Shema Week 2

Shema Week 2 - "With All You Are" Deuteronomy 6:4-9(nasb) '"Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. ' "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might." text: Deuteronomy 6:6 - "And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart." Big Idea: Because God is undivided, His people are called to have undivided love - not a segment of life set aside for religion, or just showing up for church....but every faculty a person has. And that love has to take root internally before it can be lived out. ~Our love for God is in our every day life.... ~yes our love for God extends past Sunday/Wednesday ~ in light of this scripture....... We respond to it. HEAR OBEY RESPOND 1. Love as covenant (a sacred binding promise) of loyalty, not just emotion - In the Ancient Near East, "love" for a king was legal and relational language for total allegiance, not just affection. o 1 Kings 3:3 (nasb) - 'Now Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of his father David, except he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. ' ~Solomon's love for the LORD is described in terms of walking in Hissstatutes - love expressed as conduct. o John 14:15 (nasb) - Jesus makes the same link: "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." o 1 John 5:3(nasb). 'For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. ' o 2. Heart, soul, and might - the whole person, no remainder o Heart (levav) - the seat of mind and will in Hebrew thought, not just feeling. Proverbs 4:23 - "keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life." o Soul (nephesh) - the whole self, the entire life. o Psalm 103:1 - "Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me." o Might (me'od) - literally "muchness" - resources, strength, everything you have. Proverbs 3:9 - "Honor the LORD with your wealth" - devotion that includes material resources. o Mark 12:30 - (nasb) '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.' ' 3. Internalization before external practice - Verse 6 insists the words be "on your heart" before any of the practices in verses 7-9 are commanded. Obedience without internal root becomes hollow performance. o Isaiah 29:13 - God's rebuke of a people who "honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me" - the danger of skipping this step. o Jeremiah 31:33 - the new covenant promise: "I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts" - o Romans 2:29 - Paul's language of circumcision "of the heart" as the substance behind the sign. 4. Total devotion, not perfect devotion - This isn't a bar that demands flawless performance before it counts; it's a direction of the whole person, pursued over a lifetime. o Psalm 119:2 - "Blessed are those who... seek him with their whole heart" - seeking, not arriving. o Philippians 3:12 - Paul: "Not that I have already obtained this... but I press on" - wholehearted pursuit, not sinless completion. Application questions: * Which of the three - heart, soul, or might (mind/will, whole life, or resources) - is the area you most withhold from God? * What would it look like this week to let God's word actually settle on your heart before trying to perform obedience?