The Greatest Of All Time?

34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

SO MANY PEOPLE HAVE SO MANY PLANS FOR YOUR LIFE!

How do you know which plan is the best one to follow?

I guess it depends on where you are heading.

Some people just want you to make a lot of money.

I’ve heard some children say, “I want to be famous!” They don’t even care what they’re famous for, just as long as they can be a star.

Some people want you to have the highest and best education possible…so you can have lots of money…so you can buy lots of things…and do lots of stuff.

Your teachers want you to do GREAT THINGS!

Your parents wants you to do GREAT THINGS!

Your Church wants you to do GREAT THINGS!

Trust me, you will make a difference.

You will impact someone’s life.

You will go on to things you can’t even imagine now…Our prayer is that those things: the difference you make, the impact you have, the things you accomplish - will be borne out of your love for Jesus Christ as you LIVE FOR HIM!

You see the Bible calls each of us, from the Old Testament to the words of Jesus, himself, to do the GREATEST thing with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength - TO LOVE THE LORD JESUS CHRIST.

I believe you can.

I believe you can know Jesus.

I believe you can love Jesus.

I believe you can follow Jesus as Lord.

I believe you can help lead your friends and family to know and love Jesus.

This morning, before we spend some time in the Scripture in a full sermon, we wanted to take a few moments to pray for you!

Some of you are already back in school.

Many of you start back tomorrow.

The LORD knows exactly where and how you participate in school. For some of you, it’s a school building…for others it’s at home.

The LORD knows exactly who you will be around every day, every week, once in awhile or on occasion...

INVITE ALL CHILDREN TO THE FRONT...

INVITE ELDERS / DEACONS IN BEHIND THEM TO STAND...

CHURCH, WE HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY FROM GOD’S WORD TO TEACH, PROTECT, AND PROVIDE FOR THESE BEAUTIFUL CHILDREN AS WE SHEPHERD THEIR HEARTS TOWARD JESUS.

They need more than SAFETY. They need more than KNOWLEDGE. They need more than NICE THINGS AND PEOPLE.

They need to love the Lord Jesus Christ with all their hearts, with all their souls, with all their minds, and with all their strength. So they can love others as themselves.

PRAYER

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SERMON

Do you measure GREATNESS like God measures GREATNESS?

How do you measure greatness?

We live in a society that celebrates accomplishments and celebrity far more than Christ-likedness.

But, the exhortations of what we commonly refer to as the Great Commandment are iterated all throughout the whole of the Bible.

From the very first text that we read, we can see there are some great things that are important to God. God is not after just our hearts, he wants it all.

Deuteronomy 6:4–7 ESV

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.

Notice the call to listen!

CAN I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION, PLEASE?

Our GOD IS GREATER, STRONGER, HIGHER

He alone is the true and living God.

There is only one God.

Song:

You are God alone from before time began

You were on your throne You are God alone

Right now in the good times and bad

You are on your throne, You are God alone

This is our God and King.

He stands alone…there is none like Him

Psalm 113:2–9 ESV

2 Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore! 3 From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised! 4 The Lord is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens! 5 Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high, 6 who looks far down on the heavens and the earth? 7 He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap, 8 to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people. 9 He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the Lord!

This is the Creator. The High Judge. Ruling Sustainer. Holy Father, Holy Son, and Holy Spirit.

Before the beginning, He was the I am. From Genesis to Revelation, He is the I am. And when time has surrendered and the earth as we know it is no more - He will be the I am.

This is the GOD issuing the command…it is not a request, not a suggestion, not a good idea or thought, not an upgrade to your already awesome life, not the key to a better life, he says all the way back through His servant Moses and when the Word was robed in flesh through the Lord Jesus Christ...

HEY! LISTEN UP!

FIRST, LOVE the LORD wholeheartedly.

We switch gears back to Matthew now (by the way, this account also appears in Mark 12 and Luke 10).

Jesus was responding to some Pharisees, these were men who were not only great in their own eyes…but society saw them as great, accomplished men, too.

He had already tripped up the other religious rulers of the day who were dividing people’s affections from loving God wholeheartedly.

This lawyer pops up (don’t think of a civil or criminal litigator, based on a system outside the Bible - think of an expert on the law).

RABBI, WHICH ONE IS “THE GREAT” or THE GREATEST / BIGGEST? (Some are light, some are heavy.)

Although this sounds like a great question…it’s actually a bit of a reductionist perspective. Hear it this way, “What’s the main one?” If I have to pick one…which is the one I better obey.

You know what I hear? WHAT’S THE LEAST I CAN DO?

Parents, you know this. “Pick up that piece of paper on the floor, please.” And they ignore the pencil shavings and piece or popcorn right beside it.

Teachers, you know: 250 words, please. Student turns in 251 word essay. “No less than...” = what you’ll get.

We live in a society today that wants to get CHRISTIANITY down to the least amount of irreducible activities…we may not say it this way, but our behavior betrays us...”WHAT’S THE ABSOLUTE BARE MINIMUM I NEED TO DO TO BE CONSIDERED A MEMBER OF THIS CHURCH?” or worse still, “WHAT’S THE 1 THING I NEED TO DO GO TO HEAVEN, BECAUSE I DON’T WANT TO GO TO HELL?”

Here’s the thing...

LOVE THE LORD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, MIND, SOUL, AND STRENGTH (Mark & Luke add strength)

The Shema or “shmah” covers

Heart / Mind

Soul / Identity

Might / Strength

It’s an ALL-IN KIND OF DEAL!

And it is the prerequisite to loving people the way they should be loved!

Romans 12:1–2 ESV

1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

SO, this lawyer walks up to Jesus…it’s not the beginning of a bad joke…asks what the greatest commandment is and Jesus gives him 2 that are HUGE…but He gives them in the perfect order:

1. LOVE GOD WHOLEHEARTEDLY.

2. LOVE OTHERS SELFLESSLY.

We are often tempted to skip over the first one…to do the bare minimum - the least that we can do to check the box “HEAVEN BOUND” so we can make sure that we take care of ourselves and others.

THERE are some credible and good causes and campaigns and endeavors that we can give ourselves to and engage in, but if we BYPASS THE FIRST COMMANDMENT to get there…it’s all humanitarian noise from the Bible’s perspective.

HEY! YOUR ATTENTION, PLEASE…

The God is this Bible is the only true and living God

He has commanded us to love Him with all our hearts, soul and strength way.

It is impossible for us to LOVE others rightly without LOVING Him first

WE CANNOT LOVE HIM AND LOVE SIN AT THE SAME TIME.

So, if this is the GREATEST Commandment OF ALL TIME, from this Great God…what do we do with that?

Recognize that God started this...

1 John 4:7 ESV

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

Recognize His command for all creation to glorify Him...

Matthew 22:37–40 ESV

37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Recognize our sin separates us from being able to obey the GREATEST COMMAND OF ALL TIME...

Ephesians 2:1–3 ESV

1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

BUT GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD...

Galatians 4:3–4 ESV

3 In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. 4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,

John 3:16–20 ESV

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.

Recognize that it is IN CHRIST ALONE that we can truly accomplish great things:

Ephesians 3:17–19 ESV

17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

…the greatest thing.

BUT THERE IS A REAL DANGER OF BYPASSING THE FIRST COMMANDMENT…THE GREATEST COMMANDMENT and skipping to the second one.

We live in a society that celebrates accomplishments and celebrity far more than Christ-likedness.

In one of the most haunting texts of all Scripture:

Matthew 7:21–23 ESV

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.’

Let me bring your attention to a couple key elements here:

Notice these folks were doing the things the church ought to be doing, in the name of Jesus.

They were incredibly USEFUL, TALENTED, DRIVEN, AND FRUITFUL…but THEY WEREN’T HIS!

They were doing a lot of “great-looking” things

They were helping a lot of people

They were doing in the name of Christianity

BUT…THEY SKIPPED OVER THE GREATEST COMMANDMENT OF ALL TIME.

God may use you in big ways...

God may call you to a significant, sizeable, publishable act of worship/service/sacrifice that the world takes note of

But BIG things don’t glorify God more than SMALL THINGS...the biggest thing God is concerned with…

Matthew 15:8–9 ESV

8 “ ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; 9 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ”

Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of this reads like this:

MATTHEW 15:9 (MSG)

"These people make a big show of saying the right thing, but their heart isn’t in it. They act like they’re worshiping me, but they don’t mean it. They just use me as a cover for teaching whatever suits their fancy.”

the GREATEST THING OF ALL TIME - is that you would be HIS. TO KNOW HIM AND LOVE HIM WHOLEHEARTEDLY.

I want you to have a great day today.

I want you to have a great week...

I really want our students, teachers, faculty, workers and parents to have a great School Year.

I want Faith, Hope, and Love to have a great year too...

BUT MORE THAN THAT…I WANT EACH OF US TO HAVE THE GREATEST GREAT OF ALL TIME…A GREAT LOVE, FOR THE GREAT GOD, who made all this possible in the great gift of the Lord Jesus Christ.

TRANSITION TO WORSHIP RESPONSE

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PRAYER FOR ADULT WORKERS.

(Stacey)

Please pray that our hearts and minds are open and willing to grow academically and socially.

Pray that staff and students are willing and able to learn with each other and persevere when things don’t come easily.

Pray that staff and students show integrity for their work, respect for themselves and others, and utilize their talents and expertise for the benefit of others.

(Sammi)

To have a loving and respectful classroom culture - one that is as a family.

To have patience and remain caring.

To help my students achieve mastery across our curriculum standards.

(Ashlie)

that we would follow God’s direction for our family and each child’s education

not be distracted what others (homeschooling families) are doing

find encouragement for the tough days, the tough subjects, the tough children

not feel we have to explain our decisions to others or prove how smart our children are

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