Golden

Me

I thought I would start off this wek with another embarassing story. Have you ever had a crush on somebody and everytime you saw them, you were just mesmerized by them? Okay so this one time, I was playing hockey and this girl, who I thought was absolutley beautiful was watching. I looked up from the bench after my shift and I saw her, she waved and so I waved back, then she made a heart symbol with her hands, you kow like this.... You’re boy is freaking out right now right, likeim excuted, got butterflies in my stomach. THis is great. And then she does the blow a kiss thing, and I almsot fell over, that was wild, but then I realize something, that kiss blew right past me. I follwo the path of the hypotheical kiss and realize it was intened for my bestfriend who was standing behind me on the bench. She wasn’t waving at me and doing anything for me, it for my bestfriend. Let me tell, you, that moment still haunts me.

embarrsing actionns can haunt us, come to think of it,actions themselves ae so imporatnt o us. Often time we judge people becasue of their actions, recoginze peole becasue of their actions.

Actions are vital.

As

We

As you are growing up, did you ever hear the phrase, “treat others the way you want to be treated”?

Great in practice isn’t it? Treat others the way you want to be treated. Something that has become so ingrained in us, but something that we so often ignore.

Basically, this Golden rule is all about loving others as we love ourselves.

Do you remember what we spoke about last week? The greatest comandments right? Love God with all of our heart, our soul, and our strength.

Now lets see how Jeus follows up that statement in matthew 22:37-40

So this week, lets really break this second commandment down

God

Theres really Two parts to this, “love your neighbour” and “as your self”

Part 1. Loving your neightbour

The Gospel of Matthew, Volume 2 Duty to God and Duty to Others (Matthew 22:34–40)

Our love for God must issue in love for others. But it is to be noted in which order the commandments come; it is love of God first, and love of others second. It is only when we love God that other people become lovable.

Matthew and Mark The Theological Significance of These Commandments

loving God involves reverence and obedience, while loving humans involves serving them and seeking their well-being.

The Gospel of Matthew, Volume 2 Duty to God and Duty to Others (Matthew 22:34–40)

The biblical teaching about human beings is not that we are collections of chemical elements, not that we are part of the brute creation, but that men and women are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26–7). It is for that reason that human beings are lovable.

Matthew J. Round 3: The King Elevates Love for God and People (22:34–40)

It is impossible to love God without loving people, for his law and heart’s desire is to love others. The measure by which we know if we are truly loving people is if we love them as much as we love ourselves (cf. Eph. 5:28–31).

Part 2. As yourself

Let’s be real, it’s really hard to love your neighbour if you don’t love yourself right?

But we can’t love ourself becaue that’s pride, so what do we do?

You see, in our love for God that covers our heart, soul, and strenght, we learn to value his creation. We learn to love what he made, that includes us. We learn to love ourelves as created people, recognzing that we have value.

But this applies to loving others around us.

“But as sincerely as ourselves we are to love all mankind, and with the same readiness to do and suffer for them as we should reasonably desire them to show to us. The golden rule (Mt 7:12) is here our best interpreter of the nature and extent of these claims”

1 Corinthians 10:24 says “Let no one seek his own good, but that of his neighbor.”

And John 13:34-35 Jesus gives this statement,

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

35 “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

So what will you be known as? A disciple of Jesus or follower of pride?

You

You see, How we treat others is a reflection of our faith.

You see, Love is expressed in action. We show our love for God by obeying his law. We show our love for our neighbours by treating them as we would like to be treated ourselves.

The Gospel of Matthew, Volume 2 Duty to God and Duty to Others (Matthew 22:34–40)

To be truly religious is to love God and to love those whom God made in his own image; and to love God and other people, not with a vague sentimentality, but with that total commitment which issues in devotion to God and practical service of others.

By loving our neighbor as ourselves, Christ has made it impossible for us to fail because we are very good at taking care of ourselves. We want what is best for us and by making our own selves as the benchmark of how we should love others, Christ has shown us how to truly love our neighbor.

Another important teaching in loving our neighbor as ourselves is that we realize that we should not wait for when we feel loved before we start to love others. We do not have to wait until we feel that we have a surplus of self-love before we give it away to our neighbors. The commandment made it perfectly clear: love your neighbor exactly as you love yourself. No more and no less.

We

We are called to have an upward and outward perspective.

Who counts as your neighbour? Is it just the person who lives next door, or across the street? Is it also your freinds at school? What about the kid that sits alone at lunch? What about the studnet who is jus so wierd that no one wants to talk to them?

In Jesus’ commandment, He taught us that it is not about asking who our neighbor is. Rather, it is about our own willingness to be a neighbor ready to love.

Love. You and I are called to be people defined by love. How we treat others is a direct reflection of our belifs. If we belive that all people, it doesn’t matter your famiy or religious backgrund, are created in God’s image, with infinite value

As the worship team comes back up, maybe for some of us this room we hae disqualifed ourselves from showing love to others.

For some of us in the room, you migt be saying ‘Ryley, how I can I love others as myself, if I don’t even love myself?”

This is a real reality for so many of us here, it’s hard to ove ohters if we don’t love ourselves.

So this is what we are going to do, as the worship team plays, no lyrics though, jsut as they play I want you to go fid a spot by yourself in the room and being to pray and read about who God created you to be.

Maybe for some of you, you want a person to pray wiht you. We hae leader staggered across this room for that very purpose, maybe you just want to sit in the at here and worship, go right ahead.

Maybe you don’t know what to pray and that alright. In these next few moments, ask God to help you become more comapssionate, thank Him for your neighbours, thank him for th studnets in your school. Pray that they will

Take time to get to know God, step out of your comfort zone, you only have one liffe to live, why live it in fear?