not because of obligation, but because it was his will and his desire to love us, die for us, and save us from eternal death. But how do we line up our will with God’s will? By listening to the Holy Spirit. Jesus tells us that he is sending us his Spirit to advocate for us, teach us, guide us. Here’s the thing though, are we listening? Jesus says in John 10:27 says, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” Do you know the sound of the Spirit’s voice? He is faithful to guide you, but you have to listen. We listen by getting quiet, having zero distractions, and waiting for him to speak. When we approach him with ears that desire to hear, he is faithful to speak.

The third way Jesus says we must love the Lord is with all of our mind. Everybody say MIND! When he speaks of our mind he is talking about our thoughts and our intellect. An easy example of this is all of the super smart people who spend hours and hours researching and studying the Bible, so that they can then write commentaries and books and make videos so that others can understand the Bible better. They are devoting their thinking and learning to furthering the Kingdom of God. Are we all required to be biblical scholars of that degree? NO! But does it show God we love him when use what we are learning to glorify him? YES! My wife had a friend that she grew up with who was really great at math, and in college he told us that he wanted to prove the existence of God through math. I was like, “bro is that even possible?” I have no clue cause I am not that smart, but man is it awesome that he wanted to use his skills in math for that reason! So what is it that you enjoy learning about? Science, English, literature, music, art, cars, construction, etc? Whatever it is, you CAN use it to glorify God, share his Gospel, and further his Kingdom, and that IS and act of love toward God. Lastly, we need to spend time thinking about God and his Word. We should absolutely ponder his truths and how they can change our hearts and minds. We should spend time having conversation with Jesus through the Holy Spirit and ask him to make things clear to us when we read something in the Bible and don’t understand. Focusing our thoughts on him is an act of love!

So we are to love God with all of our hearts, soul, mind, and strength. Everybody say STRENGTH! Jesus tells us that we are to love God with all of our physical ability meaning: physical strength, endurance, talents and abilities. Those of you who are athletes, how are you using your athleticism for God? Two athletes that I think of right away who used their platform as professional athletes to give God glory are David Robinson, former center for the San Antonio Spurs, and more recently in football Tim Tebow. These two men were constantly giving glory to God every chance they got while playing the sports they loved. But there is more to our physicality than strength. What about our endurance? When someone comes to us with questions about our faith, do we have the patience and endurance to sit through what could be a long conversation? Or do we have the endurance to sit with someone who is struggling or has just experienced a loss? It shows God that we love him when we love others in this way. You see Jesus’s ministry is not recognized for feats of strength, but he showed great physical strength during his ministry through endurance, spending long days teaching, preaching, and healing. Not to mention what he endured on the cross! Are we also willing to show love in this way; by enduring long hours of service to others?

And this brings us to the final point. In Matthew and Mark, Jesus tells us that the greatest commandment is to, “Love the Lord our God with all of our heart and all of our soul and all of our mind and all of our strength. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All of the law and prophets hang on these two commandments.” Fam, if we love God with everything we are, we will love everything he loves, and God loves people. Unconditionally, actively, and sacrificially. It is not always convenient to love others; it is not always easy to love others; it is not always simple to love others. But Jesus tells us that one of the greatest things we can do, is to love others like we love ourselves. Now let’s be honest, we all love ourselves A LOT. We like to take care of ourselves and have nice things, and eat good food, and have the best phones, or AirPods, or gaming systems, or whatever. And I am not saying that those things are wrong, please hear me. Those things are not wrong in and of themselves, BUT, if they keep us from loving other people through serving them, or if they cause us to harm others in our words or in our deeds, are they good then? Listen, if we love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, we are loving God with our ENTIRE BEING. And if we love God with our entire being, we are bound to start loving the things that he loves, and that is other people! The outpouring of our love for God will be the outpouring of love for others, in word and in deed. So share the Gospel with someone, sit with someone who is struggling, say something nice to someone just because, provide someone with something you know they need but were not expecting it, mow someone’s lawn, carry someone’s groceries, give someone a present just because, PRAY for people and with people. These are just a few easy ways to love your neighbor.

So if we are to walk in the light, we must follow THE LIGHT, Jesus, who is the author and perfecter of our faith. Jesus tells us that the greatest commandment, one of the greatest ways to walk in the light, is to love the Lord your God with all of your heart and all of your soul and with all of your mind and with all of your strength. In other words, love God with all you have, with your entire life! AND as an outpouring of that love for God, love our neighbors as ourselves. Now, if you’re like me, you might hear this and think, well I’m already out because I can’t do all of this stuff perfectly. The best part is, because Jesus already did it perfectly, and died on the cross to save us from our brokenness and sin, we don’t have to be perfect. God does not desire perfect love, he desires authentic love. So when we screw up, we just go to God and say, “Hey God, I love you but I screwed up. I made a mess of it. Please forgive me.” And then we thank him for the forgiveness we have in Jesus and we move on forgiven, and desiring to grow in love for God and love for others! It’s so good that he has not left us alone to fumble around in the darkness and figure out this life on our own. No, he has given us our greatest example, Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who lights the way for us and tells us, “It starts with loving God with your entire being, and then, love others.” Let’s pray.