The Main Thing - Pastor Tyronne Gross Jr. | Elk Grove

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More about Pastor Tyronne:
           
          Tyronne Gross Jr. is the Campus Pastor of Midtown Church, Elk Grove campus. A native to Northern California, Pastor Tyronne attended CSU Sacramento and majored in Business Communications. He joined the NFL in 2006, as a Running Back for the San Diego Chargers. During his second season in the NFL, he experienced what was considered a career-ending injury. Shortly after, he began volunteering as the Team Chaplain for ARC and SCC Junior Colleges in Sacramento, CA. He traveled throughout the country as a motivational speaker offering keys to success to students and business professionals alike.

In 2011, Pastor Tyronne and his wife Raquel founded The Table Community Foundation, a 501c3 nonprofit organization committed to serving youth and their families. The organization quickly grew, offering employment to over 180 employees and serving youth in after-school programs across two counties and 3 school districts. This was the start of operating in ministry “outside of the four walls.” In 2018, Tyronne answered the call to pastor and now serves in full-time ministry.

Pastor Tyronne and Raquel married in 2008. They are the proud parents of two amazing boys, Tyronne III (“Bubba”) and Tyrese (“Pooch”). They currently reside in Sacramento, CA.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Can I ask you all a question? Have you ever had one of those weeks where everything seems important all at the same time? Okay, yeah. You know, because life has a funny way of filling up your schedule that way, you know, where you have all these different responsibilities and it's one thing after the next. And but the thing is, what you don't even understand, like, am I really focusing on anything important at all? Like, for example, I told you it's been a week. Um, this week, you know, I was trying to handle some personal family stuff, and at any time, and I think you guys can agree with me, anytime you try to focus on your stuff, everything else, you know, starts piling up. And so it was non-stop emails, it was um meetings I had to attend, I had to make some decisions, I have responsibility to carry, and on top of that, some of you parents know what I'm about to say. I don't know what's up with this school district, but my kids, they're out of school for the entire month. So, so on top of trying to juggle their schedules and all that, you know, then it's the mom, dad, I need it, and I'm just like, yo, you're on vacation. We still gotta work. So I so I'm trying to say it in the most loving way, right? Because I told him, I said, you know what, we would rather be playing and hanging out with you than doing all of this stuff. Um, but that's what kind of week it's been. It's been a week. I I think they heard me, or just they're just like, oh dad, you're just being dad. But in the middle of all of that, in the middle of all of it, I was reminded of something simple. You can be busy all day and still miss what's truly important. You can be busy all day and still miss. And if you could ask any husband who's forgotten about an anniversary, yeah, you know what I mean, you know, they've been working all day, you know, taking care of business, you know, um, handling all the responsibilities, and then they walk into the house in the middle of the night, and then it hits them like, ooh, they realize I know what day this is. And so that meant at that moment, everything else that they were doing was not even important. And they realized they made a serious mistake because they're in the doghouse. But none of you guys, you know, I I ain't never done that either. But the thing is, it's because they missed the main thing. They missed the main thing, and most of us understand how that works in life. See, the main thing can get pushed aside, and when the main thing gets pushed aside, everything falls out of order. And but when the main thing becomes and stays the main thing, everything what? Falls into place. So here's the truth about that. Activity does not always equal alignment. Activity doesn't always equal alignment. It's kind of like you're driving somewhere, moving so fast, but then you realize you were heading in the wrong direction. I told you it's been a week this past Friday. I'm driving, I'm trying to get to my new doctor's office to meet my new doctor, and I'm I'm moving, I think I'm making good time, you know. Um I'm making progress, and then I realize I'm driving to the old doctor's office. I was going the wrong way. And sometimes life can feel like that. But the thing is, spiritually, we can feel that way at times also. We can set stay so active in our religion and we still miss the heart of God. And that's exactly this moment that Jesus is gonna be speaking to us in this passage in Mark chapter 12. And so the title of this message this morning is The Main Thing. The main thing. So if you have your Bibles or your U verse, or you can follow along the screen, I'm gonna be in Mark chapter 12, and I want to start reading at verse 28. It says, 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? The most important one answered, Jesus, is this hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is the Lord, 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. Well said the 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 and 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. Verse 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 no one dared ask any more questions. Let us pray. Father God, I thank you for this day. Lord, I thank you for meeting us in this place, Lord. Lord, I just ask you to use me, speak through me, allow this message to touch the hearts of your people. Allow everyone to grab hold of what they need from your word this morning. We ask all these things in your mighty name we pray. Amen. So, some biblical foundation were ready. For us to really understand this moment, we need to understand what's um been happening around Jesus leading up to this conversation. Because um, at this time, Jesus um he was getting questioned and he was being under, well, they thought he was under pressure, but uh, there's this tension between him and the religious leaders. It was building up. And now Jesus had just entered into Jerusalem, what we now know is Passion Week. If you're here last one week, Pastor Susie, she was teaching on this. And so as Jesus entered into the city, they walked on him, shouting, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna literally means save us, save us. So the people were celebrating him as the coming king. But soon after entering into the city, Jesus does something that completely shifts the atmosphere. He he walks into the temple and he turns the table of the money changers. And he's he declares this, my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations, but you have made it a house made for robbers, a den of robbers. See, the temple was full of religious activity, but they had lost the heart of worship. So in this moment, the religious leaders they were confronting Jesus. They they were questioning his authority, they were trying to um trap him with political questions, and they were challenging him, or they thought they were trying to challenge him with theological questions. And so, one after another, they were trying to discredit Jesus and they were trying to embarrass him publicly. But every time that um they challenged Jesus, his response was with wisdom and it exposed their misunderstanding of scripture. So by the time that we reached the pat the the passage that we are right now, there's a uh they were questioning him again and again, right? And so this is what happened. There was a scribe who stepped forward, but unlike the other religious leaders, he wasn't trying to trap Jesus. He asked, What happened? Uh what happened? So this is what he says in the text. It says, of all the commandments, which is the most important? And then that question mattered deeply because Jewish teachers had identified 613 commandments in the law of Moses. So there's more than just the 10 commandments. They identified 613 commandments. So this question becomes what does God really want from us? What does he want from our lives? What does it really look like to keep the main thing, the main thing with God? What does that look like? Jesus answers this question with two commands that reveal the very heart of God. And at the center of this truth, at the center of this answers, the main thing of God that God wants is for our lives to fully love Him and love people genuinely. That's what God wants for us. So before Jesus gives his commands, there's something that we need to understand, and this brings us to point number one in the message. You can know a lot about God and still miss what God wants. You can know a lot about him and still miss what he wants. Back to verse 28. It says, One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating, noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, and he asked him, Of all the commandments, which is the most important? So notice what happens here. The man had been listening to the conversation around Jesus the entire time. So he heard the Pharisees question and challenge him. He heard the Sadducees go on there and question him. And as he was listening, he noticed something. Jesus continued to respond with clarity and authority. That was how he was responding to him. So this teacher of the law, he steps forward and he asks, Of all the commandments, which is the most important? So as I mentioned earlier, but this man was called a scribe. Scribes were experts of the law of Moses. So that means that they studied scripture, they um copied scripture, they taught scripture. Their whole lives, it revolved around the word of God. And yet, even with all of this knowledge, the man still was searching. So that tells us something important. Knowing scripture is not the same as living it. Knowing scripture is not the same as living it. Amen. And this is where many religious leaders went wrong. They knew the law. They knew the law, but somewhere along the way, they began to love the rules of the law more than the rules that was meant for people. See, the law was meant for us because he loves us, but they were so focused on the rule keeping. So that means that they were, they they loved being right more than being compassionate. See, they knew scripture, but they missed the heart of God. And Jesus kept exposing it. He kept exposing it because God did not give us this law so that we can win arguments. It wasn't so that we can win all these arguments. He gave us the law so people could love him and love others. And this is where the passage becomes personal for each and every one of us. It raises an important question: Is my relationship with God shaped more by the knowledge or more by love? Is our relationship shaped on knowledge or is it shaped on love? Do we simply just know God or is our life being changed by God? Because it is possible to know all the right answers and still miss the heart of God. And that's the that's what Jesus was answering to this man's question. This is why he went there. You see, instead of choosing one of the 613, Jesus goes straight to the center of what God wanted us to understand. And that leads us to the second truth. The second truth is point number two. Loving God requires more than words. Loving God requires more than words. Verse 29, the most important one answer, Jesus, is this hear, O Israel, the Lord of 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. Jesus, he begins quoting what Jewish people call the Shema. So the word Shema, it means hear. But in the Hebrew, understanding and hearing, it was more than just hearing. It meant um listening and obeying. Shema means listening and obeying. So those words it came directly from Deuteronomy chapter 6 when Moses spoke to the Israelites after God had already delivered them from Egypt. So they had already experienced the power of God. They already had experienced his provision, but God knew something about the human heart. He knew something about the human heart. He knew that it is possible to experience all of his works, and it's still possible for us to drift away. So God gave them a declaration. The declaration that he gives them it says, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. So this wasn't just theology, this was a declaration of loyalty. So in a world at this time with competing gods and priorities and allegiances, the Israelites were being reminded of this foundational truth. You belong to the one true God. And since there's only one God, then that means he deserves our undivided devotion. So when Jesus quotes the Shema here in Mark 12, he isn't just repeating a familiar verse. He's reminding them and us that God is not looking for partial devotion. He's not looking for, he is calling us to complete allegiance. And then Jesus gives the command love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind, with all your strength. In other words, love God with your the totality of your being. Your heart speaks to what? Your affection. So that means what you truly desire. Your soul speaks to your identity, who you are at the very core. Your mind speaks to your thinking, what shapes your priorities. And your strength speaks to your actions, the way you live. Loving God is not just saying something, it's not just saying I love you. It has to shape everything that we are and everything that we do. See, God doesn't just want a place in your life, He wants to be the priority of your life. Amen. And when loving God becomes the center of your life, everything starts to change. Everything changes because when the main thing stays the main thing, everything else begins to fall into place. But this command also challenges us. It challenges because loving God with your whole life will cost you something. Loving God with your whole life will cost you something. Sometimes it may cost you your comfort, it may cost you your preference, it may cost you your reputation at times. It may cost your time, it may cost your resources, it may cost your control. There will be moments when obedience will lead you to make a decision that the world around you don't even understand. Moments when following Jesus means saying no to things that everybody else will say yes to. Because Jesus never called us to have this to simply admire him from a distance. Proximity is everything. He has invited each and every one of us to a life of surrender. Recently, Raquel and I, we had an opportunity to meet with a couple. And as we were spending time with them, um, man, just beautiful conversation. And this couple, they they genuinely they love God. They serve faithfully, they serve faithfully, they love people, um, they're generous with their times, their talents, their rich, all these different things. But and if you if you knew who they were, you would know what I'm talking about. But from the outside, looking in, you'd be like, man, they have it going on, they're doing it right. But as we were talking, they were sharing something that was very honest. And they said for for the past few weeks, um, they have been thinking and asking some hard questions, not because they were drifting away from God, not because they were doing something wrong. That wasn't it, but because they wanted to just grow a little deeper. And so, because of that, it was the question that they were kind of wrestling with is what does it following Jesus really cost? What does it cost? And as we were having this conversation, you can hear the sincerity in their in their voice. They, you know, they was like, we can't just continue to just, we don't want to go through the motions, just show up on Sunday. We we don't just want to just feel good when we leave here. Because they said, if our Savior was willing to die for me, for us, we have to ask ourselves, are we willing to count the cost for following Jesus? And then the hard questions came. It was more so, are we willing to get a little uncomfortable? Are we willing to step into places that will stretch our faith? Are we willing to uh go beyond a Sunday morning? Do people see Christ when they look at us? See, these are the kind of questions that following Jesus will eventually all of us will face at a time. Because love for God will always move beyond words. It always, because if we're honest, God is loving God perfectly or having this, you know, doing things 100% right, it doesn't exist. But Jesus shows us where this love can grow. Our verse of the year is John 15 and 5. It says, I am the vine, you are the branches. Apart from me, you can do nothing. See, a branch can't produce fruit by trying harder. A branch produces fruit by staying connected to the vine. In the same way, uh our love for God, our love grows when we remain connected to Christ. Jesus continues in this chapter in verse 9, he says, As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. Notice the order. Remain in my love. Jesus didn't say love me first, he says, remain in my love. We don't manufacture love from God, we respond to the love that He's already given us. He's shown us, amen. And when our lives remain connected to Christ, He the our the love that we have, it starts shaping how we live. It shapes how we live. But Jesus doesn't stop there because loving God was never meant to be vertical, it was always meant to be outward. Amen. So here's point number three loving people is the evidence that you love God. Loving people is the evidence that you love God. Verse 31. The second is this love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these. Notice something important. Jesus doesn't just give the one, he gives two. Love God, love your neighbor, and then he ties them together. In other words, you cannot claim to love God and ignore people. You cannot worship God today and mistreat some people tomorrow. You cannot say you love God and refuse to love the people that he created. Amen. Because love for God and love for people, they were never meant to be separated. It was never meant to be separated, it was always like this. See, we we already understand this principle in our everyday life. We all have heard the saying, action speaks louder than words. So just saying love you isn't enough. Love isn't just something you say, love is something that you show. We have to show love. In this passage, it forces us to ask the heart, the heart, an honest question. If I say I love Christ, does my actions reflect that love? Because love that never shows up in action is not the kind of love Jesus is talking about. In 1 John 4 20, it says, Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. Now that's strong language, but the point is clear. It's clear. Love for God and love for people cannot be separate. So that includes how we speak to people, how we respond when someone hurts us, how we treat people that disagree with us, how we treat people who can't do anything for us. When your heart begins to love God, things will change. You begin to see people differently because every person you encounter is someone created in the image of God. We're all created in the image of God. Let me challenge you with something practical. How many of us actually know the people that live right next to us? Okay. See, I oh I knew this was gonna be good. Because I'm talking about the people across the street. I'm talking about, you know, the ones on either side. Like, do we do we know do we know them? Because sometimes when we talk about loving our neighbor, we're talking about it very spiritually. Oh, I love you. But we don't actually know our neighbors. And when I'm saying this, if you didn't raise your hand, it wasn't meant for you. I'm not suggesting that when you leave here, you need to go invite everyone to your house for dinner. That's not what I'm saying. But simple things matter, it matters, you know, a simple conversation, a learning someone's name, a small act of kindness, you never know what relationship might open the door to a conversation about Jesus. You never know. And honestly, if our neighbors actually know us, they might realize that Christians aren't weird. Well, hold on, hold on, let me let me rephrase that. They might realize that y'all not weird because. There's some weird Christians that I'm just saying. But but everybody in the July, we we good in here. We good. We good, we good. But no, no, seriously, loving people is not always neat and convenient. It's not always neat and convenient. Sometimes it's messy. It's messy. Um I remember about three years ago when we were at Bradshaw, this was the other school that we we were at having service before we came here. Um I were I arrived to the church early Sunday or to the building to unlock everything. And once I unlocked it, my plan was to go just take some time to just pray and just look over my message and get ready. But as I walked into the boys' bathroom, when I walked into the boys' bathroom, it I'm gonna give you the PC version, it was a disaster. Like, like it was bad. I'm gonna paint a picture for you. It was stuff everywhere except for the toilet. And I remember standing there thinking, Lord, what is going on here? And I'm gonna be honest with y'all because I told y'all uh I don't mind being transcripted. My first reaction wasn't spiritual. I was frustrated, I was hot, I might have slipped up and said something I shouldn't. Oh my goodness. Because it was everywhere, and the what I was thinking was I came here so that I can have some time to get ready for the people to come, but what if somebody walks in here? So as I started cleaning, I'm I'm I'm feeling it right now. I'm not even man as I started cleaning, the Lord reminded me of something. He reminded me in the moment as I was cleaning up the bathroom of how much of a mess that I am that he cleans up daily. And he doesn't do it reluctantly, he does it because he loves me. And in that moment, everything shifted. Everything shifted because love isn't just something that we say, love is something that we do. Sometimes loving people doesn't look like this big spiritual moment. Sometimes loving people looks like cleaning up a mess that nobody else wants to deal with. Because love shows up in the small things, and this was exactly what Jesus was teaching here in this passage. When you love God with all your heart, and you love people, that's what really matters. Sometimes we just overcomplicate our relationship with Christ. Life is tough, it has a lot of ups and downs. But falling Christ is not that hard, but we make it hard. Love God, love people. So back to the text, when the scribe hears Jesus say this, something surprising happens. For the very first time in the chapter, this religious leader wasn't questioning his authority, he recognized what God was doing. He he understood that there was something happening. And when Jesus responded to the statement, the statement it was both encouraging and sobering. Which brings us to the final thought. You can be close to the kingdom and still not fully in. Amen. Verse 34. When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, You are not far from the kingdom of God. Think about this. Jesus didn't say this man was in the kingdom, he said that he was not far from it. So that means this man understood something many others did not understand. He understood that loving God and loving people matter more than religious activity. He understood this truth that as you surrender your life to it, you can recognize the command, but you can still never live it out. You can be close to the kingdom, but you can still not be in it. That's like I'm gonna go to church, but I'm gonna stand right there and never step into the building. If we keep reading in Mark chapter 12, Jesus immediately gives an example of what this love looks like. He was watching people give their offerings to the temple treasury, and many wealthy people they were given large amounts of money and treasures, whatever they were given large amounts, but then the poor widow woman walks up and she gives two small coins, almost nothing. But then Jesus tells his disciples, the poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. Why is that? Because everyone else they gave out of their abundance, but she gave out of her devotion to God. She didn't just understand the command, she lived it. She loved God with her whole heart. Now, at the beginning of this message, we talked about something simple. You can stay busy all day and still miss what most what's most important. You can be active, you can be productive, you can be responsible and still miss the main thing. And spiritually, the same thing happens. We attend Sunday service, we're serving in ministry, we're singing all the songs, and we still miss the very thing God is asking for. So the question for us today isn't whether we understand the command because Jesus made the command very clear. The real question is this is it shaping our lives? Is it shaping our lives? Does my love for God shape the way I live? Does my love for God shape the way I live? Does it shape how I treat people? Does it show up in the ordinary moments of my life? Because when the main thing becomes the main thing, everything else begins to fall into place. Before we pray, I want us to sit with this for one moment. If loving God fully and loving people genuinely is the main thing, is there an area in your life where God is asking for more? More trust, more time, more surrender, more obedience? Is there someone God is asking you to love differently? Someone to forgive? Is there someone for you to serve? Someone to show the love of Christ because the truth is the world doesn't need more people who simply know commands. The world needs more people who will actually live it out. Love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself. Amen.