A Shift to Relationship (Matthew 22:37-40)

Sermon

Key Passage

Matthew 22:37–40 NIV

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 hang on these two commandments.”

VMP

We exist to reach the world for Jesus, one person at a time

We do this by creating Biblical disciples in relational environments

We are halfway through a sermon series entitled, “If you want to change the world”

The purpose behind this series is the recognition that our world has seen brokenness and evil and our eyes have seen the battle we face is really real.

Our world will give us all sorts of ideas and methods to change the world

Join this organization, believe these things, do these things, post these posts, yell at the world louder.

No amount of additional voices in our world will change the world.

Even if we were to slow down sin in this world, would it solve the eternal problem that people are dying without knowing Jesus?

We exist as a church to fight the root cause of the problems in this world.

The root cause is a heart that is far from Jesus.

We want to reach that world for Jesus, one person at a time.

That “one person at a time” part is what we are going to talk about today.

Here is where we have walked in our journey of changing the world

If you want to change the world, you need to leave your nets

If you want to change the world, you need to shift to a Biblical foundation

Today, if you want to change the world, you need to shift to relationship

Our topic today is one of the most misunderstood concepts of discipleship that exist.

We have spoken regularly about how we cannot separate the message of Jesus from the method of Jesus.

But in our world’s attempt to simplify the Gospel, many have eliminated the method of Jesus and only preach the message of Jesus.

This leads to a lot of people who know a whole bunch, but their lives are not maturing and growing how the Bible says it ought to grow.

Today we are going to take a journey through the Bible and get a broad view of what God’s plan for humanity is.

It is like what I imagine the Grand Canyon is like.

If you went there with a pair of binoculars, you would see a bunch of stuff that would be amazing.

But sometimes you have to take off the binoculars and look at the entire landscape and stand in awe of what God created.

Today, we are setting down the binoculars and looking at the Scriptures in their totality on one subject.

Sermon

For much of my life, I believed that my entire walk with God revolved around “Me & Jesus”.

Maturity was found in knowing more about Jesus and learning about the Bible.

Everything that God designed for me was to know Him and be in His presence.

This is true. We should know God and we should desire to be in His presence.

What I missed was the overwhelming instruction from God that He created me for relationship with Him.

But He also created me for relationship with you.

If I miss one of these, it actually impacts the other. We’ll talk about this.

We believe that we are designed in creation for relationship with God, first and foremost.

Secondly, we are designed for relationship with one another.

I don’t believe you can have a “Me and Jesus” relationship, and be a mature believer.

When we look at the message of Jesus, we find the Gospel.

The truth of how God became flesh and dwelt among us. Lived a sinless life and went to the cross in the place of sinners.

How He is the King of the Kingdom of Heaven and that we are called to live, serve and be identified in that Kingdom through discipleship.

So what we will do is look at how God has created us as human beings, and how He continues to guide us in His will and His plan.

At Creation

Genesis 2:15–18 NIV

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

At this point of creation, what was the condition of the world?

There was no sin.

Adam was in the completed Garden of Eden

God spoke to Adam and Adam walked with God.

It was holy, perfect and God was known and experienced in perfection.

But this is not only what man was created for.

So God created Eve to be with Him.

If a relationship with God was everything, then there would have been no need for Eve.

But God said, “I created you for more.”

That “more” wasn’t in greater capacity to know God.

That “more” was in fulfilling the relational fingerprint of God with others.

Humanity was created by God for relationship.

In the Law

Deuteronomy 6:5–7 NIV

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

Leviticus 19:18 NIV

“ ‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.

We will see Jesus go back to these two commands in His ministry.

He will combine them into one passage, that is our key passage for today.

But Jesus didn’t create something new in His ministry about God’s plan of relationship with other people.

Jesus simply identified what God had revealed to Moses centuries before.

This was God’s plan from the beginning of the law.

Not just to love God.

This is important.

But it is also the will of God to love others.

10 Commandments

In the 10 Commandments that God gave Moses and the nation of Israel it affirms this principle.

We are called to love God

We are also called to love one another.

It isn’t either/or. It is both.

And if we try to make it all about one or the other, we are not going to grow and mature how God created us to grow and mature.

Love the Lord your God

You shall have no other gods before me.

Do not make idols and do not worship them

Love the Lord your God

Do not take the Lord’s name in vain

Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy

Rather than thinking of these as rules, let’s think of these in terms of relationship with God.

God is setting boundaries for what healthy relationship looks like with Him

He shows us things that are harmful in our relationship with Him

He shows us things that honor relationship with Him

Remember the Sabbath

When we see this as a rule, we begin to define the rule.

When we see this as a relational command, we see the heart of God wanting us to put our labor on the side and spend time with Him.

Love your neighbor as yourself

Honor your father and mother

Do not murder

Do not commit adultery

Love your neighbor as yourself

Do not steal

Do not lie

Do not covet other people’s things

The last 60% of the 10 Commandments have to do with our relationships with one another

Again, the framework of God’s clear instruction to the people have to do with how we interact with one another.

How can we step away from the 10 commandments and say, “My spiritual maturity is just about me and God”?

It isn’t, God’s guidance for us as human beings, created in His image, is to be in relationship with Him, and also grow in relationship with others.

Jesus’ Ministry

In Jesus’ ministry, we see that He gave very explicit instructions about how we ought to make disciples:

Matthew 28:19–20 NIV

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

That “everything I have commanded you” includes what we talked about last week with a Biblical foundation.

Jesus’ words have to be the foundation of all disciples of Jesus.

But, we also have to look at what some of those words actually say.

Matthew 22:37–40 NIV

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 hang on these two commandments.”

Jesus’ commands reiterated God’s overall plan for humanity.

That we would first love God. This is unquestioned.

When Jesus said, “The second is like it”

Jesus wasn’t giving this as a secondary command.

This wasn’t a lesser instruction.

Jesus equally and powerfully affirms that we are called to love God AND love one another.

Then He makes the statement that “all the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments.”

When Jesus says that “all of the law”, He is meaning that every instruction that God has given humanity to reveal His purpose, His nature and His truth revolve on what? Loving God AND loving others.

If you want to change the world, you need to know how you were created and fulfill that in the eyes of God.

John 13:34–35 NIV

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

We know the definition of a disciple here at Real Life

A disciple is following Jesus, being changed by Jesus, obedient to the mission of Jesus by making more disciples.

Following Jesus results in being changed by Jesus.

What does that change look like?

Loving one another.

This is the identifier of Jesus’ disciples

It is their love.

Not their depth of theology

Not their ability to answer every question

Not their great preaching skill

Not their display of miraculous abilities.

Love defined

1 Corinthians 13:1–7 NIV

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

In defining love, Paul says “It isn’t about knowledge. It isn’t about spirituality. You can have those things, and they are good. But without love, it is rendered worthless.”

Here is love.

Then he gives relational language the rest of the way.

Patient with who?

Kind to who?

Maturity as a disciple is loving one another.

The Holy Spirit

When we surrender our lives to Jesus Christ, we are given the Holy Spirit to live within us.

How do you know the Holy Spirit is living within us?

Galatians 5:22–23 NIV

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

I think you are seeing the theme.

The same thing that Jesus does within us as His followers is what the Holy Spirit does within us.

It’s almost like God is a relational God and He is consistently commanding us and equipping us to be people of relationship with the world around us.

We’re almost done with this Bible blitz...

The Early Church

Acts 2:42–47 NIV

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

How did the disciples live out their commission by Jesus to go and make disciples

The shared the MESSAGE OF JESUS WITH THE METHOD OF JESUS.

This is a relational community that loved one another and loved Jesus.

They were blessed by God.

Why do you think they were blessed by God?

Because they were obedient to obey and they taught the disciples to obey.

Jesus’ Prayer

As we conclude this broad picture of God’s plan for humanity and for His church, I want to take a peek into the heart of Jesus as He went to the cross.

John 17:20–23 NIV

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

Jesus’ prayer to the Father was that the church would love one another and live in the love of God.

In doing so, this would be the witness to a lost and dying world that Jesus Christ is Lord.

The Shift

1. Shift from Isolation to Community

Relational Discipleship: Following Jesus is not a solo sport. Growth happens best in authentic, accountable relationships where faith is lived out together.

Hang-up to Shift: Independence and busyness. Many believers guard their time and space, living in isolation or prioritizing individual pursuits over shared life. To disciple relationally, we must shift from a “me-and-God” mindset to a “we-are-following-Jesus-together” mindset.

This is God’s plan for you. God wants a church that is relational and unified. We don’t simply have the benefit of one another. We need one another.

This is obedience to Jesus

2. Shift from Knowledge-Only to Life-Sharing

Relational Discipleship: Discipleship is not merely passing along Bible knowledge but modeling and imitating Christ in everyday life. It’s about walking together through successes, failures, and ordinary rhythms.

Hang-up to Shift: Comfort and control. It feels safer to just sit in a class, listen to a sermon, or consume content without letting people into your real struggles. Relational discipleship requires vulnerability, transparency, and allowing others to speak into your life.

Knowledge is necessary for us to grow as a believer. But without relationship, knowledge will actually start working against our maturity.

The more you know and the less you understand and apply, the further you are from God’s heart.

A Biblical foundation alone is not and can not be maturity.

It is a Biblical foundation tied to a heart of relational love for the world around us.

This is where the truth of the Word of God directs us.

3. Shift from Consumer to Contributor

Relational Discipleship: Jesus’ method was life-on-life multiplication—teaching His followers to invest in others. Every believer is called to be a disciple who makes disciples, not just a consumer of spiritual goods.

Hang-up to Shift: Self-focus and convenience. Many Christians treat church as a place to “get fed” rather than a family to engage with. To shift, we must trade convenience for commitment, moving from “What do I get?” to “Who can I invest in?”

This shift moves us to a deeper Kingdom where people are investing in other people to grow in depth and maturity.

This can only be done in the context of relationship

This shift also moves us into an expansion of the Kingdom of God.

Jesus said in our unity, “The world will know that You sent Me.”

The world is changed when we understand the necessity of:

THE MESSAGE OF JESUS COMBINED WITH THE METHOD OF JESUS

Conclusion

If you want to change the world, it begins here—loving God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and loving your neighbor as yourself. That’s not optional. That’s not extra credit. That’s the very center of God’s plan for humanity.

We’ve seen it from creation to the law, from Jesus’ teaching to the early church, from the fruit of the Spirit to the very prayer of Jesus before the cross. God is relentless in His design: we are created for relationship—with Him and with each other.

So, the question is not if we are going to be relational disciples, but how. Will we stay isolated, consumer-minded, and content with knowledge that never transforms? Or will we shift—into community, into life-sharing, into contributing so that others might know Jesus?

If you want to change the world, it won’t happen through louder voices or bigger platforms. It happens one person at a time. It happens when disciples love God deeply and love people authentically. That’s when the world begins to notice.

So let’s choose today to live out the message of Jesus by embracing the method of Jesus. Let’s be a church that doesn’t just talk about love but actually lives it—because in our unity, in our love for one another, the world will know that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Gospel

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