The Greatest Commandment: Are You Hearing What I'm Saying?!

Story Time

Church family, today’s sermon is going to be short and to the point. Look to your neighbor and say “Neighbor, can you hear what I’m saying?!”

Before we go further, I want to ask everyone hear today or who is watching and listening a question that I heard another pastor ask her congregation: Are you present to get a Word from God, or are you here to be changed by the Living Word?! Let me tell you all something: if you are just here or listending to get a word from God, you are in the wrong place! God’s Word is meant to be TRANSFORMATIVE and LIFE-CHANGING! IF that’s what you are here for, hang around, because that’s what we are all about today!!

Not that many years ago, Stacy had decided that we were going to deep clean the apartment we lived in. Chores were split up based on chance, with names going in a hat and the kids and Stacy and I being split into groups. I got David in this particular draw. I remember that we got tasked with Kitchen duty. This meant unloading/loading the dishwasher, cleaning the counters, under the small appliances, moving the fridge and stove and cleaning under those, cleaning the spill plates under the burners, cleaning the splash guard behind the sink and the stove, cleaning the floors, baseboards, etc…and reorganizing the Tupperware cabinet, which for us consisted of reusable Chinese takeout containers. They were wonderful. Man do I miss that place. Imagine any dish you wanted that Chinese food comes in, and then imagine getting it in either a vegan or vegetarian style. Mmmm…Oh Mei Wei how I miss you....

Not that many years ago, Stacy had decided that we were going to deep clean the apartment we lived in. Chores were split up based on chance, with names going in a hat and the kids and Stacy and I being split into groups. I got David in this particular draw. I remember that we got tasked with Kitchen duty. This meant unloading/loading the dishwasher, cleaning the counters, under the small appliances, moving the fridge and stove and cleaning under those, cleaning the spill plates under the burners, cleaning the splash guard behind the sink and the stove, cleaning the floors, baseboards, etc…and reorganizing the Tupperware cabinet, which for us consisted of reusable Chinese takeout containers. They were wonderful. Man do I miss that place. Imagine any dish you wanted that Chinese food comes in, and then imagine getting it in either a vegan or vegetarian style. Mmmm…Oh Mei Wei how I miss you....

Anyhow, I told David that I would deal with the loading of the dishwasher, the counters and sinks, and stuff, if he would unload, dry, and put away the dishes, as well as neaten up the Tupperware drawer. He was looking right at me when I told him this. “David, did you get all that?” “Yeah, dad. Got it.” And I thought, “Cool, we’ll be done and relaxing in no time.” Or so I thought. 10 Minutes later, I find David, loading the dishwasher. From the clean Tupperware he’s pulled from the cabinet.

“Uh…David? Whatcha doin’ buddy?” “Oh, just…loading the dishwasher with the Tupperware.” “Why?” “Isn’t that what you asked me to do?”

I only had one response I could say: “Son, I don’t think you heard me...”

Now, let me ask you: Do you think David heard me? Sure he did! He acknowledged that I was speaking to him just fine. When I told him that I didn’t think he heard me, is that what I meant? Of course not! I was meaning that he wasn’t obeying me! Neat thing is, God the Father does that to us as well:

Turn with me to our Scripture reading for today, :

English Standard Version Chapter 6

4 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, 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. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

God wasn’t just telling the people to just listen to what He was telling them, but for them to OBEY!!

But what was He telling them to listen to? First, Moses tells them that God says that He is our God, and He is “one.” What does that mean? Well, as we all should know, the 10 commandments embody the awesomeness of covenant relationship that outline the very nature and character of God and spell out our responsibilities to Him. It is in this way, that verse 4-5 is the total embodiment of the whole promise by God, and what it all boils down to be. In fact, these two lines of Scripture, to a devout Jew, are recited every morning upon waking, and expresses the entirety of Go’s person and purposes, and is known in Jewish tradition as the Shema. In fact, although it doesn’t sometimes read this way in English, the Hebrew reads the first part of verse 4 as a command in and of itself: HEAR, O Israel! And in Hebrew, it is understood that when God or a king, or prophet, or Judge is telling you “Hear, O Israel” that the hearers are to be doers of what is being told. This is followed by the statement affirming that The LORD is our God, and that he is ONE. What does it mean that he is ONE? It’s simple. Look at the beginning of the 10 commandments: Have no other gods before Me, and the second, with You will make for yourself no graven images or likenesses of what is in the heavens above, or on the earth below, or the waters under the earth, nor will you bow down to them and serve them, as well as the third commandment, which is to never use God’s name in vain. And when looking at number 4, well, if you only looked at the beginning, “Remember the Sabbath Day.” OUR God is the only God, who we don’t make idols of to worship, whom we never speak carelessly towards, and whose example of resting on the seventh-day we follow. OUR God is one of a kind, is unique, is awesome, is amazing...

Our God, is an awesome God, he reigns in Heaven above, with wisdom, power and love, our God is an awesome God.

Then comes the hammer, the command, spoken plainly: You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your might.

You know, when people ask me what they need to do to fix their relationships, I tell them this. When people tell me that they feel far away from God, I tell them this. When people are looking for answers, THIS IS THE ANSWER! Loving GOD, with EVERYTHING YOU HAVE!

If you love God, with everything, will you worry about murder, about stealing, about lying, cheating, coveting? NO! Because everything about my life reflects my love of GOD! And if I am focused on loving God, am I going to be a poor steward of the things He has put me in charge of? NO, because my love for God is reflected in my life!

And here’s the thing, if I love God, I’ll obey His commands! It doesn’t work the other way…I cannot get to God’s love by obeying His commands, but it is because of His love that I obey Him! Make sense?!

AND IT DOESN’T STOP HERE!!

We are to tell our children about it, it’s supposed to be a natural part of who we are so much so that it comes up in conversation. Let me ask you all: when you are totally in love with your spouse, how easy and natural is it to talk about how great they are? It’s like breathing, it’s so easy. Then what’s wrong with us that we find it so hard to talk about God in regular conversation?! That’s how many of us talk about our Jobs!! “Oh, yes, I LOVE working for Joe’s Wickets and More....yay...”

This is to be on our lips when we wake up and when we are laying down for bed. We are to see them every day, and be so immersed in them that it is a given part of our every day!

The Jewish people…they take this to an extreme. The phylacteries that they wore on their heads that Jesus spoke against. Well, not that they wore them, but that they were so big that you could hardly see around them! And wrapped around your left forearm so that as you pray, it is literally by your heart. And in Israel, when you go to a hotel or Jewish home, you can see it carved or written on the doorways, even on individual hotel rooms!

They are saying that God’s AWESOME UNIQENESS is something you can take to the bank, and as such, you can love Him and FREELY!!

Later on, in the New Testament, those Pharisees, man they always had it out for Jesus. And then some smart aleck decides he’s going to put the author of their precious Scriptures to the test...”Lord, what’s the greatest commandment.” And without missing a beat, Jesus replies with , and pairs it up with , just to make sure they got it. This phrase in Deuteronomy is so ingrained into the Jewish mindset, it’s no wonder they didn’t question His answer! By calling it the first and greatest commandment, Jesus was profoundly correct in two major ways: First, it’s so simply easy to understand, as it encompasses all of the Law (a fact that Jesus happily brings up). As I said before, if you Love God, you won’t be worried about the Sabbath, or idols, or using His name in vain, or putting things before Him. And you won’t worry about honoring your earthly parents, or stealing, lying, murdering, coveting, or bearing false witness. In this way, it was also correct because it is basically a very prolific commentary on the entirety of the 10 commandments! God’s commandments are all about His love for us and our love for Him, the very basis of the covenant relationship we are to have with Him: He will be our God, and we will be His people!

If I could offer a few takeaways this Sabbath, I would do so in the form of some questions:

Do you teach this to your children, and even then, do you repeat it again and again and again, as in, do you teach this diligently? To love God above all else and with everything in their being? Or was it about divine judgment or the Sabbath, or Christian behavior, or some other trivial nonsense?

Do you talk about God with a level of excitement and love that you have or have had with your spouse or significant other?

Is this command so ingrained into your life that you can recite it at will, and that it is something so at the forefront of your mind, that you think about it every day, as if it is written on a mirror before you all day long?

Lastly, do you love God with your whole being, or do you hold back, do you sit upon the throne of your own heart, so that you can maintain some sense of control, or do you let Jesus have it all, as he’s asked.

As we close out, I ask you bow your heads and close your eyes. If you have not loved God with you whole being consistently, ask yourself why not? Why have those words not been upon your heart when you wake and when you fall asleep? Have you taught them to your children or the children in your care? Have these words been a part of your every day life, to where you can speak of your love of God as easily as you speak of a spouse, or significant other?

Our need for God is indisputable. If we can just be reminded of our obligation of love towards a God who has given us literally everything, to include our lives and salvation, would sin even be an issue within the greater context of our lives?

AMEN!

Let us pray.