Impact 2024-3-Jesus--Lord of All, or Not at All
IMPACT 2024 • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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1. Review
1. Review
Let’s review for a minute.
The first night we looked at truth.
We talked about Francis Schaffer’s two-story house.
The first floor being objective truth.
Remember we used the example that my computer is on the podium.
Then the second floor being subjective truth.
We used the example that Coke is better than Pepsi.
Then we talked about the battle over what will influence us the most.
Which often boils down to culture or the Bible?
Then last night we looked at what it takes to build a solid foundation.
We talked about the two basic reasons a person searches for truth.
First some search for truth hoping to find the answers to live by.
Or second, some people search for truth to figure out how they can find an exit—or escape or avoid living by the truth.
2. The Author of Truth
2. The Author of Truth
Now here’s the thing. We cannot live by the “truth” unless the author of Truth is the ruler of our lives. Look at John 8:31-32, Jesus said,
Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings.
And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Late in the book of John, Jesus tells us where “truth” comes from. Look at John 14:6.
Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.
Tonight, I hope that you can see three things.
I want you to know that the only way a person can have a relationship with God is by having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. He is the ONLY way to God.
I want you to know that Jesus is the Truth! If you and I are going to discover what truth is we are going to have to discover Jesus, because He said He is TRUTH!
And I want you to see is that Jesus is Life. In fact, in the second part of John 10:10, Jesus said, “My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life”
John 10:10 (NLT)
The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.
That means that the only way to have a rich, satisfying, and amazing life is to have a deep relationship with Jesus Christ.
How do you have a rich, satisfying, and amazing, deep relationship with Jesus? It begins with the greatest commandment.
3. The Greatest Commandment
3. The Greatest Commandment
In Mark 12, we’re told that the religious leaders were looking for a way to arrest Jesus, but it says they feared the people.
So they send some of the Pharisees and Herodians (two groups that don’t get along) to trap him.
While Jesus is answering these religious leaders’ questions another man come up.
This new man comes and enters into the conversation. He likes what he is hearing Jesus say, so he decides to ask Jesus a question. Let’s pick up the story in Mark 12:28.
One of the teachers of religious law was standing there listening to the debate. He realized that Jesus had answered well, so he asked, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
One of the teachers of the law came up in the middle of a debate that Jesus was having with other religious leaders.
He listened to the answers that Jesus gave and was impressed so he decided to get involved in the debate by asking Jesus his own question.
Notice the reason he is asking the question—he wants to see if Jesus knows His stuff!
The question: Which is the greatest command?
Of all the commands that Moses gave which one is the greatest command?
Jesus answers the man with the greatest commandment.
Mark 12:29–30 (NLT)
Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord.
And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’
The God we serve is ONE God!
The command! Love the Lord your God! We are to love God with four things:
With all your heart
With all your soul
With all your mind
With all your strength.
To answer him, Jesus quotes a passage out of Deuteronomy that the Jews called the Shema. It says:
“Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.
And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.
First, we are told that Yahweh—the LORD—our God is one God!
Yahweh (the LORD) is God’s proper name.
God—Elohim is His title, and in the Hebrew it is in the plural form.
But it is important to understand that we don’t have three gods!
We worship one God who has three parts! God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Now that may be confusing, but all three are both dependent on each other while being independent at the same time. Three in One!
We are to love the LORD God—this means that we are to make a conscious decision to follow Him, and obeying Him is not only implied but required. We are going to see that we are to love God with the totality of our being!
Next, we are told that we are to love the Yahweh our Elohim with three different parts:
1. We are to love Him with all our heart—since there is no word for mind or brain in the Hebrew, we are told to love God with our heart.
To the Jew this was the center of their being—their cognitive and emotional center.
Thus, we are to make a conscious choice to love God,
And we are to make an emotional choice to love God.
2. Next, we are to love Him with all our soul.
The Hebrew word is nephesh or the center of our personality.
It is also the part of us that lasts forever.
3. Finally, we are to love God with all our strength, that is our physical body and all that we can do!
When we put the three together the command becomes clear. We are to love God with the totality of our being—love Him with all of me!
4. The Second Greatest Command
4. The Second Greatest Command
But Jesus doesn’t stop there. He also gives the man the second greatest commandment:
The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”
Jesus says the second greatest commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself!
In other words, we are to love the people around us!
The man’s response.
The man’s response.
I love this man’s response to Jesus. He actually says to Jesus, “Good Job!” Look at verse 32.
The teacher of religious law replied, “Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth by saying that there is only one God and no other.
And I know it is important to love him with all my heart and all my understanding and all my strength, and to love my neighbor as myself. This is more important than to offer all of the burnt offerings and sacrifices required in the law.”
It is obvious that this man has no idea to whom he is speaking.
He praises Jesus for His response and actually confirms that the man agrees with Jesus! Isn’t that nice?
But Jesus has a response for the man, and it is not condemning or condescending, but confirming.
Realizing how much the man understood, Jesus said to him, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” And after that, no one dared to ask him any more questions.
Jesus noticed the man’s wise answer, and he tells the man that he is not far from the kingdom of God.
The man almost understands who Jesus is—He is the Messiah.
Finally, from that point on, the religious leaders stop asking Jesus questions, because Jesus always puts them in their place.
5. What kind of relationship do you have with Jesus?
5. What kind of relationship do you have with Jesus?
So here’s the question.
“What kind of relationship do you have now with Jesus?”
Once you have the answer to the first question, we must face the second question.
“What kind of relationship do you want to have with Jesus?”
Here are some choices:
Christian/Believer
I have no doubt that many of you here at camp this week know Jesus.
You have accepted Him as your Savior, and that is a good thing.
But Jesus wants to be more than just your “Savior.”
He wants to be more than your “get-out-of-hell-free” card.
You see, Jesus wants to be the MASTER, the RULER, the LORD of your life.
The question I have for you tonight is simple.
Will you commit to making Jesus the foundation of your life?
Will you accept His rule over your life?
That means that you will do what His Word, the Bible says to do, and you will follow Him by faith—even when you don’t understand and can’t see where He is taking you.
Unbeliever
Some of you hear tonight may not really understand what it means to accept Jesus as your Savior.
So let me take a minute and share with you what I’m talking about.
In Romans 3:23 the Bible says,
For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.
Illustration: ROCK.
Romans 6:23 tells us:
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.
Illustration: WAGES
Romans 5:8 tells us,
But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.
Romans 10:9-10,
If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.
Romans 10:13,
For “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Then in Ephesians 2:8-9 we read,
God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God.
Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.
If you are one of the people who has never placed your faith in Jesus to get you to heaven,
And IF you haven’t asked Jesus to be the Lord of your life,
I want to challenge you to stay behind tonight so that one of our counselors can talk to you and help you understand the truths of what I just talked about.
6. Two Challenges
6. Two Challenges
So tonight, I’ve laid out two challenges.
Challenge One:
Challenge One:
As I said just a minute ago, the first challenge is for those of you that have never trusted Jesus as your Savior.
I want to plead with you to ask Jesus into your life.
I would hate for you to spend an eternity separated from Jesus!
Challenge Two:
Challenge Two:
The second challenge is for those of you who have accepted Jesus as your Savior, but you are not living for Him.
I want to challenge you to decide tonight that you are going to serve Him with all of your life.
Remember one of the verses that we began with?
Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings.
And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
The idea of “remain faithful to my teachings,” means living by what the Word of God says.
And Jesus said living by the Word of God you will know the truth and the truth will set you free!
So TWO CHALLENGES—
Get to know Jesus for the first time and accept Him as your Savior, so you can begin learning how to make Him your Lord.
Or if you already know Jesus as your Savior, will you commit to follow Him with all your heart, and all you soul, and all your strength—loving Him and following Him with ALL of you.
[PRAYER]