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!!!!