SPEAKER_00: Well, hello, hello, good morning, church.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I am super, super excited to be here this morning uh with y'all.
SPEAKER_00: This the house of the Lord is the best place to be on a Sunday, so I am so glad that you guys decided to join us here uh at First Baptist Tampa.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not normally up here on a Sunday morning like Darren was saying earlier.
SPEAKER_00: Pastor Bob is uh ending his uh yearly trip where he gets away to plan out uh what the Lord has for us uh for the next year's sermons.
SPEAKER_00: Um so he'll be back next week, don't worry.
SPEAKER_00: I think he's preaching next week.
SPEAKER_00: He's preaching next week.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're worried about this week, come back next week.
SPEAKER_00: Uh see what we're really all about.
SPEAKER_00: Uh but it's always nerve-wracking, but uh such an honor to be able to preach to y'all on Sunday mornings.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I don't know if I'll ever fully get used to it.
SPEAKER_00: But growing up, uh, we would always uh watch a lot of the Rays games uh on TV, and I don't think I can ever get this out of my head, but during that time whenever they would call someone in from the bullpen to be brought in to pitch, it was sponsored by Metro PCS.
SPEAKER_00: So it was always so the commentators would go, now uh it's the Metro PCS call to the bullpen, and the coaches there, bringing the righty, bringing the lefty.
SPEAKER_00: We we were watching it, and that's just exactly how I feel this morning.
SPEAKER_00: I feel like I'm being brought in from the bullpen, sponsored by Metro PCS.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, not a sponsor, but it it fits.
SPEAKER_00: But all jokes aside, it really is uh an honor to be able to step onto the stage this morning uh to present God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, it's not something that I take uh very lightly.
SPEAKER_00: The love of God is the foundation of what we believe as Christ followers.
SPEAKER_00: To love God or to not is the choice that we all face as human beings.
SPEAKER_00: Every single person who has lived, who is living, or will live, has the choice between loving God or not.
SPEAKER_00: Any my my two-year-old knows four Bible verses.
SPEAKER_00: So that's pretty dope, if you ask me.
SPEAKER_00: But it's the cutest thing you ever see if she actually does them for you.
SPEAKER_00: She's kind of shy sometimes, but whatever.
SPEAKER_00: But she knows those four Bible verses.
SPEAKER_00: Without the love of God, her knowledge of those Bible verses really gets her nowhere.
SPEAKER_00: Now she's only two, but she must at one point in her life choose between loving God or not.
SPEAKER_00: The four verses that she knows right now were not carry her all the way to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Just like Annie, we are all faced with that choice.
SPEAKER_00: And these verses that we are looking at this morning, we are taking once again a look into the life of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: This is the Wednesday of Passion Week.
SPEAKER_00: This is all happening literally days before he is going to be crucified.
SPEAKER_00: And these last two passages that we were in with the book of Mark have been Jesus being questioned by the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the Scribes.
SPEAKER_00: Last time, we saw how they were questioning Jesus on the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: And then the time before that, they questioned Jesus on whether or not they should be paying taxes, each of which were attempts at catching Jesus off guard or wanting to make him slip up on his wording.
SPEAKER_00: These people, these groups of people, quite literally hated who Jesus was.
SPEAKER_00: They wanted nothing to do with him because he was actively going against just about everything that they had leaned into so heavily that they have gone too far to back down now.
SPEAKER_00: They were the religious elite who decided just about everything in the culture and would not be stopped.
SPEAKER_00: So they were threatened, rightfully so, by the presence of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus was calling people to him and not to the malarkey that they were trying to push.
SPEAKER_00: They wanted so desperately to change the view of the people on Jesus so that they think they so that they could claim him to be a heretic, to claim that he was a blasphemer, to get him arrested and out of the way.
SPEAKER_00: But their first two attempts on this day were answered by Jesus in such a wonderful way and such uh and said he uh and he said no wrong.
SPEAKER_00: He did not contradict anything that he had said while uh while he was talking uh with the law of Moses or anything that he has said before.
SPEAKER_00: And this passage this morning is no different.
SPEAKER_00: This is the the third and the final attempt of the day to catch Jesus off guard to try and make him say something that he really doesn't mean.
SPEAKER_00: This morning we're gonna continue in our series through the book of Mark with a very well-known passage of Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: So if you please will join me in Mark chapter 12, verses 28 through 34.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're using the Bible uh in the pew back in front of you, we're on page 910, 910.
SPEAKER_00: Once you get there, uh will you please join me in standing uh in order to honor the reading of God's word?
SPEAKER_00: Mark chapter 12, verses 28 through 34.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, Which commandment is the most important of all?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus answered, The most important is Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.
SPEAKER_00: The second is this you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_00: There is no other commandment greater than these.
SPEAKER_00: And the scribe said to him, You are right, teacher.
SPEAKER_00: You you have truly said that he is one, and there is no other beside him, and to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, in much more than all who all whole born burnt offerings and sacrifices.
SPEAKER_00: And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, You are not far from the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: And after that, no one dared to ask him any more questions.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Lord God, you are good.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we bring you all the praise this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I just ask as we we dive into your word, will you give me just a clarity of speech?
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, clarity of talk, Lord, but most importantly, get me out of the way and show yourself so clearly to them.
SPEAKER_00: Give us an understanding of your word, uh, of what you have this morning uh for us in Mark chapter 12.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, be with us as we dive into your word.
SPEAKER_00: Name I pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So this morning, I want us to see three different things uh in these verses.
SPEAKER_00: The first is the challenge, the second is the command, and the third is the encouragement.
SPEAKER_00: We see the challenge of the scribe, we see the command of Jesus, and then we see Jesus end by giving an encouragement.
SPEAKER_00: So let's go ahead and dive in this morning, with point number one being the challenge.
SPEAKER_00: The challenge.
SPEAKER_00: We see uh this section of scripture open up and we immediately need to know what had happened before it.
SPEAKER_00: It says one of the scribes walked up uh and heard the dispute that was going on.
SPEAKER_00: The first thing that is important for us to understand is who is this scribe?
SPEAKER_00: Now we we don't get a name, and that's totally normal within Scripture, but we know what kind of person he was based on his position alone.
SPEAKER_00: This scribe, like most of them, was a Pharisee.
SPEAKER_00: Which means, uh, if you remember back to uh last time we were in Mark, he does not agree with the Sadducees about the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: But specifically, the scribes during this time were the experts on the law.
SPEAKER_00: They were professional scholars specializing in the interpretation and application of the law.
SPEAKER_00: They knew the law backwards, forwards, upside down, and turned around.
SPEAKER_00: The law was their thing.
SPEAKER_00: Specifically the law of Moses.
SPEAKER_00: The law that these religious elite held over specific scriptures most of the time, especially the laws that they themselves had made as add-ons to the law of Moses.
SPEAKER_00: So the first person that we see in this passage is one of the most knowledgeable people in the world at the time in the law of Moses.
SPEAKER_00: And we know that he was at least not there for all of the two conversations about uh what they had just asked Jesus because it says that he walks up.
SPEAKER_00: He enters the scene at this moment.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew 22, uh, Matthew tells us in Matthew 22 that the Pharisees and the Sadducees were gathered together.
SPEAKER_00: They had just been schooled two times in a row, and they were trying to figure out how they were going to attack this third time.
SPEAKER_00: For the football lovers out there, they were in the huddle sitting third and long after two straight sacks from the shotgun.
SPEAKER_00: They had no chance of getting the first down, but they were trying.
SPEAKER_00: They were trying to come up with the perfect play, the most perfect question in order to trick Jesus, even the slightest bit.
SPEAKER_00: They were putting all of their heads together, they were arguing over what they were going to say.
SPEAKER_00: I can imagine there was lots of, I told you that would have been easy, I knew we shouldn't have asked them that.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, no, that's that's silly, let's not ask him that question.
SPEAKER_00: Ooh, that's good.
SPEAKER_00: Let's let's work on that a little bit more.
SPEAKER_00: They were trying their hardest to trick Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And this new scribe comes in and has probably been sitting on this question for a while now, partially, legitimately, but also he knew that it would be a difficult answer to get an actual right answer, or a difficult question to get an actual right answer.
SPEAKER_00: And I can imagine he posed the question and they all loved it.
SPEAKER_00: Because the very next thing that we see is him asking the question.
SPEAKER_00: So we have this scribe, expert of the law, who is trying to trick Jesus into blaspheming, trick Jesus into uh saying something wrong.
SPEAKER_00: That's the challenge.
SPEAKER_00: That's the challenge at hand.
SPEAKER_00: They want to find a question that will thwart what who Jesus is and what Jesus is doing.
SPEAKER_00: And they think that they have found the very question.
SPEAKER_00: Point number two is the command.
SPEAKER_00: The command.
SPEAKER_00: Right away in this section, we see that this scribe has thought he has tricked Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He's got the question.
SPEAKER_00: And he asks, Jesus, what is the most important commandment?
SPEAKER_00: What is the one greatest commandment of them all?
SPEAKER_00: At first, this reads, uh, at first read, this does not actually seem like that bad of a question to ask.
SPEAKER_00: But when you understand that the context, you know the trickery that was going on behind it.
SPEAKER_00: They were wanting to catch Jesus uh saying something that went against the law of Moses.
SPEAKER_00: While these men, uh the Pharisees and the Sadducees, did not agree on everything.
SPEAKER_00: One thing that they definitely agreed on was the importance of the first five books of the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: The five books of Moses the five books of Moses were the only ones that were divinely inspired as far as they were concerned.
SPEAKER_00: Meaning that the five books were of the utmost importance and the only ones they actually cared about reading or listening to.
SPEAKER_00: Their hope and their dream would be that Jesus was going to hear this question and give a commandment that was not found within the law of Moses, which would be Jesus showing that he thinks he is above Moses and specifically above the law of Moses, which would have been a very big deal back then.
SPEAKER_00: Because in the eyes of both the leaders, the religious elite, and the people and the people, Moses was the supreme figure in history.
SPEAKER_00: And to speak a law that was outside of the law of Moses would have been a crazy thing to do.
SPEAKER_00: And would have definitely caused some sort of uproar amongst the people who had been listening in on that day.
SPEAKER_00: This question also has another layer to it.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, the law is the highest importance to the religious elite, and they had come to the conclusion that there were 613 laws that could be found in the Pentateuch, in which the first five books of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus 13, or Jesus 13, wow.
SPEAKER_00: 613 laws is a crazy amount of laws to try and keep.
SPEAKER_00: So they broke them down a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: They decided that there were 248 positive laws or laws with affirmations, and 364 negative laws or prohibitions.
SPEAKER_00: So do's and and don'ts.
SPEAKER_00: But that was not enough.
SPEAKER_00: They broke it down even further into heavy and light laws.
SPEAKER_00: Heavy laws being absolutely binding, something that you absolutely need to be doing, and light laws that were just a little less binding than that.
SPEAKER_00: Which when it comes to it, it's not necessarily wrong to do so.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus wasn't specifically condemning the breaking down and the characterization of laws, but they got to the point where they realized that they were completely incapable of keeping all 613 laws that they had set out to keep.
SPEAKER_00: Which seems a little obvious to us if you really think about it.
SPEAKER_00: We look at something called the Ten Commandments today.
SPEAKER_00: And I guarantee you that everyone in this room this morning has broken one of those commandments already today.
SPEAKER_00: And the day's already halfway, not even halfway done.
SPEAKER_00: It's 11:30.
SPEAKER_00: And there's only 10 for us to keep.
SPEAKER_00: Now they are trying to keep 613.
SPEAKER_00: Seeing the task at hand was too much, the rabbis only focused on keeping all of the heavy laws, ignoring the light laws, hoping that in keeping all of the heavy laws, it would be enough to please or to satisfy God.
SPEAKER_00: But they very quickly realized that once again that they were incapable of even keeping just the heavy laws.
SPEAKER_00: So they searched for a way to split it up again.
SPEAKER_00: They were constantly lessening the list of laws that they considered to be heavy or important, which they could not even keep those few laws that they ended up on.
SPEAKER_00: So they abandoned them all together and just focused on the man-made laws and regulations that they had created, which for them was a lot easier to follow and to keep and to uphold.
SPEAKER_00: Which is the exact issue that Jesus addresses with them multiple times in his earthly ministry.
SPEAKER_00: Because they did not actually care about Scripture or Jesus or the lost.
SPEAKER_00: They were only concerned with themselves, their position, their status, and the way people thought of them.
SPEAKER_00: All of that makes it even more interesting that the question that they landed on how to trick Jesus was a way of lessening the whole of 613 commandments into one commandment for them to follow.
SPEAKER_00: As long as you keep this greatest commandment, then you are good and nothing else matters.
SPEAKER_00: Their desire to trap Jesus and their desire to have the path of least resistance with the law led them to ask this third and final question of the day to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I want to challenge you this morning to take a moment and look inward.
SPEAKER_00: These men were so caught up in themselves that they were blinded to the fact that the Savior of the world was sitting right in front of them.
SPEAKER_00: And they fought against that fact.
SPEAKER_00: They chose not to see it as such.
SPEAKER_00: What in your life today is holding, that you are holding on to is causing you to fight against God?
SPEAKER_00: To fight against Christ.
SPEAKER_00: What in your life are you trying to trick Jesus with to try and discredit him?
SPEAKER_00: Are there things that we are being called to get rid of as Christians that you are holding on to or looking back towards?
SPEAKER_00: The question has been asked.
SPEAKER_00: What is the most important commandment?
SPEAKER_00: What is the the one that you think we need to be paying the most attention to?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus answers.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't hesitate.
SPEAKER_00: He jumps right into it.
SPEAKER_00: He straight up just quotes quotes scripture as his answer.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus takes this challenge from the religious elite, the question that was meant to trap him, and he gives them what they were asking for, the greatest commandment, quoting directly from Deuteronomy 6.
SPEAKER_00: Says Jesus answered, The most important is, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.
SPEAKER_00: He gives them the most foundational commandment from the Old Testament, which is known as the Shema.
SPEAKER_00: This is something that everyone would have known.
SPEAKER_00: It was the daily ritual to recite the Shema.
SPEAKER_00: They would have known this like we know the Pledge of Allegiance.
SPEAKER_00: This was a very important part of Scripture to everyone that was present, uh, that they held so dearly and they were supposedly following.
SPEAKER_00: To love the Lord with everything.
SPEAKER_00: This is really where I want to take a step out of walking through the story and really sit in for a few minutes.
SPEAKER_00: All of the context, all of the things that were said before this leads to this very moment.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus quoting from Deuteronomy.
SPEAKER_00: This specific verse speaks on a few different things that would have stood out to the people that were listening.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus does it so well.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says that we must love the Lord our God.
SPEAKER_00: This is not a love like a like a marriage one, it's not filio, which is a love of attraction, but it's agapeo kind of love, which is a love of intelligence, of the will, of purpose, of choice, of sacrifice, of obedience.
SPEAKER_00: The type of love that we are being called to have for our Creator is not one where we bat our eyes at him and just say thank you.
SPEAKER_00: But one where we buckle up and get to work.
SPEAKER_00: The type of love that we are being called to have for our God is one that takes hard work, is one that is difficult, uh, truly difficult for us to fully have.
SPEAKER_00: Because this type of love is based solely on who God truly is.
SPEAKER_00: And the proper response to the genuine knowledge of God.
SPEAKER_00: Because if we truly are in love with Him, then there is no question on whether or not we have a gapeo love over the Philio love.
SPEAKER_00: When you properly love the Lord, you are constantly searching to extend your knowledge of him and his word and his works.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like when you first start talking to somebody that you want to date, and your only desire in the day is to find out a lot about this person.
SPEAKER_00: Find out their favorite cereal, find out where they grew up, what's their favorite day of the week, if they're a night shower person or a morning shower person.
SPEAKER_00: It is an all-consuming desire for you to get to know who this person is.
SPEAKER_00: If you really think about it, that sort of desire comes along with the most by the will, by purpose, by choice, and by sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we're all all in on Sundays.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe when we have our our D group meeting, you're the best little Christian there is.
SPEAKER_00: But when you get in the car, what do you put on?
SPEAKER_00: What are you reading at home?
SPEAKER_00: What are you consuming on?
SPEAKER_00: Online.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm not saying that you could never have a little bit of fun.
SPEAKER_00: I like watching a funny YouTube video as much as the next guy.
SPEAKER_00: But when I get the most distracted in what I am called to be doing, and that is loving the Lord with everything that I've got, when my outside time outside of church is majorly focused on things that are not of Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not even saying bad things.
SPEAKER_00: I'm saying disc off YouTube.
SPEAKER_00: I like to watch it.
SPEAKER_00: Maddie always pokes fun at me for this, but I also like watching the guys that like go to the restaurants to get the new food at the restaurants and they sit down and eat it and talk about it.
SPEAKER_00: Love those guys.
SPEAKER_00: Those are my favorite.
SPEAKER_00: But neither one of those are inherently bad.
SPEAKER_00: Not bad to watch.
SPEAKER_00: But whenever I am consuming them more than I'm reading my Bible, when I'm consuming them more than I am listening to the biblical podcast, when I am consuming them more than I am listening to worship music, my love for God seems to take a backseat.
SPEAKER_00: And that is quite literally the opposite of what is supposed to be happening.
SPEAKER_00: This morning, I really need you to reflect and determine what are the things in your life that you are pursuing that are pushing your love for the Lord on the back burner.
SPEAKER_00: They could be good things.
SPEAKER_00: It could be love for your family.
SPEAKER_00: They could be having fun with your children.
SPEAKER_00: It could be going to a sports game.
SPEAKER_00: Or it could be sense.
SPEAKER_00: What in your life is causing you to push your love for God on the back burner?
SPEAKER_00: Because we are called to love God first and foremost.
SPEAKER_00: But not only first and foremost, but all the way.
SPEAKER_00: With everything that we have and everything that we are.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like when you go to Jersey Mike's and they ask you if you want it Mike's way.
SPEAKER_00: Mike's way is all the way.
SPEAKER_00: We want it Mike's way.
SPEAKER_00: But Scripture says, with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all of our strengths.
SPEAKER_00: We are being called here to love the Lord with everything.
SPEAKER_00: Not just with everything, but with all of everything.
SPEAKER_00: Every bit of us must be dedicated.
SPEAKER_00: It's more of the totality of our being than the specific individual aspects.
SPEAKER_00: Because in the culture back then, the heart was the very core of the person.
SPEAKER_00: It's the source of their thoughts.
SPEAKER_00: It's the words and the actions.
SPEAKER_00: And then the heart is truly who someone is.
SPEAKER_00: Then you add in the soul and you get the emotions in there.
SPEAKER_00: Then you add in the mind, and that embraces the will, your intentions, your purposes, and then you add in your strength, and it's the physical functions of the body.
SPEAKER_00: But all of these things, what's really important to understand, is that all of these things must be working in harmony in the direction of loving God.
SPEAKER_00: John MacArthur says this, and I think it's perfect, and I think you should write it down and remember it.
SPEAKER_00: So I'll talk slowly, or you can just copy it off the screen.
SPEAKER_00: But he says, genuine love for God is an intelligent love, an emotional love, a willing love, an acting love.
SPEAKER_00: In short, it is a comprehensive, all-consuming love and singular adoration.
SPEAKER_00: God's wholehearted love for believers must not be reciprocated with half-hearted devotion.
SPEAKER_00: Because of the love that God shows us, it is irresponsible and demeaning to return that all-powerful, all-encompassing love with fake or not full love in return.
SPEAKER_00: Because God did send his one and only son to live a perfect life, like we've been looking at in Mark, to die on our cross in our place for our sins, like we're about to see in the coming weeks, just to defeat death, defeat the grave, showing his power over Satan, gifting us all the opportunity to have eternal life with him if we just believe fully with our heart.
SPEAKER_00: It is ludicrous to know that, to hear that, and think that it's okay, that half-heartedness is what God is okay with.
SPEAKER_00: It's absolutely mind-blowing for us to be in the position that we are in today and think it is okay for us to not love the Lord with everything that we are.
SPEAKER_00: And yet so many of us are so comfortable with only giving a small portion of ourselves for Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You can have two hours on Sunday morning, maybe even Wednesday.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, and if there's a cool church event on another day, I might come if I don't have anything else going on.
SPEAKER_00: But we today can sit so easily every Sunday morning in church, hear God's word, hear the call to serve, and have zero drive to serve the Lord or his church.
SPEAKER_00: We can constantly be in search of our own desires and scoff at anything that goes against what we want or our schedule.
SPEAKER_00: We are so comfortable as a society and a culture to ignore the things of God.
SPEAKER_00: We as Christians in this society so easily compartmentalize our relationship with God to when we're at church or when we read our Bible, if we read our Bible.
SPEAKER_00: So many people, that is what a relationship with God is.
SPEAKER_00: One to pick up and put down like a book.
SPEAKER_00: When we want him, he's there.
SPEAKER_00: When we have the time for him, he's there.
SPEAKER_00: When we need him, he's there.
SPEAKER_00: I can talk to him and I can get closer to him.
SPEAKER_00: I can I can learn a little bit about him.
SPEAKER_00: But as soon as I don't want him anymore, I put him down.
SPEAKER_00: As soon as that hard season of life is over, we put him down.
SPEAKER_00: Begin to search for ourselves again.
SPEAKER_00: So many of us do that.
SPEAKER_00: Either on purpose or not.
SPEAKER_00: But in reality, that is what is happening.
SPEAKER_00: That is the choice that you're making.
SPEAKER_00: Scripture so clearly calls us against that kind of relationship.
SPEAKER_00: This is the most important for us, most important thing for us to be doing.
SPEAKER_00: To love the Lord with all we are and everything that we have.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus takes it a step further.
SPEAKER_00: The scribe only asks for one for the greatest commandment, but Jesus wanted to give them two.
SPEAKER_00: He's a little overachiever.
SPEAKER_00: But he once again, he quotes from another passage of scripture that would have that these people would have known like the back of their hands.
SPEAKER_00: Leviticus 19, 18.
SPEAKER_00: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_00: This is linked directly to loving God with all you are.
SPEAKER_00: These are two different commandments, two different spots in Scripture, but if you actually, if you are actually and genuinely loving the Lord, you will be doing the second command naturally.
SPEAKER_00: Which perfectly combats everything that the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the scribes are about.
SPEAKER_00: They neither loved the Lord with everything that they were, nor did they love their neighbors as themselves.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was calling them out while also giving them the truth that they so desperately needed to hear.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus ends his answer, ends his response with this simple phrase.
SPEAKER_00: Which we find in Matthew, he adds a little bit more.
SPEAKER_00: On these two commandments depend all of the law and the prophets.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, these two commandments sum up every law perfectly and are the foundation of all the prophets' lives and teaching.
SPEAKER_00: Take the Ten Commandments.
SPEAKER_00: The first four.
SPEAKER_00: When we are properly loving God, we are perfectly keeping these commandments.
SPEAKER_00: Take the last six.
SPEAKER_00: Honor your father and your mother.
SPEAKER_00: You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not covet.
SPEAKER_00: All pertain to the relationship from person to person.
SPEAKER_00: We love others properly when we are genuinely and fully following these last six commandments.
SPEAKER_00: The command is really simple.
SPEAKER_00: Love the Lord with all of everything that you are.
SPEAKER_00: And love your neighbor.
SPEAKER_00: The difficulty comes in, not in the understanding or the hearing or the comprehension of the command, but of the execution of the command.
SPEAKER_00: We hear what we're supposed to do, we know what we're supposed to do, and yet we can't get ourselves out of the way.
SPEAKER_00: It's hard.
SPEAKER_00: Once Jesus is done talking, what happens next is not something that normally happens in these types of interactions.
SPEAKER_00: The scribes' reaction is one that is very rare from the religious elite.
SPEAKER_00: So in point number three is the encouragement.
SPEAKER_00: The encouragement.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus finishes answering the question in the most perfect and precise way possible, without blemish, without stumble, without stutter, beautifully responding with Scripture, even specifically the part of Scripture that the religious elite held the most dear.
SPEAKER_00: Have you been here with the for the other attempts to muddy the water when it came to people's opinion on Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: The religious elite did not ever really react in a positive way to what Jesus had said.
SPEAKER_00: They're mostly just upset and they were outsmarted once again.
SPEAKER_00: And they were trying to figure out something else to try and trap him.
SPEAKER_00: But this time was a little different.
SPEAKER_00: This time, the scribe responds, answers in a way that makes you forget a little bit that he was one of the people trying to trick Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He almost kind of takes a step back out of his role and he looks like someone who is genuinely trying to figure out whether or not Jesus is who he says he is.
SPEAKER_00: The scribe says, You're right.
SPEAKER_00: Which takes a lot of courage, just knowing the pressure that he must have felt from the other standing over his shoulder.
SPEAKER_00: He was thinking while uh the whole time Jesus was talking, going over a checklist that needed to be checked in order for them not to freak out about what Jesus said.
SPEAKER_00: And he was he was talking to Jesus, and Jesus ticked all of the boxes.
SPEAKER_00: He rightfully said that God is one, that there is no others beside him.
SPEAKER_00: He is the one in control.
SPEAKER_00: Check.
SPEAKER_00: He rightfully said that we are to love God with all our hearts, our minds, our souls, and our strength.
SPEAKER_00: Check.
SPEAKER_00: He rightfully said to love one's neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Check.
SPEAKER_00: He rightfully said that these commands were much more greater than all of the burnt offerings and sacrifices and traditions.
SPEAKER_00: Check.
SPEAKER_00: Which is very crazy for a scribe to be admitting publicly.
SPEAKER_00: That what Jesus just said was absolutely right.
SPEAKER_00: And admitting that the man-made traditions that they put in place were less important, less great than these two commandments.
SPEAKER_00: Because in theory, this whole process, this whole man-made portion of what they called religion is what he built his whole life upon.
SPEAKER_00: That's his livelihood.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he did.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he was known by.
SPEAKER_00: And he was pushing that to the side in order to see the truth that Jesus was talking about.
SPEAKER_00: He was searching, and that response from Jesus just brought him a step closer to a proper relationship with God.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, showing his immense amount of grace, responds to him saying, You are not far from the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: He saw in this man something that he did not in many, if not all of the other religious elite that was questioning him.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus took the time to encourage this man.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was confirming that he was going on the right train of thought, that he was getting ever so close to the actual truth.
SPEAKER_00: He was not quite there, but he was close.
SPEAKER_00: Which is normally a really scary place to be.
SPEAKER_00: Most of the time when we're talking about someone being close but not there yet, we're talking about those people that are in church who think that they're saved but are not actually saved.
SPEAKER_00: They're close to Christ, but yet so far away from him.
SPEAKER_00: But this is encouraging because this scribe is searching and he is getting closer and closer and closer.
SPEAKER_00: He's not taking steps away from Christ, or he is not stagnant where he is at, but he is actively moving towards Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And what an amazing place to be, to be actively moving towards Christ.
SPEAKER_00: In closing, I think there are many things that we can learn from this passage.
SPEAKER_00: I want us to look at three.
SPEAKER_00: The first is that there is nothing that we can do that will trick or surprise God.
SPEAKER_00: These religious men were so caught up in trying to trick Jesus that they lost sight of who Jesus was.
SPEAKER_00: They blinded themselves from the glory of God because of their own selfishness and bitterness.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was never going to be tricked, and he was not surprised by any of the questions that they had to ask him.
SPEAKER_00: Likewise, whether you think you are whatever you think you are hiding from God, he knows.
SPEAKER_00: He is not surprised, and he is not tricked by the silly games that you try to play with him.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, is we must love God with all we are.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is pretty obvious based on what we just walk through, but this is the greatest commandment that we have in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: To love the Lord your God with all our heart, our soul, our mind, and our strength.
SPEAKER_00: Fully dedicated to Him.
SPEAKER_00: Number three is that the Lord knows your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus knew how this scribe was going to respond long before this man was ever born.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus knew that this scribe was searching or at least willing to listen before he even opened his mouth to question Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And just like Jesus knew this scribe, he knows you.
SPEAKER_00: He knows exactly who you are, which is a very exciting thing.
SPEAKER_00: Unless you're hiding things from him.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord knows your heart.
SPEAKER_00: He knows whether or not you are actually dedicated to him.
SPEAKER_00: Whether or not you are loving him in the way that we are so clearly called to love him.
SPEAKER_00: I forgot to mention this to Darren, but as as the praise team comes back up, uh I want you to look again to yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Are you like the religious elite and stagnant in your relationship with God?
SPEAKER_00: Not desiring to grow or change from your ways, making the the relationship all about you rather than about him.
SPEAKER_00: Whether you're you're saved and you're a child of God and you're just comfortable, whether you're not saved and you don't care to learn more, you don't care to dig in.
SPEAKER_00: Or are you like the scribe who is searching for a deeper relationship with God?
SPEAKER_00: Again, whether you sit here this morning saved from your sins, adopted into the family of God, or you sit here this morning as someone who still needs Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Take a step closer to Jesus this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Whether that's finally saying, Yes, Lord, I believe you are who you say you are, or that's putting away just one more thing in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Take a step closer to loving the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength.
SPEAKER_00: It will be the best decision you could ever make.