Loving God; Loving God’s people
Matthew 22:37-40
Matthew 22:37-40
Loving God, Loving God’s people- that is a command from the Lord. It is not a suggestion. It is a commandment. He says that is the first commandment- love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and body. The second is like that- love your neighbor as yourself. Love God love people. So, if you are here this morning and you feel like you don’t know what God wants you to do with your life. You know two things. Love God. Love people. In that order. We get this right, all the other things fall into place. Get this wrong, most things will go wrong for you.
Let’s start with loving God. James 4:8- “Come near to God and He will come near to you”
Illustration-
4 year old Martha, hugging a doll in each of her little arms, looks up at her mother. “Mama, I love them and love them, but they never love me back”
Question- could this be a bit of our problem? God loves us and loves us, but we never love Him back. Perhaps we don’t have time for Him. Maybe we just never love Him back the way he deserves. To love God the way we should, we have to acknowledge Him for who He is- God, Creator of the Universe, maker of our souls, redeemer of our souls.
Psalm 19;14
“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the works of His hands. Day after day, they pour forth speech, night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes into all the earth, their words to the ends of the earth.”
• We worship God because of who He is.
• His handiwork and His creation is everywhere.
• There is none like Him- He is the beginning and the end.
Most don’t love God- They tolerate God. God will not be tolerated. This world thinks they can just ignore God.
I am not a prophet, but these things I know about God, and the world better get on board.
1. God’s Word- The Bible- still has all the answers that man needs.
2. Prayer is still the most important and powerful communication with God in this world.
3. Holy Spirit will still move in the world.
4. People will praise the Lord
5. God will continue to pour out His blessings upon His people.
6. As long as you have breathe still in your body, there is still room at the Cross for you.
7. Jesus loves you He will do anything He can so that you can be saved.
Society teaches by example that we don’t need God. He doesn’t much care for us. That He doesn’t care what you do. They say to build bigger fences to keep people out and keep God at a distance. The life that God calls us to is craziness to them. The world has not understood how much God loves us. People give excuses- “I believe in God, just not organized religion. That is a cop out It is a way to not be committed. It is a way to rob God by not bringing what is His into the storehouse of God. It is a way that they can turn the channel of the t.v. if they do not like what the preacher is saying. That was not the New Testament church. They loved God with their whole heart, mind, soul, and body. They loved people the same way. If the church got it right. They would have to say, I cannot deny what they do, and how they act. They would have to admit that they just don’t believe in their God.
Looking at what God has made.
•Average Elm tree has 6 million leaves on it. I know because I think I raked them last year.
• your body can pump blood if squirted 30 feet.
• 300 different trees in a one mile square are in the Amazon Jungle.
That is amazing Ever been to an I-max and they do a panoramic view of the oceans. Plural, because He has made several. I have a hard time ignoring God. Gal 6:7- “Do not be deceived. God is not mocked.” The world will one day reap what it sows. There is a lot of spiritual amnesia. If God does something good for you- you acknowledge Him (Sometimes). If He does something good for you for a while, we take advantage of Him. If we go through a hard and tough time- we call out to Him. If He does not answer the way we believe is right or not quick enough, by our actions, we tell Him, we don’t need Him.
Rubbing this lantern and hoping that He will grant us some wishes before we toss the lantern aside. We live in a saturated day of information. We know that we are to love God. Love people. We know that we are to have a relationship with Him. We know that we should pray and read our Bibles. We know that we should be in church and worship him. But we say that we have amnesia. God is holy- it is not only how He acts- it is His Character. He defines Holiness. It defines who God is. People want to say that they can believe anything they want- so long as they are sincere. Francis Chan says “That is comparable to describing your friend in one instance as a three hundred pound sumo wrestler and in another as a 5 foot two, ninety pound gymnast. Both descriptions of your friend cannot be true.
Illustration
One writer said, “one of the major struggles of religion at that time was legalism. The problem with legalism is that the focus is on following of laws instead of imitating God. They had taken the Ten Commandments and the first 5 books of the Bible and came up with over 600 rules and regulations to follow in order to please God. The thing that made it more confusing, other than having over 600 laws to follow, was the religious teachers couldn’t even determine which of the laws were the most important to follow”
Example of little Benjamin;
Jess and I had a meeting and he needed his nose wiped. He got mad at me for doing it. I still loved him, but did what needed to be done. A little while later he came back to me and put his hands up for me to pick him up. You know I was loving that
II. “And the second is like it- love your neighbor as yourself”
Quote- “It’s no chore for me to love the whole world, my real problem is my neighbor next store”
• sometimes those closest to us are the ones we neglect.
• sometimes throwing money at something or someone is a quick and painless act.
• All your lives we have to be involved with people.
• People can be tough to deal with. (In my library, I have a book called- How to deal with people you cannot stand.) Before you get spiritual on me. It deals with people’s different personalities.
Love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and body. Love people as much as you love yourself.
Let me give you one long closing thought. We all know the song “Jesus Loves me” if fact , you don’t even have to be a Christian. You don’t have to have been raised in a Christian home. You don’t have to have been brought up in a church. “Jesus loves me...this I know. For the Bible tells me so” most do not understand the depth of God’s love. It is hard to love self and others. It’s hard to love God when you believe that relationship is made up of rules and laws.
When we focus on loving Christ, it doesn’t mean we do less. I use to do many of the things I do now, but I was motivated by guilt and fear. When we do work for Christ out of obligation, it feels like work. But when we truly love Christ, our work becomes our expression of our love for God. It feels like love.
Rev. 3:20
“Here I am, I stand at the door and knock, if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. He doesn’t say “try harder” but rather let me in “
Come near to God, and He will come near to you.”
Illustration-
When you love someone, you go to great lengths to be with the one you love. You’ll drive hours to be with them. You talk on the phone for hours. You will willingly spend a fortune on the one you love. John Piper in his book God is the gospel, asks us a question. Are you in love with God? He goes on to say, if you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all your friends you ever met on earth, and all the food you liked, and all the leisure activities you enjoyed, all the beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted- could you be satisfied with heaven if Christ was not there? If you love Christ- it would not be enough
God gives us a crazy kind of love- God of the universe loves you- just as you are, but not enough to leave you that way. The world says it is a “to good to be true” deal and says that is impossible. God says come let us reason together. Not being able to understand God gets frustrating. It is ridiculous to think that we have a right to limit God just because we don’t understand. We can’t create God- He created us. He is not for our pleasure- We are for His pleasure. He loves us- He understands us- we are to draw close to Him and allow Him to love us and have a relationship with Him.
Love God first, above all else. Love God’s people. Desiring to see them make heaven. Desiring to have them know the God that you serve. Then to realize how much God loves you. When you are pursuing God, running toward Christ, you do not have to wonder if Christ loves you.
Maybe you’re here this morning, you have to be honest with God. You say to the Lord this morning, I need God to help me love God. I definitely need God to help me love others.
Maybe you need God’s help this morning because you say that it is even hard to love myself this morning, and I need God’s help.
Altar Call
