Matthew Pt. 86 - The Great Commandment

Matthew 22 is where you're going in your Bible.

We're spending time still on this day that the Holy Spirit

decided to devote a lot of time to as he guided Matthew still in

the middle of this day. We're still, uh, probably

Wednesday before the Thursday night where Jesus gives himself

over. And then of course, the Friday

morning where his torture and his sacrifice begins.

But we're in Matthew 22. Jesus is being tested again and

again and again. And now here we are in verse 34.

But when the Pharisees heard that this that he had silenced

the Sadducees, they gathered together and one of them, a

lawyer, asked him a question to test him.

Teacher, what is the great commandment in the law?

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.

This is the great and 1st commandment, and a second is

like it. You shall love your neighbor as

yourself. On these two commandments depend

all the law and the prophets. God, we come to your word this

morning. I pray that you would fill us

with a great. I pray that we would first be

crushed by the weight of it, and then I pray we would be

resurrected by the life and power that comes only through

Jesus. Lord, grow us, build us, and

help us to love you even more. You are so worthy and it is the

purpose for which we were made. Help us to fulfill the destiny

that you had always planned. God, I pray this morning that as

Your word comes that it would cut to the heart, that it would

perform the surgery and it would find us soft and eager to

receive. Cut off any branches in us that

you don't want there. Take away anything that you're

that you don't, that doesn't serve you or serve us.

Heal the roots and produce the good fruits.

We humble ourselves before your awesome word this morning in

Jesus name, Amen. We come to the thing of all

things, the command of all commands, the teaching of all

teachings that your whole Bible is anchored on, and it just

seems to be surprisingly planted here in Matthew.

We have another occasion of the same event in Mark.

If we were just reading Matthew, we would think like we have for

these other tests. This guy's probably coming with

a bad attitude like everybody else has.

The Sadducees were clearly trying to mock the Lord.

The guys who didn't even believe in the resurrection said, Hey,

how, how's the resurrection going to work?

They were just sarcastic. They were fools, this guy.

We would be tempted to think the same thing as what's taking

place here, but it's not because Mark shows us more of what's

going on. So in Mark Chapter 12, I'll read

Mark 12 · chapter mention

it to you so you don't have to go there.

You can if you want. Mark Chapter 12, we have the

Mark 12 · chapter mention

same event. It's the same occurrence, but

it's recorded with other details.

Mark chapter 12, verse 28. And one of the scribes came up

Mark 12:28

and heard them disputing with one another.

And seeing that he answered them well, he asked him which

commandment is the most important of all.

Jesus answered the most important is here.

O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is 1 And you shall love the

Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul,

and with all your mind, and with all your strength.

The second is this. You shall love your neighbor as

yourself. There is no other commandment

greater than these. And the scribe said to him,

You're right, teacher, you have truly said that he is 1, and

that there is no other besides him.

And to love him with all the heart and with all the

understanding, with all the strength, and to love one's

neighbor as one's self is much more than all the burnt

offerings and sacrifices. When Jesus saw that, he answered

wisely. He said to him, You are not far

from the Kingdom of God. And after that no one dared to

ask him any more questions. So Jesus was still being tested.

Here he is the Passover lamb who is being tested.

They're not conscious of what they're doing.

And yet still the Father in his perfect glory and perfect design

and in his sovereignty, he has set these things up and Jesus

has set these things into motion so that this would come about

this way. But now here we are.

Jesus is meeting with all these different people.

Remember the many thousands around him in the temple courts?

But here we have Jesus displayed back in Matthew 22.

Jesus is the chief Bible scholar.

If you thought the Bible meant something when it said

something, and then Jesus says it means something else, it

means what Jesus says it means. That's what the Scripture meant

and that's what was implied, and that's what we should have seen.

That's what he did with the Sadducees.

I would have said, I didn't think, I didn't know, I didn't

realize that that scripture taught that.

And then Jesus said he's not the God of the dead, but of the

living. He's the God of Abraham, Isaac

and Jacob. Jesus took their own scriptures

that they claim to believe. He fought them on their own

turf. He went into their into their

territory. So they thought, and he said,

I'll quote you the thing you claim to believe and I'll show

you the resurrection is even there.

And now Jesus is teaching us the Scriptures, showing us what's

perfect and what's right. He did what the Pharisees could

never do previously with the Sadducees.

He silenced the Sadducees to prove the resurrection with the

Scriptures that the Sadducees had read.

So the Pharisees are going to be happy that the Sadducees have

been proven wrong, but they hate that Jesus was the one to have

done it because remember, they've teamed up in this moment

so they can shut Jesus down. So in verse 34, this Pharisee

had heard he, he silenced the Sadducees.

They gathered together, he sent, he asks him this question, but

it is sincere. When Jesus tells this man,

you're not far from the Kingdom of God.

Notice he didn't say you're in the Kingdom of God.

This should give all of us pause.

The Kingdom of God is something you can be closer to or farther

away from. None of those are the same

though, as being in it. It's better to be closer than

farther away, right? And yet still being close is not

being in. So I can be farther away from

the Lord, or I can be as close to the Lord.

That looks like something, apparently.

Do you possess right knowledge? That's good.

Do you have affection for God in His Word?

That's good. But those things by themselves

do not mean that you're in the Kingdom.

Have you been born again? Do you have new life with new

desires, new convictions, and new fruit?

Those are real measurements you can use.

Don't be satisfied to adore the king and still sit outside his

house. He has invited you in, if you

will wear the garment that he provides.

This is an important message, an important message for southern

American Christians. You're not far from the Kingdom

of God. I thought I was in the Kingdom

of God. That might have been.

That might have been an alarming thing for this man to hear.

You're not far from the Kingdom of God.

That's a bit embarrassing. I am a Pharisee in front of

thousands of people. It'd be like me going somewhere

and, and, and, and engaging with some, some, some Bible scholar,

some person who loves the Lord, some person who has grapefruit

and I share something and they share something and I share

something and they say you're not far from the Kingdom I go.

That's a that's a bit alarming actually.

I thought I was in the Kingdom, thought I was all the way in the

Kingdom. I know stuff about the Kingdom.

I just answered rightly. I have warm affection for you,

but you're saying I'm not in the Kingdom.

To be in the Kingdom is to be born again.

The first time you were born, you came out of your Mama.

The second time you're born, you have to come out of the Spirit

of God, and He has to make you a new creation.

When He does that, you will be a new person with new desires, new

loves, and new hatreds. You'll love what he loves, and

you'll hate what he hates. You're not far from the Kingdom

of God, but we want to be all the way inside the Kingdom of

God. We come to verse 36.

Teacher, what is the great commandment in the law?

Whatever comes out of Jesus's mouth next.

Of course, you already know what comes out of his mouth, but

whatever, let's just acknowledge whatever he says next is the

most important thing ever, right?

What is the greatest commandment?

What is the greatest command? What is the greatest one say is

the greatest thing? We're literally about to hear

the meaning of life. Whatever comes out of Jesus's

mouth next. Pretend you don't know what it

is you're about to hear. The whole purpose for all of

human existence, all of planet earth, should bend around

whatever Jesus is about to say. All human civilization, every

man's life, every person's money, every marriage, every

thought, every single thing. Whatever he's about to say next,

if he says you're supposed to stand on your head, all

civilization should be built differently around that command.

Our chairs would look different, like everything, all of life,

all of world products, civilization would have been

shaped differently if that's what the Lord wanted.

And that would be right if he said it's all about it doesn't

matter. Fill in the blank with whatever

absurdity you would like. That's what we should bend

ourselves to. That's what we should pursue.

Every person, from the oldest to the youngest, from the dumbest

to the smartest, should run after the most important

command. Jesus is not about to give a

verse just fit for a coffee mug. The Son of God is literally

about to tell us the meaning of life.

And this is a moment where everyone would have leaned in.

Teacher, he saw, He answered the Sadducees rightly.

This was a common thing for them to do.

You would engage one another, rabbis, teachers, leaders, they

would engage with this kind of dialogue in this kind of

conversational, what does this say?

How do you read it? So this isn't a foreign concept.

That's why we can be more also confident that he's not coming

with sarcasm and heat. He's going, oh, he just put the

Sadducees in their place. So this might be a good-natured

guy. By the way, a lot of Pharisees

end up getting saved in the Scriptures.

A lot of a lot of people eventually come to Christ after

the resurrection. But he's asking him what's the

most important thing. Everybody would have leaned in

and you should do the same thing right now and commit to

obedience to it. Even now, every nation, every

person, everything, every minute of our lives should come into

alignment with what he's about to say.

Next. Go to verse 37.

You he, he gives his answer. But before you go there, I want

to explain something to you. Though the egghead Pharisees,

This is all they do. So it's good to do this thing

from time to time. Their problem is all they do is

discuss and discuss and discuss not for the purpose of greater

obedience, but for the purpose of greater knowledge which we

know. Knowledge puffs up.

Knowledge makes me feel better than you.

But love builds up. What does that mean?

Love means it. It's, it's, it's an entirely

different perspective. Knowledge puffs up.

Knowledge is for me to puff me up.

Love for you will make me want to build you up.

My priorities shift entirely when I've got a Kingdom

perspective in my life. I want more knowledge so I can

be smarter and smarter. So the Pharisees were always

arguing and debating. They had counted all the

commands of God. Did God say count all the

commands or did God say obey the commands?

They're like we counted them. Lord.

It's been, I've heard a pastor say before, he's like, if I tell

my kids to clean their room, I'm not interested in them coming

back and going. Dad, we did a word study on the

word clean. It turns out here's where it

comes from, and here's the origin of the word.

Is that what a dad is looking for when he says clean your

room? Dad, we all like it's the

grammar of your sentence was quite fascinating.

Dad, if you really think about it.

Wow, kids, I'm so impressed. Is the room clean, though?

Is there the fruit of what I've commanded, or do you just know

stuff? So the Pharisees had determined

among themselves all these things with the laws.

There's 613 laws this many of them are negative, do not do

this commands this many of them are positives You should do this

commands and they also have determined what was the least in

the law. They had determined out of all

of all the laws that they had identified in this in the in the

law in the scriptures, they have determined there is one that is

the least. This is a law specifically

saying that if you're going to take eggs or young or young

birds out of a nest, you should not take the mother as well.

It was a command. The Lord saw that this thing was

not right. Why?

Well, it would be a mercy, it would be a kindness, it would be

a gentleness. You're getting these things for

food. So you find, you find a wild

nest, potentially you've got eggs or you've got birds or

you've got something that you can eat.

He says you should not take the mother also.

Why? So she can then procreate again.

So if this person took the mother.

So there's multiple reasons. There's multiple angles as to

why this might have been a law, but the Pharisees have decided

this is the least so if this is the tiniest command in their

minds, this man is now looking for the weightiest command.

Well, we we've identified the smallest one, Rabbi, but there's

still not a general consensus on what is the most important one.

But Jesus does not answer the man in a way that he was asking.

Jesus answers from a whole new paradigm.

He shows that God doesn't want us to rank his commands.

He wants a heart that actually fulfills his commands.

He said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your

heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.

So they've determined they've got 613 laws.

But with this one statement, Jesus reveals you don't have 613

laws. You have one law.

There's only one law. And everything else that comes

after this law is just a practical application of the one

law. There's one law.

It's love God. The outflow of that is to love

others. And now you have an infinite

amount of possibilities to fulfill this thing.

Of course, love would never do harm to its neighbor.

So of course thou shalt not murder.

Why? Well, because you love.

Of course thou shalt not steal. Or why?

Because you love. Do we have to keep the 10

commandments? Well, of course, because we love

God and we love our neighbor. And those laws are loving God

and loving neighbor laws. This was his purpose.

This was his point. He says first, love God and

second, love your neighbor. But verse 40, if you'll skip

ahead, shows that he wasn't ranking them like we might think

it, like we might think it first because he says on these two

commandments depend all the law and the prophets, men of God

throughout time have taught this truth that there is only one law

and everything else is basically case law.

These are just the details that work out all the specifics of

what it's got to look like. In the 1800s, Charles Spurgeon

preached that love is the fulfilling of the law.

He called it. It is, he said, is the golden

nail on which all the precepts hang.

So it's not just another one of the precepts.

It is the thing that all the precepts depend upon.

Martin Luther, the great reformer of the 1500s, taught

that all commandments are summed up and fulfilled in this one

thing, namely love. He said that every prohibition

that's a don't do it command, or every command that's a go do it

command merely defines what love requires in each situation.

He did that. God did this in the Old

Testament because they didn't have God living inside of them.

They didn't have a new creation like you do and the new covenant

since Jesus has been raised from the dead.

So if he had just said love each other, they'd have been like,

well, where's the line and what might that look like?

And who's really to say what love is and what love isn't?

And God says, let me be more specific.

Do this, don't do this, do that, don't do that.

This is what it has to look like.

If you love your neighbor, you would put a railing around your

rooftop of your house because you love your neighbor and you

don't want them to fall off your roof and die.

So God gives all that. Why would God make this a law?

Why would God make that's a law? Because he's fulfilling the law

of love, and he's giving a particular people in a

particular time a particular guideline to fulfill the one

great command. Love the Lord your God with all

your heart and soul and mind and strength and love your neighbor

as yourself. So what's this command about

right here? It's about love.

What's this command over here? It's about love again.

Why can't I make an image or an idol if I call it Yahweh?

Because you love God enough to worship Him as He truly is, not

as you imagine Him. Why can't I take the Lord's name

in vain? Because you love His name and

you honor His Holiness. Why can't I offer a a flawed

sacrifice to the Lord? Because you love God and you

bring Him your best. 400 years after Christ, Augustine said

love God and do what you will. That's how he summed it up.

Love God and do what you will. You're free.

Meaning that genuine love for God will always lead to

obedience to God's commands. So you say that to the person

who's like, oh, that sounds pretty good to me, I love God.

Well, your love for God is always measured by your

obedience to God's commands. So to say that you love God

means that if you really love God a lot, that that means you

would want to be even more rigorous and displaying your

love for Him. That would include the I'm not

going TOS, and that will include the I'm going TOS.

But here's the thing about love. It doesn't have a limit.

It is ultimately unfulfillable because you can never say I did

it and I accomplished it. You can say I did that thing and

I did that thing. These particular tasks in

particular details which we love because that goes on my

checklist. I did this command.

I did that command and as long as I've got and I and as long as

I've isolated a massive list of commands, I get to show my

progress over time and say, look at what I the good things I did,

look at the bad things I avoided and you're going, it's pretty

impressive. And the Lord said, those are

particular fulfillments of the one command to love the Lord

your God with all your heart. Well, that's massive.

I've already failed with all your soul, with all your mind,

and with all your strength. Well, that's a different

standard entirely. He's taking things to an

entirely new place. When you actually love God, you

can do whatever you want. Because when you actually love

God, you're going to want whatever He wants.

So yes, you're free Christian to do whatever you want.

That's a safe thing to tell a Christian who has trained their

heart to actually love the Lord. That's a safe thing to tell a

Christian who has trained, who has trained themselves in the

Word of God. Because a Christian who loves

God is full of God's word. A Christian who is who loves God

is spending time with the Lord and doesn't want to grieve the

Holy Spirit. And when the Holy Spirit speaks

up to them, there's such a tender conscience and even

something that's not plainly written.

The Holy Spirit says, I didn't like that.

And you go, oh, oh, will you crush me, Lord?

The Lord can come with such a gentleness.

Hasn't he done that to you? If you've ever been tender, he's

done that to you, if you've ever.

And if you haven't, then you're not tender.

I can plainly tell you if you've never felt that, uh, that

bothered you, Lord, and that didn't move you to, to, to

greater submission, then you're not tender and you're not supple

and pliable in his hands. But as you have, you're going,

Lord didn't like that. Oh Lord, I'm sorry, forgive me.

And he's going, You're forgiven and move on, Knowing who I am,

what I like, what I want, and what I don't.

Because you love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul

and mind and strength. So the words that Jesus quotes

here are not new words. They are Deuteronomy 6 verses

4:00 and 5:00. Every Jew in that crowd knows

these words already. They recite them twice a day, at

least. They do it in the morning and

they do it in the evening. That passage they have named the

the Shema. It means to hear and obey,

because that word, Shema's, the first word that's quoted in that

passage. So it means hear and obey.

And they quote it all the time. For ages.

They've heard it with their ears, but they have not heard it

with their hearts. Their love is mechanical and

their love is technical. I want to know the

technicalities. As a youth pastor, one of the

joys about pastoring teenagers in particular is that they are

honest with their questions. Adults are not, but teenagers

are adults. Like, they'll think it, but they

won't say it. Then we'll be hey, pastor, but

teenagers like, hey, how much can I do?

How much sin can I do? And like, that's like a common

question for like, for lukewarm teenagers or frankly, unsaved

teenagers, they're like, what can I get away with?

I'm just trying to, like, not burn forever.

I just would like to hit the minimums of like avoiding

permanent burning. And so if I, if you could like,

coach me and the avoidance. Shari's laughing because she's

had these conversations as well. Sherry and I served in youth

ministry together for years. So we were there.

We know, we we know what it was like, but we've all wondered

those things. The teenagers just say the thing

that we've all thought about like, am I OK?

Am I in the right spot? Am I doing the right thing?

Well, the answer is have I gone too far and am I really blowing

it? Well, the answer is, if I'm

asking that question, I am absolutely failing the greatest

command. I am not loving the Lord my God

with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my mind and with

all my strength. My question itself reveals that

I have fallen so far short of His glory, His worth, or what He

deserves. I'm going, what's the absolute

minimum I can give? And God has said the command is

to give the maximum. That's the command.

Give the maximum, maximum, maximum.

Well, how do I know if I've given the maximum?

Give more, and then even still give more all the time.

By the way, remember I prayed that the Lord would crush you

with His words so that He could then revive you.

This is the crushing time. If you're feeling crushed and a

little bit worried, everything's right on track.

Everything's going to be OK. They've heard forever with their

ears. But they are technical.

They are not wholehearted, even with the Sadducees.

We're just talking about, hey, in the resurrection he was

married to her. And they do.

And she and he died. He was married to her and he

died. He was married to her and he

died. Whose wife will she be in the

resurrection? They're, they're still missing

the point. The law is about love, right?

And they're all stuck in the technicalities of the command.

Hey, hey, we did the law perfectly.

We obeyed the law perfectly. That law is not about who is she

going to be married to forever. That law is about, let's love

and care for this widow who now doesn't have a husband.

That was the heart of God for that law.

And they're going, how can we? And you're going, you don't know

the scriptures or the power of God.

You don't know what you're talking about.

We do know the Bible. You don't know the heart of God.

So you don't know the Bible, which means you're, you're

unqualified to interpret the Bible.

I know the Hebrew. I know the Greek.

I knew the transliteration of the Aramaic to the Latin.

That's not a thing, by the way. I'm just making stuff up to make

you think I'm smart. I know all that stuff.

And still you're unqualified because you don't love God and

you're not interpreting the scriptures through a lens that

says how, how will this love the Lord?

How will this help me to love others?

Of all that's focused on caring for and loving a widow, they

made it about themselves. Who's going to be married to

her? How's this going to work in the

long run? These are stupid and foolish

conversations and these are things that are very common in

the body of Christ. We miss the mark often here.

You can go find any blog post on any stupid and obscure argument

that you want to find. And it is missing the heart of

God's motive and God's purpose, which is why as your pastor, I

keep reminding you, wake up and follow Jesus.

Well, what about and what about and how come and why, if we're

going to be talking about end times here soon in the next

couple of chapters and interpretations on that and

different views on it. And I'm going to be woefully

unsatisfying to all of you because I'm not going to give

you guaranteed answers on everything that you want.

But you know what I'm going to tell you?

I'm going to say, you know what we should do?

We should love the Lord our God with all of our heart and soul

and mind and strength. We should love our neighbor as

ourselves because Jesus is coming back.

That's what we should do. Some folks think this, some

folks think that. I think more like this.

If we were certain, if the scripture was that crystal clear

on this particular thing, we probably wouldn't have much

confusion on it, would we? And yet we're going to focus on

what God wants us to focus on. We're going to prioritize what

the Lord wants us to prioritize on these two commands.

Depends all the law and the prophets.

Notice the Pharisee who comes though he only asks what's the

most important command in the law.

That's where he stuck the law, the first five books of Moses,

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

This is the law teacher, Rabbi, what's the most important

command? But Jesus didn't say this is the

most important command in the law.

On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.

What the prophets are about love as well.

Absolutely. All of your Bible, all of the

Scripture is emphasizing God's love.

Jesus is expanding the scope of everyone's understanding.

The whole Bible is about loving God.

Everything hangs on God. Everything hangs on then also

loving others. That's our purpose, to love God.

That's why you exist, to love God and to enjoy Him forever.

Why am I here? You're here to love God and

enjoy Him forever. Well, that's why everyone else

is here too. Yes, it is.

Do you have particulars within that?

Can we get into subcategories and particular callings?

Of course, He built you in a particular way for a particular

purpose, always underneath the umbrella of loving God and

enjoying him forever. That's your purpose.

That's why you exist. That's why humanity exists.

And then in particular, we live that out as a man or a woman.

And then in particular within those categories, we can go,

well, I'm this person and God gave me this personality type

and God gave me these kinds of callings on my life.

And then we, we start to walk those things out.

You're, you're still unique, you're still an individual, but

your life purpose is the same as mine.

It's the same as every person who loves the Lord all over the

world. It's the same as every person

who hates the Lord all over the world to love God and enjoy him

forever. This is the meaning of life.

Jesus answered it. Nobody has to go search for it.

Nobody has to be confused about it any longer.

And all of the Bible teaches it, all of the Scriptures reveal it.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and

all your mind and all your strength.

It's a positive command. It's not a -1 He doesn't say

don't hate God because you could check that box, couldn't you?

I don't hate God. Mission accomplished.

He says love him. So there's a big difference

between avoiding sin and pursuing love.

Jesus does not leave us with only a negative command.

A negative command sets boundaries.

Don't do this thing. Don't hit your brother.

That's a negative command. OK, He didn't hit his brother

today. Wow.

Mission accomplished. Hey, Dad, I'm pretty amazing,

right? Well, you know what?

That's not that great of a standard.

I need to change this standard. Hey, treat your brother with

love. Well, what's that mean?

Well, it certainly means hitting his long gone.

That's out entirely. But what else does it mean?

Go love him. No.

I'll tell you what. Go love your brother with all

your heart. What's that mean, Dad?

A heart that actually loves will go.

Find some applications for it. A heart that actually loves

won't go. I don't know what to do.

I need specifics. A man who's in love with a

woman. He doesn't get stumped.

I don't know how to propose. I don't know how to propose.

No. He does all kinds of crazy and

elaborate things. He gets her mom and her friends

and her cousins and all the things and he sets up the date

and the time and the place and he didn't read a book on it.

Why? Because love was coming up out

of his heart and he just went and did those things.

They were, they were just out of the overflow of his heart.

Nobody had to tell him. I didn't do super crazy

elaborate stuff. So if you didn't know either,

wives take it easy. I don't want these wives like,

see, that's what love does. You heard him, You, you engaged,

you proposed to me was terrible. None of that but a heart that is

really loving finds application for the love a positive makes

the opportunities limitless. It's unlimited now what what you

could do with that love your brother well today is way

different from don't hit, don't fight, don't kill each other.

We'll be back in 8 minutes like but love is far more powerful to

say love one another. Well, and now it's actually

going to take something that comes out of the heart, which is

what legalistic people never want.

I always want the rules that I can follow that I can accomplish

or not. Don't steal, don't commit

adultery, don't lie. But a positive command to love

would never do any of those things.

And the command love the Lord your God opens up the infinite

obedience possibilities. It's the difference between

don't cheat on your wife and love your wife.

Imagine if in my premarital counseling that I did with

people that that's what I said, Hey, here's the only thing you

really need to know as a husband.

Don't cheat on your wife. Like wives, Would that feel

comforting to you? That sound good?

You know, if I were to tell wives, hey, the only thing you

really need to know is like, don't cheat on your husband.

Like that's it. That's kind of the basics of it.

Like that seems like like maybe not high enough of a bar, but

scripture doesn't stop there. Scripture doesn't say wives,

don't be disrespectful. He says respect your husbands

and submit to your husbands. Well, what's that mean?

Ah, careful, little legalist. Go make it mean something great.

Go make it mean something beautiful.

Go make it mean something incredible.

Go make it mean something profound.

You've got freedom to love, you've got freedom to honor the

command now, and you've got the power of the Holy Spirit to do

it, my brother. Go love your wife.

What's that mean though? Exactly though?

Like you go make it mean something, man, go love your

wife like Christ loves the church.

Go go match the bigness of that. You've got infinite

possibilities. There's there's some best

practices. I recommend this.

I recommend that Bob recommends this.

Jeff recommends that. We've seen some good practices

with these things. Probably ought to consider

those. But love is an expansive command

that doesn't have a limitation. We don't just say don't hate

your wife, but he says be gentle with your wife.

So he does give extra commands beyond love and beyond respect,

but they're still fulfilling the law of love.

They're still fulfilling loving God.

So the negative command 11 command restricts a positive

command inspires one tells you what not to do.

The other calls you into a life of devotion and delight.

I want maximum now. I don't want a participation

trophy. I want the gold medal at the

Olympics. That's the difference.

Jesus is saying get a gold medal at the Olympics and loving God

instead of like, hey, I would like to just attend the Olympics

and watch. That would be satisfactory to

me. He's going well.

That's not satisfactory to God. He wants you to run and He wants

you to run the race to win. He wants you to fight, and He

wants you to fight to win. The command to love God is

unlimited. There is no point where you can

say I did that. It reaches into every moment,

into every motive, into every decision, into every desire.

And we're closing. And that's what makes it

impossible for sinners like us, people who cannot love the Lord

their God with all their heart and soul and mind and strength.

We break all the commands because we've broken all the

commands flow from there's just one law.

And when you violate that one law, you violated them all.

That's why if you break one law, you're guilty of the whole law

because you've all broken the one law of not maximally loving

God maximally at all times and maximally loving your neighbor

at all times. Well, I've never killed anybody.

Oh, OK, so you you picked one particular thing, but that flows

from the source. Did you love everybody?

Well, all the time? Well, no, of course I haven't.

Right. Have you loved God with all of

your heart and all your soul and all your mind and all your

strength? Well, no, but I've never hated

him. So you have failed then, and

because you're guilty of breaking the law, you're guilty

of the weight of the whole law, and it's as though you have

broken every particular command along the way.

I have failed miserably my entire life to love God with my

whole heart, and we have not for 5 minutes even given the

fullness of our souls to loving Him.

You have not applied your mind fully to loving God.

You've wasted it on sinful thoughts and you haven't loved

God with all your strength. You've been lazy and you've

chosen comfort instead of prayer and worship and devotion that

actually needed effort from you. You failed in every category to

love God. It's the greatest command.

It's what He demands, it's what He requires.

But you failed it. The command to love God is

beautiful, but it's devastating. It commands never ending

goodness, but it crushes us, it humbles us, it convicts us, and

if grace didn't intervene, it would condemn us.

But it is designed to draw us to the cross.

Because there was one who loved. The Lord is God with all of his

heart, with all of his soul, with all of his mind, and he

gave every bit of his strength as he climbed the hill, carrying

his own cross. When we say Jesus paid it all,

we mean it. He actually loved God all the

way all the time, and he loved his neighbor as himself.

Jesus is so perfect. He is so good.

He is so flawless, not because he kept all the commands in

particular, although He did, although he he handled the baby

nest of birds correctly or he built the roof around, he built

the railing around his roof of his home.

He did all the things maximally good, but he didn't just stop at

loving his neighbor at the minimums of what the law

required. He went all the way and said,

I'm going to give my life. The law doesn't require you to

go die for the whole world. There's no command in the old

covenant that says you've got to go sacrifice yourself.

It says do the minimums, tie up your ox so he don't go kill

somebody. OK, Love your neighbor enough to

take care of your livestock so he doesn't destroy their life.

But Jesus goes beyond it and he actually loves maximally.

He loves God maximally when he prays in the garden.

Father, not my will, but your will be done.

I want this thing in my in in the the torment that I'm going

to feel. I wish this cup could pass from

me, but more than that, I do want what you want, because I

love you, Father, and I want what you want, and I want what

pleases you. Which is why it pleases the

Father to give the Son the name above every name.

This is why Jesus is so worthy. This is why there is no other

way to the Father except through Him.

This is why you should have all the boldness, all the confidence

to say there is no other name by which men can be saved.

Because if you, if one person can make it to heaven without

the name and the blood of Jesus marking their life, then the

name and the blood of Jesus are worthless.

And he is definitely not worthless.

He is the Pearl of great price. He is the treasure in the field

that you should sell everything and give yourself up for and

say, Jesus, I have not loved the Lord my God with all of my heart

and soul and mind and strength, but you have and I do want to

love you. And by your grace, I'm being

drawn to love you. And you're shifting my desires

and you're making me new. And I want to look more like you

and I want to love my neighbors, but I can't do this on my own.

And I need to be a new person. I need a new identity.

You fulfill the great commandment perfectly, and then

you lay down your life for all of us who couldn't.

So Jesus, I come to you for forgiveness, for grace, and then

for empowerment to actually go live out this law of love, which

God does require his church. We really are supposed to be

ridiculous looking people with a ridiculous amount of love who

go, that's crazy. They even love their enemies.

We don't trust our enemies. There's plenty of things we

might not do with our enemies, but we do love them.

And that will actually have to look like something.

It will actually have to show up.

So we should still seek to pursue this great love for God

that we would devote our whole life to him.

Not a, not a life that's condemning, not a life that's

overwhelming, but a life that is shaped more and more and more

into the image of Jesus. You have to brush your teeth.

You have to get your oil changed.

All these things, the Lord knows they're not held against you.

They're not seen as insignificant.

You have a life to live. You have things to do.

You have shoes to tie, you have diapers to change.

You have phone calls to return, You have emails that need

answering. We all do right now.

I'm sure all this is a part of living, but all this is also

supposed to be a part of worship.

So, Lord, I'm devoting my life to you more.

I want to love you with all my heart and soul and mind and

strength. Lord, help me to embody the

greatest command in everything else that I do.

God, help me not to be a minimalist with my love and with

my obedience. Help me to be a maximalist.

God, I pray for your church. I pray that they would be

encouraged as they look to the cross, that they would be full

of courage and hope, that we would all be drawn to worship,

to see the Lord Jesus Christ perfectly loving His God with

all of his heart and soul and mind and strength, and loving

us, his enemies, and doing for us what we couldn't do for

ourselves, taking the punishment for our sins.

Jesus, we apply the blood of the perfect spotless Lamb to our

hearts. We receive your grace, we

receive forgiveness, we receive strength, and we drink from the

cup again to receive hope, to receive empowerment.

God bless your people and send them out fully compelled by the

love of Christ, Soft and sweet and tender towards the Father,

soft and sweet and receptive to the Holy Spirit, eager to please

you. God, quick to correct when we've

grieved you. God, make us a people of great

forgiveness. Make us a people of great prayer

and great devotion, especially for our enemies.

Elevate our love, God, elevate our love as husbands that we

would love our wives not looking for minimums, but looking at

maximums. God, I pray for the wives that

they would not look for the minimums.

What is the what are the minimums?

But they would look for the maximums.

What are the maximums of respect to honor my husband, God, I pray

for our children that they wouldn't look for the minimums.

What are the minimums of obedience?

Did I get caught rolling my eyes?

But no. What are the maximums to honor

my father and mother? Not that we would become

legalists and not that we would become overwhelmed, but that we

would pursue love and the greatest commandment.

Holy Spirit, strengthen us. Now we receive the grace of God

fresh today. In Jesus name we thank you Lord

and now the Lord bless you and keep you.

The Lord make his face Shinedown upon you and be gracious to you.

The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you great

peace in Jesus name, Amen. God bless you Church.

Thank you again for honoring me and for honoring Natalie.

I really is a rich blessing. I cherish it.