Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Almighty God,
[00:00:03] Speaker B: you welcome you.
[00:00:06] Speaker C: Hey there. If you're new to Restored Church, we want to welcome you and thank you for tuning in. You're listening to a portion of our Sunday worship gathering. We believe the church is not an event, but a family you belong to. So we would love the opportunity to connect with you. If you want to learn more about our church or if we can help you in any way, please Visit our website, www.restoredtemecula.church and click on Contact. With all that said, we, we hope you enjoy the message.
[00:00:35] Speaker B: If we haven't met, my name's Tom.
[00:00:36] Speaker A: I have the privilege of serving the church as the lead pastor. And I am thrilled to be here
[00:00:41] Speaker B: with you this morning. If you're a guest with us. Stoked that you're here, man. So glad that you're here. Our prayer is that you would encounter God when you're here like that, literally, like you would experience him, you would encounter him amongst his people. And that maybe, just maybe, his grace would.
[00:00:56] Speaker A: Would strengthen you this morning and encourage you this morning and bless you this morning.
[00:01:02] Speaker B: And at the chance that there's anybody here that you're not yet in Christ, my prayer is that you would see
[00:01:08] Speaker A: him for who he truly is this morning.
That there really is nobody like Jesus.
There's nobody more glorious, there's nobody more loving, there's nobody more powerful. There's nobody more good.
And that Jesus has this intense, passionate love for you that will upend your life and change your life and transform
[00:01:28] Speaker B: your life and empower your life to the degree that you see him clearly and experience that.
[00:01:33] Speaker A: That's my prayer for us, all of us, this morning. And if you're not in Christ, you'd
[00:01:37] Speaker B: see him, you'd experience him, you'd put your trust in him, and the trajectory of your eternity would be forever changed.
I say this every single Sunday the last several weeks.
[00:01:45] Speaker A: And I think I'm just gonna keep going with this. Cause I feel like God's put this on my heart.
[00:01:48] Speaker B: But there really is a difference between
[00:01:49] Speaker A: being in church and in Christ.
[00:01:52] Speaker B: And my prayer is that every single one of us, whether you've been following Jesus for decades or you're just investigating Jesus, my prayer is that every single
[00:01:59] Speaker A: one of us, all of us, would
[00:02:01] Speaker B: experience every spiritual blessing in Christ, enjoying
[00:02:05] Speaker A: Him and obeying him and operating like Him.
[00:02:08] Speaker B: So, without further ado, go ahead and grab your Bibles. We're gonna be back in Matthew. You can flip over to Matthew, chapter 22.
We are continuing on in our series, the King and His Kingdom. Where we've been exploring Matthew's gospel and we've been exploring Matthew's gospel through the lens of we want learn as much as we can about the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God.
[00:02:27] Speaker A: Those two phrases are used synonymously.
[00:02:29] Speaker B: And when I talk about the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, when the Bible talks about the kingdom, it's talking about the rule and the reign of a king.
[00:02:38] Speaker A: In our case, King Jesus.
[00:02:40] Speaker B: What does it look like when God gets his way? That's what we mean when we talk about the kingdom of God.
And so this morning it's gonna be a good one.
[00:02:50] Speaker A: I have a lot to share with you this morning.
[00:02:52] Speaker B: I cut just so you know you're in for it.
I cut like three pages of notes
[00:02:57] Speaker A: this morning because I was like, I'm going to preach way too long.
[00:03:00] Speaker B: So I'm going to try to get through all of it.
[00:03:01] Speaker A: But before I do, I want to pray for us. So I'd love it if you join me. Let's pray together.
God, thank you for your presence among us.
Thank you for your commitment and your loyalty and your faithfulness to each one of us despite our imperfect loyalty back.
It doesn't change who you are.
And I just want to simply ask that you would teach us about your love this morning.
Holy Spirit, I ask that you would move among us. I ask that you would provoke us and convict us and challenge us and comfort us in the ways that we need.
And I pray, please help us see Jesus more clearly.
There's nobody like you, Jesus, I love you.
I'm thankful for you.
Holy Spirit, reveal Jesus to us this morning. We pray and all God's people said together.
[00:04:12] Speaker B: Amen.
Okay, so we're gonna start here in verse 34.
[00:04:16] Speaker A: We're gonna go 34 through 40. But I wanna bring you up to
[00:04:20] Speaker B: speed in case you haven't been following along on this series with us. Right now we find ourselves in Holy Week. Okay, Holy Week is the last week of Jesus Life.
It's a event packed week. It's an action packed week. It's pretty intense. It's the final week of Jesus Life. And where we find ourselves is there's this tension that's mounting here in the narrative. There's this tension mounting specifically with the Jewish religious leaders and their posture towards Jesus. They've been kind of curious in the beginning and then more and more resistant to him, more and more threatened by him. But this tension is mounting and what they start doing is they start making like every, seemingly every effort to discredit Jesus and they start doing it publicly. And the problem is their attempts to discredit Jesus, they're not really working, okay?
In fact, in the process of them trying to discredit Jesus, he in his brilliance and frankly in his love, exposes them.
If you've been journeying with us, you've seen it happen over and over again. Like there's this last ditch effort that these Jewish religious leaders engage in. What they're doing is they start posing these public questions of Jesus, they start questioning him publicly. And it comes in like multiple waves. Jesus will be teaching the temple and a group of Jewish religious leaders will come up and they'll question him to try to discredit him in front of people. And you have the Pharisees and you have the Herodians and you have the Sadducees. And each time it backfires on these guys. Cause I don't know if you know this, but like, Jesus is really, really brilliant. He's all knowing he's God in the flesh. It's incredible the way that Jesus responds to these guys.
He exposes them, he exposes their hypocrisy, he exposes their lack of integrity, he exposes their idolatry. Like, I mean, these are the men who are in leadership roles of leading the people of God and how to worship God.
And in the process they're actually demonstrating and modeling idolatry, which is essentially worshiping something other than God, ascribing ultimate worth
[00:06:15] Speaker A: to something other than God.
[00:06:17] Speaker B: And Jesus has a hard time with this.
[00:06:18] Speaker A: He's like, you guys are hypocrites.
[00:06:19] Speaker B: You're leading people astray.
Now today's passage is just another round of these guys coming to question Jesus publicly.
[00:06:30] Speaker A: Okay, I think this is like number
[00:06:32] Speaker B: three or number four in a row of public questioning of Jesus to discredit him.
[00:06:37] Speaker A: That's what we're going to pick up here. In verse 34 says this.
[00:06:44] Speaker B: When the Pharisees heard that he, that
[00:06:46] Speaker A: he there is Jesus, when they heard
[00:06:49] Speaker B: that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they came together, okay?
[00:06:54] Speaker A: So it's more and more plotting against Jesus. Okay, they came together, verse 35, and
[00:07:01] Speaker B: one of them, an expert in the law, asked a question to test him.
This is the question, Teacher, which command in the law is the greatest?
[00:07:13] Speaker A: Okay, pause for a second.
[00:07:15] Speaker B: This is a fascinating question. Which command in the law is the greatest? Which law? Which rule is in essence most important amongst all the other rules? All right now, important note here.
[00:07:28] Speaker A: Quickly.
[00:07:29] Speaker B: The Pharisees, they love to kind of debate and to argue about which rules were more important than other rules?
[00:07:36] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:07:37] Speaker B: Honestly, I think we do this too. If you've ever, like, California stopped at a stop sign, you're like, yeah, that's just not as important as, like, running a red light, okay? But either way, these guys, they love to debate. They love to argue about which rules are more important. Now, we live in America, okay?
We have laws, too, all sorts of laws. And all of our laws, they come from somewhere.
They have a source.
Forgive me, but I'm gonna just. Quick little civics lesson, okay? We have laws.
[00:08:08] Speaker A: They come from somewhere.
[00:08:09] Speaker B: They come essentially from our constitution. The U.S. constitution. Right? You're familiar with the Constitution, right?
[00:08:16] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:08:16] Speaker B: So the U.S. constitution, it basically outlines the framework for how our country functions, okay? Now, for us, as US Citizens, I'm assuming most of you in the room, if not all of you, are a U.S. citizen. So the way our country works and the way that it's. The framework of how it's outlined in the Constitution is we elect voting. We elect representatives in Congress who then work together with other branches of government to pass laws, right? Specific laws. But here's the thing. All of those specific laws must abide by the framework of what I just said it. The Constitution. So they're all going back. Does this alignment with the Constitution. Okay, cool. We can pass this law or whatever. Now, I know it gets more complicated
[00:08:58] Speaker A: since there's 50 states and all the
[00:09:00] Speaker B: 50 states don't have the same exact laws. But here's what I want you to understand. Like, we're in California.
California, believe it or not, has hundreds of thousands of laws, like hundreds of thousands of regulations or statutes, right?
Now, someone who studies, let's just say, California law, someone who studies California law and gets schooled in it and becomes somewhat of an expert in the law, what would you call that person?
A lawyer, Right? That would be a lawyer.
[00:09:33] Speaker A: Now, listen, the Jewish people that we're talking about right now, 2,000 years ago,
[00:09:39] Speaker B: they had laws, too.
[00:09:43] Speaker A: They had laws.
[00:09:44] Speaker B: And their laws, like ours, had a source.
[00:09:48] Speaker A: The source of their laws was God, okay?
[00:09:54] Speaker B: The source of their laws was God. So the Jewish law is based on what God commanded the people in the Torah, the first five books of your Bible.
[00:10:04] Speaker A: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.
[00:10:07] Speaker B: So those first five books of the Bible, they're filled with commands the people of God received from God, and those became their law.
[00:10:14] Speaker A: Are you tracking with me?
Okay, great. Awesome. Okay.
[00:10:18] Speaker B: Now, scholars have counted 613 specific laws, okay? So these are basically rules on things like food and prayer and what to wear and going to the temple and all sorts of things. Right now, quick little trivia thing. There were 365 negative commands. So that would be like, hey, don't do this.
Negative command. 365 of those, and there was 248 positive commands. You ought to do this.
[00:10:49] Speaker A: You track with me.
[00:10:50] Speaker B: So very specific, very clear.
Essentially, the reason I'm bringing this up is I want you to get the picture of what we just read.
Essentially you have this Jewish lawyer, right, this expert in the law, and he publicly asks Jesus a question about the law. The question was, which command in the law is the greatest?
In other words, which command is the most important command?
Okay, let's just really quickly, in our context, if I were to ask you, as far as California law goes, or even just American law, whatever, think about it.
Which American law would you say is the single most important law?
[00:11:35] Speaker A: Okay, that's a good. That's a good one.
[00:11:36] Speaker B: Don't murder. I actually like that. I think that that's a really good law to have in place. Anything else?
No speeding. Okay, Yeah, I can get behind that.
Freedom of speech?
[00:11:49] Speaker A: No.
[00:11:49] Speaker B: Breaking and entering? Yes.
[00:11:50] Speaker A: What else?
I wish that was a law.
Okay, yeah.
[00:11:59] Speaker B: Destruction, all of these laws, they're there
[00:12:01] Speaker A: for a purpose, right?
[00:12:02] Speaker B: But that's not the easiest question in
[00:12:04] Speaker A: the world to answer, is it?
[00:12:06] Speaker B: Cause there's a lot of laws and all of them have value.
[00:12:09] Speaker A: Okay?
[00:12:10] Speaker B: So this Jewish lawyer, he publicly asks Jesus which command in the law is the most important? And it says that he does it for a reason. Did you catch what it was
[00:12:23] Speaker A: to test him?
[00:12:25] Speaker B: Now, I'm not sure that's the best translation, because here's why. That word to test in the original language, here's what it means.
[00:12:33] Speaker A: It means to obtain information to be
[00:12:37] Speaker B: used against a person by trying to cause someone to make a mistake.
So to try to trap.
[00:12:43] Speaker A: To attempt to catch in a mistake.
[00:12:46] Speaker B: Okay, so here's the.
I want you to get the picture. I want you to imagine a lawyer in the courtroom. A lawyer in the courtroom in front of a jury, questioning somebody on the witness stand.
[00:12:59] Speaker A: Okay? That's kind of what's happening here.
[00:13:02] Speaker B: Here's the idea. This Jewish lawyer, this expert in law,
[00:13:05] Speaker A: he's not asking this question innocently.
[00:13:09] Speaker B: He's not asking this question innocently. He's publicly putting Jesus on the witness
[00:13:14] Speaker A: stand, if you will.
[00:13:15] Speaker B: Why? Because he wants to discredit Jesus.
He wants to. Whatever Jesus responds with. He wants to get into a debate to try to discredit Jesus in front
[00:13:23] Speaker A: of all the people you tracking with me. Okay, let's see how Jesus responds. Verse 37.
[00:13:28] Speaker B: So he asks him, which command is the most important? Which command is the greatest of all of the laws?
Verse 37.
[00:13:33] Speaker A: This is famous.
[00:13:34] Speaker B: You've heard this before, probably.
[00:13:35] Speaker A: But Jesus said to him, love the
[00:13:39] Speaker B: Lord your God with all your heart,
[00:13:41] Speaker A: with all your soul, and with all your mind.
This is the greatest and most important command.
And then he gives a second one. The second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself.
All the law and prophets depend on these two commands.
Okay? That's the entirety of our passage this morning. So this passage, it concludes with Jesus
[00:14:05] Speaker B: giving two answers to the man's question.
[00:14:07] Speaker A: He only asked for one, but Jesus gave him two.
[00:14:09] Speaker B: What he does is he quotes the
[00:14:10] Speaker A: Shema, which is from Deuteronomy 6.
[00:14:13] Speaker B: 5, where he says, love the Lord
[00:14:15] Speaker A: your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind.
[00:14:20] Speaker B: So he says, that's the greatest and most important law, the greatest and most important command in the law. And then he gives a second answer. He quotes Leviticus 19:18. Love your neighbor as yourself.
[00:14:32] Speaker A: So love God and love other people.
[00:14:36] Speaker B: Like all the other people, not just some of them. Love God and love all the other people as much as you love yourself. Okay, pretty great answer. I don't think anybody in here would disagree that that's like, yeah, that's a good thing to strive for.
That's wonderful. That's good. I don't think there's gonna be much disagreement there.
[00:14:53] Speaker A: But here's my question to us this morning.
My question to us this morning is, do you know what that actually means?
[00:15:06] Speaker B: Sounds super nice, but what does it
[00:15:09] Speaker A: mean to love God?
[00:15:12] Speaker B: What does it mean to love your neighbor as yourself?
[00:15:15] Speaker A: To love people as much as you love yourself? Cause here's the deal.
[00:15:20] Speaker B: Most of us, if not all of us in this room, we are people who either are disciples of Jesus or
[00:15:24] Speaker A: who want to be disciples of Jesus. Okay?
[00:15:26] Speaker B: If we're going to fulfill the greatest, Hear me. If we're gonna actually fulfill the greatest, most important command, we need to be clear on what that is, right?
If you're gonna be held accountable for something, don't you actually wanna know what you're being held accountable for?
If I'm like, hey, if you don't do that, I'm gonna light your house on fire, you'd be like, I wanna know what that is. Okay? So listen, we have to know what this means.
[00:15:56] Speaker A: And I'll be canon with you.
I'm not sure we have the Best understanding of what the Bible means when it describes love.
[00:16:06] Speaker B: When the Bible uses the word love, you can get into the Greek and all different things. And some of you have heard that. You know, that's not where I'm going this morning. But I still think in light of
[00:16:14] Speaker A: that, I'm not sure that we understand what the Bible means when it describes love.
[00:16:21] Speaker B: Cause we use the word and it means different things to different people in different scenarios, right?
Like, I love Ebony.
[00:16:31] Speaker A: I also love coffee.
[00:16:34] Speaker B: I love Amelia. I love Vivian.
I also love skiing.
Like, I love my family. I also love to fish. Like, do you see where I'm going with this? Like, we use the same word.
But surely there's something different about my love for Ebony than my love for a flat white.
[00:16:55] Speaker A: You know what I'm saying?
[00:16:56] Speaker B: Like, those are two different things. Correct, but same word.
[00:16:59] Speaker A: Okay?
[00:16:59] Speaker B: I don't think we have the best understanding of what true. Hear me, biblical love is.
[00:17:07] Speaker A: And maybe you're sitting here this morning
[00:17:08] Speaker B: and maybe you've seen this passage before, right? Love God with all your heart and your soul and your mind. And maybe you've even heard sermons. I've heard plenty of sermons where people will grab this passage and they'll go, okay, let me show you. Let me teach you how to love God with your heart. And let me teach you how to love God with your soul. Let me teach you how to love God with your mind. And I love the intentionality behind that. I think that's actually really cool and really beautiful. But one of the things that really
[00:17:34] Speaker A: stood out to me this week, I read a lot this week in studying
[00:17:37] Speaker B: this, is that so many, like the majority, almost all of the Bible commentators that I referenced, and I referenced at
[00:17:47] Speaker A: least a dozen this week, all of them, they rejected that idea.
[00:17:54] Speaker B: They rejected that idea of like, this is a flavor.
[00:17:58] Speaker A: This is a flavor, and this is a flavor.
[00:18:00] Speaker B: And if you can tap into all
[00:18:01] Speaker A: those flavors, RT France says this quote, heart, soul, and mind are not different parts of man, but different ways of thinking of the whole man in his relation to God.
No clear distinction can be drawn between them.
[00:18:23] Speaker B: The three nouns together indicate the essential nature of man, his ultimate fundamental loyalty, not just a superficial allegiance.
[00:18:33] Speaker A: And end quote. Okay, so hear me.
[00:18:35] Speaker B: This is what Francis is saying is he's saying for love to be authentic. We're talking about love for love to be authentic, for love to be real. You can't separate heart, soul, and mind.
It's together. He's saying for love to be authentic and real. It requires. Listen to me. Your whole being, like all of your being. If love doesn't include all of your being, it's actually not love. It's incomplete, it's unfinished. It's right.
Loving God with heart, soul and mind, it's not like three separate flavors. Hear me. It's the summation of your inner man and your inner woman.
[00:19:11] Speaker A: You tracking with me, okay?
Craig Blomberg puts it this way. He says, quote, the relationship of all
[00:19:19] Speaker B: the Old Testament to the double love commandment.
[00:19:22] Speaker A: The double love commandment is love God, love people, right?
[00:19:24] Speaker B: He says the relationship to all of the Old Testament scriptures to that commandment, love God, love people, shows that there.
[00:19:30] Speaker A: Listen to this.
[00:19:31] Speaker B: There is a hierarchy of law that above all requires one's heart attitude to be correct.
[00:19:39] Speaker A: Listen to this.
[00:19:40] Speaker B: If this is absent, if the heart is absent, obedience to commandments degenerates into mere legalism.
[00:19:51] Speaker A: End quote. Okay, so some of you are like, those are big words. I don't know what he said.
[00:19:54] Speaker B: In other words, like true love, real love, it involves both your intentions.
[00:20:03] Speaker A: So what's going on inside of you and impact what happens on the outside, it's both.
[00:20:10] Speaker B: It's not just one or the other. It involves what happens on the outside as well as what happens on the inside of you.
[00:20:18] Speaker A: And if you don't have both, you don't have true love.
Let me give you an example.
I was just going to ask the youth a question to engage them, and the majority of them are writing in their notebooks right now.
I just think you guys are incredible.
I'm just so proud of you. Sorry, let me just pause and start over again.
Youth.
[00:20:48] Speaker B: So I want you to imagine something
[00:20:51] Speaker A: for a second, okay? I wanna demonstrate this love piece.
Imagine your parents. You're doing something.
[00:20:58] Speaker B: You're in the middle of doing something and your parents go, hey, I actually,
[00:21:00] Speaker A: I wanna ask you to do this. I want you to ask you to
[00:21:02] Speaker B: take the trash out, or I want you to tidy up your room, or I want you to go help your sister with this or your brother with this, or come here, I need you to give me a hand. Your parents give you clear instruction, right? But you're in the middle of doing
[00:21:12] Speaker A: something and you're like, I don't really wanna do that now.
[00:21:15] Speaker B: I want you to imagine and maybe this has never happened in your life,
[00:21:18] Speaker A: but I remember when I was your age, this happened quite often. My parents in the room, they could probably attest to it.
[00:21:23] Speaker B: My parents would give me a directive and I would.
Outside, I would say, yes, I would do what they asked me to do. But inside I'd be like, gosh, I just wanna be loved. Like, why are they trying to control me? Or why are they telling me what to do? Or, like, so what happened on the outside was fine.
I did what they asked me to do. But on the inside, I had this, like, anger or I had this, like,
[00:21:47] Speaker A: bitterness towards mom and dad. Hear me?
[00:21:50] Speaker B: Yes, I did what they asked me to do.
[00:21:52] Speaker A: But the scenario that I just painted, that's not love.
[00:21:59] Speaker B: That's not love. Obviously, if I did do it, that wouldn't be loving, right? Mom and dad asked me to do something.
No, mom and dad go fly a kite. Like, that's not loving, right?
So that part's clear.
[00:22:12] Speaker A: But hear me, doing it outside's good, while the inside, there's this anger and there's bitterness inside of me.
That's not love either.
Outside looks fine, inside doesn't.
Right?
[00:22:27] Speaker B: I'll do it, but I'm not doing
[00:22:28] Speaker A: it to honor them.
[00:22:31] Speaker B: I'm not doing it out of respect
[00:22:32] Speaker A: and appreciation for them.
[00:22:35] Speaker B: In fact, I'm actually kind of dishonoring them inside.
[00:22:37] Speaker A: No one else can see it.
Yeah,
[00:22:44] Speaker B: listen, True love, biblical love, real love, it involves what happens on the
[00:22:49] Speaker A: outside and on the inside. Guys,
[00:22:54] Speaker B: one of the examples that I use all the time, and you've heard
[00:22:56] Speaker A: me say this if you've been journeying
[00:22:57] Speaker B: with us, but I like this analogy because it helps me. It helps me continually check the pulse
[00:23:03] Speaker A: of what's happening inside of me.
Imagine if we, after gathering, we go out to lunch. I offered to buy you lunch. You accept, I pay for your meal, Everything's good.
[00:23:13] Speaker B: You're like, that's really generous. That's kind, that's cool.
[00:23:16] Speaker A: Maybe that is cool.
[00:23:18] Speaker B: But if my reason for doing that is I just wanted to get you to like me more, that wasn't for you.
That was for me.
Like, I'm essentially in my worst moment. I could be using you for acceptance or using you for approval.
Are you catching the difference? Outside looks great, inside is selfish.
So what can be perceived?
[00:23:43] Speaker A: This is wild.
[00:23:45] Speaker B: This goes a long way in church life, guys. What can be perceived as loving on the outside, God can see and go, actually, that's not loving.
That's something completely different. That's not love. If I did that, that wouldn't be for you, that would be for me.
Impact is nice. Intention's not so much.
The reason I bring this up is because the very people that are questioning God in this passage, the Pharisees, right? This was the trap that these guys Continuously falled into.
They focused, dare I say, exclusively on the outside at the expense of what was going on inside of them.
Their focus was on the outside, which can appear loving, but the outside, hear me, it's only half of the equation of love.
[00:24:28] Speaker A: Are you seeing this?
[00:24:30] Speaker B: I need to know.
[00:24:31] Speaker A: Cause if not, I need to keep going because I have a lot of stuff.
[00:24:33] Speaker B: Yes. Okay. Outside matters. Inside matters. Okay, my first point for you. The Bible says this. True love requires your whole being,
[00:24:42] Speaker A: outside and inside your whole being.
[00:24:44] Speaker B: True love requires your whole being for love to be real, for love to be true. It requires both the inside and the outside, your whole.
What happens on the inside is just as important as what happens on the outside.
[00:24:57] Speaker A: Question for you this morning.
Do you pay as much attention to what's going on inside of you as what's happening outside of you?
[00:25:06] Speaker B: Do you pay as much attention of what's happening in you as much as
[00:25:10] Speaker A: what's happening from you?
You can't have love unless you have both.
More songs have been written about love. More books have been written about love.
[00:25:35] Speaker B: Like love is the number one topic ever.
[00:25:40] Speaker A: It's because you were made to give and receive love. That's one of the reasons it's so appealing to humans. Right?
Is there a better feeling than knowing
[00:25:51] Speaker B: that, like, than actually receiving real, authentic
[00:25:54] Speaker A: love from another person?
It's pretty great.
It's pretty awesome. You're made for that, right?
[00:26:03] Speaker B: When it comes to this idea of, like, real love, like true love, biblical
[00:26:07] Speaker A: love, I don't know if anybody's helped
[00:26:09] Speaker B: me personally more than Tim Keller.
[00:26:11] Speaker A: Tim Keller is a pastor from New York City. He passed away a few years ago.
[00:26:14] Speaker B: I mean, not just with love. He's had a pretty huge impact on
[00:26:18] Speaker A: just my theology, pastoring.
[00:26:20] Speaker B: He's a gift to not just me, to the church, but when it comes to this concept of love, what's really helped me is he talks about love as being.
He talks about how love, it kneels.
Like, it kneels.
[00:26:34] Speaker A: Do you know what I'm talking about? Like on your knee.
[00:26:35] Speaker B: He talks about how love kneels.
[00:26:36] Speaker A: Check this out. Keller says this quote,
[00:26:41] Speaker B: the essence of love is kneeling love.
The essence of love is in being committed to someone else's greatness and glory.
[00:26:52] Speaker A: Kneeling love is not necessarily to please a person, to make them happy this moment.
Kneeling love is to listen to this.
[00:27:01] Speaker B: Kneeling love is to sacrifice whatever is necessary to give somebody what they need to for their lasting greatness.
[00:27:10] Speaker A: Not comfort, not even necessarily happiness, but their greatness. He continues, this is powerful, guys.
[00:27:16] Speaker B: There's A counterfeit of love, which isn't just like Christian love, but it's actually the opposite of Christian love, the opposite of kneeling love. And yet in the world, it's called love. So he's referencing how, in the same way I love ebony and I love coffee, he's like, we use this word, and sometimes we call what's love? In the world, they'll use the word love. And it's actually. It's not just, like, similar to Christian love or biblical love.
[00:27:38] Speaker A: It's.
[00:27:39] Speaker B: It's the opposite. Listen to what he says.
Yeah, in the world, it's called love. It goes like this. It's a counterfeit love. It's an opposite love.
[00:27:47] Speaker A: It says this.
[00:27:48] Speaker B: There's a kind of worldly, selfish affection
[00:27:52] Speaker A: that says, I love you.
I wanna have you.
I wanna own you.
Listen to this.
I want to meet my needs through you.
[00:28:07] Speaker B: Not that you'd verbally say that.
[00:28:08] Speaker A: What's happening inside, Right?
Listen. He says, but kneeling love says, I love you. Same language.
But I want your best.
I want your freedom.
I want to bring you to God,
[00:28:25] Speaker B: and I will do anything it takes
[00:28:26] Speaker A: to get you there. Listen to this.
[00:28:28] Speaker B: Even when I don't like you, I will love you.
That's how kneeling love talks.
Jesus Christ says, this is the meaning of life.
To have a life characterized by that.
[00:28:41] Speaker A: And listen to what he says.
[00:28:42] Speaker B: True love doesn't love the love a
[00:28:45] Speaker A: person gives you, but the person themselves.
End quote.
[00:28:53] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:28:56] Speaker A: So if you and I, as followers of Jesus, if we're gonna fulfill the
[00:29:03] Speaker B: greatest, the most important. That means don't move on from this to do other things until you get this part right.
If we're gonna fulfill the greatest, most important command to love God and love others, we need to be clear on
[00:29:18] Speaker A: what it actually means to love.
My next point for taking notes is this.
True love values the person more than what they provide.
It values the person more than what you get from them, more than what you gain from them, more than how they make your life better.
Now, again, not just on the outside, on the inside, True love values the person more than what they provide.
I'm gonna confess something to you.
This week was like a gut punch for me.
[00:30:03] Speaker B: Believe it or not, I realized I'm not great at loving God or people.
If I'm operating by the Bible's standards, by the Bible's definitions of love.
[00:30:14] Speaker A: Holy smokes.
[00:30:16] Speaker B: Sometimes it's there.
It's not as bad as it used
[00:30:20] Speaker A: to be, but good God, I got a long way to go, man.
I'm not great at loving God, and I'm not great at loving people, but I want to be.
I'm not good at it, but I want to be.
[00:30:41] Speaker B: And maybe you're here, maybe you're like,
[00:30:42] Speaker A: I can relate to that.
[00:30:44] Speaker B: I'm not great at it, but I want to be. Maybe you're here, you can relate. Maybe you're here. And if you're honest, you value what you can get from God more than you value Him.
You value the blessings and the provision, you value the forgiveness. You value these things, but you value those things more than him.
Because here's the thing. When we find ourselves in those places, what happens when God doesn't provide what
[00:31:15] Speaker A: we want him to provide?
[00:31:21] Speaker B: And not just what, but like, when maybe if you're honest, you value what you can get from people more than you value them.
You value the affection, you value the respect or the approval that feels great. There's nothing wrong with that.
[00:31:39] Speaker A: You ought to value those things.
[00:31:40] Speaker B: Those things are wonderful. Those things are fruit of the kingdom of God. So don't twist my words here. But maybe you find yourself, if you're honest, deep inside, only you know, you and God, right? But maybe you value what you can get from people more than you value them. The affection, the respect, the approval, even the service.
But, guys, true love, real love, values
[00:32:05] Speaker A: the person more than what they provide.
If you spend any time with me, there's something that you might recognize that might annoy you.
Kind of unapologetically. But I tell people I love them often, even dudes, some people are like this. That's weird.
Okay, sure, it's a little weird, but listen, I can see it.
[00:32:40] Speaker B: Sometimes I'll say it and I can
[00:32:41] Speaker A: tell it makes people feel uncomfortable. And I understand that it's fine, because guys aren't supposed to do that, right? But listen, I don't think there's anything more masculine than that. Actually, that's another sermon.
The truth is, I'm not the greatest at loving people, but I want to be, okay?
[00:32:57] Speaker B: So listen to me when I say it to people.
[00:33:00] Speaker A: When I say it to you a
[00:33:01] Speaker B: bunch of times, you're like, okay, Tom, it's just like lip service when I say it to people. It's as much a sign of affection and care for them as it is, hear me. A reminder for me.
It's a reminder for me, like I am to love you.
I was made to love other people. I was made to love God, and I was made to love other people. And so guess what? As someone who struggles, who's not the greatest of loving people. I need to be reminded that part of my purpose, that, dare I say, one of the greatest commands that God has given me is to love other people. And I don't do it well. So when I say it to you, it's because I'm like, I need to be reminded. As much as I want you to know, that I have affection for you, that I care about you, I too need to be reminded that I am
[00:33:38] Speaker A: to love you, you with me.
[00:33:43] Speaker B: Not just on the outside, on the inside.
[00:33:51] Speaker A: To value you as a person more
[00:33:52] Speaker B: than I might gain from you.
[00:33:55] Speaker A: Just that you were made in the image of God.
And that's where your value comes from.
[00:34:01] Speaker B: Not from how you could make me feel or the ways that you could bless other people or, like, your gifts or your talents or, you know, whatever the worldly resume. No, but just because he made you in his image.
[00:34:16] Speaker A: True love values the person more than what they provide.
[00:34:20] Speaker B: So this command to love God and love others as much as you love yourself, Jesus says these are the most important commands.
Like, don't move on from this command.
Don't focus on anything else until you
[00:34:42] Speaker A: get this part right.
This week was a gut punch. I'm like, oh, I got a long way to go.
What about you?
How's it going for you? I don't say it as condemning. I do say it to hopefully, necessarily convict some of you. But how's it going for you?
[00:35:07] Speaker B: Like, and hear me, not just on the outside, not just for what's observable
[00:35:10] Speaker A: to everybody around you on the inside.
Sobering week for me, man.
Very sobering week. But I'll tell you this. There was also. I felt, guys, I felt the beauty in it.
[00:35:24] Speaker B: Do you see the beauty in it?
Listen, if true.
[00:35:30] Speaker A: Hear me.
[00:35:30] Speaker B: If true love requires a person's whole being, right? The outside and the inside, and that true love, it values the person more than what they provide. Do you realize what that means?
[00:35:45] Speaker A: My next point for you is cheesy, but it's this.
[00:35:47] Speaker B: God truly loves you.
If that's what love is, I'm failing.
[00:35:58] Speaker A: He's not.
I'm failing.
[00:36:01] Speaker B: When he's infinitely faithful. If that's what love is, that literally means that God truly loves you.
It's not a concept, it's not an idea. Listen, he isn't trying to meet his needs. Through you, he's infinitely fulfilled. The three persons of the Trinity, Father, Son, Spirit. They exist eternally to glorify one another, to make much of one another, to love. It's a community of love. God is love, right?
He's not like, I'm lacking something. I need to make Tom so I'll be worshiped so I feel more.
He lacks nothing. He's not trying to meet his needs through me. He's not trying to meet his needs through you. He's not even relying on your worship.
The angels haven't stopped singing holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty for a really long time. They haven't moved on from how set apart and holy and glorious he is.
They're still in awe, and they're not quiet about it.
Don't take us the wrong way.
[00:36:57] Speaker A: They're not, like, sipping their latte during praise time.
[00:37:01] Speaker B: They're not, like, checking their phones during praise time. They're going, there's nothing in the universe. There's nothing in all of creation more glorious. They can't take their eyes off it. Gentlemen. You ever seen a beautiful woman?
You ever seen a beautiful woman? Genuine? You're. Oh, my gosh. Ladies, you ever seen, like, a.
[00:37:18] Speaker A: There's no such thing as a beautiful man.
[00:37:20] Speaker B: Have you ever seen, like, have you ever seen, like, a space or, like. Like a. Like an outfit? You're like, gosh, that's beautiful. Like, when you. When you see beauty, you can't help but be in awe. Like, wow, that's. That's wonderful.
The angels, they have never moved. They haven't moved on. Listen, guys, he's not relying on our worship.
And let's be clear. Like, if you're like me, my worship's so imperfect.
[00:37:49] Speaker A: One minute I'm worshiping Jesus, the next minute I'm worshiping comfort.
I think it was John Calvin. He said, our heart, like the human heart, is an idol factory.
That means that inside of us, talking about outside, inside, right.
[00:38:10] Speaker B: That our hearts are literally continuously producing idols.
[00:38:14] Speaker A: In other words, an idol is when something matters more than what matters most, that's an idol.
[00:38:24] Speaker B: And our hearts are consistently doing that.
God knows he's not relying on our worship.
He's not relying on our love for him. He's not relying on your love for him. Friend. Like, here's what blows my mind. This is why it was so comforting
[00:38:41] Speaker A: and beautiful to me this week.
[00:38:42] Speaker B: His affection for you and for.
[00:38:44] Speaker A: I get this. It's not selfish.
His affection for you is not selfish.
Do you realize, like, we talk about, a love that kneels. God has kneeling love for you.
That's bananas.
That means he wants the highest and best good for you, and it has nothing to do with what you do provide to him.
It's true.
[00:39:31] Speaker B: Love.
[00:39:35] Speaker A: And he does it. Get this. Despite your lack of true love for him, his love for you isn't based on your resume.
It's not based on merit.
That's not how it works.
That's not what Christianity is.
That's like a religion thing.
[00:39:54] Speaker B: What do you do?
[00:39:54] Speaker A: How do you.
[00:39:55] Speaker B: Like, what do you need to do to get right with God?
[00:39:56] Speaker A: That's not what we're doing here.
[00:39:59] Speaker B: Christianity says, there's nothing you could do. You've already blown it. So Jesus goes, because I have true
[00:40:05] Speaker A: love for you, I'll rescue you, and I'll take care of it myself.
[00:40:08] Speaker B: I'll do for you what you could
[00:40:09] Speaker A: never do for yourself, at great cost to myself.
That's Christianity. That's real love.
His love for you isn't dependent on your merit.
[00:40:21] Speaker B: It never has been, it never will be.
[00:40:24] Speaker A: It's based on what?
[00:40:27] Speaker B: Grace.
[00:40:30] Speaker A: Undeserved, Unmerited.
[00:40:35] Speaker B: Like, you realize you and I, like,
[00:40:36] Speaker A: I'm not better than anyone.
You're not better than anyone.
[00:40:41] Speaker B: I don't have the necessary merit.
Neither do you.
[00:40:46] Speaker A: And yet God has true, real love for you.
[00:40:51] Speaker B: It's real.
And maybe you're here and you're like,
[00:40:56] Speaker A: well, okay, cool, Tom, that sounds great,
[00:40:57] Speaker B: but, like, how can I be sure of this great concept?
I want to act like maybe you believe it with your head, but not with your heart.
[00:41:07] Speaker A: Remember, your whole person. Right?
Oh, baby,
[00:41:15] Speaker B: he really loves you.
[00:41:16] Speaker A: You don't have to feel too convicted.
Love you, Brit. Stay strong, Mama.
How can I be sure?
Here's how you can be sure.
I want you to consider what's going on in this passage we just read.
Consider the context.
[00:41:34] Speaker B: It's Holy Week.
It's the last week of Jesus life.
And look at the last week of his life. Look at how Jesus himself is fulfilling the two greatest commandments here.
Like, he's doing it. He's been doing it the whole time. But it's super clear right here, man. Like, he's about to get arrested in the middle of night. Like, a bogus arrest. He's about to be betrayed by one of his closest friends, Judas, for, like,
[00:41:59] Speaker A: a little bit of money.
[00:42:02] Speaker B: He knows it's gonna happen.
He knows the betrayal's coming. He's gonna get arrested.
They're gonna mistreat him, all these things. And what's his response?
[00:42:12] Speaker A: Yes, Father, I'll do that for Tom.
Love God. Love people.
[00:42:20] Speaker B: He's fulfilling the two greatest commandments in these spectacular ways. Not just the arrest. He's about to go. They're gonna arrest them. They're gonna put him on trial in the middle of the night. It's a legal trial by their own standards. In that trial, they're going to physically assault him in ways that are gnarly.
The very people he came to save, the very people he came to rescue from the bondage of religion, from hypocrisy, from living a life that only prioritizes the outside and does nothing to clean up the muck on the inside that will, like, rob you of life.
He graciously and sacrificially leaves his throne in heaven, puts on flesh, comes to these people, the king, comes to these earthly leaders and rulers, and they put him on trial, and they essentially plot to condemn him to death.
And he knows he's gonna. He knows it's gonna happen. He knows.
[00:43:09] Speaker A: His response is yes, Father.
For Jason, for Ty.
[00:43:21] Speaker B: And it's not just the arrest. It's not just the trial culminates in the crucifixion, the most intense suffering. Like, there's nothing. There's nothing more painful. Like.
And it's not. Hear me. It's not just the nails in his hands and his feet. It's not just the flogging. It's not just the pinnacle of physical suffering and torture and being executed and being betrayed by his closest friends.
Literally, he absorbs the sin of mankind, like, every single time that you have not acted in love or, like, half love, everything. The ways that we reject God, the ways that we are not loving to him and not loving to the people that he loves, all of it.
The Father poured out, not just physically but spiritually, which is probably more intense, the comprehensive suffering, the comprehensive punishment for all of the sins of mankind onto him.
He knew it. He wasn't ignorant.
And when faced with that,
[00:44:32] Speaker A: his response.
Yeah, Father, yes, for them.
Oh, man.
[00:44:50] Speaker B: How can I be so sure that God truly loves you?
[00:44:57] Speaker A: What's the.
Jesus loves me. This I know.
For the Bible tells me so. Again, cheesy. I'm full of the cheese today.
But I'm telling you, man, there's nothing like the love of Jesus for you.
It's not a concept.
It's not an idea.
It's real.
He's got scars to prove it's real.
The resurrected Jesus sitting on his throne
[00:45:33] Speaker B: in heaven right now, a man in heaven who's coming again. He still has the holes.
[00:45:44] Speaker A: Yes, Father.
For them, for you. For me.
God's love for you isn't a concept. It's not an ideal.
It's real.
Hear me.
[00:46:03] Speaker B: True love, not fake love, not watered down love. Not the love that you know the world will sell to you.
Not temporary, but true love. It values the person more than what they provide.
[00:46:17] Speaker A: That means God truly loves you, friend.
Do you love him?
In my house, I have a. We have a guest WI fi situation where, like, you know, you have your main WI fi network that you use for certain things and you have a guest WI fi that you can set up for people when they come over. And you know what I'm talking about.
So my guest WI fi password is Jesus loves Me.
And the reason for that is because whenever somebody comes over to my house and they want access to my Internet, I want them to know that Jesus loves them. They have to literally type it into their phone.
Jesus loves me.
I really want you to know it, too.
I really want you to know it not just as a concept, but as a reality that you live in every moment of your life.
All right, I'm going to close with this. I'm going to cut quite a bit. Ben, will you.
Will you come up?
I'm going to close.
Okay, I'm Almost done.
[00:47:50] Speaker B: Verse 38, important verse. Jesus says, truly loving God with your whole being is the greatest and most important command.
[00:47:57] Speaker A: Okay, hear me.
[00:47:59] Speaker B: That has monumental lifelong discovering in the depths of like, implications for our church.
[00:48:07] Speaker A: Okay?
[00:48:08] Speaker B: If loving God is the greatest and most important command, it's the great. It's like it's the most important thing. It has really big implications for our church. It means, here's my final point.
[00:48:17] Speaker A: I'm gonna try to get one more in there before I leave.
[00:48:19] Speaker B: Loving God is the primary goal of the church.
Like loving God is the primary goal of the church. Okay, listen, as a church, we do all sorts of things, don't we?
We engage in all sorts of stuff. All of it has a purpose. All of it has meaning. And it has multi layers of meaning and purpose. It's really good. But hear me, according to Jesus, loving God is the most important thing we do.
Like, nothing even comes close. If we get that wrong, we get everything else wrong. Can I get an amen? You tracking with this? It's the number one thing we do. It's the most important thing we do.
Hear me? I think we can all say amen. But there's plenty of people who disagree
[00:49:02] Speaker A: with Jesus on this.
[00:49:05] Speaker B: A lot of people, actually, they disagree with Jesus on it. They say the most important thing that the church does is social justice.
It's caring for the poor and the marginalized. That is something the church ought to do. It's an important thing It's a good thing. I'm here to tell you right now. Hot take.
[00:49:21] Speaker A: It's not the most important thing.
How about this one?
[00:49:27] Speaker B: Some people will say the most important thing the church does is evangelism and mission.
Another hot take. Super important.
[00:49:34] Speaker A: Good. Not the most important thing.
[00:49:38] Speaker B: It's not the most important thing.
[00:49:42] Speaker A: How about this one? Some people say the most important thing for the church.
Community.
Community.
[00:49:51] Speaker B: Strong, meaningful relationships.
[00:49:56] Speaker A: Guys, it's not the most important thing.
I'm going to camp out here for just a second because I think this is actually really important for us.
I think if we're going to get tripped up on something, it might just be this one.
And the reason we might get tripped
[00:50:16] Speaker B: up, the reason why we're kind of maybe more inclined to like, elevating community as being the most important thing.
[00:50:21] Speaker A: It's because, frankly, it's because of how wonderful you guys are.
You guys are incredible.
You're godly in so many ways.
You're fun.
You're enjoyable to be around.
[00:50:43] Speaker B: You're gifted, you're generous. Like, if you've been with our church for any length of time, you've seen
[00:50:51] Speaker A: people come and go.
[00:50:55] Speaker B: Some of them for great reasons.
Some of them being sent by God on mission for, like, incredible. Like, Colton's going to plant church. It's amazing.
[00:51:04] Speaker A: And some of them for not so good reasons.
[00:51:05] Speaker B: But you've seen people come and be like, dude, this community is awesome.
I want to be friends with these people. They're wonderful people. Yes. And amen. They totally are. You guys are incredible people.
Frankly, probably what drew many of you here is how wonderful and beautiful and compelling this community of people are.
[00:51:23] Speaker A: Is.
But hear me, because you guys are so wonderful, if we're not careful, we can make community the reason to be part of the church.
And hear me, if or when that happens, that's idolatry.
If we worship, the community means we're no longer worshiping God.
And here's the thing.
[00:51:58] Speaker B: This community, it exists. The reason it's here, it exists to collectively love God.
Like, that's what makes the church different than any other community on the planet. You can have incredible community in, like, a run club. You can have amazing community of people who like to crochet. You can be in a community of people who like to do different creative arts and different. You can have outstanding community.
But what makes the church a very unique community, that we are a community who exists primarily to love God.
[00:52:38] Speaker A: Loving God is the primary goal of the church. It's the most important thing we do
[00:52:42] Speaker B: so listen, can I just break this
[00:52:44] Speaker A: down for a couple more minutes with you? Thank you guys for coming up early. I like actually love. I want to preach with the pad the whole time.
Some of you, especially you guys with little kids, you're in that season of life, hear me? It's a miracle that you're even in the room.
[00:52:59] Speaker B: It's a miracle you even got out of the house.
[00:53:03] Speaker A: You get in the car.
[00:53:03] Speaker B: One of the kids shoes isn't there. They didn't put like. It's hard.
It's really, really difficult.
[00:53:10] Speaker A: But hear me, the most important thing we do is love God together.
[00:53:17] Speaker B: So can I make an appeal to you knowing that like, I get it's
[00:53:21] Speaker A: hard and no stones, but can you do whatever you gotta do?
Can you do whatever you gotta do to come to gathering, the worship gathering for him early?
[00:53:32] Speaker B: If you need to lie to yourself,
[00:53:34] Speaker A: I don't typically condone lying, but I will say this.
[00:53:36] Speaker B: If you need to lie to yourself and say, hey, gathering starts at 9:30,
[00:53:41] Speaker A: and hear me, I know it's hard. I'm not throwing shade at you. My family's late to a lot of things, okay?
But if the most important thing that we do is love him collectively, I
[00:53:56] Speaker B: think it would reflect how we prioritize
[00:53:58] Speaker A: this time on Sundays.
[00:54:00] Speaker B: I think it would reflect on how we prioritize being in the prayer room.
Guys, I don't know if you know this.
[00:54:05] Speaker A: The worship gathering is not for me or you.
Who is it for?
Yes, brother.
[00:54:15] Speaker B: Like it has to be for him. If it's not, that means we're worshiping someone or something else.
And I don't know about you, I want my Sunday morning worship exclusively devoted to Jesus because he's the only one who's ever loved me truly. The other things don't love you truly.
[00:54:31] Speaker A: They don't.
[00:54:32] Speaker B: Only Jesus loves you truly. And so can I just like blow some fresh wind in our community and say, hey, I know it's tough. I'm not throwing shade. If you show up 15 minutes late next Sunday, I'm not gonna be like, they don't love God. Like, that's not what I'm saying. But what I am saying is I'm rallying us together and going, hey, if nothing else, while your kids.
Now maybe it's not a kid or whatever, but I'll just. Parents. I'll give you a get out jail free card if it's your kids that are keeping you late. Hey, guys, right now we're missing out on loving God together.
Come on, let's Go put your shoes on. Get in the car. Let's roll.
It's hard, but at the very least, we're demonstrating for our kids. No, this is what we're doing. This is what matters. And if kids. If your parents are like, I'm gonna chill in my pajamas. Hey, mom and dad, come on. Like, we're gathering because we love God. That's what we're doing. It's the priority.
[00:55:21] Speaker A: You with me?
All right.
[00:55:23] Speaker B: Will you stand with me if you're able?
[00:55:24] Speaker A: I want to pray for.
So. So listen, if.
[00:55:39] Speaker B: If loving God is the most important thing we do. If loving God is. Is the. The primary goal of the church. Do you know what that means? That means that loving God is the primary goal for each and every disciple of Jesus.
[00:55:50] Speaker A: Right?
[00:55:51] Speaker B: Each and every disciple of Jesus. Their primary goal. So get this.
I can tell you right now. Do you know what the primary goal of your job is?
It's not to provide for your family.
The primary goal of your job is not to provide for your family. It's not to make money. Although those things are really important. Do it like, yes, yes, amen. But the primary goal of your job
[00:56:11] Speaker A: is to love God.
[00:56:14] Speaker B: The primary. The primary goal of your marriage is not to, like, get fulfillment from your spouse and to have deep intimacy and connection. Those are. Things are great. The primary goal of your. Of your marriage is what?
[00:56:26] Speaker A: I don't believe you.
[00:56:28] Speaker B: To love God.
The primary goal of your parenting is not to just, like, invest in the next generation so that they would flourish and they would become everything that God created them to be. Is that part of it? 100%. The primary goal of your parenting is to love God. That's literally the first and greatest command, right? The primary goal of your friendships, not to just enjoy and make memories. It's to love God. Youth, you guys are going to camp in, like, 24 hours.
[00:56:55] Speaker A: Hear me.
[00:56:55] Speaker B: The primary goal of camp.
[00:56:59] Speaker A: Stay with me.
[00:57:01] Speaker B: The primary goal of camp is not
[00:57:05] Speaker A: to have as much fun as you can.
[00:57:07] Speaker B: Does every adult in this room want
[00:57:09] Speaker A: you to have as much fun as you possibly can? Yes.
[00:57:11] Speaker B: Does God himself want you to have as much fun as you possibly can? Absolutely.
[00:57:15] Speaker A: Hear me. I dare you to put the lenses that your worldview to have this. The primary goal of camp and everything that you do, everything that you say,
[00:57:27] Speaker B: is to love God.
Because here's the deal. When we actually. When we put first things first, do you know what happens? The byproduct of that, if you love God, you will start to love the things and the people that he does the things that he values. You'll start to value the people that he values, even if you don't like them. You'll be like, God loves them, though. And I can't love God and be in opposition to what he loves.
So do you see the brilliance of Jesus going, the first and greatest, the most important thing, the primary goal is to love God. Because if you get that right, you'll get your life right.
I'm yelling at you. Cause I know some of you aren't listening.
Do you hear me?
Like, this is the biggest thing in your whole life.
Nothing's more important.
And if you get this right, you're gonna thrive and you're gonna experience him. And guess what? If you get this right, you'll experience the love of God in ways that empower you and satisfy you and fulfill you in ways that no lesser things can. Cause none of those things don't love you like Jesus loves you.
[00:58:35] Speaker A: All right, I'm really gonna pray now.
Father, help us.
We don't conjure this up.
It's not a try harder message.
It's A first John 4:19 message.
[00:58:58] Speaker B: It's we love because you loved us first.
Everything's done in response to seeing your
[00:59:03] Speaker A: love for us clearly. And you demonstrated it.
You perfectly fulfilled the two greatest commandments every moment of your life. Jesus, there's nobody like you. We worship you.
We love you.
You're wonderful.
And I just want to pray for
[00:59:19] Speaker B: every single person in this room, myself especially.
Teach us about real love.
Teach us about true love
[00:59:29] Speaker A: so that
[00:59:30] Speaker B: we don't just, like, fumble our way through life.
[00:59:34] Speaker A: Not experiencing what you would have us
[00:59:36] Speaker B: to experience, not living the way that you would have us to live and all of the beauty and glory that
[00:59:41] Speaker A: comes along with it.
I pray that your love would be contagious among us.
[00:59:48] Speaker C: Father,
[00:59:54] Speaker A: Help us. Holy Spirit, I pray in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Okay, if you're on the prayer team this morning, I'm going to ask you to hold back.
Don't come forward this morning. Yet.
Here's what I feel like is appropriate for us this morning.
The most important thing, the primary goal, is to love him.
There are three men on this stage with me.
And they're not primarily here because they like to play music.
They're not here because they want your approval.
They're here because they want to leverage what the gifts that God has given them so that you can take full advantage of the opportunity to express that first commandment to God, to love him.
Not just on the inside. Some of you dudes, some of you
[01:01:01] Speaker B: men, you love God on the inside.
[01:01:03] Speaker A: On Sundays, I can see it, it's awesome. But on the outside, I have no idea, Tom. I want it to be authentic.
[01:01:10] Speaker B: Yeah, I believe it's authentic on the inside. Get that outside going, brother.
Come on.
Lead this church, men. Lead this church in the first commandment, loving God with everything you have on the outside. And on the inside.
[01:01:21] Speaker A: I know it's in you ladies.
Same thing goes for you. It's not just a men thing.
[01:01:29] Speaker B: Our minds can be drifted everywhere.
[01:01:30] Speaker A: Here's what I want us to do
[01:01:32] Speaker B: for the remainder of our gathering.
[01:01:33] Speaker A: We got plenty of time.
The remainder of our gathering, All I want us to do, we'll conclude there'll be prayer for you at the end, you'll be able to be prayed for. That's not gonna going to miss that.
[01:01:42] Speaker B: But here's what I want to charge
[01:01:44] Speaker A: our church to do.
And it's what Jesus says. I want to charge you to fulfill the first and greatest commandment, to love God with your whole being, outside and inside.
You're not going to do it perfectly. Nobody does.
But we have the love and the grace of God to fall back on when our love drifts.
[01:02:06] Speaker B: So can we take advantage if. Listen, if you don't know the words
[01:02:09] Speaker A: to the song, sit.
[01:02:10] Speaker B: Sing your own.
You have permission, even if you know the words of the song, to sing whatever you want to God. I do it all the time.
There's times when they play a song and I'm like, I like that song. But right now, I want to sing about his glory.
So I hijack the music and I give my own praises, my own lyrics to the Lord. Guess what? You can do that anytime you want. Do it here, do it now, because
[01:02:31] Speaker A: this is a worship gathering for him, to express love to him.
That's the agenda for the next 15 minutes exclusively. Okay?
I love you very much.
He loves you more. Let's enjoy him together. And then, Michael, can you close us? Pastor us at the end. Great. Love you guys.
