Pursuing Relationships IV

PURSUIT 2022

30 Days to Live (Relationships)

Before I get started today, I want to start with a small experiment or exercise. 

Let’s play pretend and imagine that you have 30 days left to live? 

This may seem morbid or even uncomfortable, but I promise I’m going somewhere. So just for the sake of this imagine as if you only have 30 days left.

Now that you’ve got this idea in your head let me ask you a few questions.

What will you do now? What will you do now that you have 30 days to live? Are your priorities different? Will your conversations be different?

But the main question I want to ask you is: Will you love differently NOW because you only have 30 days to live? Will you love differently? 

Will you love completely? Will you love completely and how do we even do that?

Jesus talks about loving completely in the passage we will read this morning found in mark 12.

But let me set the scene as to what’s going on right before our scripture.

Jesus is among some crowds, and He is teaching about the authority He has from Heaven (Mark 11:27-33), 

He presents the Parable of the Wicked Tenants (Mark 12:1-12), 

He speaks about giving and taxes (Mark 12:13-17), 

and He speaks about marriage and Heaven (Mark 12:18-27). 

Jesus is teaching the crowds and in the midst of the crowds, the Pharisees and Sadducees were asking questions and were trying to trap Jesus. 

It was during these trapping and sly questions that a person genuinely seeking an answer comes up to Jesus. Let’s read.

MARK 12:28-34

“One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" 29 "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: ’Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ’Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these." 32 "Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33 To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices." 34 When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.”

A teacher of the law came and asked a genuine question. In Jesus’s teaching, we find the answer to ‘how we love completely.’ 

Jesus points out three aspects of love that when combined form a complete love for our lives. 

Jesus teaches that we should love God, love others, and love ourselves.

These three are components of complete love.

I. LOVE GOD COMPLETELY

Jesus is quite clear when He speaks to the crowds and to the teacher of the law, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” 

Love him completely.

Loving God completely should be our first and primary goal.

Jesus says we should love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. 

What does that mean? 

To be honest, I could separate heart and soul and mind and strength and each one of them could be its own sermon! 

But loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength means 100% intentional devotion in all these areas.

With all you have love God. 

The problem is that our heart gets divided among day-to-day activities and the people around us.

The problem is that our soul gets passionate for causes and work and hobbies and God gets left behind.

The problem is that our minds become consumed with illogical errors and sin and we seldom think on God.

The problem is that our strength is spent at home, leisure activities, at work and we are too weak for God.

Can you, with a good conscience and in truthfulness, say that you loved God fully and undivided this past week? 

Have you been fully passionate and single minded towards God this week? 

Have you spent all your strength for God this week? 

Most of us, if not all of us, would say that other things got in the way of our devotion and love for God. 

We often become divided.

We experience the busyness of life, the requirement for entertainment, the unhealthy needs of others, the temptations of the world, and so many other influences come into our life and divide our love from God.

Each day we hope to live a life worthy of the salvation we have been given, but we live in this fallen world that is full of influences and temptations that divide us… divide our hearts and souls and minds and strength.

And I want you to know there is no shame if you are experiencing this. You are not alone. But it is just a sign that there is room for growth and development. 

So how do we love God completely with no division and no failure?

In the Old Testament, when this command is given (Deuteronomy 6:4-25), God describes wholehearted love towards Himself. 

I want to read those verses and I hope you see the same emphasis that I did and see the same answer: 

“Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.” 

Alright, how do I do that?! 

As the passage in Deuteronomy 6 continues, God starts to explain how a person can live life undivided. He answers the ‘how’ question!

7 Impress them on your children. -- that is very intentional and certainly not an accident

Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

Here we have two pairs of opposites that suggest any and every time, place, and activity think upon these commands. This is very intentional and a continual emphasis.

8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.

This to me it may not be practical to literally tie them as symbol or bind them to our forehead.

but ways that we can do this practically in our society is make it a background on your phone screen. 

Write it on an index card and put it on your bathroom mirror. that is very intentional and on purpose

9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. -- that is very intentional and public

God continues for 8 more verses about intentional and purposeful decisions and actions that a person can do to live a life wholly loving God. 

We must live a life loving God 100% on purpose! Loving God completely is no accident! Loving God completely is not something that just happens. 

Jesus commands us that we should love the Lord our God with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength. 

What does that mean? It means / 100% / intentional / on purpose / ‘I made a decision to be this way’ / ‘nothing is getting in the way’ / devotion to God. 

Loving God completely does not just happen, but it is an intentional choice that we must make for our lives.

The key word is “intentional.”

I can imagine that if we only have 30 days to live that many of the things of life that have been distractions and have divided our hearts… will be gone.

Maybe some would choose to set aside the alcohol and drugs and would have daily devotions

Others would decide to stop fits of rage and would intentionally volunteer to serve at church

Maybe we would willingly forgive someone when they hurt us, and we will intentionally share our faith with our friends.

We’ll choose not to gossip, and we’ll intentionally grow and invest in our spiritual life

First thing to do to live your last 30 days with purpose is Love God Completely.

The second is to…

II. LOVE OTHERS COMPLETELY

And there he stood, in the midst of the Golden Corral restaurant, with Thousand Island dressing dripping from his hair, over his glasses, down his face, all over his jacket, pants, & shoes. And I’m not talking about a little bit of Thousand Island dressing, I’m talking about 2 gallons of it! What had happened was that a waitress carrying a 2-gallon container of Thousand Island dressing for the salad bar had paused for just a second while coming through the swinging doors of the kitchen, & the doors had caught her & knocked her forward, launching 2 gallons of dressing all over this guy. 

Well, he went ballistic! He started shouting & cursing at her. “You’re so stupid! I can’t believe you could do such a stupid, stupid thing. This is a brand new suit & it cost me $300.” His wife chimed in, “Yeah, you’ve ruined my husband’s $300 suit, & it’s the first time he’s had a chance to wear it.” 

He screamed, “I want to see the manager!” 

Thoroughly shaken, she went to get the manager, & the manager came out. Now picture this – here’s a guy with 2 gallons of Thousand Island dressing dripping from him, & the manager asks, “Is there a problem?” 

The guy replies, “Is there a problem? She’s ruined my $300 suit. It’s brand new, & I want a new suit!” 

The manager says, “We’ll be glad to get your suit cleaned. Accidents do happen, & we’re really sorry about this.” 

“No! No!” he said. “I don’t want my suit cleaned. I want a brand-new suit, & I demand a check for $300 right here & now.” 

Well, to avoid a bigger scene, the manger goes back into his office, writes out a check for $300 & brings it to him. And justice is served.

Sadly, this true story happened at noon on a Sunday. 

Now, why would someone be wearing a brand-new suit on Sunday? Do you suppose he had been to church? Do you suppose that he had just heard a sermon on “Love your neighbor as yourself?”

Once again Jesus is very clear as He continues to speak to the crowds when He says, “’Love your neighbor as yourself.’” 

Remember, Jesus points out three aspects of love that when combined form a complete love for our lives… 

He commands that we are to love our ‘neighbors’ completely. 

Whenever I think about loving our neighbors, I can’t help but think of three questions.

Question 1: Who is my neighbor?

Question 2: What does Jesus say?

Question 3: What about the people I don’t like?

Right away we ask the question, “Who is my neighbor?” 

That same question was asked of Jesus (Luke 10:29-36) and Jesus responds by telling the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Without going into too much detail, the answer is that your neighbor is anyone you encounter. 

We are all neighbors of each other. A neighbor is not just the person whose house is physically next to yours, but it everyone around you. 

Jesus teaches that any person is your neighbor.

This command to “love thy neighbor” is repeated at least twelve times in the Scriptures and is a common statement whenever the commandments of God are written about and discussed. 

To be honest, most of the other commandments in Scripture can be summarized by this one.

And that’s not me saying this…

Paul says in Romans 13:9-10, “The commandments, "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet," and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: "Love your neighbor as yourself." 10 Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law.”

The Bible has a lot to say about our love for others and states that love fulfills what God intends for our lives. 

I could quote you dozens of Scriptures that teach us to build one another up, to seek the best for others, to forgive one another, to guard each other’s’ marriages, to not take out frustrations, and dozens of other examples of loving each other. 

But I must ask the second question: What does Jesus say? Did Jesus say something about loving others? 

He did. Jesus said it simply and plainly in John 15:12, “Love each other as I have loved you.”

When I try and describe the love that Jesus has for me, and in turn is the love I should have completely for others I think of:

* Forgiving * Boundless * Honest * Healing * Uncompromising

* Grace-filled * Sacrificial * Truthful * Brotherly * Steadfast

* Sincere * Principled * Encouraging * Deep * Intense

The same love that Jesus has for you and for me should be the same love that we have for others. 

If we only have 30 days to live… 30 days to love… we need to love those around us completely. 

But there is still that 3rd question: What about people I don’t like? I gotta be honest and say that it’s hard to love those you don’t like, and I don’t want to love those people all the time.

Fortunately, Jesus never says anything about loving people you don’t like… oh wait… He did. 

In Matthew 5:43, Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said,’ Love your neighbor and hate your enemy’ 44 But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” 

Jesus teaches us that we are not only to love those that we do not like and do not get along with, but we are to pray for them as well.

You see, loving others completely and being a good “neighbor” that Jesus would approve of means that you realize that everyone you meet deserves the same kind of love that Jesus gave you… no matter who they are or how they act. 

This love is based on what Christ has done for you… not how they have treated you or what they have said… this kind of love comes from God through us to others. 

This kind of complete love for others is easy to talk about, but very hard to love out.

But, if you only had 30 more days to live I hope that you would love God completely and that you would love others completely.

As I prayed and thought over this message, I thought about stopping here, but there is more to the passage that is often overlooked because it is very hard to explain. 

So, let’s look at one of the more difficult aspects of love.

And that is…

III. LOVE YOURSELF COMPLETELY

Jesus says in the passage that we are to love God completely and love our neighbors completely, but He does not stop there. 

Remember, Jesus points out three aspects of love that when combined form a complete love for our lives… Jesus also says we are to love ourselves.

Now, before we get too far along, we must realize that “love of self” is perhaps the root of most sin in our lives, problems in the world, and the cause of most catastrophes. 

In fact, Romans 2:8 and 1 Corinthians 13:5 explain to us that self-seeking attitudes are evil, lead to anger, and are the opposite of love. 

I am not talking about loving self and being self-seeking, but “loving yourself” and loving who God has made you to be… they seem very different to me.

There are times in our lives that each of us forget that we were all created in the image of God. You were hand-crafted by the God of the Universe. 

He loves you. He is pleased with who He has made. 

In Genesis 1:31 when God made human beings it says, “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.” 

Everything else He made was “good,” but human beings, you and I, were “very good.” 

God loves you and places great value in you.

Ephesians 4:22-24 tells us, “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”

Colossians 3:9-10 teaches us, “Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.”

1 Peter 3:3-4 says, “Your beauty should not come from outward adornment 4 Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.”

Do you know what those verses tell me? 

They tell me that each of us has great value in God’s sight, each of us was made in the image of God, and that God loves those He has created. 

Now, we might make ourselves ugly on the inside with sin and rebellion and mistakes and errors, but that does not change God’s value of us and His love for us. 

Those of us who have accepted Jesus as our Savior have inside of us a new creation that is precious to God.

The old self was dirty and corrupted by sin, but our new selves (given to us by Jesus Christ) are holy, pure, and justified from sin.

Because of all that, you should love who God has made you. 

How do we do that? How do we love ourselves without falling into the sin of self-seeking or self-indulgence? 

I don’t want to sound like a motivational speaker, but many times we simply do not know how to love ourselves in a good, Godly, and positive way.

1. Be positive about who God has made you (Psalm 139:13)

2. Acknowledge the efforts you make and celebrate the successes that God gives you (Genesis 39:3)

3. Let go of worry and don’t allow yourself to get over-stressed (Matthew 6:34)

4. Trust yourself and have confidence in the abilities and gifts God has given you (1 Peter 4:10)

5. Learn to forgive yourself because God has forgiven you (1 John 1:9)

6. Be truthful to yourself and don’t lie to yourself (James 1:22; 1 John 1:8)

7. Express gratitude to God and to others and accept it when they give it to you (Colossians 3:16)

8. Learn to relax and have fun (Ecclesiastes 5:19)

And so once again, if you only had 30 more days to live I believe that we would all try and love ourselves completely.

CONCLUSION

So, a teacher of the law came and asked a genuine question of Jesus. “which is the most important commandment?’

Jesus’s teaching is the answer to ‘how we love completely. 

I want you to notice what Jesus says to the man after He gives the answer to loving completely. Let’s re-read the passage.

MARK 12:28-34

“One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" 29 "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: ’Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ’Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these." 32 "Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33 To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices." 34 When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.”

Verse 34 is a wonderful conclusion to the passage. The teacher of the law is there, and he listens to Jesus and agrees with Him. 

And I feel like Jesus was impressed with the man. Jesus tells Him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” 

Do you realize what that means? 

When we intentionally love God completely, when we make the effort to love others, and we allow ourselves to appropriately love ourselves… we come closer to the Kingdom of God… and that is a great place to be.

I started with the question “how would you live if you had 30 days left?”

Would your priorities be different? Would your conversations be different?

Would you love differently? Would you love completely?

I am praying that each of us have a long and healthy 2022, at the same time I pray that this message has been an encouragement to look at your life and scan yourself to see if there are things that you would do differently this new year.

This morning as the worship team leads us in a time of worship and response ask yourself “am I living a life that is divided or am I loving God completely.”

“Am I loving my neighbors as I should, even the ones that I don’t like?”

“And do I love myself in a Godly and positive way?”

After asking yourself these questions and being honest with yourself and you find yourself struggling with these questions then this alter is open, myself or pastor randy would love to pray with you.Today is your day to make a change. Today is the day when you can begin to LOVE COMPLETELY.

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