Living Love God's Way Part 1

Living Love God's Way Part 1  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  1:20:13
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The first and greatest command of all is to share the greatest gift of all.

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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 foremost commandment.

39 “The second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’

40 “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”

It’s All or Nothing

“ ‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’

God is a jealous God

He will not make compromises such as “God knows my heart. He understands why I do what I do”. Rubbish!
90% obedience is 100% defiance
He does not “play well” with others so, there shall be no person or object that will receive His due attention and affection.

“…with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind”

Heart - literally, the vital organ, metaphorically for the inner person.

Source of physical life (Acts 14:17)
Center of inner life, including perception, volition, and intellect (Rom 1:24; Luke 12:45)
Used in association with love (Phil 1:7).

Soul - psyche - life, soul, person - Can refer to a person’s inner life or to the life-principle

Correlation between psyche and food (Matt 6:25; Luke 12:22-23).
Denotes the inner life of a human (Mark 12:30; Luke 1:46; Col 3:23).
Used in conjunction with “spirit” in Luke 1:46-47 to express the whole inner person, both “soul” and “spirit.” May be used to describe the totality of a person (Rom 2:9; 13:1)

Mind - dianoia - mind, understanding, intelligence - Denotes the seat of thinking and the place from which desires originate.

Represents the faculty of thinking and the thoughts and desires that originate therein.
Negative and Proud thoughts (Luke 1:51)
Fleshly thoughts and desires (Eph 2:3)
Ability to comprehend and understand (Eph 4:18) - Influenced by divine intervention as in (1 John 5:20)
Many words in the ancient texts describe “love” to some degree of affection and intimacy. In translation, “love” was the word used for all the words of varying degrees or types of affections.

…The heart of man is evil

Every intent of the thoughts of man’s heart is only evil continually (Gen 6:5; Gen 8:21; Psalm 56:5; Prov 6:14; Jer 17:9; Matt 5:28)
The mouth utters what is on the heart (Matt 15:18-19, 12:34; Mark 7:21; Rom 1:29-32)

…Make Jesus Lord of your life; He will give you His heart

God gives His children a new heart and a new spirit (Ezekiel 36:25; Psalm 51:10; Jer 24:7; Jer 31:33; Ezekiel 18:31; John 3:3-5; 2 Cor 5:17)
God’s word SHALL be on your heart (Deut 6:6, 6:8, 11:18-20, 32:46; Prov 3:3; Jer 31:33)

Child of God, You shall love God - Entirely and deliberately

The First and greatest commondment sums up all the first four of the Tem Commandments

1 Then God spoke all these words, saying,

2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

3 “You shall have no other gods before Me.

God said, “I have upheld my end of the covenant. Now the people must hold up for their end of the covenant”.
God doesn’t demand anything. It is a covenant made between Himself and His creation. As His children/chosen we agree to the terms of the covenant.
Where is God in your heart’s list of priorities? Where is your mind when you are in church, when you are reading the Bible? Is your lifestyle reflecting Christ?

4 “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.

5 “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,

6 but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

Idol worship is not limited to hand-crafted materials. Anything that is put before God is the same thing as an idol.
God proclaims His jealousy. If we cheat on Him, there will be heaven to pay..for generations to come. God says cheating on Him is hating Him, more or less.
Those who don’t cheat, get the royal treatment.

7 “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.

If God’s name is used for any other reason than addressing Him - it is done in vain.
God is holy therefore His name is Holy. There is no one and no thing that compares.
Misappropriation of God’s name, hence His glory, is unconscionable.

8 “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

9 “Six days you shall labor and do all your work,

10 but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you.

11 “For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.

In a seven day week, God only expects us to take one of them for fellowship with Him.
Anything past what He grants, which is already generous, is greed, not God.
God worked six days and rested on the seventh. Hmmm.

God’s command is, “You SHALL love Him…heart,…soul…mind”.

God gave us the tools and he commands us to put them to good use:
all your HEART - nothing and no one should get more of our love and devotion than God. This is the door upon which Jesus knocks
all your SOUL - The life of man, the eternal part of man. Should be trained to follow the God compass.
all your MIND - Must learn, understand and grow and be transformed into God’s character.
God instructs us how to utilize these tools in Deuteronomy 6:7-9

7 “You shall teach them diligently to your sons 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] up.

8 “You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.

9 “You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

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Personal Illustrations:

I was all about my father’s business

My dad was my super hero when I was a young boy. I wanted to be just like him.
My dad taught me everything I know about business, building racing engines, and racing. Even today, I wish I were still building motors. I was very good at it. I had earned a reputation for being one of the top engine builders in the country.
I had a bright future in that business and now my dad is retired but, even when he passes away, I am not even allowed to purchase the business.

I was a gifted musician - a performer, songwriter, and recording artist.

How I loved the music....or was it the business....or was it the perks?
I lived the life of a rock star, long before I was a rock star. (Never made it to stardom)
The music is one thing but, the way I was living was something entirely different.

My last hope of doing anything successfully...

I enlisted in the US Navy to do something good with my life. But, really, it was to do something good for someone else’s life.
I was disappointed about losing my first contract for SEaLs, then I felt out of place working around “nerds”.
When I was discharged, I knew then that I was a failure.

I joined the Army National Guard

I refused to let my brothers in arms down again. I even performed my PFT with double walking pneumonia.
I was ripped apart at the seams because I failed to make the battle roster for the upcoming deployment.
My neighbor asked me, “Have you considered that your battle may not be over there? Your battle is here”.

Sad Story? Not at all.

I wanted to be just like my dad. I wanted to walk and talk just like he did. I wanted to do what he did, and I wanted to go everywhere with him. That didn’t happen. Most of my life, he was only a boss, never much of a dad. But, if I were still doing that today, my dad would no doubt get all the credit for my knowledge and ability to build very competitive racing engines. God will share His glory with no man.
God did give me that musical talent, indeed. but the way I was living was no testament to God whatsoever. At that time He was nowhere in the equation. God gave me a talent but, I did not glorify Him with that talent. But, music was my whole life! That was the catalyst that kept me motivated. It was my reason to live. Music was the platform through which I could express myself. GONE!
When I enlisted in the Navy, I felt that I owed it to all the guys coming home from Vietnam. I wanted them to know that I would stand with them. I wanted them to know that they were not despised by everyone and that there sacrifice did not go unnoticed. When i was discharged, I felt like I let all my brothers down. I felt like I let my children down. So, four years later, there was an open door opportunity and I seized it. But, I failed. I am fairly certain that if it had worked out either time, I would have had plenty to be proud of....or should I say plenty to boast about.

Summary:

God had a plan for my life long before we were formally introduced. Those plans were not made for my dad to receive credit for my expertise at balancing and blueprinting high performance racing engines. God created me to glorify His Holy name.
God blessed me with a musical gift, this is true. He “derailed” my plans of making it big in rock n roll, because I was in it for me. I made no room for God in my music, in my life, or in my life style. If God had not put an end to my music career, I would not be here to deliver this message today.
As patriotic as it may seem that I enlisted in the Navy and later the Army, it was all about making myself feel better. I wanted to do something with my life and I wanted to be successful, be the best of the best at whatever I did and the military was my last shot. It was also a chance to have something for my one child at the time. My reasons sound good and they are exactly why I joined. However, as good as the reasons were, my motives were off kilter.
God’s first and greatest commandment is, “You shall love the Lord your God with all you heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind”, which is the summation of the first four of the Ten Commandments. Building racing engines became a god to me. Music and the life we lived in the music scene were my god. Making myself feel better about doing something positive was my god.
The God of the universe had a plan for my life and the things that I did had nothing to do with His plans for my life. More importantly, there was no room for God in my life. I did not make room God and I wasn’t looking for Him when he set me on His righteous path. You might ask, “If God blessed you with all that talent and ability, and even the good desires of your heart, why take them away from you?”
Good question and this is my answer: two-thousand years before I was born, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, a man who had never sinned, took my punishment, bore my shame, and laid down His life, suffering an agonizing death on a cross, He descended into hell, then conquered death and the grave before ascending into heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father. He did this for me. Long before I was even born. For twenty-nine years I lived a disastrous, self-destructive life, believing that God was a myth or a fairytale. I might as well have driven the nails and thrust the spear myself. Jesus did all that two-thousand years ago for me. He did this to settle my debt so I would not have to. All of this because He loved me
This is what Jesus Christ did for you two-thousand years ago. He loves you and paid a price that every living being on the face of the planet working together, could not repay even if they had the all the time of the world’s existence to repay it. The total debt was far too great so, God sent His Son Jesus to satisfy the debt on our behalf. He had only one reason for picking up the tab. Our debt was satisfied by Jesus for us because He loves us.
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