We Value Holy Love pt. 1

Introduction

Tonight, I want to speak on part one of our third core value: Loving God with Our Everything.

The text that we’ll be focusing on is what is known as the Great Commandment.. Found in Matthew 22, Mark 12, and Luke 10. We’ll be reading out of Mark chapter 12.

Mark 12:28 And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’

Prayer

What Jesus is teaching here is what the Word of God has already stated at this point for over a thousand years. He’s quoting Deuteronomy 6:4-5, which was such an important point of focus in the life of believers that faithful Jews would repeat this scripture at least twice per day. This was the greatest command for God’s people during Moses’ time, was the greatest command for God’s people during the time that Jesus walked the earth and is the greatest command for you and me, God’s people, today.

And when Jesus says that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, He’s not saying that heart, soul, mind, and strength are these rigid parts of human existence and you have to make sure you love Him in this way and this way and this way and this way. He’s simply covering it ALL. He’s saying that our job as children of God is to love God with our everything.

So let’s dive in and see what God’s Word says it looks like to love God with our EVERYTHING (heart, soul, mind, and strength).

The first thing we need to understand is this…

In order to love God with our everything, we have to recognize Him as LORD.

E. V. 30 says “you shall love the Lord your God with (your everything)”

I am all about relationship with God. God is all about relationship with us. It’s right there in our mission statement, and loving God with your everything certainly involves relationship… we’ll talk about that tonight. But before we establish what kind of relationship we have with God, we first have to recognize and submit to His Lordship.

Lord is a word that we don’t use a lot today, especially in American culture. We’re the land of the free… the land of don’t tell me how to live my life… I’m gonna live the way I want to live… that IS the American dream. And thank God we have the liberties here in this country that we have… because part of the freedom we practice is freedom to worship our God without any real persecution. We are incredibly blessed to live in the place we live.

But because this is what we’re born into, how we’re raised, what we’re accustomed to, it’s sometimes incredibly difficult for us to identify with what it means to be Lorded over.

If anyone asked us “Is Christ Lord?” I think (I hope) that we would all respond the same way: “Well of course He is.” But we need to truly examine ourselves to see if He is truly the Lord of our lives.

The Greek word that Jesus uses for Lord here is Kurios: master, owner, supreme authority, controller. In other words, if Jesus is my Lord, then my life is completely His. He has the final say in any decision that I make. Everything I do in life is controlled by His leading. And if we’re going to love God with our everything, then He has to be our Lord.

There’s a reason that the Apostle Paul refers to Himself as a slave or a servant for Christ. He recognizes that His life is not his own..it belongs to his LORD. And it’s an attitude that we should all have. Why? Our life is His because He paid for it, in blood, on the cross. We owe everything to Him.

And if we call Him Lord, then we probably call ourselves His followers.

I. I think we would all identify as followers of Christ, right? Here’s what Jesus says it looks like to be a follower of Christ.. Luke 9:23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

When Jesus says “deny yourself”, He means that we examine ourselves every day and if there’s anything in our lives… any thought, any practice, any emotion, any THING at all that takes us out of the will of God, we die to it. A cross is a device of execution, of death. To take up our cross like Jesus told us to is to die to anything that doesn’t align with the will of God.

Read v. 24. Verse 24 means that if we are going to live a life of devotion to Christ, as not only our Savior but also our Lord, then we have to recognize that our life completely belongs to Him.

Transition: And while we are called to devote our lives to Him, to live a life that’s pleasing to Him… we have to understand that this is not an easy task. If we’re going to live a life fully devoted to the Lord, then that devotion can’t come strictly from a place of discipline. It must come from a place of LOVE.

To love the Lord our God with our everything requires us to devote our lives to Him completely. God gave the Israelites the 10 commandments in Exodus, and He gave them this great command in Deuteronomy. How did that work out for them? How good of a job did they do of keeping those commandments? NOT GOOD.

The Old Testament shows us a lot. And one of the most important principles that it reveals to us is that we cannot, by our own will and strength, uphold the Law. That’s why us imperfect people have a redeemer in Jesus Christ, amen.

Picture of cross over chasm. And when Jesus Christ came to die for our sins, He not only offered us eternal life. But through the cross, we are able to live in communion with, we are able to be connected with God. Because of the cross, our sin no longer separates us from God. And we can live in relationship with HIM!

And that leads us to the next point…

If we’re going to love God with our everything, then that love must come from an intimate relationship with Him.

E. The greatest commandment is what? It’s to love the Lord our God with our everything.

Listen to what Jesus says about love and commandments John 14:15 If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

And here’s what this verse may look like on the surface… it may look like Jesus is saying, “If you want to prove you love me, then you’ll prove it by keeping my commandments!” That’s not the heart of the message.

What He’s saying is “if you are truly loving me, then keeping my commandments will come natural to you.” Obedience is a natural response to loving Christ.

We see the same principle in James ch. 2 where God’s Word says that “faith without works is dead”. Many wrongly take that to mean that if we do enough good works, then we can be saved and we can be made right with God. If you know the true Gospel, though, you know that only faith can save us. What it actually means is that if we have true, genuine faith in our hearts and a true, genuine love for Christ in our hearts, then good works will naturally flow in our lives.

If we have the love of God in us, then doing what is pleasing to Him will begin to flow naturally in our lives.

I. So how do we get to a place where we’re truly loving Jesus? Well, that’s where relationship comes in.

Our whole mission is to discover God’s will and walk in God’s will through what? Through an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.

Above all else, we want to know God intimately, and most importantly, we want to be known by Him.

There are many people in the church, there always have been, always will be, who look the part and act the part but do not truly know Him and are not truly KNOWN BY HIM.

Let me show you what I mean here in what I think is the scariest passage in all of scripture…

Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

You think God is against prophecy and casting out demons and doing mighty works? Of course not! Those things glorify His name.

God’s not against fulfilling all the sacraments of the Catholic Church… those things are great. But you can do all those things and still not be known by God.

God’s not against memorizing tons of scripture in the Baptist church. Memorizing scripture is great, and I recommend that everyone make it a part of their walk with God. But you can memorize the whole Bible and still not be known by God.

God is not against the signs and wonders that Pentecostal churches put such an emphasis on. I believe in the gifts of the Spirit and I believe that, according to God’s Word, they build up the church. But Jesus says right here that you can put a huge emphasis on those things and STILL not be known by God.

God is about way more than checking boxes and doing things that look good and religious on the outside.

And God is not about us seeking the benefits of Him only. He’s about us seeking Him and loving Him. And when we do that, the benefits will naturally follow.

God is about intimate relationship with His people. Because it’s only through that intimate relationship that we know Jesus and are known by Jesus.

John 10:27, Jesus said My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. How does a sheep make sure it hears the shepherd’s voice? It walks close to Him. That’s what relationship is… walking closely w God

You know how my relationship with Haley began? We spent a ton of time together. We got to know each other…

You know how my relationship with God began? I spent a ton of time with Him, and through His Word and through prayer time, I got to know Him intimately.

And Haley and I are two imperfect people who live together, so things aren’t always 100% perfect. But I want to tell you, humbly, that we have a pretty great marriage.. Because 1) GOD HAS BLESSED US TREMENDOUSLY and 2) Because we make time to intentionally serve one another and to intentionally spend time with each other. We nurture our relationship. Somebody asked Haley recently, “Why do y’all take so many date nights?” It’s because we love each other and want to grow closer. We’re not just checking a box. We genuinely desire to be close and to be together. We intentionally nurture this relationship.

The same thing is true in a relationship with God. The relationship must be intentionally nurtured. Wake up in the morning and spend time with Jesus.. Not because it’s a box you need to check… but because you desire to spend time with your creator and grow closer to Him… and the more time you spend with Him, the closer you begin to walk with Him. That’s what an intimate relationship with Jesus looks like.

And that intimate relationship allows God to shape our hearts the way He wants. As a result of that intimate relationship, we live a life that is reflective of loving the Lord our God with our everything - our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

A. God is not concerned about the outside. He’s not concerned about our religiosity. He’s not concerned about us checking a box so we’ll look good to others. He’s concerned about the inside, about the condition of our hearts. Because if our hearts are right, then everything on the outside will take care of itself.

Proverbs 4:23 says Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.

If we are in an intimate relationship with Jesus, then our hearts become a fountain of His love. And the love of God is poured out on our relationships, at our jobs, in our conversations with fellow believers and unbelievers alike. When we walk in intimacy with Him, His love touches every part of our lives… And our hearts begin to align with His, then we become naturally obedient to His Word, and to His commandments. Amen?

In addition to that, when we walk closely with Jesus, we begin to naturally recognize that Christ, our Lord, is in control of every detail of our lives.

When an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ is the focal point of our lives, we begin to know Him like never before, we begin to follow Him like never before, we begin to LOVE HIM like never before, and we begin to trust Him like never before.

Last short point is this.. And it’s an important truth that we ALL need to hear right now.

When we love God with our everything, we release control of everything to Him.

Romans 8:28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good,[a] for those who are called according to his purpose.

This is a very popular verse, but this truth isn’t for everyone. It’s exclusively for those who love God.

The point is it’s not our job to figure out how he’s going to work all the things out. It’s our job to love him with our everything, to seek him first, to keep our focus on him… But when we do that he will work everything together for good.

I promise you.. God’s Word promises us.. that if we just focus on loving Him (that’s our part, that’s literally our number one priority in life, the greatest commandment), then He’ll work it all together for good (that’s His part). Amen?

Holy Communion

1 Corinthians 11:23…the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

We take Holy Communion to remember that sacrifice that Jesus made for us on the cross. It’s important that we slow down and appreciate the magnitude of this sacrament. It’s only by Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross that we have communion with God, that we have relationship with God, that we have forgiveness of sins, and that we have eternal life. In this ceremony, we fix our focus on Him and remember the incredible sacrifice that He made for us.

27 Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.

Let’s please take a few moments, search our hearts… and if there’s any unconfessed sin in our hearts, take this time now to repent to God and ask forgiveness.

Musicians and guys in the booth, you all please come forward to receive communion.

THIS TABLE IS OPEN TO ALL WHO ARE IN CHRIST. COME AND RECEIVE.