Love, Do You Remember - (Compelling Love 1/3)
[Context: This is the first in a series of 3 messages for a Vietnamese Alliance Youth and Young Adult retreat in Seattle, which I haven’t met any of the audience. It’s my first time preaching outside of my region. My draft note is still pretty messy from the revisions, so I am going to post only the key points here...]
{Introduction}
[...The introduction was cut from this post since it's a bit longer because the audience didn't know me...]
{Biblical context} Back in Jesus day, people were having similar problems too. The hot issues of the day were Sabbath-keeping, dietary laws, and ceremonial rituals. The Jewish Rabbis at the times counted a total of 613 commands in the Mosaic Law and they debated frequently to see which ones were the “main things”, and which were the “minor” ones.[i]
Have you heard the saying: “The main thing is to keep the main thing, the main thing”? We don’t sweat over unimportant and petty things. But what we consider the “main thing” will orient our life and conduct accordingly. Earlier, you played a community exercise where you put down the most important things in your life on a 3x5 card. No doubt that many of you have written down that “God”, or “faith”, or “spiritual matters” as the top of your list? Of course, this is a spiritual retreat; you are here because you are interested in spiritual things – so that should be on the top of your list.
But “God”, or “faith”, or “spiritual matters” are still pretty generic. Among the things of God, what is the main thing?
What you consider the “main things” will orient your life accordingly. If you consider worship is the main thing of God, then you would join a praise team. If you consider service is the main thing of God, then you would go on a mission. If you consider knowing God the main thing, then you would read lots of book. If you consider holiness the main thing of God then you would practice spiritual disciplines.
So, if you are serious about living according to what God teaches, then sooner or later you would grapple with the issue of “main thing” in order to find a foundation to build our life upon.
{Illustration}[ii] – Should replace with Rabbit Stew!
There was a guy who just got a job at a lighthouse along a remote and bleak coast. On the first day of every month, an oil tanker dropped by and filled up the fuel tank next to the light house. He was given training on how to fuel the beacon of the lighthouse and maintain it. Life was pretty boring with that job. One day a woman came by and asked for oil so that her children could stay warm in the winter. Then a farmer came; his son needed oil for a lamp so he could read. Still another needed some for an engine. The keeper saw each as a worthy request and measured out just enough oil to satisfy all. Near the end of the month, the fuel tank in the lighthouse ran dry. That night the beacon was dark and three ships crashed on the rocks. More than 100 lives were lost. When a government official investigated, the man explained what he had done and why. "What was the main task you were given?" asked the official. "It was to keep the light burning. Everything else was secondary. There is no defense." Not understanding what’s important and what’s secondary can lead to disaster.
So, what is our “main thing” about all of God’s things? A teacher of the law came to Jesus and “asked him, ‘Of all the commandments, which is the most important [the main thing]?’ ‘The most important one,’ answered Jesus, ‘is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.’” [Mk.12:28b-31]
Let’s pray…
1) {We are commanded to love God}
In this passage, Jesus stated the “main thing” of God for us very clearly. The Great Commandment is “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ And: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ”
Our “main thing” is to love God.
This was not called the “great suggestion” nor the “great principle” but the Great Commandment. Why? What is the term Commandment means anyway? A “command” always associates with authority and has consequences. Great suggestion means that we “should”, Great Commandment means that we “must”.
I cannot command that you must give me your money. But the government could. It calls tax. And you must pay your tax. The higher the authority, the more compelling for us to obey. If my son Timmy follows my command and clean up his toy, the consequence would be an orderly household for our family. On our flight here, if Timmy does not follow the airplane pilot’s command to keep off his Game Boy, the consequence could be a delayed-trip for couple hundreds of people. The higher the authority, the wider effects of the consequence could be.
In the gospels, whenever Jesus referred to “the Commandments”, He meant the divine directives of God, as contrasted to the rules and regulations of Moses, which He called “the traditions of men.”[iii] God is the ultimate authority, and with His commandment associates the ultimate consequence. This is what God said about obeying His commandment: “Keep my decrees and laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them. I am the Lord” [Lev. 18:5]. The ultimate consequence here is life and death! And according to Jesus, the Greatest of all of the Commandments is that we must to love God!
But just because a Commandment comes from the highest authority and has the ultimate consequence, it doesn’t mean that people will carry it out. Just like the decree of a King will only be honored by His loyal subjects and not the rebels in the land, the Great Commandment of God is not carried out by people who reject God’s authority. You and I can approach any person on the street and tell them, “You must love God” and chances are we will be met with blank stares, “Huh? Who is God dude?”
2) Why? Because it’s the directive for THE PEOPLE OF GOD.
When I approached you, the People of God and relay the same message, “You must love God”; you and I, we no longer have to argue about “Who is this God”, but we perhaps could discuss the questions of “Why?” and “How?” As People of God, we acknowledge who God is, and we are grateful for what He had done.
a) Loving God is the only proper response for the people who ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS.
Jesus stated the Great Commandment by reciting “Hear Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one”. This was recorded in Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and was known as the “Shema” (Shema is Hebrews for “Hear”). According to the custom of the time, the Jewish people recited this verse twice a day. Some Jewish synagogues still do it today. It’s kind of like our Apostle’s Creed today.
The Great Commandment was originally addressed to Israel, the People of God as they were liberated from slavery in Egypt and were approaching the Promised Land. This context reminded us this truth that before God asks His people to do anything; He had done tremendous things for them already. “We love because he first loved us” [1Jn.4:19] the Bible said.
What kind of things that God had done? “The Lord [Yahweh] is our God [Elohim],” God the Creator. He is the ground of our existence, ‘in Him we live, we move, and have our being’. Even when people rebelled and cursed God, He was still the one who sustaining the very breath they need in order to rail against Him.
How is that Creator God like? “The Lord is One”. If He's the only one, there are no other! This is the concept of the Holy God. Holy means “set apart”. God is Holy – set apart from everything else. Everything else was created, He alone is uncreated. Everything was from Him; and therefore everything else was for Him.
How many ways can you connect between two points? Countless infinity. But how many straight line can there be to connect two points? Only one. Similarly, there is only one proper relationship between God and us, between the Uncreated and the Created, between the Infinite and the Finites. That proper relationship could have many labels: love, devotion, worship, etc. But essentially it’s describing the same thing. Here Jesus reminded us that God wants us to response to Him by love.
{Transition} But knowing that God wants us to love Him would not necessarily compel us to love Him. There are plenty of people, who know who God is; and they know what He wants; but they would not response by loving Him. In order to love God, there must be more than just knowledge about Him. It requires an experience of Him directly.
b) The proper response of loving God can only come from the people who EXPERIENCE His love.
According to Luke 7, when Jesus was here on earth, he was invited to a banquet. There was a sinful woman who lived in that town. When she heard about Jesus coming to the banquet, she came with a bottle of very expensive perfume, and she kissed his feet and anointed with the perfume. The owner of the house, Simon was irritated and Jesus told him the parable of two debtors of the same banker, one owed some money, and the other a lot of money. Since neither could pay, the banker forgave them both. And then Jesus asked, “Which of them will love him more?” Of course it’s going to be the one who owed more. Then Jesus went on and explained that in contrast with the lack of hospitality from Simon, the sinful woman did all this stuff to Jesus because “her many sins have been forgiven - for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.” [cf. Lk.7:36-47].
So what is Jesus saying here? He is saying that once we realized how much God love us, and how much we have been forgiven by Him, the only proper response we could have is to love Him back. The woman knows her awful life, and therefore she was moved by the awesome love of God. Simon doesn’t realize how terrible his life is before God, and therefore he has problem loving God.
If you are having problem loving God, may I suggest that you take a hard look at your life and remember the gutter you were in before you met Him.
i) My life was in a gutter before I receive Christ as my savior. It would take more time to give a detailed account of my conversion, so here is an abbreviated version of it.[iv]
I was born and raised in a Christian family in Saigon, Vietnam. Both my mom and dad were “big shots” in the Christian circle. Despite all the biblical stories and doctrines I had learned since childhood, I became very rebellious during my early teen. I was addicted to stealing and pornography. I slept with prostitutes when I was 13 and I even prayed to the devil for guidance and protection in my thievery (using a human skull I found in the local cemetery).
My dad punished me a lot hoping to deter me from a criminal life. Many times my mom pleaded with tears at my feet begging me to turn from evil. But the stronghold of the devil on me was so great that I even I tried, I could not break away from that sinful life. At one revival meeting, a pastor sensed the bondage I was under and prayed to cast out the demons in me. I was shaking and almost repented, but finally determine to see if I can overcome the power of God, and I resisted Him.
But God didn’t give up on me. One night a two-years old Christian witnessed to me. I really don’t care much about what he said, because I have heard it all, and I have known it all. But this time it was different. As he was witnessing to me, he also sensed the supernatural oppression I was under, so he quietly prayed that God cast out the demons in me. After the third time praying, he asked me if I wanted to accept Christ. At that precise moment, I felt like as if 20 pounds had been lifted from my shoulder. I felt like I was back in the Garden of Eden; that I was presented a choice to follow God or to continue to go against Him. And thank God, I was able to choose Him.
From that moment on, I continue on the spiritual journey. I went through the ups and downs. There was a period in my life where I was backsliding for 7 years straight. But the grace of God had always found me out. He continues to love me and lead me on until now.
Once you have tasted the wonders of God’s grace and mercy on your messed-up life, how could you not love Him back?
ii) But some of you might have thought, “What a lucky guy, Bumble was so sinful, and therefore it’s easy for him to experience God’s forgiveness in order to love God. As for me, I’ve never done any thing terrible; I’ve always been following God’s instruction as long as I can remember. So how am I supposed to experience God’s love the same way Bumble did?”
Do you really need to run away from home in order experience the love of your dad? Do you remember the story of the Prodigal Son? What did the Father said to the elder son, the good one, the one who had always been with him? “You are always my son. I always love you. Don’t you realize that all the things here are yours?”[v] Do you remember the story of Eve? Eve’s original sin was not disobedience but that she was ungrateful with all that God had provided for her. She didn’t realize that God loved her through all the things He had provided her.
Even if you have never strayed away like I did, you could still experience God’s love on your life by seeing what he has been doing in your life. All it takes is a moment of reflection. If you have tasted the sweetness of God’s abundant blessing on your insignificant life, how could you not love Him back?
{Transition} We have talked about “The ‘main thing’ is to love God. Why? Because it's the only proper response when we know who He is and experience His love.” But how are we to love God?
3) How?
Are we to love Him with the same kind of love we see around us? The love between parents and child, between brothers and sisters, between friends or even between lovers?
No! Notice that when it comes to love others, God simply commanded that we need to love our neighbors as ourselves; but the love to God was qualified and explained with two major attributes: Balance and Intensity.
a) We love God with the BALANCE of our whole person
When it comes to loving God, you need to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”
§ When we think of the heart, we think about our emotion; we think of our passion and desire; how we feel.
§ When we think of the mind, we think about our intellect; we think of our rational and logic; how we understand.
§ When we think of the soul we often think about something inward; we think of some essence of being; who we are.
§ When we think of strength, we think of something outward; strength is displayed in action; strength is displayed in what we do.[vi]
What I see [show graph] is the inclusion of the whole spectrum of our personhood: Both heart and mind, even though they might be at the opposite ends; both soul and strength, even though they might be in different dimensions.
God is calling us to response to Him with all of who we are.
§ A person who loves God with only the passionate heart will be gullible of false doctrine and easily be led astray.
§ A person who loves God with only the rational mind will have a hard time yielding their philosophy over to rejoice in the mystery of God.
§ A person who loves God with only the piety of the soul won’t contribute much to the practical needs of God’s world.
§ A person who loves God with only the activities of the strengths will tend to run their life on empty and eventually burnt out in service.
So you see: we are called to love God with our whole being, not just in some areas while neglecting the others.[vii]
But strength in one area at the expenses of other areas won’t be healthy. You cannot drive a car with one wheel, two wheels, or even three. A four-wheels-drive car must have all four to go anywhere. But that’s only half the picture. A four-wheels-drive car, even with all four wheels intact, will not get anywhere if it’s not moving. Similarly, loving God with the whole balance of our being will not move us anywhere without the intensity.
b) We love God with the INTENSITY of our whole being
Notice that God didn’t say: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength”. Even in its original language, the phrase “with all your” appeared four times. It may look clumsy in English, but this repetition is the way people emphasize something in Hebrews. Maximum intensity in loving God is even more important than the concept of balance all four aspects of our being in loving Him. God wants us to love Him in these aspects of our being with total abandonment, no reservation, no holding back.
Why do we must love God intensely “with all” of our being? Is it selfish of God to want our total devotion?
Remember the story of King Solomon’s wise judgment in 1 King 3:16-28? Two women were roommates, each had an infant boy. During the night one boy died and his mother switched him with the other one. By the time they appeared at the King’s court, each was accusing the other and claiming the boy as her own. Wisely, Solomon ordered the boy cut in half to divide equally to each. The true mother immediately was willing to give up her son to protect her son life. Solomon then restored the son to the rightful mother.
True love cannot content with half a person. While the devil would be satisfied with any part of your being, God knows that you will not live until you are wholly devoted to Him.
If you love God with all of your heart, with all of your mind, with all of your soul and with all of your mind, you can do whatever in your life and God will always be pleased with you.[viii] A person who loves God with such intensity will not have rooms for anything else. The guy will not let himself loose in pornography because he couldn’t love sex more than God. The girl will not max out her credit cards in debt because she couldn’t love shopping more than God.
c) {The bottom line of loving God is obedience}
Jesus has a special term to describe this type of love, this type of devotion. He called it “obedience.” This is what He said in John 14, “If you love me, you will obey what I command… Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him… If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.” (Jn.14:15,21,23,24)
When we love God with all of our heart, with all of our soul, with all of our mind and with all of our strength, we will express that love through our obedience to God.
§ This is not a heartless obedience: “but I don’t really want to do it!”
§ This is not a mindless obedience: “I don’t really understand what I am doing, I just work here!”
§ This is not a soulless obedience: “I am just doing in it for show!”
§ And this is not an effortless obedience either: “I am just doing the easy and convenience stuff!”
Loving God with all of our heart, with all of our soul, with all of our mind and with all of our strength is submitting ourselves under the Lordship of Christ!
4) {Conclusion} I would like to conclude the talk with this summary statement: Our ‘main thing’ is to love God. Why? Because it's the only proper response when we know who He is and experience His love. How? With every single aspects of our life, with our whole being, and through obedience.
Would you agree with that? Can I hear an “Amen!” from those who agree?
a) Good! The teacher of the law in this story also voiced his “Amen” too: “Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 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” (v.32-33).
The only problem is this: “When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God” (v.34).
“Not far from the kingdom of God” is still “not IN the kingdom of God”!
I am afraid that some of you here today are like this lawyer: Growing up in church; knowing God’s law; agreeing with His law and even keeping His law. This is almost—but not quite—sufficient for salvation.[ix] You are saved not by any of those things. You are saved not even because you came forward and prayed a specific “prayer”. Salvation is by grace and through faith [Eph.2:8]. If you have never put your faith in Jesus, trust Him as your Savior, you cannot accept Him as your King, and you cannot become a subject of His Kingdom! If there is any of you today who wonder how would Jesus classify you as “not far” or “in” the Kingdom of God, talk to someone and don’t leave this retreat without knowing for sure.
b) And then some of you here today who had already crossed that threshold of faith. For you, the Word of God today challenges you about…
§ Whether or not you are keeping your love for Him the ‘main thing’ in your life?
§ Whether or not you love Him with the balance of all aspects of your life?
§ Whether or not you love Him with the intensity of your whole being?
§ Whether or not you have obeyed Him in the way that He wanted?
Some of you perhaps begin to realize that you were once loving Him, but now the love had faded away. The Word of God is calling out, “You, you have forsaken your first love: Remember…” Remember where you had been! Remember what you did back then. Remember! [Rev.2:4-5]
[We are going to break into small groups so that you can spend sometimes sharing and praying to one another about what God put on your hearts tonight. Let me pray for His guidance before we continue to process His message in our small group…]
END NOTES
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[i] 291. Wessel, p. 737. As quoted from Tom Constable's Expository Notes on the Bible: Mark 12:28, 2003.
J. W. Shepard also wrote: “The Scribes had declared that there were six hundred and thirteen comandments: two hundred forty-eight affirmative precepts—as many as the members of the human body—and three hundred sixty-five negative, as many as the days of the year (Vincent). There was a great discussion between the opposing theological schools of Shamai and Hillel as to which were the “light” and which were the “heavy” commandments. They discussed the distinction between the ritual and the ethical, or the positive and the moral, the prevalent tendency being to attach more importance and greater weight to the positive commandments relating to circumcision, Sabbath-keeping, and other ritual requirements (Lightfoot). The result was the “exaltation of the ceremonial element, the curse of later Judaism.’’ The words of the Rabbis were to be prized above the words of the Law. It was commonly agreed that the positive commandments about the minutest details of the ceremonial law were as binding as the fundamental moral code. The heavy commandments were the ones to which the death penalty was attached, such as the Sabbath-keeping laws, sacrifices, and purifications. If the Pharisees could get Jesus entangled in the web of current theological, hair-spliting controversy, they would bring the unlettered Nazarene Rabbi into disrepute. They hoped He would take the fatal step of asserting again His divine supremacy. This would precipitate a reaction of violence against Him such as had almost swept Him away on various previous occasions.” J. W. Shepard, The Christ of the Gospels (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1939), pp. 501-502. (As quoted by Bob Deffinbaugh , Th.M. from http://www.bible.org/page.asp?page_id=615#P2949_896155)
[ii] One day an expert in time management was speaking to a group of business students and, to drive home a point, used an illustration those students will never forget. As he stood in front of a group of high-powered overachievers, this expert in time management said, "Okay, time for a quiz," and he pulled out a one gallon mason jar and set it on the table in front of him. He also produced a dozen fist-sized rocks and carefully placed them, one at a time, into the jar. When the jar was filled to the top and no more rocks would fit inside, he asked, "Is this jar full?" Everyone in the class yelled, "Yes!" The time management expert replied, "Really?" He reached under the table and pulled out a bucket of gravel. He dumped some gravel in and shook the jar causing pieces of gravel to work themselves down into the spaces between the big rocks. He then asked the group once more, "Is the jar full?" By this time the class was on to him. "Probably not," one of them answered.
"Good," he replied. He reached under the table and brought out a bucket of sand. He started dumping the sand in the jar and it went into all of the spaces between the rocks and the gravel.
Once more he asked the question, "Is this jar full?" "No!" the class shouted. Once again he said, "Good." Then he grabbed a pitcher of water and began to pour it in until the jar was filled to the brim. Then he looked at the class and asked, "What is the point of this illustration?" One eager beaver raised his hand and said, "The point is, no matter how full your schedule is, if you try really hard you can always fit some more things into it!"
"No," the speaker replied, "that's not the point. The truth this illustration teaches us is this: If you don't put the big rocks in first, you'll never get them in at all."
He went on, "What are the 'big rocks' in your life - time with your loved ones, your faith, your education, your dreams, a worthy cause, teaching or mentoring another?"
"Remember," he concluded, "to put these big rocks in first or you'll never get them in at all."
Alternate Ill.:
Haddon Robinson points out that one old recipe for rabbit started out with this injunction: "First catch the rabbit." Says Robinson: "The writer knew how to put first things first. That's what we do when we establish priorities -- we put the things that should be in first place in their proper order.
Source Unknown.
[iii] See the “Commandment” article by Michaels, J. Ramsey in “Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels” edited by Joel B. Green, Scot McKnight and I. Howard Marshall. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1992, p.132.
[iv] Revised from a longer version of…
I was born and raised in a Christian family; my dad pioneered one of the largest expatriate mission/relief agencies in Vietnam; my mom was a teacher and a respectable church deacon. Since I was a kid, I went through all the usual Christian upbringing: children church, choir practice, Scripture memorization, VBS, etc. But all of that religious training didn’t help much. When I became a teenager I started rebel everything. I ditched school, hung out with bad crowd; sleeping with prostitute (can you believe that, at 13 years of age). And in order to have spending money, I start stealing everything in sight and selling them in the black market (the equivalence of pawnshops here).
My thievery got pretty bad. I stole stuff from around the house, from our neighbors and relatives, and even from church. Even I know God and I could even prove about God’s existence and His love, I simply decided to not obey Him. I reasoned that since I couldn’t pray to God to bless me in break into people house and stealing from them, I could pray for protection from God’s opposite, the devil instead. I even ventured into the cemetery and got myself a real human skull to use as an icon. This became fatal for me because I began to lose my self-will and I could not stop all my wrong doing even if I want to.
I wanted to stop my wrong doing many times for many reasons. One of them was my dad who whipped me many times to punish me. Another was my mom; there were times that she was kneeling, and weeping and pleading me to stop. I loved my mom very much and it hurt me to see what I was doing to her, but I could not stop. It was as if I am not just stealing out of needs, but out of an addiction to the adrenalin-high from the “action”.
I was also very prideful of how bad I was. I still went to church and went to the youth group meeting with the attitude of “So, what could you do to me?” Many people tried to convert me unsuccessfully. There was this one time a powerful speaker came to our youth group. At the end of the talk, he asked the youth to stand if they wanted to accept Christ, and the conviction power of the Holy Spirit was so powerful that I see most people in the group, one by one stood up. Then he started praying, saying my name directly and asked God to cast out the devil on me so that I can come to Him. At that moment, I started to shake up. I really wanted to stand up, but then a small voice whispering to me “Stay still. Stay still and see if you can overcome God.” And I did. Afterward, some of my friends came and asked if I was offended because of the demon-casting prayer; and I shrugged it off, “Who cares, God will not be able to handle me.”
I continued to live in bondage of sin until the night of May 30th, 1980. That night, my visiting grandma asked me to take her to church and so I did. As she attended the service, I was just hanging out in the parking lot, checking out if anything I could swipe. At that point in my life, I was considering learning some more lock-picking from a local locksmith so that I could “perform” at the next level of my criminal activities. A young man came and talk to me (he was the church parking lot attendant). He asked what my problem in life is. I was so cocky so I gave him a straight answer: “Stealing, Sex, and Pride.” (For I thought even if he know me, he could not stop me from swiping stuff from his parking lot)…
[v] Τέκνον σὺ πάντοτε μετ᾽ ἐμοῦ εἶ - Tom Constable wrote that “The father responded to the older son’s hostility with tenderness and reason. The Greek word teknon, translated “child” or “son,” is a term of tender affection. The father stressed his older son’s privileged position as always enjoying his father’s company.” [Tom Constable's Expository Notes on the Bible (Galaxie Software, 2003; 2003), Lk 15:31] So I don’t think it’s a stretch to expand on the idea as I did.
[vi] Pastor Brett Stair said it better than me at http://sermoncentral.com/sermon.asp?SermonID=51323&ContributorID=3358
[vii] Similarly, a church with hearty love often is known for its worship; a church with intellectual love often is known for its teaching; a church with inward love often is known for its prayers and spiritual discipline; and a church with outward love often is known for its services.
[viii] Heard from David Jeremiah in one of his sermon.
[ix] Joel B. Green, Scot McKnight and I. Howard Marshall, Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1992), 134.
{Introduction}
[...The introduction was cut from this post since it's a bit longer because the audience didn't know me...]
{Biblical context} Back in Jesus day, people were having similar problems too. The hot issues of the day were Sabbath-keeping, dietary laws, and ceremonial rituals. The Jewish Rabbis at the times counted a total of 613 commands in the Mosaic Law and they debated frequently to see which ones were the “main things”, and which were the “minor” ones.[i]
Have you heard the saying: “The main thing is to keep the main thing, the main thing”? We don’t sweat over unimportant and petty things. But what we consider the “main thing” will orient our life and conduct accordingly. Earlier, you played a community exercise where you put down the most important things in your life on a 3x5 card. No doubt that many of you have written down that “God”, or “faith”, or “spiritual matters” as the top of your list? Of course, this is a spiritual retreat; you are here because you are interested in spiritual things – so that should be on the top of your list.
But “God”, or “faith”, or “spiritual matters” are still pretty generic. Among the things of God, what is the main thing?
What you consider the “main things” will orient your life accordingly. If you consider worship is the main thing of God, then you would join a praise team. If you consider service is the main thing of God, then you would go on a mission. If you consider knowing God the main thing, then you would read lots of book. If you consider holiness the main thing of God then you would practice spiritual disciplines.
So, if you are serious about living according to what God teaches, then sooner or later you would grapple with the issue of “main thing” in order to find a foundation to build our life upon.
{Illustration}[ii] – Should replace with Rabbit Stew!
There was a guy who just got a job at a lighthouse along a remote and bleak coast. On the first day of every month, an oil tanker dropped by and filled up the fuel tank next to the light house. He was given training on how to fuel the beacon of the lighthouse and maintain it. Life was pretty boring with that job. One day a woman came by and asked for oil so that her children could stay warm in the winter. Then a farmer came; his son needed oil for a lamp so he could read. Still another needed some for an engine. The keeper saw each as a worthy request and measured out just enough oil to satisfy all. Near the end of the month, the fuel tank in the lighthouse ran dry. That night the beacon was dark and three ships crashed on the rocks. More than 100 lives were lost. When a government official investigated, the man explained what he had done and why. "What was the main task you were given?" asked the official. "It was to keep the light burning. Everything else was secondary. There is no defense." Not understanding what’s important and what’s secondary can lead to disaster.
So, what is our “main thing” about all of God’s things? A teacher of the law came to Jesus and “asked him, ‘Of all the commandments, which is the most important [the main thing]?’ ‘The most important one,’ answered Jesus, ‘is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.’” [Mk.12:28b-31]
Let’s pray…
1) {We are commanded to love God}
In this passage, Jesus stated the “main thing” of God for us very clearly. The Great Commandment is “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ And: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ”
Our “main thing” is to love God.
This was not called the “great suggestion” nor the “great principle” but the Great Commandment. Why? What is the term Commandment means anyway? A “command” always associates with authority and has consequences. Great suggestion means that we “should”, Great Commandment means that we “must”.
I cannot command that you must give me your money. But the government could. It calls tax. And you must pay your tax. The higher the authority, the more compelling for us to obey. If my son Timmy follows my command and clean up his toy, the consequence would be an orderly household for our family. On our flight here, if Timmy does not follow the airplane pilot’s command to keep off his Game Boy, the consequence could be a delayed-trip for couple hundreds of people. The higher the authority, the wider effects of the consequence could be.
In the gospels, whenever Jesus referred to “the Commandments”, He meant the divine directives of God, as contrasted to the rules and regulations of Moses, which He called “the traditions of men.”[iii] God is the ultimate authority, and with His commandment associates the ultimate consequence. This is what God said about obeying His commandment: “Keep my decrees and laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them. I am the Lord” [Lev. 18:5]. The ultimate consequence here is life and death! And according to Jesus, the Greatest of all of the Commandments is that we must to love God!
But just because a Commandment comes from the highest authority and has the ultimate consequence, it doesn’t mean that people will carry it out. Just like the decree of a King will only be honored by His loyal subjects and not the rebels in the land, the Great Commandment of God is not carried out by people who reject God’s authority. You and I can approach any person on the street and tell them, “You must love God” and chances are we will be met with blank stares, “Huh? Who is God dude?”
2) Why? Because it’s the directive for THE PEOPLE OF GOD.
When I approached you, the People of God and relay the same message, “You must love God”; you and I, we no longer have to argue about “Who is this God”, but we perhaps could discuss the questions of “Why?” and “How?” As People of God, we acknowledge who God is, and we are grateful for what He had done.
a) Loving God is the only proper response for the people who ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS.
Jesus stated the Great Commandment by reciting “Hear Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one”. This was recorded in Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and was known as the “Shema” (Shema is Hebrews for “Hear”). According to the custom of the time, the Jewish people recited this verse twice a day. Some Jewish synagogues still do it today. It’s kind of like our Apostle’s Creed today.
The Great Commandment was originally addressed to Israel, the People of God as they were liberated from slavery in Egypt and were approaching the Promised Land. This context reminded us this truth that before God asks His people to do anything; He had done tremendous things for them already. “We love because he first loved us” [1Jn.4:19] the Bible said.
What kind of things that God had done? “The Lord [Yahweh] is our God [Elohim],” God the Creator. He is the ground of our existence, ‘in Him we live, we move, and have our being’. Even when people rebelled and cursed God, He was still the one who sustaining the very breath they need in order to rail against Him.
How is that Creator God like? “The Lord is One”. If He's the only one, there are no other! This is the concept of the Holy God. Holy means “set apart”. God is Holy – set apart from everything else. Everything else was created, He alone is uncreated. Everything was from Him; and therefore everything else was for Him.
How many ways can you connect between two points? Countless infinity. But how many straight line can there be to connect two points? Only one. Similarly, there is only one proper relationship between God and us, between the Uncreated and the Created, between the Infinite and the Finites. That proper relationship could have many labels: love, devotion, worship, etc. But essentially it’s describing the same thing. Here Jesus reminded us that God wants us to response to Him by love.
{Transition} But knowing that God wants us to love Him would not necessarily compel us to love Him. There are plenty of people, who know who God is; and they know what He wants; but they would not response by loving Him. In order to love God, there must be more than just knowledge about Him. It requires an experience of Him directly.
b) The proper response of loving God can only come from the people who EXPERIENCE His love.
According to Luke 7, when Jesus was here on earth, he was invited to a banquet. There was a sinful woman who lived in that town. When she heard about Jesus coming to the banquet, she came with a bottle of very expensive perfume, and she kissed his feet and anointed with the perfume. The owner of the house, Simon was irritated and Jesus told him the parable of two debtors of the same banker, one owed some money, and the other a lot of money. Since neither could pay, the banker forgave them both. And then Jesus asked, “Which of them will love him more?” Of course it’s going to be the one who owed more. Then Jesus went on and explained that in contrast with the lack of hospitality from Simon, the sinful woman did all this stuff to Jesus because “her many sins have been forgiven - for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.” [cf. Lk.7:36-47].
So what is Jesus saying here? He is saying that once we realized how much God love us, and how much we have been forgiven by Him, the only proper response we could have is to love Him back. The woman knows her awful life, and therefore she was moved by the awesome love of God. Simon doesn’t realize how terrible his life is before God, and therefore he has problem loving God.
If you are having problem loving God, may I suggest that you take a hard look at your life and remember the gutter you were in before you met Him.
i) My life was in a gutter before I receive Christ as my savior. It would take more time to give a detailed account of my conversion, so here is an abbreviated version of it.[iv]
I was born and raised in a Christian family in Saigon, Vietnam. Both my mom and dad were “big shots” in the Christian circle. Despite all the biblical stories and doctrines I had learned since childhood, I became very rebellious during my early teen. I was addicted to stealing and pornography. I slept with prostitutes when I was 13 and I even prayed to the devil for guidance and protection in my thievery (using a human skull I found in the local cemetery).
My dad punished me a lot hoping to deter me from a criminal life. Many times my mom pleaded with tears at my feet begging me to turn from evil. But the stronghold of the devil on me was so great that I even I tried, I could not break away from that sinful life. At one revival meeting, a pastor sensed the bondage I was under and prayed to cast out the demons in me. I was shaking and almost repented, but finally determine to see if I can overcome the power of God, and I resisted Him.
But God didn’t give up on me. One night a two-years old Christian witnessed to me. I really don’t care much about what he said, because I have heard it all, and I have known it all. But this time it was different. As he was witnessing to me, he also sensed the supernatural oppression I was under, so he quietly prayed that God cast out the demons in me. After the third time praying, he asked me if I wanted to accept Christ. At that precise moment, I felt like as if 20 pounds had been lifted from my shoulder. I felt like I was back in the Garden of Eden; that I was presented a choice to follow God or to continue to go against Him. And thank God, I was able to choose Him.
From that moment on, I continue on the spiritual journey. I went through the ups and downs. There was a period in my life where I was backsliding for 7 years straight. But the grace of God had always found me out. He continues to love me and lead me on until now.
Once you have tasted the wonders of God’s grace and mercy on your messed-up life, how could you not love Him back?
ii) But some of you might have thought, “What a lucky guy, Bumble was so sinful, and therefore it’s easy for him to experience God’s forgiveness in order to love God. As for me, I’ve never done any thing terrible; I’ve always been following God’s instruction as long as I can remember. So how am I supposed to experience God’s love the same way Bumble did?”
Do you really need to run away from home in order experience the love of your dad? Do you remember the story of the Prodigal Son? What did the Father said to the elder son, the good one, the one who had always been with him? “You are always my son. I always love you. Don’t you realize that all the things here are yours?”[v] Do you remember the story of Eve? Eve’s original sin was not disobedience but that she was ungrateful with all that God had provided for her. She didn’t realize that God loved her through all the things He had provided her.
Even if you have never strayed away like I did, you could still experience God’s love on your life by seeing what he has been doing in your life. All it takes is a moment of reflection. If you have tasted the sweetness of God’s abundant blessing on your insignificant life, how could you not love Him back?
{Transition} We have talked about “The ‘main thing’ is to love God. Why? Because it's the only proper response when we know who He is and experience His love.” But how are we to love God?
3) How?
Are we to love Him with the same kind of love we see around us? The love between parents and child, between brothers and sisters, between friends or even between lovers?
No! Notice that when it comes to love others, God simply commanded that we need to love our neighbors as ourselves; but the love to God was qualified and explained with two major attributes: Balance and Intensity.
a) We love God with the BALANCE of our whole person
When it comes to loving God, you need to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”
§ When we think of the heart, we think about our emotion; we think of our passion and desire; how we feel.
§ When we think of the mind, we think about our intellect; we think of our rational and logic; how we understand.
§ When we think of the soul we often think about something inward; we think of some essence of being; who we are.
§ When we think of strength, we think of something outward; strength is displayed in action; strength is displayed in what we do.[vi]
What I see [show graph] is the inclusion of the whole spectrum of our personhood: Both heart and mind, even though they might be at the opposite ends; both soul and strength, even though they might be in different dimensions.
God is calling us to response to Him with all of who we are.
§ A person who loves God with only the passionate heart will be gullible of false doctrine and easily be led astray.
§ A person who loves God with only the rational mind will have a hard time yielding their philosophy over to rejoice in the mystery of God.
§ A person who loves God with only the piety of the soul won’t contribute much to the practical needs of God’s world.
§ A person who loves God with only the activities of the strengths will tend to run their life on empty and eventually burnt out in service.
So you see: we are called to love God with our whole being, not just in some areas while neglecting the others.[vii]
But strength in one area at the expenses of other areas won’t be healthy. You cannot drive a car with one wheel, two wheels, or even three. A four-wheels-drive car must have all four to go anywhere. But that’s only half the picture. A four-wheels-drive car, even with all four wheels intact, will not get anywhere if it’s not moving. Similarly, loving God with the whole balance of our being will not move us anywhere without the intensity.
b) We love God with the INTENSITY of our whole being
Notice that God didn’t say: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength”. Even in its original language, the phrase “with all your” appeared four times. It may look clumsy in English, but this repetition is the way people emphasize something in Hebrews. Maximum intensity in loving God is even more important than the concept of balance all four aspects of our being in loving Him. God wants us to love Him in these aspects of our being with total abandonment, no reservation, no holding back.
Why do we must love God intensely “with all” of our being? Is it selfish of God to want our total devotion?
Remember the story of King Solomon’s wise judgment in 1 King 3:16-28? Two women were roommates, each had an infant boy. During the night one boy died and his mother switched him with the other one. By the time they appeared at the King’s court, each was accusing the other and claiming the boy as her own. Wisely, Solomon ordered the boy cut in half to divide equally to each. The true mother immediately was willing to give up her son to protect her son life. Solomon then restored the son to the rightful mother.
True love cannot content with half a person. While the devil would be satisfied with any part of your being, God knows that you will not live until you are wholly devoted to Him.
If you love God with all of your heart, with all of your mind, with all of your soul and with all of your mind, you can do whatever in your life and God will always be pleased with you.[viii] A person who loves God with such intensity will not have rooms for anything else. The guy will not let himself loose in pornography because he couldn’t love sex more than God. The girl will not max out her credit cards in debt because she couldn’t love shopping more than God.
c) {The bottom line of loving God is obedience}
Jesus has a special term to describe this type of love, this type of devotion. He called it “obedience.” This is what He said in John 14, “If you love me, you will obey what I command… Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him… If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.” (Jn.14:15,21,23,24)
When we love God with all of our heart, with all of our soul, with all of our mind and with all of our strength, we will express that love through our obedience to God.
§ This is not a heartless obedience: “but I don’t really want to do it!”
§ This is not a mindless obedience: “I don’t really understand what I am doing, I just work here!”
§ This is not a soulless obedience: “I am just doing in it for show!”
§ And this is not an effortless obedience either: “I am just doing the easy and convenience stuff!”
Loving God with all of our heart, with all of our soul, with all of our mind and with all of our strength is submitting ourselves under the Lordship of Christ!
4) {Conclusion} I would like to conclude the talk with this summary statement: Our ‘main thing’ is to love God. Why? Because it's the only proper response when we know who He is and experience His love. How? With every single aspects of our life, with our whole being, and through obedience.
Would you agree with that? Can I hear an “Amen!” from those who agree?
a) Good! The teacher of the law in this story also voiced his “Amen” too: “Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 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” (v.32-33).
The only problem is this: “When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God” (v.34).
“Not far from the kingdom of God” is still “not IN the kingdom of God”!
I am afraid that some of you here today are like this lawyer: Growing up in church; knowing God’s law; agreeing with His law and even keeping His law. This is almost—but not quite—sufficient for salvation.[ix] You are saved not by any of those things. You are saved not even because you came forward and prayed a specific “prayer”. Salvation is by grace and through faith [Eph.2:8]. If you have never put your faith in Jesus, trust Him as your Savior, you cannot accept Him as your King, and you cannot become a subject of His Kingdom! If there is any of you today who wonder how would Jesus classify you as “not far” or “in” the Kingdom of God, talk to someone and don’t leave this retreat without knowing for sure.
b) And then some of you here today who had already crossed that threshold of faith. For you, the Word of God today challenges you about…
§ Whether or not you are keeping your love for Him the ‘main thing’ in your life?
§ Whether or not you love Him with the balance of all aspects of your life?
§ Whether or not you love Him with the intensity of your whole being?
§ Whether or not you have obeyed Him in the way that He wanted?
Some of you perhaps begin to realize that you were once loving Him, but now the love had faded away. The Word of God is calling out, “You, you have forsaken your first love: Remember…” Remember where you had been! Remember what you did back then. Remember! [Rev.2:4-5]
[We are going to break into small groups so that you can spend sometimes sharing and praying to one another about what God put on your hearts tonight. Let me pray for His guidance before we continue to process His message in our small group…]
END NOTES
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[i] 291. Wessel, p. 737. As quoted from Tom Constable's Expository Notes on the Bible: Mark 12:28, 2003.
J. W. Shepard also wrote: “The Scribes had declared that there were six hundred and thirteen comandments: two hundred forty-eight affirmative precepts—as many as the members of the human body—and three hundred sixty-five negative, as many as the days of the year (Vincent). There was a great discussion between the opposing theological schools of Shamai and Hillel as to which were the “light” and which were the “heavy” commandments. They discussed the distinction between the ritual and the ethical, or the positive and the moral, the prevalent tendency being to attach more importance and greater weight to the positive commandments relating to circumcision, Sabbath-keeping, and other ritual requirements (Lightfoot). The result was the “exaltation of the ceremonial element, the curse of later Judaism.’’ The words of the Rabbis were to be prized above the words of the Law. It was commonly agreed that the positive commandments about the minutest details of the ceremonial law were as binding as the fundamental moral code. The heavy commandments were the ones to which the death penalty was attached, such as the Sabbath-keeping laws, sacrifices, and purifications. If the Pharisees could get Jesus entangled in the web of current theological, hair-spliting controversy, they would bring the unlettered Nazarene Rabbi into disrepute. They hoped He would take the fatal step of asserting again His divine supremacy. This would precipitate a reaction of violence against Him such as had almost swept Him away on various previous occasions.” J. W. Shepard, The Christ of the Gospels (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1939), pp. 501-502. (As quoted by Bob Deffinbaugh , Th.M. from http://www.bible.org/page.asp?page_id=615#P2949_896155)
[ii] One day an expert in time management was speaking to a group of business students and, to drive home a point, used an illustration those students will never forget. As he stood in front of a group of high-powered overachievers, this expert in time management said, "Okay, time for a quiz," and he pulled out a one gallon mason jar and set it on the table in front of him. He also produced a dozen fist-sized rocks and carefully placed them, one at a time, into the jar. When the jar was filled to the top and no more rocks would fit inside, he asked, "Is this jar full?" Everyone in the class yelled, "Yes!" The time management expert replied, "Really?" He reached under the table and pulled out a bucket of gravel. He dumped some gravel in and shook the jar causing pieces of gravel to work themselves down into the spaces between the big rocks. He then asked the group once more, "Is the jar full?" By this time the class was on to him. "Probably not," one of them answered.
"Good," he replied. He reached under the table and brought out a bucket of sand. He started dumping the sand in the jar and it went into all of the spaces between the rocks and the gravel.
Once more he asked the question, "Is this jar full?" "No!" the class shouted. Once again he said, "Good." Then he grabbed a pitcher of water and began to pour it in until the jar was filled to the brim. Then he looked at the class and asked, "What is the point of this illustration?" One eager beaver raised his hand and said, "The point is, no matter how full your schedule is, if you try really hard you can always fit some more things into it!"
"No," the speaker replied, "that's not the point. The truth this illustration teaches us is this: If you don't put the big rocks in first, you'll never get them in at all."
He went on, "What are the 'big rocks' in your life - time with your loved ones, your faith, your education, your dreams, a worthy cause, teaching or mentoring another?"
"Remember," he concluded, "to put these big rocks in first or you'll never get them in at all."
Alternate Ill.:
Haddon Robinson points out that one old recipe for rabbit started out with this injunction: "First catch the rabbit." Says Robinson: "The writer knew how to put first things first. That's what we do when we establish priorities -- we put the things that should be in first place in their proper order.
Source Unknown.
[iii] See the “Commandment” article by Michaels, J. Ramsey in “Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels” edited by Joel B. Green, Scot McKnight and I. Howard Marshall. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1992, p.132.
[iv] Revised from a longer version of…
I was born and raised in a Christian family; my dad pioneered one of the largest expatriate mission/relief agencies in Vietnam; my mom was a teacher and a respectable church deacon. Since I was a kid, I went through all the usual Christian upbringing: children church, choir practice, Scripture memorization, VBS, etc. But all of that religious training didn’t help much. When I became a teenager I started rebel everything. I ditched school, hung out with bad crowd; sleeping with prostitute (can you believe that, at 13 years of age). And in order to have spending money, I start stealing everything in sight and selling them in the black market (the equivalence of pawnshops here).
My thievery got pretty bad. I stole stuff from around the house, from our neighbors and relatives, and even from church. Even I know God and I could even prove about God’s existence and His love, I simply decided to not obey Him. I reasoned that since I couldn’t pray to God to bless me in break into people house and stealing from them, I could pray for protection from God’s opposite, the devil instead. I even ventured into the cemetery and got myself a real human skull to use as an icon. This became fatal for me because I began to lose my self-will and I could not stop all my wrong doing even if I want to.
I wanted to stop my wrong doing many times for many reasons. One of them was my dad who whipped me many times to punish me. Another was my mom; there were times that she was kneeling, and weeping and pleading me to stop. I loved my mom very much and it hurt me to see what I was doing to her, but I could not stop. It was as if I am not just stealing out of needs, but out of an addiction to the adrenalin-high from the “action”.
I was also very prideful of how bad I was. I still went to church and went to the youth group meeting with the attitude of “So, what could you do to me?” Many people tried to convert me unsuccessfully. There was this one time a powerful speaker came to our youth group. At the end of the talk, he asked the youth to stand if they wanted to accept Christ, and the conviction power of the Holy Spirit was so powerful that I see most people in the group, one by one stood up. Then he started praying, saying my name directly and asked God to cast out the devil on me so that I can come to Him. At that moment, I started to shake up. I really wanted to stand up, but then a small voice whispering to me “Stay still. Stay still and see if you can overcome God.” And I did. Afterward, some of my friends came and asked if I was offended because of the demon-casting prayer; and I shrugged it off, “Who cares, God will not be able to handle me.”
I continued to live in bondage of sin until the night of May 30th, 1980. That night, my visiting grandma asked me to take her to church and so I did. As she attended the service, I was just hanging out in the parking lot, checking out if anything I could swipe. At that point in my life, I was considering learning some more lock-picking from a local locksmith so that I could “perform” at the next level of my criminal activities. A young man came and talk to me (he was the church parking lot attendant). He asked what my problem in life is. I was so cocky so I gave him a straight answer: “Stealing, Sex, and Pride.” (For I thought even if he know me, he could not stop me from swiping stuff from his parking lot)…
[v] Τέκνον σὺ πάντοτε μετ᾽ ἐμοῦ εἶ - Tom Constable wrote that “The father responded to the older son’s hostility with tenderness and reason. The Greek word teknon, translated “child” or “son,” is a term of tender affection. The father stressed his older son’s privileged position as always enjoying his father’s company.” [Tom Constable's Expository Notes on the Bible (Galaxie Software, 2003; 2003), Lk 15:31] So I don’t think it’s a stretch to expand on the idea as I did.
[vi] Pastor Brett Stair said it better than me at http://sermoncentral.com/sermon.asp?SermonID=51323&ContributorID=3358
[vii] Similarly, a church with hearty love often is known for its worship; a church with intellectual love often is known for its teaching; a church with inward love often is known for its prayers and spiritual discipline; and a church with outward love often is known for its services.
[viii] Heard from David Jeremiah in one of his sermon.
[ix] Joel B. Green, Scot McKnight and I. Howard Marshall, Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1992), 134.
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