Children have a great deal to say about love, don’t they?
We adults have had the experience of “falling in love” and for most, if not all of us, it was a wonderful and overwhelmingly emotional experience. But, not to 7 year old Glenn.
He says, "If falling in love is anything like learning how to spell, I don’t want to do it. It takes too long."
10-year-old Regina seems to echo Glenn’s views. "I’m not rushing into being in love. I’m finding fourth grade hard enough."
Today, there are at least three well-known websites that almost guarantee that you will find the right person for you to marry.
What is a kid’s take on potential partners?
10-year-old Mike says this, "On the first date, they just tell each other lies, and that usually gets them interested enough to go for a second date."
Eight-year-old Carolyn said this, "My mother says to look for a man who is kind. That’s what I’ll do. I’ll find somebody who’s kinda tall and handsome."
(Slide 1) This is the time of year for significant marker events like marriage, graduation, and, for some excited teens (and their perhaps not so excited parents), getting one’s driver’s license!
It will be 35 years this coming June that I got mine. I was excited! My mother was a nervous wreck! I remember that she started to follow the examiner and me out to the car. But, she was stopped with the words, “I’m sorry, ma’am, you can’t go with us.” She had to wait, for what was probably an eternity to her, and, in some ways, an eternity to me, too.
Then after I successfully passed, I was ready to go get my license. We had to go to another branch to do that and I was ready to drive us there but mom said, ‘No, I’ll drive…’ and then could not remember how to get there!
Keith Miller tells a story about his then teenage daughter Kristen learning to drive. He begins by telling how she always had an awareness of where she was and where things were in their town. In fact, he notes, “Kristen is the one who has often sat beside me and whispered, “This next block is our turn, daddy,”
Then one day, she began to learn to drive and things changed. Miller notes, “when she got behind the wheel for the first time in traffic, it was as if it were a new city: “Do I turn here, Daddy? ... Is this the right street?”
At first Miller noted that he was getting impatient with her and that she should be paying attention to what she was doing and where she was. Then he realized that she was doing just that, paying attention.
He makes this very insightful observation. “A town that she had known like the back of her hand as a passenger became a strange and foreign place when she became responsible for the minute-by-minute decision of driving.” He then goes on to say, “…she was experiencing a reorientation in the same situation because of trying to focus on different elements of her environment.” But, as he goes on to say, she eventually gets re-oriented to the town as she had before.
I just wonder if we do not often have a similar experience in reading and studying scripture especially passages that are familiar to us. We read them repeatedly through the years and think that we understand them but then we come to the place where we realize that all of the sudden ‘hear’ or ‘see’ them differently and it sometimes becomes disconcerting as well as liberating.
I believe that this may hold true for our main text this morning. It is a text that I read last week, it is a much quoted and studied passage. However, if we are going to understand the place and the practice of love in our lives and in our faith, we need to ask the Holy Spirit to help us understand it and put into practice in some new ways, or, some old ones.
Now this morning, a very nice young man is going to recite, Matthew 22:37-39, for us.
(Slide 2) Youtube.com video “The Greatest Commandment”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7xWXXAexvs
Now here it is on the screen. (Slide 3) “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
Now, please take a piece of paper and a pencil or pen. I am going read this passage a couple of times over the next minute. Between readings, I encourage you to write down what comes to mind as you read and hear these very important words. It may be a new insight or a greater understanding of something. It might even be a question you have of the passage. (Such questions are valuable in the study of scripture.) Whatever it is, write it down as this is for you to use in the week ahead.
(Read the passage once. Pause. Read the passage again.)
As I prepared for this morning, I had done some reading about this passage as well as the importance of love and relationships from the pen of Pastor Tom Holladay. It gave me a fresh look at this passage, which was a response to the question, “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses,” in a way that I had never seen before.
This is a significant question. It is a question that perhaps could be asked today as, (Slide 4) What is the most important commitment to God? or What is the most important quality of faith?
One word – love
We cannot live without love. We also, cannot live without loving.
I believe that God in His love created Adam and then because of that love and the need for love created within us to love, Eve.
It was out of His love, we read in Deuteronomy 7:7: “The Lord did not choose you and lavish his love on you because you were larger or greater than other nations, for you were the smallest of all nations! It was simply because the Lord loves you, and because he was keeping the oath he had sworn to your ancestors.”
‘It was simply because the Lord loves you…’ What an awesome statement to make!
Simply because of being loved by God, the Israelites were chosen to be loved on by God. (Speaking of being loved on, did you love on someone this week?)
Without love, we are hopelessly disabled. We cannot live without love by either giving or receiving it.
Jesus names three aspects of our humanity that we must love God with in Matthew’s account. (Mark’s account adds a fourth one – strength.)
The first thing is our heart. (And this is where I saw this passage in a new light.)
It is the first thing for a reason. Heart represents our emotional center.
Holladay asks a very interesting question when it comes to loving God with our heart.
(Slide 5) Do I tell God what I feel
or do I tell Him what I think He wants to hear?
That question, really caught my attention. Do we tell God how we feel in our prayers? Do we really? Really, really, really tell Him what we feel?
Well, if you are unsure, let me read Matthew 5:43-44 and ask you again.
“You have heard that the law of Moses says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you!”
Now, do you tell God how you feel or what you think He wants to hear?
I have realized in the past year what I usually told God in prayer was what I thought He wanted to hear. But, then I have finally learned to tell the Lord what I have felt and put it out there for Him to help me with.
Holladay points out that David expressed his emotions to God as we read in many of the Psalms. There is anger, rage, joy, hate, peace, and the like.
Then he says that David gets his heart settled down within “twenty or thirty verses, yet some of us live with unsettled hearts on an issue for twenty or thirty years.”
Maybe we cannot love our enemies and do good to them that persecute us because we have not honestly expressed our emotions to God first so that He can help us resolve them. When James speaks of the human tongue being able to curse and praise God, he is also speaking about our human heart hating and loving as well.
The order of loving listed in our main text is listed, I believe, for a purpose.
We have to choose to love God with our emotions. I am not saying that we are to be driven by our emotions as that can cause us problems.
What I am saying is that there needs to be an emotional honesty and clarity in our praying that will allow us to be able to love God with our heart.
The second thing is our soul.
To love God with our soul is to love God with our will or drive. The word psyche comes into play. We get the word psychology from psyche, which has to do with our inner drive.
Now, not only can unresolved emotions block our love for God, our unwillingness to obey because we are following our own plans and purposes can do the same thing.
To love God with our soul, notes Holladay, is to pray, “Your will, not my will, be done.”
The Rich Young Ruler serves as an illustration of what happens when we fail to love God with our soul.
He has a faith that he takes seriously. ‘I have obeyed these commandments’ in response’ to Jesus’ question.
But the problem arises when Jesus says, if you want to be perfect,” (and I believe that is what this man wanted to be. The perfect example in business, leadership, and religion) “go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor. Then come, follow me.”
We know the rest of the story. The man turned away “sadly” because he loved his possessions; his agenda more than God.
His possessions; his wealth; his social standing, was his passion, his first love. Jesus knew this and had to shake him to the bottom of his soul to get his attention about what it really means to keep the commandments.
To have loved God, which meant, letting go of his passion, his drive, and his desire to be number one, he had to not just pray but live out ‘Your will, not my will be done,’
Another question to consider this morning: (Slide 6) Where do I need to pray, “Lord, your will be done,” in order to love God with all my soul?” David Holladay, The Relationship Principles of Jesus
The third thing is our mind.
I have done a lot of reading in my life and I hope to do some more before either it is over or God comes in final judgment.
I have read books and I have read magazines over the years. There are probably 5 or 6 books that have really moved me and that I have and want to re-read.
As for journals and magazines, one article made a profound impression on me over 25 years ago when I first read it. I found an internet copy of it several years ago and keep it to share as God leads me to share it.
It was entitled, ‘The War Within.’ It was published by Leadership Journal, a journal for pastors, back in 1983, I believe. It was the first-person account of a pastor and speaker, probably in his 40’s or 50’s back then, who developed what today we would call a sexual addiction. While going to various cities to speak, he would visit, adult bookstores (there was no Internet back then) and strip clubs.
One of the most moving, and devastating, parts of his story was when he confessed to a pastor friend of his sin and the struggle to be free from it. In turn, his pastor friend, revealed a life of secret sexual activity that required him to carry a pad of paper listing all the drugs he had to take to combat the various diseases he had caught so that he could anonymously get them in other towns and cities.
Eventually, this still unknown writer confessed to his wife and began the journey to purity and release. About 5 or 6 years later, he shared the progress that he had made with God’s grace in another article.
I believe that when God confronts us to love Him with our mind, sexual thoughts is one of His first targets.
(Slide 7) To love God with our mind is to follow the practice of what Paul lays down in Philippians 4:8 ‘Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.’
Philippians 4:8 (NLT)
Notice the underlined words in this passage. Think of them as a lifejacket or a life raft that rescues you from the daily mental cesspool of life. They are also qualities of thinking that enable us to love God with our mind.
One of things that I am very grateful for in my life are those who have taught and modeled for me how to think as a follower of Jesus Christ. And not all of them have been teachers.
To love God requires stability in our thinking that comes as we obey the Holy Spirit and allow Him to use the Bible, experiences, others, and the heritage of our faith to help us become mentally maturing followers of the Lord.
James reminds us in chapter 1 and verses 5 through 7 “If you need wisdom—if you want to know what God wants you to do—ask him, and he will gladly tell you. He will not resent your asking. But when you ask him, be sure that you really expect him to answer, for a doubtful mind is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. People like that should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. They can’t make up their minds. They waver back and forth in everything they do.”
Doubt, a major challenge to faith and one that can lead to cynicism and despair, is a battle of the mind. Moses dealt with it; David dealt with it; Jeremiah dealt with it; Peter dealt with it.
These underlined words are antidotes to doubt. Truth overcomes our doubt when we let God’s truth fill our minds through prayer and scripture.
Purity overcomes our doubt as we allow God, in Paul’s words, to change the way we think as the Holy Spirit cleanses our thoughts.
(Slide eight) Here is another important question for our focused consideration. Where have my thoughts been focused lately? Tom Holladay The Relationship Principles of Jesus.
Finally, there is the area of strength.
Matthew’s recording does not include the phrase ‘and all your strength.’ Mark’s account in chapter 12 and verses 29 through 31 does include this phrase and I think that we need to understand what it means.
Strength, in the context of what Jesus said, has more to do with the strength of our character and will than physical strength. I think that an argument can be made that strength as used in places like 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 where Paul writes about our weaknesses and God’s strength, has to do with our character that needs ‘fixin’.’
(We must keep in mind good care of our physical strength is very important and God honoring.)
(Slide 9) ‘When was the last time I asked God to give me the strength to move forward in his power, even though I was feeling weak?’ Tom Holladay The Relationship Principles of Jesus.
(Slide 10) So What?
There is a couple named Neal and Robin. Within a few years of their marriage, Robin suffered a brain hemorrhage that left her semi-conscious.
Neal determined to stick with her and by her side no matter what. Day in and day out Neal worked with Robin as she slowly began to recover.
Over time, she has recovered her ability to speak and the use of her arms and legs; and has taken some steps, though she still uses her wheelchair.
What speaks to their congregation and pastors is the love that they have for one another. Both made the choice to love one another despite the terrible change of circumstances in their relationship.
I believe that both Neal and Robin answered the questions placed before us this morning in a manner that the love of God worked in and through them.
(Slide 11)
Do I tell God what I feel or do I tell Him what I think He wants to hear?
Where do I need to pray, “Lord, your will be done,” in order to love God with all my soul?”
Where have my thoughts been focused lately?
‘When was the last time I asked God to give me the strength to move forward in his power, even though I was feeling week?’
I have no doubt that Neal spent many, many moments telling God how he felt. I also think that Robin, as she was able to, did the same.
In those first moments of the hospital experience, I am sure that Neal, as hard as it was, prayed ‘Your will be done.’ There is also no doubt that he prayed it often as each step of the journey unfolded.
As some of us are very much aware, in such moments, many thoughts run through our mind and even Satan sneaks in with doubt to challenge our faith. And prayers for strength to move forward, seem, at times almost impossible to pray.
Neal, and Robin, in each decision they made to go God’s way, were able to love one another as God intended and today they serve as a shining example of love to their pastors and church.
Which of these questions do you need to embrace this morning?
This is the assignment for the week. Select one of these questions and write it down. Form it into a prayer this afternoon and begin to pray it this week.
May God’s love more freely and flow deeply through us this week as we choose to love God with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind, and all our strength. Amen.
Sources:
Rinkworks.com/kidlove
David Holladay, The Relationship Principles of Jesus. © 2008 Zondervan, Corporation
Story of Neal and Robin appears in Holladay’s book.
