This is the Way

We have been going through our First Things series.

Week one we covered the foundation we stand on and that is the Word of God - following from that we covered the gospel.

Week three we tackled worship and this week we talk about community

Not just community but biblical, God-centered community

Matthew 22:37–40 CSB

37 He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the greatest and most important command. 39 The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. 40 All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.”

This chapter in Matthew begins with a parable about a wedding banquet where the invited guests refused to come and even killed the servants the king sent to retrieve them. Then the king sent and invited whoever would come. Still, there some who tried to get in but weren’t properly dressed so he was evicted…

Next the religious leaders get involved, trying to trap Jesus.

They ask about paying taxes, then they pose a ridiculous scenario about marriage in the resurrection (asked by those who don’t believe in the resurrection)

Still they couldn’t trap Him so they turn to THE question - which command is the greatest?

Jesus gives them two - basically, love God and love others.

Jesus gave them more than just a checklist, He gave them the way to live, He gave them the sweet spot of life, He showed them community.

But biblical community requires a couple of things…

Our relationship with God must be right before community can thrive.

Jesus said, “This is the greatest and most important command” - love God with everything you are.

This is our vertical relationship, the relationship with have with God

This isn’t just a nice suggestion - it is the foundation. Everything else will be built on this.

If our relationship with God is out of whack all others will be as well

We cannot truly love people the right way if we don’t love God the right way first

Jesus says we must love God with our “heart, soul and mind” - thats everything - all that we love, all that we cherish, our hopes, dreams, finances, you name it… everything

Also, we cannot love God just when its convenient, or when it feels right… we are to love all the time, He does

Honestly, if you think about it, when the vertical is off we start trying to get from people what only God can give (looking for love in all the wrong places)

We try to find our identity, our purpose and affirmation - that is too much to put on another broken, sinful human

The reality is, community doesn’t create our relationship with God - our relationship with God creates the kind of community worth having.

Our relationship with others is the evidence of our right relationship with God.

Let’s be honest… dealing with people is hard. (don’t point)

Jesus didn’t say “love God” and then stop. He immediately followed it with “love your neighbor as yourself”

That is not a coincidence - that is the test.

It is easy to say we love God - that is what the religious leaders were doing, there were justifying all their actions as okay because they loved God

Jesus was telling them that the cannot just put on a religious show and demonstrate love for other people

You can come to church, sing the songs at the top of your lungs, give, serve and do everything churchy right

Then walk out these doors and destroy any witness you had by the way you treat another human being.

The horizontal relationships we have are the evidence of the vertical one.

If I truly love God with all my heart, soul and mind - that is going to overflow to the people around me… It has to!

1 John 4:20–21 “20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and yet hates his brother or sister, he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother or sister whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And we have this command from him: The one who loves God must also love his brother and sister.”

We are going to have issues because we are not perfect and neither is anyone else - people are going to frustrate us, they are going to irritate us and they are going to disappoint us - and we are going to do the same to them

Let me clear here - it is bad enough when we treat others poorly and yes that hurts our witness in this world BUT what is worse is when the church begins to attack one another - this will destroy any credibility we might have in this world.

If we cannot love each other as brothers and sisters then why would anyone want to be a part of what we have - they can feel loved at the local bar just as easy

Jesus tied our love of God and our love of people together because when we remember how much grace God has given us, it should become second nature to extend that grace to somebody else.

You want to see someones invisible relationship with God - watch how they treat people.

The sweet spot of life is found in biblical community.

A “sweet spot” is the optimal point, location, or combination of factors that produces the best possible result with the least amount of effort or friction.

The sweet spot we need to live in is that relational intersection where our vertical relationship with God intersects or horizontal relationships with others

This is where true biblical community lives - when we are in community with God and community with others - both at the same time

Jesus said, Matthew 22:40 “40 All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.””

Everything written in the Word of God, every command, every promise, every hope, all hang on loving God with all we are and loving people as we are loved

The Ten Commandments literally follow this - the first 4 point to our relationship with God (no other gods, no idols, not misusing God’s name, and keeping the Sabbath)

The last 6 point to our relationship with people (honor our parents, do not murder, no adultery, don’t steal, don’t lie, and don’t covet)

If everything in the Word hang on this then so does our church and community

We can have community without God but that is just a social club

We can have God without community but that was not His design and we will struggle and miss what God intended

This is why the enemy works to divide the church - because when we are living life in that sweet spot the enemy knows we are dangerous

We were never meant to do this alone - we are not meant to figure out this Christian life in isolation

God designed us for this - vertical and horizontal, together, in community

That is the sweet spot. This is the way.

Here is the question - where are you living right now? Maybe you are stuck checking off some list of religious activities but missing the heart of the Father. Maybe you are so focused on keeping the peace with people that God has been neglected. Maybe, you are right there in the sweet spot - loving God with everything you have and letting that overflow into every relationship around you,

Jesus didn’t give us a complicated system. He gave us a way. Love God. Love people. That’s it. And when we live there, at that intersection, that is is where life works, that is where community thrives, and that is where this church becomes exactly what God designed us to be.

If you want to find your way to that point in life, that sweet spot I have been talking about if begins here John 14:6 “6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”