Intro: I found a great picture of the problem of man and the church in of all places Wal-Mart. I was walking by jewelry last Friday after lunch time and saw a shirt that was most interesting. It was interesting because of how little it said, but also how much it said.
It carried the simple words “I love me.”
In this simple little phrase on an insignificant shirt was written man’s entire problem. Many of God’s creation have turned their love inward.
This simple little phrase caused Satan to drag a third of the angels out of heaven with Him, this simple little has caused tyrants to terrorize and terrify their people, this simple little phrase has caused kingdoms to collide in war over land and resources and titles, this simple little phrase has moved mass murders, this simple little phrase, “I love me.”
In Wal-Mart we are seeing the fulfillment of divine prophecy, 1 Timothy 3.1,2 says this “But realize this that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, . .
In the Bible passage today we see that God commands that we love upward, and outward.
Read Matthew 22.23-46
I. God commands us to be filled with love (Matthew 22.37)
Ephesians 3.19 “and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.”
Ephesians 5.18 “be filled with the spirit”
John 4.24 “God is spirit and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”
1 John 4.8 “God is love”
Romans 8.7 “because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so.”
The mind set on self cannot submit itself to the Law of God.
Jesus has summarized the Law of God in the Great Commandment.
When we accept Jesus as Lord and Savior of our life we no longer have the excuse of being hostile toward the Law of love. We are not only able but we should be willing to love God with all we’ve got!!!
So what does it mean to love God with all we’ve got?
A) Jesus commands us to Love God with our all and above all
1) Jesus commands us to love God with all our heart – emotional love
a) A desire to know God more.
b) A desire to please Him in every aspect of your life
c) A desire to introduce Him to every one in your life
Psalm 42.1 “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for You, O God.”
An emotional love for God is a thirst for God that nothing in this world but living water can quench.
Where your treasure is there you heart will be. (Where is your heart?)
2) Jesus commands us to love God with all our soul – willful love
a) A decided love Joshua 24
I have decided to follow Jesus
b) A determined love
As a Christian our love for God is based on whose we are and not what we get, or what we face.
Revelation 3.15-16 (read) I know your works
A little English drummer-boy was brought prisoner before Napoleon. The emperor told him to sound the retreat. “I never learnt it,” was the prompt reply.
Love never retreats. Love is ever accompanied by faith and hope, and in their company it always dares to pursue its course, however the odds may appear against it.
3) Jesus commands us to love God with all our mind – intellectual love
a) Intimate knowledge not factual knowledge
Husband and Wife vs Student and Subject
Paul said I know whom I have believed.
Illustration: Way a race car driver knows a track
Way a professional golfer knows a course
b) Involved knowledge
We are called to an everlasting preoccupation with God.
—A.W. Tozer,
4) Jesus commands us to love God with all our strength – physical love
a) A sacrificial love Romans 12.1
b) A satisfying love
It is very apparent from Jesus’ words we are to love God with all that we’ve got!!!
We are to love God more than our parents, our spouses, our children, our jobs, and our hobbies.
What type of Love do you have for God?
B) Obedience to the first Commandment leads to obedience of all the commandments John 14.15 “If you love Me keep my commandments.”
The entire Old testaments purpose was to reveal God and His character of love. The Law and prophets is Jesus’ way of saying all of scripture.
According to Jesus everything in the OT depends on this the greatest and the second commandment.
Temple warns: “No one can be indwelt by the Spirit of God and keep that Spirit to himself. Where the Spirit is, He flows forth; if there is no flowing forth, He is not there.”
Important Question: Do you have the Spirit of God within you?
Transition: You love or lack of love for God can be found in whether or not you love your neighbor
II. God commands us to be flowing with love (Matthew 22.39)+
John 7.37b-39 “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living waters.”
Jesus said this at the end of the feast of tabernacles. For seven days during this feast water was carried from the Pool of Siloam, but on the eighth day that Jesus spoke no water was brought. Jesus was saying all who realize they are sinners and thirst for forgiveness, salvation, redemption come, not only will they be saved but from them will flow streams of living water. This was the promise of God’s Holy Spirit.
Love of God ought to lead to love of ones neighbor!!!
C. S. LEWIS You cannot love a fellow creature till you love God.
I would add if you truly love God you can’t help but love you fellow creature.
A) How do we love our selves?
1) We take care of our needs (food, water, clothes, shelter)
2) We take care of our wants
3) We take care of our bodies
B) How should we love our neighbor
1) Consider others needs your needs
2) Consider others pain your pain
3) Consider others better than yourself.
Our love of others will flow from us if it is a natural part of our love of God.
On the cross Jesus considered us better than Him self.
He who knew no sin became sin so that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ.
(Listen to Philippians 2.3-4)
Philippians 2.3-4 “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves.
Do not merely look out for your own interests, but also for the interests of others.
We do not need high self-esteem, we need holy self sacrifice.
The height of our love for God will never exceed the depth of our love for one another.
—Patrick Morley.
C) What is love?
Love is a visible sign of the invisible inward change that happens when you are saved.
Love is giving and wanting nothing in return.
Conclusion:
What is it that fills your life today? Whatever fills you life will flow from you life.
Jesus said in Matthew 12.34 “You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks of that which fills the heart.”
Oswald chambers said it best
“God has given us His commands; there they are, but we do not pay attention to them not because of willful disobedience but because we do not love and respect Him.”
God’s law is to be written on our hearts. That is why it is the Law of love.
Do you keep the law by loving and respecting God and loving your neighbor as yourself?
Then what is it that fills and flows from you life today?
Christians listen to 1 John 5.6 “If someone says, “I love God.” And hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.”
In light of 1 John 5.6
Hebrews 10.24-25 “let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking the assembling together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”
We do not encourage each other to love and good deeds by simply having fun in one another’s presence.
We encourage one another to love and good deeds by fellowshipping in Worship and God’s word.
If we want this area and our neighbors to see our good deeds and glorify God we must no forsake the assembling of ourselves. We must love one another
