Sermon Central
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I Am Third
Contributed by Anthony Zibolski on Oct 16, 2018 (message contributor)
Summary: God first, others, and ourselves. Loving the Lord with all our hearts puts us in right relationship with everyone else including ourselves
I am Third
Prayer-
Deuteronomy 6:1-9- Read from Bible
Introduction-
These are the words of Moses recorded to the people of Israel as they left slavery from Egypt and heading to the promised land of God.
The Ten Commandments of God are laid down.
They are told to keep God’s commands, decrees.
They are told to observe and remember the things that God has done for them.
They are told to pass it on to their children that they would reverence the Lord so they would enjoy long life.
A good Jew today would still recite Deuteronomy 6:4-5 first thing as he gets up in the morning and the last thing he says before he would sleep-
“Hear O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”
Everyday on the news we are bombarded with vicious attacks (Morally or spiritually).
We wake each day to chaos while one side fights the other.
New evidence, new dirt.
Right against left, conservative against liberal-
Republican against Democrat
Each claiming to be right- destroying each other!
Many sitting right here right now, ready to bark why they are right and someone else is wrong.
You have to listen to that everyday just to get the weather! To find out if it is going to rain today or be sunny.
Every Sunday, before anyone else gets here, I am sitting in my office praying that God’s house would be full and the people of God would be able to come together and hear His voice in the midst of the voices that pollute our thinking and pollute our relationship with God.
I am not taking a side on any issue pressing right now! I am saying to the church of Jesus Christ that we need to hear the voice of God and not be distracted by the trumpets that distract.
I am saying that we (universal church) are not doing a good job of loving our Lord God with all our heart, with all our soul, and all our strength.
We already know that the world does not love the Lord, but what about God’s people?
We know if we are to love God with all of our hearts, that there cannot be other gods before Him.
Yahweh was unique- He was the one that brought them out of bondage and taking them to the promise land.
He is the one that cannot be one of many gods, He was to be the only true God.
He is to be loved and obeyed.
Illustration-
When I am driving through town to fast and the police stop me, it is not because they love me they pull me over, it is because I disobeyed the law and they will give me a ticket. I do not go the speed limit because I love them, I do not speed through town because I do not want a speeding ticket. I do not want to get in trouble.
That is not love- that is fear and consequence.
Loving God is to not do anything that would displease God because you desire to be obedient to Him.
It is to please God that you do what He has asked us to do. He does not bring consequences because He enjoys it, but consequences come because He loves us and desires to bring us back into a right relationship with Him.
God has to be first in our lives! Heart, mind, soul, and our strength.
Everything that makes us us is to love God.
We were created to worship God.
We were created to love God with everything we are and can be.
The void in our life where God is or is not cannot be filled with anything outside of God. Go ahead and try it!
We will have a void that will leave us empty and unsatisfied.
One of the biggest lies of today is that you can do without God!
You cannot do without God. I do not believe that there is an atheist alive that doesn’t have a void in their life.
They will never admit it, they try to fill it with religion- wait a minute, they are atheist, no, believing the lie of no God is a religion and it smells like smoke.
Love God with all your heart!
Your heart is the seat of emotions- it is where decisions are made.
It is a place where you let people in and keep some people out.
It is the place where you make your decision for God- He tugs on your hearts and you make the decision if you will let Him in or not.
Soul is saved when they surrender their being, their heart to God. A person soul is their life line- the word in the Greek is Nepes. Vitality and mortality- Where will you spend eternity is determined by who owns your heart. You will live forever, but your love of God or lack of love for God will determine where you spend eternity.
