Love God And Love Your Neighbor : 3rd Commandment Series

Intro

Open your Bibles to Exodus chapter 20 today as we continue our Summer Series entitled “Love God , Love your Neighbor” We are examining the 10 Commandments—God’s moral law—while focusing on Jesus is summary of the commandments found in the New Testament Gospels. The commandments teach us about God identity.

They also serve guide us, to correct us, to protect us and most importantly, point us to our need for a Savior.

God sent Jesus to fulfill the law by keeping it perfectly for us. And His life and words help us bring more clarity to God’s commands. It is through the biblical record of Jesus’ life we see the truest meaning and depth of God’s commands.Jesus summarized the commandments when He was asked this question.

“Teacher, which 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 first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. (Matthew 22:36-39)

Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6:5 which is known as the Shema. Practicing Jews—still to this day—recite the Shema both in the morning and evening and consider it to be one of their most sacred duties. Here Jesus says it is the to love God and Love our Neighbor is “greatest commandment in the Law." It is in a genuine love for God and our neighbor that the law finds its fulfillment. Jesus serves as our perfect example of what it means to love God with all our heart, mind and soul. Jesus loved and worshiped God with His whole heart, His mind was set on His Father’s mission and soul was surrendered to the Father’s plan of redemption for His people. Jesus also serves as our perfect example of what it means to love our neighbor. His love for his neighbor goes so deep that he is willing to give up his very life for us.

Today we come to the third commandment. In a sermon is entitled: Worship: God’s Name is Holy

If you're able we stand as we open up God's word today? I pray that you will hear the word of the Lord.

READ FROM THE BIBLE

And God spoke all these words, saying,

“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

“You shall have no other gods before me.

“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

“You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. (Exodus 20:1-7)

This is the word of our LORD, Amen.

PRAY

The big truth is: True worship to the LORD seeks to honor the name above all names, Jesus Christ our LORD.

We don’t choose our names. God has given our parents the authority to name their children. My full name is Michael Taylor Larsen. These names have meaning. I asked my dad this week about who I was named after.

Michael was the name of a dear friend of my dad’s who’s family took him in his senior year of high school and cared for him until he graduated. My middle name, Taylor was given to me by my mom who named me after her brother, my uncle Fred. Uncle Fred’s full name was Fred Taylor James. The James family name find their roots in the James—Younger Gang. The James—Younger gang was the notorious 19 century gang of American outlaws that included my great, great, uncle “the outlaw Jesse James”. I tell you that to say this, names are carriers of meaning. When Jesse’s parents rightfully used their God given authority to name their boy I bet they never thought that his name will go down in history as one of American’s notorious outlaws.

We come to our text today and God tells us His name. What is unique about God's true name is that it was chosen and revealed by God himself. Because God preexisted His creation we don't have the right to tell him who he is.

Thankfully God takes it upon himself to tell us who he is. God speaks to Moses in the third person to shine a spotlight on His name. Let read Exodus 20 verse 7.