Matthew 22:34-41 ESV But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 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."
HOW? Do this? Love a God who judges me? ALWAYS LOOK AT THE AGREEMENT/ Covenant:
1. Backstory – look at the agreement OLD COVENANT
conditional love based on Sacrafices and works
Deut 6:5-6 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
2. Better agreement
Heb 8:6 But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.
Heb 8:8-9 For he finds fault with them when he says:
"Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord,
when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah…
9 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers
on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.
For they did not continue in my covenant,
and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord.
Heb 8:10-11 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, declares the Lord:
I will put my laws into their minds….
and write them on their hearts,
and I will be their God,
and they shall be my people.
11 And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor
and each one his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,'
for they shall all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest.
Heb 8:12,13
12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities,
and I will remember their sins no more."
13 In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete.
And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
3. What Christ HAS DONE – the agreement between Jesus and the Father – the blood shed – HAS ALLOWED US TO HAVE UNCONDITIONAL LOVE FOR THOSE IN CHRIST.
4. LOVE AND VALUE = the Same
$50 ILUSTRATION
· Creased, crumbled, stepped on – still worth $50
· You mess, struggle, give in to old addictions, pride = still worth max amount to Jesus – LOVES you
· GOD’s value/love is rooted in an agreement/ covenant =>unconditional LOVE
· EVERY SOUL LONGS FOR!
5. HOW do I love the Lord God with all my heart, soul and mind?
A. Mind – Listen you have control what goes in your mind – you may not believe that – set you mind on what is true about God’s loving relationship with you.
B. Transformed by the renewing of your mind
C. Know His presence with you is LOVING – ALL THE TIME!!! Is He grieved when you mess up – sure – but
that is different from ANGRY!
D. I will post some verses on our blog that you can let wash over you (westoverhighschoolministry.com)
6. HOW will you know? To love God is RESPOND to His love EVERY PART OF YOUR BEING!!1 (he Loved us first)--- LIVE --- BE A KID --- LAUGH --- FREE --- EYES OFF YOU--- ADDICTIONS GO AWAY ---LOVE YOURSELF---- BASK IN HIS UNCONDITIONAL LOVE OF GOD… COOLEST VERSE IN THE WORLD IS
1 John 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. 4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world — our faith.
7. Spills out of you!!!!! Manure Illustration?
8. Aware and Unaware---- REFER BACK TO $50 bill… just like you would receive this 20 in a heart beat = HE WILL RECEIVE YOU!!!!
When I started reading Matthew 22:37-40, the second commandment really smacked me in the face. Because even though I've read these verses more times than I can count, I don't know if I've really looked closely at what they say. It says to love your neighbor "as yourself." It could say a million other things, but it says "as yourself." So what's it mean to love the Lord with all that you are, to love yourself and then to love others as a follower of Christ? That's something that I've been challenged by recently--to love Him with my life, see myself the way Jesus sees me, to love others the way he created me to, and then to walk/live in that.
Here’s a little about me some of you may not know, and it’s a huge part of my story and how the Lord began to teach me about what it means to love him with all my heart and then to love myself as the person He created me to be and then to love my neighbors. It’s all tied together!
-Accepted Christ in my life in 1993 in sixth grade and then we moved back to Florida and I started seventh grade at a private Christian school. Middle school was a really awkward and difficult time for me, just like it is for a lot of people.
-In eighth grade I started losing weight but within a few months it became a full-blown eating disorder. I didn’t fit into any of the regular groups of people who are at high risk—I have an amazing family, I’m a Christian, etc. But what I know now is that it wasn’t even about the food—it was more of a spiritual issue.
Everyone has areas that are like targets for the devil to attack. But the Lord always provides a way out—do you take it? But here are some things that I learned and that I’ve been reminded of recently that absolutely tie in with loving yourself the way God intended:
LISTEN to His voice. Who does He say I am vs. who others say I am? We all know who the world says we should be, and that doesn't go away as you get older. But who does the Lord say I am? Do I listen to Him or to them?
-I'm chosen by God, holy and dearly loved, bought with a price
-Nothing will separate me from His love
-I am forgiven, by his wounds I'm healed
-I'm created by his hand--fearfully and wonderfully made
-All of my days are ordained, his plan is to prosper and not to harm me
-He has redeemed me and called me by name
-I can walk in freedom because He's set me free
-I'm called out of darkness and into His light
Jesus is the shepherd and He says that His sheep listen to His voice. I'm constantly learning to listen to His voice and making a choice to listen to Jesus instead of the noise around me. But the more you listen to someone, the more you recognize their voice. Example: My sis. So who do you listen to?
Look at myself the way He sees me. Seeing yourself as anything or anyone other than who He created you to be can have potentially devastating consequences--I know because I've seen it and I've been there. The Bible tells us that satan comes to steal, kill and destroy. But Jesus gives us life--and it's abundant life! So when you're being hit on all sides and are tempted to buy into the lies and see yourself as less that who you are in Christ, put on the armor and just stand (Ephesians). Sometimes just standing can be exhausting, but it's what we're commanded to do and it's for our own good. Who do you see when you look in the mirror? We're given a choice--to choose life or not. What do you choose? What do I choose and WHO do I choose?
Now LIVE!! You have to know Jesus--not just know about him--to really hear his voice and to see yourself through His eyes. It's about a living, breathing, exciting relationship; not about religion. He knows us and loves us more than we could ever comprehend. A consequence of that relationship with Jesus is that you desire to love Him with all your heart, soul and mind; and you begin to get glimpses of how deep, high and wide his love is for you. Only then can you even begin to truly love yourself and then love others the way God intended. I want to be someone who is so convinced of who I am in Him and so secure in His love for me that it comes as naturally as telling someone my name. I want to be about life because Jesus is about life--and I absolutely desire that for every student in the HS ministry.
Becca Warren is a high school volunteer at WHSM