The Second Half
Notes
Transcript
The Second Half
The Second Half
The First Half
The First Half
Then one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that He had answered them well, asked Him, “Which is the first commandment of all?”
Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
So the scribe said to Him, “Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth, for there is one God, and there is no other but He. And to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
Now when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, He said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”
But after that no one dared question Him.
Introduction - many kicked off the year of 2020 speaking about vision. Here, at River of Life, we were celebrating new services in a new building. We received words about this being a year of double.
But then, suddenly, it seemed that the world began to fall apart.
We’ve had major social unrest sparked by racism, outrage, and injustice that led to the loss of lives like Amaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd.
We’ve had Covid-19 and with it social distancing, quarantine, Zoom fatigue, economic depression, and out of the 15 million+ current cases over 621,000 deaths.[1]
2020 memes
Yet God still has a plan for your 2020.
Bildad the Shuhite said to Job:
Where you began will seem unimportant,
because your future will be so successful.
Illustration: “Not gonna lie, they had us in the first half.”
We’re coming up to the second half of the year. How can we see the promises of God fulfilled and the church gospel advanced?
Hear
Hear
Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
Here, Jesus is quoting the Shema from Deuteronomy 6:4-5. The title, Shema, comes from the first word in the command, which is translated “hear.”
In this passage, the verb shamaʿ means more than just physically hearing what is being said. It means listening, contemplating, meditating, obeying.
The point is to understand what is being said and then proving that you understand by doing what is being said.
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
Sbe Tbq fb ybirq gur jbeyq gung Ur tnir Uvf bayl ortbggra Fba, gung jubrire oryvrirf va Uvz fubhyq abg crevfu ohg unir rireynfgvat yvsr. (Wbua 3:16 AXWI)
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[1]: COVID-19 CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC. [Worldometers.info](https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/) 2020-07-22. web. accessed 2020-07-22. Data was last updated at July 22, 2020, 14:57 GMT when accessed.