Partnership – 7

Partnership – 7

Subject – The Main Thing – To Love God and Love People.

By Rick Welborne

Matthew 22:34-40 (NLT2)
³⁴  But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees with his reply, they met together to question him again.
³⁵  One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question:
³⁶  “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”
³⁷  Jesus replied, “‘You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’
³⁸  This is the first and greatest commandment.
³⁹  A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
⁴⁰  The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” 

--We have talked about many things in this series about Partnership. We made clear God must always get the glory. We talked about how this partnership requires faith, action, obedience, and generosity. 

--We have talked about how unity with each other makes this partnership powerful and effective. We talked about how God must be the main focus, how a leader is needed, and sensitivity to Holy Spirit.

--We have talked about how God’s House must be a House of Prayer and that we must have a passion to care for God’s House. Last time we spoke about how this passion leads to miracles and more than enough.

--I must say I have enjoyed this series as much or more than any series I have ever done. I can’t take credit for the subject though. Let me recommend a book. The Bible – The Word of God.

--As I studied and prayed I asked God how would He like me to wrap up this series and He immediately took my mind to our text about the main thing.

--We have heard people say I have no problem with loving God but people are another thing. We have laughed about pastors saying pastoring would be easy if it wasn’t for people.

--Today let’s take a deeper look into these verses where Jesus says that the two main things are to love God with all you heart, soul, and mind. And to love people as you love yourself.

1. In This Partnership, We Must Love God with Everything in Us.

Matthew 22:36-38 (NLT2)
³⁶  “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”
³⁷  Jesus replied, “‘You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’
³⁸  This is the first and greatest commandment.

--Again, Pastor, it is easy to love God. You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. Really?

--It’s not my intension to offend anyone today but there is a very good chance that will happen.

1 Peter 2:6-10 (NKJV)
⁶  Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture, "Behold, I lay in Zion A chief cornerstone, elect, precious, And he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame."
⁷  Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, "The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone,"
⁸  and "A stone of stumbling And a rock of offense." They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed.
⁹  But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
¹⁰  who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy. 

--Jesus and His Word can be very offensive to people. Not just those outside the church but those in the church who declare I love Him with everything in me.

--Maybe it is just me but I find it very difficult to love God with ALL my heart, soul, and mind. There are so many things that are competing for my attention.

--Christians find it very easy to declare such things as our absolute love for God and to sing songs that say things like I surrender all and He’s everything I need.

--We sing, He’s All I Need and then, we tell everyone in the church and out what we don’t have and what we have to have. What we need. Tempted sometimes to ask us…really?

--I am attempting to simply be Biblical. When we say we love God with all our hearts, our souls, and our minds we are declaring our death to self.

--The new gospel is, all I have to do is believe it, say it, and I can have everything I want and need. News Flash! That is not what the Bible teaches. What does loving God with everything in me look like?

John 3:28-30 (NLT2)
²⁸  You yourselves know how plainly I told you, ‘I am not the Messiah. I am only here to prepare the way for him.’
²⁹  It is the bridegroom who marries the bride, and the best man is simply glad to stand with him and hear his vows. Therefore, I am filled with joy at his success.
³⁰  He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.

--This is what the man said who Jesus said about him there is no one greater. Mat.11:11 What happened to him. He was beheaded for truth. What did Jesus say to His disciples after talking about His own death?

Mark 8:32-35 (NKJV)
³²  He spoke this word openly. And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him.
³³  But when He had turned around and looked at His disciples, He rebuked Peter, saying, "Get behind Me, Satan! For you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men."
³⁴  When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, "Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.
³⁵  For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it. 

--Loving God with all your heart, soul, and mind is death. Loving God is denial of self, loving God is taking up your cross, and following Jesus to the cross. I don’t like this. Sorry!

--The Apostle Paul probably suffered more than all the disciple and he summed up his life of loving God and serving Him with this verse:

1 Corinthians 15:31 (NKJV) ³¹ …I die daily.

--We don’t like a gospel that tells us this partnership with God will cost us everything. Our flesh loves hearing we can have more; we can have bigger. Here’s the clincher…we deserve it. Do you love Him?

--Do you love Him enough to die for Him. All but one of the disciples did. John boiled in hot oil.

--The rest were crucified, beheaded, stoned, beaten to death, pierced with swords. Would we say we love Jesus with everything if these choices were given to us? 

Matthew 22:37 (NKJV) ³⁷ Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.'

--Do we love Jesus more than all this stuff, all this prosperity, all of these luxuries, all this comfort, all our entitlements? Do we just love Him based on our American version of Christianity?

2. In This Partnership, We Must Love People Like We Love God.

--Ouch! How is that even possible? Is it a command or just a suggestion by Jesus?

Matthew 22:36-39 (NLT2) ³⁶  “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”
³⁷  Jesus replied, “‘You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’
³⁸  This is the first and greatest commandment.
³⁹  A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 

--Why didn’t Jesus say it is fairly important or pretty important to love your neighbor as yourself? But to say it is equally important as loving God with everything in you.

--Could it be fair to say that one of the greatest indicators of how we love Jesus is how we love people? Our spouses, our kids, our brothers, our sisters, everyone. Jesus said love your enemies.

--Can we come to church and openly worship God while singing “I Surrender All” and then declare openly to whoever will listen our disdain for a brother or sister.

--Hear your pastor, social media is not there to give you a platform to express your hatred, dislike, disdain, or problems with anyone. To do so is to disobey God’s command to love each other. 

1 John 4:10-11&19-21 (NLT2)
¹⁰  This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
¹¹  Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.
¹⁹  We love each other because he loved us first.
²⁰  If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a Christian brother or sister, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see?
²¹  And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love their Christian brothers and sisters. 

--Maybe it is because I love witnessing for Jesus and trying to lead people into a personal relationship with Him, but I always wonder what will people who don’t know Jesus think?

--I agree that I do not like the actions of people and how they treat others, but I can still love them and I don’t have to air my junk for everyone to read. Maybe try Mat. 18.

John 13:34-35 (NLT2)
³⁴  So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.
³⁵  Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

--Partnership with God is never complete until I am in partnership with you. Love God and love people. The world is watching and the world needs Jesus. 

1 Peter 4:8 (NLT2)
⁸  Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins.