Flip the Switch

Intro

Passage Context:

As we walk through what will hopefully be an eye opening weekend in terms of our faith, I want to set the stage for the passage that we are getting ready to read.

We are getting ready to read from the first book in the New Testament about Jesus being interrogated by the religious leaders of the Church.

These religious leaders were slowly having their power and influence stripped away by this so called “Messiah”. They went on the offensive and these 2 groups of religious leaders that had once been enemies, formed an alliance to do away with Jesus.

Before we are too quick to judge, I want us to look in the mirror to realize that sometimes in our own life, we are no different than the people we are getting ready to read about in .

We are all about our faith until it effects the way that we want to live our life. All of a sudden our complacent or comfortable faith walk threatens to change our kingdom and our life.

We have to FLIP THE SWITCH

Read:

Matthew 22:34–40 HCSB

34 When the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they came together. 35 And one of them, an expert in the law, asked a question to test Him: 36 “Teacher, which command in the law is the greatest?” 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.”

Message Points:

I believe that in order for our faith to become UNDIVIDED and relentless, God wants us to do three things in our life…

1. Shift the Standard (34-36)

When we aren’t growing in our relationship with God by studying the bible, praying, and worshiping, it is SUPER easy for our priorities and standards to become mixed up.

· That is what verses 34-37 give us a glimpse of. The Pharisees and Sadducees were the “religious elite” of Israel during this time. But their “standard” of faith was measured by staying in the lane of the Law.

· There were 613 laws in the Old Testament and these religious leaders took the time to break these laws down into 248 positive laws and 365 negative laws, then went through and rated them most important to least important.

· So Cody, why are you telling me all of this? Because their standard was wrong.

James 2:10 HCSB

10 For whoever keeps the entire law, yet fails in one point, is guilty of breaking it all.

·

- If you break even one Law, you are guilty of them all.

· What does this mean for me? We don’t get to dictate the standard by which we live our lives.

· Our standards have to shift from the things that we thing are important and in which we find all of our identity like athletic success, academic excellence, and chasing clout.

· Our faith is not dictated by simply staying in between the lines, it’s about changing the world as we walk through it.

It’s a mindset where we bring light to a dark and hurting world.

Matthew 5:14 HCSB

14 “You are the light of the world. A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden.

So what standards in your life need to shift today? What have you been tolerating that needs to be put away? What secrets do you have that you need to share with a leader this weekend so that you no longer have to bear the burden alone/

2. Switch your Savior (37)

What the Pharisees and Sadducees missed is that a we can never our own savior. There is no magic list of rules or laws that if followed, delivers you into the kingdom of Heaven. You can never be a good enough person or do enough good deeds to outweigh the terminal condition we all have called sin.

There is nothing apart from Jesus that gets to privilege of being your Savior. Nothing can fill that God size whole in your life. You can try, but you will be let down time and time again

What does this dude know?

Short testimony about the life that I lived apart from Jesus. I knew I needed a Savior, I didn’t know at the time that I needed a King.

Matthew writes that Jesus said, “Love God with all of your HEART, SOUL, AND MIND”

God doesn’t exist inside the walls of this church. That hasn’t been the case since when the veil in the temple was tore down the middle signifying that there was no longer to be a separation between God’s people and the dwelling place of the Spirit of God.

God demand all our devotion, all of our passion, all of our love.

So what is in God’s place as SAVIOR today?

3. Swap your Second (38-40)

We live in a very selfish world where there most definitely a “me first” mentality. What would it look like to swap your second? Meaning what would it look like to love other people as much, if not more, than you love yourself?

tells us that even Jesus himself humbled himself and served his disciples.

The Christian faith is all about totally and exclusively about love. When Jesus came to Earth from Heaven, He came to fulfill the Old Testament Law and usher in the New Law that simply tells us to love God and Love people.

Response

The response for this message is to set before us the road that we must travel to be sold out for our faith.

James 1:22

James 1:22 HCSB

22 But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.