He Is Good | The Greatest Command | Mark 12:28-34| Coleton Segars

The teaching text for today is coming from Mark chapter 12, verse 28 through 34.

Mark 12:28–34

Mark chapter 12, verses 28 through 34.

Mark 12:28–34

That's what Mark writes.

One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating.

Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, Of all the commandments, which is the most important?

The most important one, answered Jesus, is this.

Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.

And the second is this love your neighbor as yourself.

There's no commandment greater than these.

Well said, teacher, the man replied, You're right in saying that God is one, and there's no other but him.

To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.

When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, You were not far from the kingdom of God.

And from then on, no one dared ask him any more questions.

This is the word of the Lord.

We are in a series that will really finish, two-year series through Mark, that will finish Easter of 2026.

I'm pretty sure it'll finish around then.

But what we've been doing is looking at this series He is Good and trying to look at things that Jesus says and does that Mark writes down from Peter's account of Jesus, and just trying to figure out and press into if he is good, because Mark begins his gospel by saying, This is the beginning of the good news of Jesus.

This is the beginning of the story of how good he actually is and how good that he was in this ministry on earth.

And so that's what we've been trying to do this week.

And so today I want to look at this passage, and it's not going to be a direct exposition.

We will look at a couple of different things, but I want to focus on what Jesus says in verse 29.

And so what I want to do today is look at what Jesus says matters the most to God.

This is what matters most to him.

Then I want to look at why that matters.

Why does that matter the most to God?

If this is the thing that matters most to him, why is that the thing that matters to him?

And what that means for our church, and just something I have for our church that I want to say.

And then for us personally, what it means for us.

And so I'm going to, if you've if you're counting, that's four points.

Sorry.

There's normally three, and I always go long, but we're going to try and make it work.

So the first is we see what matters the most to God in this text.

And Jesus says this in verse 29 through 30.

This is what matters most.

So the teachers of law ask them, What's the most important command?

And he says, the most important one is this.

Hero Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, mind, and strength.

And so what you see that Jesus answers, he doesn't say, like, what's the most important one?

He's like, ah, there's not really commands that really matter anymore.

He doesn't say that.

He's like, actually, there is something that's the most important to him.

There's something that's very, very valuable to God more than anything else in the world, and it's that we love him.

The most important command in the scriptures is that we love him.

And for some people it'd be like, well, we're not even justified by the law anymore.

Like we're justified by faith in Jesus, not by commands or anything like that.

And so you could kind of think that like Jesus should have said, like, well, a day's coming when you won't be justified by God by actually being obedient to the commands, so the commands don't really matter.

But he doesn't say that.

Even though that's coming, that you won't be justified by the works of the law, but you'll be justified by faith in Jesus, he still says there is something very, very, very important to him.

And there is a most important command, and that command is that we actually love him.

And to me, it's important for us because most Christians, um, and just people in general, but I think even in still inside the church, many people would say, if you asked them, like, what do you think God cares the most about in your life right now?

Like, what is he like pressing on and looking at and going, like, I you really need to do this?

What would what would he say?

And I think for some people, what they'd say is like, the thing that God cares the most about is that I just get saved.

I just need to get saved, need to get my sins forgiven.

Got sin in my heart, need to get saved, have that, have that forgiven, and that whole thing.

The thing that God cares the most about is from birth until whenever that I get saved.

And that is important.

But that's not what Jesus says here.

And then some people would say, in my life, it's probably like God just cares the most about me.

I just gotta stop sinning.

I gotta stop looking at porn.

I gotta stop uh spending my money too much, I gotta stop being selfish, or I gotta stop worrying, or I gotta stop being so angry, I gotta stop yelling, I gotta like, I gotta stop, stop, stop, stop, stop.

I just need to stop sinning.

That's what God cares the most about.

And again, while those things are important, that's not what he says.

He doesn't say the most important thing for your life is to stop sinning.

And then some people would say, what God cares the most about is like just caring for the poor.

I need to read my Bible, or I need to pray more, or I need to serve the poor, I need to give some money away, I need to do those things, and I need to just be more missional with my life.

That's what God cares about, giving my life away for other people.

And again, those things are important, but that's not what he says.

He says that the most important thing to God is none of that stuff.

The most important thing to him is that he has your heart, that you love him.

And if you do all that other stuff, it's like that's great.

But that's not the greatest command.

The greatest command and the most important one is that you actually feel affection for God himself, not that you do a bunch of stuff for him.

And Jesus actually, in Revelation, he rebukes a church who's not loving him.

And if you know in Revelation 2, he's talking to the church in Ephesus, they're doing tons of stuff for him, a lot more than we're doing for God.

They're doing a ton of stuff for him.

But Jesus calls them out on one piece that they're doing.

And so this is what he says in Revelation 2 to the church.

He says, I know your deeds.

This is Jesus speaking.

I know your deeds, Church of Ephesus.

And like serving God, serving others, caring for the poor, caring for the orphan, caring for the widow.

I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance.

I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, so you're calling people to repent over their sin.

I know that you've tested those who claim to be apostles but are not.

You found them false, so you got sound doctrine, strong church, sound doctrine.

You've persevered and have endured hardships for my name.

That means you're being persecuted but kept the faith anyways.

You've not grown weary yet.

All that stuff.

And he says, Yet I hold this against you.

You were forsaken the love that you had at first.

You used to love me and now you don't.

And he says, consider how far you've fallen and repent.

And so it's important to see that like the church is doing some incredible stuff, but Jesus doesn't say, like, hey, it's really cool that um you're doing stuff for the poor.

It doesn't really matter that you that you don't love me.

He doesn't say that.

He's like, all that stuff that you're doing, all that stuff is great, but honestly, you are disobeying the most significant command, the most important thing that God wants you to do.

You are disobeying that particular command.

And so you need to repent.

All this other stuff doesn't wash away the fact that you don't actually have any love for me anymore.

And it's also very important for us to see that like Jesus doesn't look at all the good stuff that they're doing and equate it with love.

He's not like, well, you clearly love me.

Look at all the stuff you're doing for me.

You got sound doctrine, you're being persecuted for the faith and you're not giving in.

You must love me a ton.

Look at all the stuff you're doing.

He doesn't do that.

And again, I think it's important for us because I think we could get there, and it's it's a temptation to get there and be like, of course I do I love God?

Of course I love God.

Look at how much money I give away.

Of course I love God.

Look at all the kids I foster.

Of course I love God.

Look at all the poor I serve, look at how look how missional I am.

Of course I love him.

Look at how much I read my Bible, look at how much I pray, look at how much I evangelize, look at how much I make disciples.

Of course I love him.

Look at all the stuff that I'm doing.

And Jesus is like, those things aren't synonymous.

You can do all of that stuff and still wind up in a space where it's like you're doing a ton of deeds and you still have no love for me.

And so he's saying good deeds do not necessarily mean love for God.

And so for us, apparently, it's very, very possible to give our lives away to him, to sacrifice for him, to serve him, to do all that stuff, and still wind up in a spot where it's like, do you love him?

And it's like, not really.

I serve him, I don't love him.

And so I think this text and what Jesus is saying, it can become really familiar for us.

Like we could quote it like, love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength.

It's a verse that we all know.

But if you become so familiar with it that it loses its pull or its weight on you, then you can actually just give your life away to other things and never actually get to the point where it's like, if you don't ask yourself the question, do I actually love him?

Not do I serve him, do I go to church, do I give money away?

Like those things are great.

But you have to wrestle with the question, like, do you actually love him?

Because he's saying that's the most important thing to him.

The most important thing is that you love him.

And so we need to grasp what Jesus is saying.

The most important thing to God is not how much you give, it's not how much you care for the poor, it's not how often you attend church, it's not how much you pray or how often you read the Bible.

The most important thing to God is not adoption, caring for orphans, caring for widows.

The most important thing to God is not sanctity of life or racial reconciliation.

The most important thing to God is not evangelism, making disciples, leading Bible studies, leading small groups, leading prayer groups.

The most important thing to God is none of that stuff.

Those things are important.

But we can't substitute one for the other and go like this thing is so valuable and that's so I'm giving my life to this.

Of course I love God.

No, clearly that's not a correlation that he makes.

Those things are important, but the most important thing to him is do I have your heart?

Do you feel affection for me?

Do you actually love me?

Are you actually in love with me?

If you've ever been in love, you know that feeling.

Like, could you say that about him?

And Jesus is saying, that's the most important thing to him.

And if you don't have that, the call to the church is like, you need to repent.

Because I don't actually care how much good stuff you're doing if you don't actually love me.

And so the question we need to wrestle with is do we love him?

So that's the first.

The most important thing to him that I think sometimes can become so familiar that we just miss it, it's like he really does want your affection.

He really does want to grasp your heart with him, where you're like, I love him so much, and it's literal love.

I actually love him.

That's the most important thing.

And so, next I want to give you the one of the reasons why why this is the most important command.

So, one reason, because I can't we can't do all of them, but one is if you love God, love for God, the reason this is important to him is that love for him, love for God himself, it will shape you into who he wants you to be.

Loving him will naturally do this thing in you, where you will be shaped into the person he wants you to be.

Your life will be shaped in the way that he wants it to be, and all of that does not come from grinding and working hard and doing that stuff.

All of that stuff will come from loving him and actually feeling affection for him.

And so God wants you to be a person who cares about the things that he cares about.

He wants you to be a person who is generous, he wants you to be somebody who is sacrificial, he wants you to be loving to your neighbor and to your enemy.

He wants you to be kind, compassionate, trusting, humble, and honest.

Like he wants that stuff for you.

But he knows that if you love him, those things naturally will be formed in you.

Obedience to him, doing the things that he likes, doing the things that he wants you to do and not doing the things he doesn't want you to do.

All of those things will be formed in you if love is actually present.

Otherwise, you can rip and grind at it and try and do it without love, but you'll burn yourself out and you'll just fall under the weight of all the different things.

Like, I'm just trying to serve God and I just can't.

It's like because you're doing that without the fuel that you're actually supposed to have, which is love for him.

Or some people just type A, really good at it, Enneagram once, or like, I'm gonna nail this, and they're super obedient and they do it and they look around at everybody else, like, why can't you be as obedient as I am?

And then they become righteous or self-righteous and pharisaical and kind of the worst to be around, to be honest.

Um but if love is present, he knows if love is present, those things will be formed in you.

And so the reason that this is I guess something that you see, and something that I think we'd all see is that when you're in love, and I again I think we have all experienced this to some extent, but when you're in love, doing things for the person that you love, sacrificing for the person that you love, serving the person that you love, thinking about and having your mind filled with the person that you love, when you're in love with that person, it's super easy.

It just happens all the time.

Um, Rainey's not here, so I'm gonna talk about her a lot.

That's my wife.

But it's all good stuff.

All good stuff.

When Rainey and I were dating early on, um, I was here in Memphis and uh working at a church, and uh she was in Chicago at Wheaton at college.

And uh dating early on, we'd be having these conversations at like 9 p.m.

at night or whatever, and just saying goodnight or whatever.

And uh every now and then she'd go, like, Oh, I wish I miss you.

And I'm like, obviously I miss you.

Uh and she's like, I wish you were here.

Like, I wish, you know, I wish you could just come and hang out.

I got a free weekend.

I wish you'd come and do that.

And like, I'd just hop in the car at 9 p.m.

and just drive straight through the night without sleep, and then park in some parking lot near her apartment, and then wake up in the morning and be like, hey, I'm here.

And then we'd spend like five hours together before I needed to like take an hour power nap and then drive all the way back because I'd be back for church on Sunday morning.

And like I got no sleep and I was so tired, but it was like that sacrifice was super easy.

Like, I I loved her.

I I love her.

And so it was this space where it's like, you're sacrificing all your sleep.

Like, why are you doing that?

It's like that sacrifice was a joy.

Like to go and step into that space just to have like a handful of minutes with her.

Like, it was great.

And I was super tired the next day, and maybe the church that I was serving at didn't get my best work that Sunday, but I I was happy to sacrifice for her.

We were long distance for a year, and I wrote her a letter every single day with a stamp, put it in the mail, so she got a letter every single day, and then two on Monday because of how the mail works, I guess.

But um, but I loved it.

Like, and we didn't live in 1932, like we had cell phones and texting and stuff, but like I and we talked on the phone and we texted.

But it was one of those things that was like, I'm happy to go above and beyond in this way.

If this makes you feel special, like I'll write you a letter every single day.

I'll write you two if I need to.

Like, I don't care.

I just I love to do this.

I don't mind writing this thing down and doing that and finding the time and carving out the time.

It was a sacrifice and it was a service and it was above and beyond.

She didn't ever tell me I needed to do that, but it was something I was happy to do.

I bought all of our meals, bought her flowers, even though found out she didn't really like flowers, so I switched that.

Um, I bought movies, obviously, the movies that we went to together.

I bought random stuff for her.

I'm a gift giver.

Uh, that's my love language.

And so then I realized that she's not a gift-giving love language person.

She's a more words of affirmation person.

And I had to change that because I'm not.

Um, but like I bought her all this stuff and I was a poor college chair.

I could barely pay for gas.

Like, I was like buying her all this stuff.

But again, it was like my money could go no better place.

Like it's going to like we're paying for these times together and these spaces together.

And so, even though I only have like a handful of money, actually, during that time I was living for uh I was living with Barbara Howell.

She let me rent a room at her house for like 50 bucks a month, something crazy generous.

And uh, and so I was able to take all of my money and like just pour it towards Rainey.

But anyways, I was thrilled to do all of that.

I was so excited to, I tithe to the church too.

But I was just like, I was very thankful to like give to time with Rainey.

And all of that stuff, all of that stuff that I did for her during that time, it wasn't because when we first started dating, she like rolled out a list and was like, hey, just so you know, you need to come visit me anytime I say, you know, make sure you think about me 24 hours, 23 hours a day, 24 is a lot.

You know, you gotta make sure you give me all your money.

You gotta make like there wasn't any of that stuff.

She didn't give me a list of all the things that I had to do to love her.

It was just like that stuff just poured out of me because I loved her.

And if you've been in love, like you know that.

And that stuff just happens.

It's just a natural thing that you want to do.

And so love for Rainey made sacrificing my money a joy because I got to spend my money on the one that I love.

Love for her made talking to her for hours on the phone or listening to her for hours on the phone, made those things feel like minutes.

Like we never had enough time on the phone.

It was always like, I gotta go.

I was like, oh, I just a little more, a little more time.

Love for her made serving her not something I had to like, oh, I gotta make sure I serve my girlfriend.

Like it made serving her.

I was like, I'm always thinking of new ways to do this thing.

Love for her made me care about the things that she cared about, love the people that she loved.

And and like, so then the people in her life were people that I began pressing into and pouring into their lives as well.

Even if they were difficult to love, I'm like, she loves you, so I'm gonna love you.

Like, and this is kind of a thing that we're gonna do.

But love for her shaped me into a person that wanted to serve her, wanted to sacrifice for her, wanted to spend time with her.

And that's what God is getting at here.

The most important command to him is to give me your heart.

Actually be in love with me.

Because if you're actually in love with me, these things will take form in you.

You'll be shaped into someone who lives like they love me because you actually love me.

And so he knows he wants you to spend time with him.

And he knows that when you're in love, you want to talk to that person as much as you possibly can.

He's like, I want you to spend time with me.

I want you to read my word, and I want you to pray to me and talk to me.

And he just knows if you love me, you'll actually want to do that.

It won't be a grind, it'll be something that you're looking forward to.

As the deer pants for water, so my soul longs for you, O Lord.

Like it will be something that's like, why are you writing poetry to the Lord, sons of Korah?

It's like we love him.

Like there's something that's hitting me.

He wants you to sacrifice for him.

He does want you to sacrifice for him.

And he knows when you're in love, you look for ways to sacrifice for the person that you love.

It's a joyous thing to sacrifice for them.

He wants you to worship him and praise him.

And he knows that when you're in love, even if you can't sing, you might sing a song to the one that you love.

You'll be thinking of songs that make you think about the persons you love.

And he's like, I want you to worship me that way.

And it's like, he knows.

He's like, if you love me, you're gonna do this.

The worship will be a joy to you, even if you can't sing a note.

He wants your mind to be filled with him, and he knows when you're in love, you can't help but think about the one that you love.

He wants you to love your neighbor.

He wants you to love your enemies.

This is why love your neighbor is after this one.

And he knows when you're in love, you will love who I love.

Even your enemies.

You will love I love your enemy, you will you will love them too.

It might be a struggle and it might be something that's difficult, but you will choose to seek to love the ones that I love because you love me.

And that will take shape in you.

He wants you to seek him and to know him and to know more about him, and he knows when you're in love, you want to know more about the person that you love.

Every new thing that you learn about them is interesting, unless it's a red flag, and then you bail.

But there's no red flags with God, so for good.

He wants you to tell others about him and evangelize him, and he knows when you're in love, you can't shut up about the person that you love.

Even if your friends tell you to shut up, stop talking about her or him, you will still do it.

And your family's like, we know, she's great, we got it.

Would you please talk about something else?

It's like, I can't.

My heart is captured by this thing.

And God's like, I don't want evangelism to be this like grind for you, like, I gotta tell you about Jesus, he's the worst.

Here we go.

Like he doesn't want that.

He wants it to be this thing is like, I love him.

And because I love him, I can't stop speaking about the person that I love.

He wants your children to know him and to follow him, and he knows that if you are in love with him, you naturally pass on things that you love to those beneath you and the generations beyond you.

He knows that.

It's much easier to pass on a love for something than a hatred or a duty towards something.

So much easier to pass on a love.

He wants you to trust him.

And he knows that when you're in love, the person that you love, however they're doing things in your life, unless they're untrustworthy, but the person that you love, you trust them.

You trust what they say, you trust that they're gonna be there on time.

You trust that they say I love you, that they actually mean that.

You trust them.

And he knows like I don't have to beg for your trust.

If you would just love me, trust would be something that you give me.

Even in spaces when it's difficult for you to trust me, you know that.

You get the idea, but I got one more.

He wants you to be freed from sin and want nothing else.

I want you to want nothing else more than you want me.

And he knows when you are in love, it is it is easy to have no other eyes for anybody else.

It's easy to like, I don't need to look at her or him or whatever.

Like, I have somebody I'm in love with.

And so it's easy to choose or to not choose a temptation because it's like I'm captivated by a different love.

And so he knows, he's like, I want you to be free from sin and free from temptation and not actually have to do those things.

And so many people try and fight it, and they think that like, in order to get free from sin, I need to start hating my sin.

And it's like it's close, but it's actually different.

Like, in order to be free from the grip of sin, you don't need to start hating it, because hating it is still thinking about it.

You just need to become so captivated with him and in love for him that you have no eyes for the temptations and the sins that you actually struggle with.

And so the more that you focus on I'm actually falling more and more captivated and in love with you, these things begin to lose their grip on you because they just don't have that anymore.

Because when you're in love, you have eyes for no other person than the persons you actually love.

That's why Jesus says this thing at the end.

When he's talking, he he commends the teacher of the law.

The teacher of the law says in verse 33, he says, that we're to love him, to love God with all your heart, understanding, strength, love your neighbor as yourself.

That's more important than burnt offerings and sacrifices.

And Jesus commends him and says, Yes, that's right, you're not far from the kingdom.

But the reason he says that.

Because it's possible to give a thousand sacrifices and offerings to cover your sin and still not be freed from sin.

You can cover them.

You can sin, offer a sacrifice, sin, offer a sacrifice, and still struggle and be held down by that sin.

But God, Jesus knows, He's like, but if you would just, it's impossible.

If you fall in love with me and you give your love to me and your heart becomes more mine, sin will lose its grip on you because it won't have power over you anymore.

Because honestly, it pales in comparison to the person that you actually love.

Sacrifices can't free you from the grip of sin.

Giving things to God can't do that.

Loving him can free you.

Because it'll be this thing where it's like, my heart, I'm so sorry.

I would, but honestly, my heart's just over here.

And I can't give my heart to anything else.

And so this is why this is the most important command to God.

This is why all of those things aren't as important.

Because love for him, that one thing.

I love that it's just one thing.

When I was growing up, I played baseball a lot and uh and golf.

And my dad would always, he was really good at coaching, um, and he would always try and condense it down to one thing.

It was like if I was batting, if I was hitting, you know, in baseball, it was like most important thing.

Like just keep your eye on the ball.

Can't see it if you can't, you can't hit it if you can't see it.

You know, it was like it's the one thing.

And like I'm standing up there, and if all of a sudden I'm struggling, just go back to the what is the one thing I need to go back to?

Like, am I watching the ball hit the bat?

Like, make sure you watch the ball.

With golf, it was always let the club do the work, let the club do the work.

Stop trying to kill it, let the club do the work.

So anytime I was struggling, I was like, all right, I'm just go back to tempo and just hit it, let the club do the work.

Like it was so nice just to have one thing, and here Jesus is doing this one thing.

He's like, look, everybody's struggling about all these other different things and all the stuff.

There's 613 commands that the Jewish people were given in the scriptures.

And it's like, of all 613, what do I need to do?

It's like, honestly, if you would just love me, 613 things would fall into your heart and fall out of your life towards me.

Just focus on this one and this will take shape.

If you love him, your life will be shaped by him and in the way that he wants it to be.

And to me, that should be something that frees us.

It should be this thing that makes us feel like, okay, because I think we can wind up in this spot, whether you're a religious person, church person, wherever you're coming from, be like Christianity or God or religion is it's all of these rules that you have to do to make sure that you're good.

And Jesus is spitting in the face of that and going, that is not what this is.

So if you think that, that's not right.

Be free from that.

It is not, make sure you follow a bunch of rules.

He's like, hey, you ever been in love?

Did you like that feeling?

He's like, I want to have that with you.

I want you to feel that.

I want that to be this space because everything outside of that, if you and me are good and we work on something that's rich and strong and loving and affectionate, like if that happens and takes shape between me and you, all of those other things are gonna work themselves out.

Your life will be shaped by me because you love me and our lives are shaped by the things that we love.

And so that's what he's getting at.

It's not, I gotta make sure I do this, gotta make sure I do that, need to make sure I say the right thing to my kids, otherwise they're gonna get screwed up, gotta make sure I say the right thing to my family and my coworkers, gotta meet the standard of godly living, otherwise my life's gonna be terrible.

He's like, don't get lost in those things.

I will shape your life, and your life will be shaped by the things that you love.

But if you love the world and only serve me, your life will be shaped by the world.

But if you will love me, then all the service and all the other things will work themselves out, and I will shape your life into what I want it to be.

And so love for God will shape you.

It will shape your life.

And it will be this thing where, like, all of a sudden your life is being formed by him because you actually have a love for him.

And so that's why it's the most important thing, because that's one of the things it's going to do for you.

It's gonna shape you, and he knows that.

Why aim at any other command when all the commands would be fulfilled and you just actually loving him?

And so the question becomes do you love him?

Like in your heart and in your mind, like you're like, could you actually say, like, yeah, there's there's affection for Jesus, there's affection for God in my life.

I really do love him.

Or do you just serve him?

I just give him some of my money.

I give him some of my Sundays, I give him some of my time during the week, I give him some of my morning in the scriptures, I give him some of my thoughts when I'm driving down the road and praying.

And again, he doesn't say those things are sinful.

He just says, like, honestly, I don't think that's important as much as like, I actually just want you to love me.

And so if you feel like I'm doing a ton of service things for God, but I don't actually love him, I think he would say to you what he said to the church, he's like, I see all the stuff that you're doing, and honestly, I have this against you.

You don't love me like you used to.

And there used to be this time when we were in love.

Do you love him?

All right.

For our church, at the end of this, I'm gonna give you two ways to, if you're like, I'd like to how to grow in that, I'm gonna give you that at the end.

But this was something I was thinking about, and I didn't know if I was gonna keep it in.

Um, but I want to talk about it.

Um for our church, I really do want us to be a church that loves him, not just in words, and we sing songs or we say like we love you, amen.

Like, I actually want those to be like real things that we feel.

Like that the testimony of our church that Jesus would say, not like he said to the church in Ephesus, like, you do a bunch of cool stuff, honestly, I don't care about any of that, you don't love me.

I don't want to be that church.

I want to be a church that Jesus would look at and be like, you you guys, you guys love me almost to like a degree of like, hey, pull it back a touch.

You know, like I would love for it to be, I would love for it to be that, that he speaks into our church and he's like, I just you love me so much, and that's such a good thing.

And so I want us to be a church that actually loves him, not just in words, but with real affection.

And I want this not only because he says it's the most important command that God cares about, but I want this also because of what Jesus says will happen to our church if we don't.

If we don't have that, Jesus says things will happen to our church, and he says it to the church in Ephesus that's doing all that great stuff.

He says, I know this is what he says to Ephesus.

He says, I know all the great stuff that you're doing, all your deeds.

Yet I hold this against you.

You've forsaken the love you had at first.

Consider how far you've fallen, repent and do the things you did at first.

But if you do not repent, I will come to you and I will remove your church from its place.

And so he doesn't lampstand references a church.

He doesn't say, I'll be a little discouraged, but honestly, you're doing a bunch of good deeds, and so the poor is really taken care of, so we're good.

Doesn't say that.

He doesn't say, I'll just I'll get upset with you, I'll hurt you.

He doesn't say any of those things if you don't love me again.

He just says, I'll just remove you.

I'll just make your church not a church anymore.

That's what I'll do.

And so not loving Jesus is a church-ending offense, and he will close the doors of the church.

And over the last few months, um, me and the pastors and the elders have been looking for a church to meet in.

Um, and we've had all these conversations and went through a number of buildings, all of them dying, dying churches.

And all of them basically say something, they're all trying to theorize about why their church is struggling to survive and struggling to live and why they can't keep the doors open and that kind of thing.

And every one of them has a theory.

Some of them said the neighborhood just changed around us, that's why our church is dying.

Some people say young people just don't go to church anymore, that's why our church is dying.

Hey, young people, guys in the back?

Cool.

Um people say their church is dying because the culture's become too secular, no one believes this stuff anymore, or the church is too exclusive and too narrow.

And I don't judge their answer because honestly I didn't ask, but they're just telling me why their church is struggling.

But to me, as I listen to them, Jesus says in the scriptures, he says, I will build my church and nothing will stop me from building it.

Nothing.

Not even hell itself will stop me.

And so when people start going, it's the culture that's killing our church, I'm like, I don't, if Satan can't, how could culture do it?

Like, oh, it's the young people.

I'm like, well, if hell can't, how could the young people end your church?

And again, I I don't I don't say anything, I just listen because honestly, I just want them to let us rent space and meet at their church.

That's all I want.

Um, but if it's true, what Jesus says, that he will build his church and hell itself will not, the greatest enemy that exists cannot defeat and stop me from building what I'm trying to build.

If that's true, what's happening to these churches?

The answer is simple to me.

Jesus is removing those churches.

He's just removing them.

In the scriptures, it's not Satan that removes churches or ends churches.

Satan does not have that authority.

Jesus is the only one in scripture who has the power and authority to remove a church.

And he says that, read Revelation.

He says for a number of reasons he'd remove a church.

And one of them is, you don't love me anymore.

And so Jesus is the remover of churches.

He's the one who closes the doors.

He's the bride groom who wants a bride, the church, that loves him.

And he's a bridegroom that will no longer associate himself with a bride that does not love him.

He'll close the doors.

So any church that doesn't love him, he doesn't want it to be associated with him, because that church that doesn't love him will not love people the way that he loves them.

And it will give a false image of what Jesus is actually like to the world.

Because if we don't love him, we're not being shaped by him, and therefore our love doesn't look like his love.

And he's like, honestly, that's a building now.

That's an that's a group of people, but that's not my church because it doesn't reflect my heart.

The church that doesn't love him won't look like him, it won't be shaped the way he wants it to be.

It won't give the world a true picture of what he's like, and so he removes it.

He will not continue to build a church that doesn't love him.

And honestly, I like what we do.

I'd like to keep going.

And I don't want to be a church that he looks at and he's like, I'm gonna remove you.

And so what we do is we just keep meeting together, but Jesus left a long time ago.

And so we sing that song.

We've played made our plans, we prayed our prayers, but if you're not in it, we don't want it.

Like I feel that so deeply.

If you're not gonna move here in power, if people aren't gonna encounter you here, then I just want to do something else because the point of this is for it not to be just this gathering of people where it's like we really like each other a lot.

That's so sweet.

But we're supposed to be able to meet God.

And if God has left and gone someplace else, I want to go wherever that is.

I want to be where he is.

And he's like, I will not breathe life into a church that doesn't love me.

And so I want for us to be this space where he looks at it and he's like, Yeah, I love the stuff that you do, but what I really love, I love your heart for me.

I love that your heart just beats for me.

I love that you actually feel affection for me.

And so I want that for our church.

All right.

Two ways.

Y'all okay?

We good?

That was a little heavy.

That's all right.

All right.

We can talk later.

All right.

Uh, how can we seek to grow in our love for him?

How can we seek to do it?

The first, Jesus says this to the church in Ephesus.

He says, Do the things you did at first.

Do the things you did at first.

I love how simple that is.

Uh, Rainey, uh, again, story about Rainy, she's featuring strongly in this message.

Um, three years into our relationship, we just butchered it.

I just we fell out of love with one another, and like it was not our marriage, we were dating.

Uh, although, you know, um, but just messed it up.

Like, I fell in love with another girl, uh, she fell in love with another guy, and then but we're still together.

And it was like this really odd scenario.

It was like we're supposed to be together, but honestly, our affections are in two different places.

And huge mess.

We had to go to counseling, we fixed it.

Our counselor fixed it, the Lord was very gracious.

But one of the things that we did when we went to counseling, our therapist said to us, like, hey, if you want to fall back in love, y'all don't love each other.

You want to fall back in love, you need to do the things you did at the beginning.

And so you need to go on dates again.

You need to go back and do the things that you used to do.

And so go back to the spaces.

Like I share these stories of, you know, where did you first meet?

When did you first feel like you loved her?

And all these things, like it was like at Cozy, like in downtown Chicago, like that, that little um Panera bread-like place there, that little bakery.

Like, great, go have a date there.

Sit at the same table, do the same thing, go on dates again, have the same conversations, tell the old stories, do the stuff.

Just go back into that thing and do the thing you did at first when you were just completely captivated with her, and when you were completely captivated with him.

Just go do the stuff that you did at first.

And it worked.

And I had this picture, I was gonna show up, but honestly, it was of my back and it kind of looked weird.

But um, we were um we were on, it was the first, it was like the next day, and we were on this Chicago boat tour because we had done that as a dating couple and just you know, just loved loved one another during that time.

And so we did that again.

And uh the whole time though, the reason it's of my back is because I'm on the date, but I'm staring off the side of this boat like I don't know that I can do this.

Like I don't know that I can fall back in love with this girl.

Like I want to, but I don't know that I can do this.

And that was like day one, and she captured this shot, and it was a perfect, it was a symbolic shot.

My back is turned away from her because that's how it actually felt.

But we just did that over and over and over and over and over again until the thing was breathed back to life and the fire that had gone dim had just blown back up.

It was this beautiful thing that now we actually have this relationship where we have a 10-year-old and it's going pretty strong.

Um, but I think there's something similar like to what Jesus is saying here.

He's like, just do the things you did at first.

If you actually began a relationship with Jesus, then there had to be some love there at the beginning.

There had to be.

And if there wasn't, I would question whether you actually knew him.

Because to hear of a man giving his blood and his body and crucified for you, and then knowing that like every single thing that I am and all of my sin has been wiped completely clean, and that he wants to be with me, like it would do something in you, like it shapes you.

And it leads you into the space where it's like watching the passion of the Christ, you know, Mel Gibson's whole thing, you're watching this person just take these beatings for you.

It's like, who are you?

Like, you I don't even know you and you love me.

Like, this is so weird.

And so if you actually knew him, there should have been this moment of affection and love that you felt for him.

And Jesus is just going, like, go back, go back to the space that we used to have together, that time when we used to actually enjoy these things together.

Go back and do the things you did at first.

If you want to love me again, do the things that you did when you first loved me.

And so, for you, if you used to marvel at how kind and merciful he was, that he forgave you of your sin and you're like, can you believe he forgave me?

My own wife won't forgive me, my own family has exiled me, my own people won't, like friends that said they'd never abandoned me, they abandoned me, but he will forgive me.

If you used to marvel at that, do that again.

Tell that story again.

If it was the old songs of amazing grace, the old rugged cross that used to bring you to tears because you're actually singing a song, you're like, that is me.

I'm the wretch that he loved.

Amazing grace that saved a wretch like me, like, that is me.

Like, then go listen to that music, sing those songs.

If you used to steal away and read the scriptures and just devour them and you couldn't have enough of them, if you used to find ways to pray, if you used to memorize scripture, if you used to share the gospel with every single person you knew because it was the best news that you'd ever heard, just do those things again, but then you stopped sharing the gospel because it got weird or you got persecuted, or somebody was mean to you, or you felt like you might be doing it wrong or something like that, and then you stopped and it's like, but the love grew cold.

Just go back and do that again.

Just start sharing it with everybody, who cares?

Anything to get the love back.

Did you used to celebrate the day that you came to faith, but now it feels weird because you know it's not as important to everybody else as it's you?

Throw another party and invite me.

I'd love to come.

Did you used to teach Sunday school class and you love the preparation for that?

And you just you just like he met with you and helped you work on the message and stuff, then maybe you need to begin teaching again and leading Bible studies and leading those things.

Visit the places, go back to the place where you first believed in Jesus.

Whenever Teddy turns 13, we're gonna begin this journey of manhood for him, 13 to 18.

And the first thing I'm gonna do, I'm gonna take him, I'm gonna take him to my old house in Georgia.

And I'm gonna show him the window.

Like, in that window, I was drunk off my butt up there, okay?

And God met me.

I was disgusting.

I was literally covered in my own throw-up.

And we won't go in because people probably live there now.

That's not my parents.

And I'll be weeping like this, and so they'll be like, who is this crazy axe murderer that I fled in my house?

But I want to show them the window and be like, right there, on a couch.

He met me, changed my life.

And then go to the fence where I stood, I stood at that fence and I prayed for the first time that next morning, prayed for the first time, maybe ever for real.

Looking up at the blue sky, I was like, I need something better.

Like I've tried everything.

I've tried everything.

I need something better, please.

And I was 17, and now 21 years later, like he did that, he did that better thing.

He's pretty good at it.

Um, but like I want to take Teddy and be like right here, and Teddy's gonna be like, here's some tissues, you old man, just stop crying.

But I wanted to take him there and be like, dude, everything, you exist, like you, Teddy, exist because God met me in that room and then answered that prayer, standing in that spot.

And I wanted to do something in him so it's real.

It's like he is real, and if you love him, if he wants you to love him, like you can meet him, and he will be so dynamically involved in your life.

That's what he wants.

And so go back, visit those places, do the things you did at first.

I did this from time to time, trying to do that, listening to old songs that I love, worship songs.

Like, y'all remember third day?

I came to faith, um, and third day was like the thing.

And so, like, I go back and listen to some of those third day songs, and I'm like, man, I love this stuff.

It made me love Jesus so much.

I didn't know half of what they were singing about because I didn't know any of the Bible.

But I loved it.

Casting crowns, come on.

That was so the early stuff, so good.

But what was it like when you loved him at first and do those things?

All right, last one, and we gotta go.

The last one is remember how much he loves you.

We've kind of talked about this already, but remember how much feast on the fact that he loves you.

Remember and feast on the fact that he loves you so much.

John says in his first epistle, he says, We love him.

You will love him because he first loved you.

And what he's saying is your love for God will come from your remembering and understanding how much he has loved you.

And so we need to go back to those spaces, go back to those points in our lives where we remember who we were and how much he loved us in that space.

Other people didn't love us, but he did.

Other people abandoned us, but he wouldn't.

Other people would have stopped chasing us, but he never stopped.

And then this quote from Spurgeon, I really love, he says, Jesus loved you when you lived carelessly, when you neglected his word.

He loved you when the knee was unbent in prayer.

Ah.

He loved you when you were drunk in the saloon, when you were hiding your every sin.

Aye, he even loved you when you were in the brothel.

He loved you when you were at hell's gate and drank damnation from every draught.

He loved you when you could not have been worse or further from him than you were.

Marvelous, O Christ, is thy strange love.

Think of his great love towards you.

Turn the subject over in your mind and say to yourself, Jesus loves me, Jesus called me, Jesus chose me, Jesus has pardoned me, Jesus redeemed me, and then your love for him will grow.

The most important thing to God is that you love him, not that you serve him.

The most important thing is that he has your heart.

And so from November 2025 to November 2026, seek to grow in your love for him, not to do more for him.

Seek to grow in your love for him so that by November 2026, you can actually say, like, do you love him more this year than you did last year?

Absolutely.

And then in that space, he will begin to shape your life into what he wants it to be and shape you into who he wants you to be.

But love him.

That is the greatest command.

Let me pray.