The Best Downloads for the iPod of Life Part 2
Matt. 22:39-40
Oct. 2, 2005 FBC, Chester Mike Fogerson, Pastor
Introduction:
A Reorient audience to what an iPod is
1 In New York, many people are mugging iPod owners for these little devices.
a According to the New York Post, one young man required 44 stitches as a result of an iPod mugging.
b Can you imagine wanting something so bad you’d attack the person who had what you wanted?
c Everyone wants to be loved, wanted, valued, appreciated, and will often do some pretty crazy things if they don’t receive these things.
2 C.S. Lewis once said, "When I have learned to love God better than my earthly dearest, I shall love my earthly dearest better than I do now."
a Only after we get the first download, love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, can we begin our next download.
b "The second is like it, ’YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ 40 "On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets." Matt 22:39-40 (NASB)
B ETS: Jesus gave the two greatest commands found in God’s Word.
1 ESS: Loving others works in partnership with loving God.
2 OBJ: I hope you’ll choose to show your love to someone who is difficult to love in the next seven days.
3 PQ: Who does God want you to apply the second great command to this week?
TS: Let’s look at two lessons that can help us apply the second great commandment to someone this week.
I The first lesson that can help us apply the second great commandment to someone this week is...we can’t go wrong loving someone.
A The Jews were scared to death about idolatry (worshiping creation over the Creator)
1 Jesus came to them claiming to be God (the Creator)
a He was being worshiped, honored, & adored by many people.
b Many Jews saw this worship as idolatry. Was it?
aa No. Jesus is God! Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative, but He sent Me. John 8:42 (NASB)
bb If the Law required them to love God & their neighbor (’You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD. Lev 19:18 (NASB)), then it would not have been wrong for the Jew, even if they didn’t agree with Him, to love Jesus.
2 The Jew accepted the authority of the Law, yet they refused to obey it in their lives.
a The Jew didn’t love Jesus, they were plotting to kill Him
b Jesus was saying, "Loving your neighbor is the LAW."
aa Jesus put the commandment on the same level as the Shema.
bb "On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets."
B We can’t go wrong loving someone.
1 Loving others is the Will of God.
a Everyone wants to know God’s will for them.
aa Many look for a burning bush, talking donkey, pillar of fire: mystical, supernatural, & extraordinary.
bb The Bible is God’s written will for His people.
b v.39, Matt. 7:12, 1 John 3:10-11, 23; 4:7-21
2 If we really love God, we must also love the people in our lives.
a If I have a right relationship with God (1st commandment), we’ll have little problem with loving others (2nd commandment).
b We can’t go wrong loving someone.
C (IL) When I was a kid, my mom & I would debate which one of us loved the other the most.
1 I assured her I loved her more than she loved me & she’d say, "No, I love you more."
2 It wasn’t until I became a parent that I’ve realized that Mom was right, she did love me more.
3 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 1 John 4:10 (NASB)
a It’s no big news that we love God, but the big news is that our heavenly Father loves us!
b In spite of our flaws, impurities, unlovable & unsightly lives...He loves us.
c Just as our heavenly Father loves us (warts & all), we are commanded to show that love to the people in our lives.
d "Preacher, they don’t deserve it." Church, we don’t deserve it, either.
TS: God has not only given us the command to love, He has also given us the capacity to receive love as well.
II The second lesson that can help us apply the second great commandment to someone this week is...we can’t go wrong receiving love from someone.
A Jesus was not demanding His listeners be self-centered when He said, "...as you love yourself."
1 Jesus is assuming His listeners were already in a good "head space" with themselves.
a Lack of self-esteem was not a problem with the Pharisees, Sadducees, & Scribe crowd.
b He wasn’t ordering them to be self-centered.
aa In fact, Paul warns that in the last days men will be lovers of self. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy 2 Tim 3:2 (NASB)
bb If Jesus was pointing his listener to self-centered love, Paul wouldn’t have called it a sin.
2 Jesus’ emphasis was the need that other needed was love, affirmation, encouragement, & support.
a He’s saying be receptive to the love of others.
b This emphasis has little to do with how His audience felt about themselves.
B We are all in need of other people’s love.
1 Until we learn to love outwardly (biblically), we’re bound to be hurt and cause hurt.
a We’re bound to be hurt because: we’re not receiving love, affirmation, encouragement from others (God made that need, & He’s given us the command to meet that need).
b We’re bound to hurt because: when we don’t receive love from others we hurt, & hurt people hurt people.
2 Do not use the excuse, "Nobody’s loving, affirming me, so I’m going to be a jerk to everybody."
a This thinking does affirm the fact that we all need love, but it is not an excuse to not love folks, either.
b Maybe when we begin to love/affirm one another better, we’ll talk less about loving ourselves, and more about loving others.
C (IL) I read the story of two friends in World War I who were inseparable. They had enlisted together, trained together, were shipped overseas together, and fought side-by-side in the trenches. During an attack, one of the men was critically wounded in a field filled with barbed wire obstacles. He was unable to crawl back to his foxhole.
1 The entire area was under enemy crossfire, and it was suicidal to try to reach him. Yet his friend decided to do just that. The sergeant told him, "It’s too late. You can’t do him any good, and you’ll only get yourself killed."
a But the man went anyway. He returned a few minutes later, carrying his friend. But he himself had been mortally wounded. The sergeant was both angry and deeply moved. He blurted out, "What a waste! He’s dead and you’re dying. It just wasn’t worth it."
b With almost his last breath, the dying man replied, "Oh, yes it was, Sarge. When I got to him, the only thing he said was, ’I knew you’d come, Jim.’"
2 If we disallow people to show us love/affirmation, we’re stopping someone from loving us as they love themselves. A commandment. What is it called when we fail to do a commandment of God? It’s called sin. It’s possible that by refusing to receive someone’s love we’re not only sinning, but we’re also putting a stumbling block in the way of the person who is trying to love us.
Conclusion:
Most of you know the name Corrie ten Boom whose story, The Hiding Place, has inspired millions. Not many people know about her equally courageous nephew, Peter van Woerden.
During the days of the Nazi occupation in Holland, Peter transported Jewish children under the cover of darkness from their home in Harlem to other secret hiding places where they were saved from the Nazis. Peter was eventually caught and spent several months in prison. After the war, he and his musical family travelled throughout Israel, singing and witnessing for the Lord. When he had a massive heart attack, they rushed him to Haddasah Hospital in Jerusalem. The doctor on call that day skillfully saved his life.
After he recuperated, Peter expressed his gratitude to the medical staff. He struck up a conversation, and as they talked about the Holocaust, the doctor suddenly burst into tears. For as they shared stories, the doctor realized and told Peter that he was one of those children that Peter had rescued. Now, years later, their paths had providentially crossed, and one of those whom Peter had saved from death was there to save him. Peter van Woerden and Corrie ten Boom have modeled for us that love — that kind of life that is open to the call of God and the needs of others — that can change our world.
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Respectfully,
Mike Fogerson
