Love Thy Neighbor

Intro

Thank you all for being here today.

It is true for many of us that undoubtedly the direction of our culture in America is moving further away from Jesus and closer to selfishness and worse yet even an anti God type culture for some.

But as people of God we need to have unity and also demonstrate the love of Christ towards those who are lost, broken and even those who stand against us while at the same time never compromising on the holiness and integrity of God’s word.

So how do we do that? What does that look like? How can we even make a difference today?

These are relevant questions and as always, the answers to these questions are found in the Bible which is the word of God.

Matthew 22:36-40

Matthew 22:36–40 ESV

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.”

Loving God

There is Only One God

God is above all! Amen!

True worship of God and application of making Him the top priority in our lives must first come with the realization that there is one God alone and He is above all.

There are no other gods but the one true God of the Bible who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit joined as one spiritual body with three distinct but equal parts.

There are several areas in the Bible where God declares that He alone is the one true God.

This is extremely important to understand especially in the age in which we live which has such a variety of belief systems.

If we do not keep ourselves and our families deeply rooted in the fact that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life and that no one comes to the Father without Him, then it will be easier to be tempted or mislead into sin or syncretism.

By sin I am referring to putting your faith in a false god or living in ways contrary to the word of God. Any by syncretism I mean introducing the ways of the world into the church or your spiritual life. This is sin as well and something that many people from the Israelites in the Old Testament to the ultra progressive movement of our time are bringing to the church.

The answer to both of these corruptible issues is quite simple. Their is one God and His name is Jesus and He meant what He said in His holy word which is the Bible and instead of turning from God’s word we are to submit and follow God’s word so that Jesus is not only the Savior of our lives but also the Lord of our lives.

Said simply meditate on God’s word and walk in His ways and you will avoid sin or syncretism in your life because faith comes by hearing and hearing from the word of God so therefore the more of His word you hear the more faithful you will become and the easier it is to know without the shadow of a doubt that God is God alone and what He expects from us.

All Your Heart

To love God with all your heart means that your passion and desire for Him is above everything else in your life.

Quite literally if you invest more time and energy into anything else than you do focused on the Lord than there is a misalignment in your life, that needs to be adjusted.

At first, this can seem unrealistic because of all the demands on our lives.

For example, if you are required to be at your workplace for 8-12 hours a day doing work which requires focus then how can you possible spend that much time with the Lord.

Well, I have great news for you which is that you the as a believer in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit dwells in you and is with you wherever you go.

I myself work in a fast-paced dynamic environment where people are asking me to make decisions and plans all of which requires focus.

But each morning and throughout the day I will pray to the Lord and ask Him to bless my work and to give me wisdom so that He may be glorified in my work.

Other things that can be done are listening to worship music on a set of earbuds or even a radio if your workplace allows it.

Having positive praise music can make even the most negative places pleasant mainly because the focus becomes on Jesus instead of the stress or difficulty of the job you are doing or your co-workers.

These are just two examples but there are many more practical applications of making the Lord a focus point in all of life’s situations.

Do any of you remember the feeling of first falling in love with someone?

They are often in your thoughts when you are apart and then there is excitement when you see them again.

In many cases, it seems like you could talk to them for hours on end and not run of things to say.

There is just a certain chemistry or attractiveness that bonds you to that other person in your heart and mind.

While not a romantic type of love, the love we have for Jesus should make all of the times we fell in romantic love pale in comparison.

If we absolutely love God, then we will absolutely desire His presence.

The Bible is the word of God and when we read it, we can understand Him on a deeper level and no matter how much we study it, we are never finished because it is the Holy Living word of God.

Furthermore, when we pray to the Lord, we literally have the opportunity to be completely vulnerable with God trusting Him that He loves us and will never leave or forsake us.

By growing our faith through hearing and reading the word of God, and by observing how He is working in our lives and connecting with Him on a deep spiritual level and vulnerability in our prayer lives, we will grow in our capacity to love and most importantly our love for the Lord.

All Your Soul

When the Bible speaks about your soul it is referring to your inner person meaning your personality, emotions and will.

As you can see your soul is different than the Holy Spirit living inside of you.

One easy way to love the Lord with all your soul is to both have an emotional connection to the Lord but also to control our emotions when dealing with others.

We need to not just have a head knowledge of the Lord, but we need to have a heart knowledge of the Lord as I spoke about a moment ago. The veil is torn brothers and sisters, and we have the opportunity to enter the throne room of God completely vulnerable with our emotions and thoughts trusting Him that He cares for us and loves us beyond what we can even comprehend. Praise God! As believers we should not only have an intellectual and spiritual connection to God but also a deep emotional connection to Him as well.

Also, as I stated before another element in loving God with all our soul is that we develop the emotional maturity to control our emotions when dealing with others.

If a believer becomes emotional in a bad way and gets angry for example with someone else this can hurt their reputation.

Some people will question the integrity of the emotional person. In the example of getting angry with someone else the accusation is that they are a hypocrite or that Christians are no different than the world. Both of these outcomes will distance and not attract people to a life with Christ.

Another example that we can see is inside the church. Some churches are so stoic and reserved you will never see them expressing the joy and gratitude for what the Lord has done so their services seem mostly ceremonial. Other services are so intellectual they seem more like a lecture than a sermon. Both of these examples miss the emotional connection which should occur between the congregation and the Lord.

To contrast, in other church services people will have emotional outbursts that they claim are from the Spirit but are in fact just an emotional reaction and not a spiritual gift which at times can be a distraction from the message and not show reverence for the house of God. These services will have the emotional element but lack any meat of the word or deeper substance which the congregation can apply to their lives once they leave the building.

Neither of these scenarios will lead people to a deeper long-term relationship with the Lord which is the point of what we want to do as believers.

So, both outside and inside the church controlling our soul meaning our thoughts, emotions and personality can in fact be done in such a way to love and glorify God. Furthermore when done properly it will also attract more people to a life with Christ because both the substantive deeper meaning of the word of God as well as the emotional connection to the Lord are displayed in an authentic and non-contrived way which gives the Holy Spirit a path in which to work and do what only the Lord can do.

All Your Mind

To love God with all of your mind means that we meditate on His word and His character day and night.

Joshua 1:8

Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.

There is an old saying that says garbage in garbage out but good things in and good things out.

There is so much which we have access or exposure to in our times. From news, to sports, to entertainment and the list goes on and on.

But the Lord tells us to focus on His word and to learn it and live it.

Hosea 4:6 ESV

6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.

Hosea 4:6

My people are destroyed from a lack of knowledge.

If we don’t know God’s word, then we are left up to our own carnal thoughts which will inevitably lead to sin which brings destruction and death.

2 Timothy 2:15 ESV

15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

2 Timothy 2:15

15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

What Paul is writing to Timothy here is that we need to not only know the word but also how to apply the word correctly not only to our lives, so we are above reproach but also in our teachings to others.

I have spoken to you before about strongholds and the battlefield of the mind. When any thought that is not from the Lord enters you mind immediately bind it and cast it down. Then immediately go to Scripture for the correct viewpoint of that thought. An easy example would be if a thought entered someone’s mind to covet someone’s property or belongings, we can recognize that thought is not God’s character so we then bind it and cast it down.

Then reference scripture in this case:

Exodus 20:17 ESV

17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”

Exodus 20:17

“You must not covet your neighbor’s house. You must not covet your neighbor’s wife, male or female servant, ox or donkey, or anything else that belongs to your neighbor.”

At that point you have captured a thought not from God then cast it down and replaced it with the word of God and instead of being covetous or jealous you can reflect on how good the Lord has been to you and how much you are blessed. This turn a bad thought from the devil into an opportunity to be grateful on how blessed we are.

While there are many more examples we can clearly see from Scripture that we can show love for the Lord with our minds as well by studying His word and also for applying that wisdom to our lives.

Loving Others

Sacrificially

The best way to show love to others is sacrificially. This means that we give not expecting in return with a special focus on those who are going through a difficult season.

We can see all throughout the Gospel that Jesus gave of Himself for others many of which did not have the means to provide for the ministry of Jesus but rather Jesus served them out of love for them and also to bring honor and Glory to the Father.

The Bible teaches us when we serve others it is like serving or blessing the Lord Jesus Himself.

You will hear me say this often, but the Lord does not bless a closed hand and when you invest sacrificially into the church, He will make sure that your needs are met as promised in

Malachi 3:8–10 NLT

8 “Should people cheat God? Yet you have cheated me! “But you ask, ‘What do you mean? When did we ever cheat you?’ “You have cheated me of the tithes and offerings due to me. 9 You are under a curse, for your whole nation has been cheating me. 10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test!

Malachi 3:8–10 (NLT)

8 “Should people cheat God? Yet you have cheated me!

“But you ask, ‘What do you mean? When did we ever cheat you?’

“You have cheated me of the tithes and offerings due to me. 9 You are under a curse, for your whole nation has been cheating me. 10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test!

While we still have to make good choices with finances the Lord will make a way for us to have what we need when we need it. This is because He is blessing our obedience and we can trust His word and His character.

The same is true in other areas of your life and ministry meaning if you do what you can to be generous to others in need you do not have to worry if you will have enough resources to live on because God will see your good works and provide provision and blessings to you.

To be clear this does not mean the Lord expects us to live in poverty and not have any material possessions, but it does mean that if we have excess rather than continuing to store up our excess or be wasteful with our blessings rather, we are to give from the abundance the Lord has blessed us with to help someone else.

Said simply we are blessed to be a blessing.

Kindly

To many people they feel that whatever good deed they have done by default makes them kind. That is not the case. There are corrupt businesses, governments and individuals which will do good things for charity but that does not mean they are being kind because they may have other motivations for why they are helping.

Being kind to people means having a pleasant attitude and genuine love for others not serving out of obligation.

People can pick up on whether you have a genuine interest in them or if you are just checking a box to do your good deeds.

So please love each other in a kind manner with a smile and a good attitude because that is the way we would want to be treated as well.

During these times in which we are living we have to make a choice to turn away or to have compassion on others. This kindness and compassion should be shown to all people of all socioeconomic classes.

While we may not be able to relate completely with what someone else is experiencing, we should demonstrate the love of Jesus by telling them we care and that their hurt is important to us and important to the Lord.

Consistently

The last way I would like to mention in regard to treating others how we want to be treated is that serving others is not a one and done situation by is a lifelong commitment.

Jesus did not come and perform one miracle and that was it. In the Old Testament the Lord did not help the children of Israel once but many times.

God is always consistent and there for us.

Psalm 46:1 NLT

1 God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble.

Psalm 46:1

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in times of trouble.

Jesus also tells us that He will never leave us and upon our salvation will send us the Holy Spirit to comfort us.

When loving others, it is important that we are consistent and dependable. It is wrong and unfair for us as the church to ask people to open up and change their lives for the cause of Christ and then not be there for them if needed.

This doesn’t mean that we are on call 24 hours a day and can help everyone with every request or need but it does mean that we do what we can when we can consistently and not just a once in a while or one and done type of mindset.

Integrity is doing what you say you will do and being the same person in every area of your life. When we walk with integrity it is a lifestyle and therefore consistent and above reproach which shows the loving steadfast character of Christ with others.

Love God and Love People

In closing, we can see how important it is to love God with all we are and to treat others as we want to be treated.

While none of us are perfect, I do encourage you this week to really take a spiritual inventory if you will and ask the Lord to reveal to you the areas of your life where you can grow in regards to loving Him with everything and loving others as yourself.

During these trying times in our country, if our focus remains on loving God and loving others that will increase understanding, heal many wounds, move towards unity, and draw people closer to Jesus in a very real and lasting way.

Let Us Pray

Thanks once again for joining me today and remember Jesus loves you and if you put your faith in Him, then you will be saved, and heaven will be your home.

See you next time.