Part 10 - The Gospel according to Mark

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Thanks so much Kell my name is Dave one of the pastors here it's uh my joy to uh open up God's word uh for you this morning if you've got your Bible there uh you'll need that move that one away maybe thank you um Mark Mark chapter 12 is where we'll be today you going to persist with this one or swap swap over no keep going okay cool I'm going to give you a chance to talk uh for a little while while the guys figure that out um got a question for you all and uh this includes the kids that are in the room as well too being school holidays there's no kids church today so I'm aware that we've got some uh uh school children in the room with us that would normally be in a lesson out outside uh so kids you get to play along with this one as well so I'm going to give you a question and then you can turn to the person next to you somebody sitting close to you and you can tell them your answer to the question okay that's how it's going to work um I don't have any prizes just for fun just to see what what your neighbor might uh might be thinking about the uh the question so this is the question what would you grab if your house was on fire so if your house was on fire and you had to get out of the house uh we're going to assume that uh of course you're going to try and save the people that are in your house everybody gets out okay but you've got time just to grab one thing time just to save one thing in that moment of panic what is it that you're reaching for to save from your burning house okay that's the question go tell somebody next to you kids talk to Mom and Dad talk to your brother sister tell somebody what are you going to take you what would you take what would you say Broncos jersey okay we got some answers I hear some conversation that's pretty good uh good to hear that um I'm glad you saved something um it's interesting this is not just uh the first time this question gets asked it gets asked quite a lot uh there was a uh a company that did a survey back in 2023 and they ask the same question what would you save if you're about to lose your home and uh they got a bunch of different answers top one uh 66% of people that answered this survey in 2023 said it would either going to be their phone or their computer so it was a tech related one they' save their phone or computer do we any phones or computers had a few yep okay cool um 38% said the phone 28% computer so maybe that's easy to carry um significant more people mentioned digital devices then the next closest item on the list which was some type of sentimental object so it was something that was in sentimental or important to you in some other way but non-digital only 6% of people said printed photos and uh even fewer mentioned other electronics watches that sort of thing um and jewelry like 2% of people said jewelry um coming in at Last Place on this survey was art anybody save any art on the way out no okay cool maybe one okay cool um so you're in that 1% um there we go surprising nobody mentioned pets in this survey which I found very strange um maybe they're smart enough to get out but some pets couldn't so that could be interesting um the thing that is I think even more interesting than that is often times we get asked a question like that and the answer that we think of that one thing that we want to grab or save in that moment usually it represents something that is important to us it's why of all the things that we could possibly grab in that moment we are forced to pick one we grab that one because it's usually the most important thing and this kind of leads us to our context for our reading in Mark chap 12 today because one of the scribes one of the teachers of the law comes up to Jesus with this question about what's the most important thing out of all of God's commands this uh this teacher of the law wants to know what does Jesus think uh is the most important if you've been tracking along with us in our journey through Mark's gospel over the last couple of weeks you'll know that Jesus and his disciples by Mark chapter 12 they're they're now firmly in the temple District Jesus has been teaching in the temple uh for the last couple of chapters and what we saw when he entered the temple area in chapter 11 Jesus didn't make any friends uh if you've been reading through uh Mark in your own uh home reading um chapter 11 he arrives on the scene and uh first thing he does when he gets into the temple is he clears out the money changers from the Temple and so that that certainly didn't make him popular with the chief priests or the religious leaders of uh of the day they uh question Jesus about about his authority they are kind of putting it to him what by whose authority are you doing this Jesus doesn't answer the question instead as we saw last week he tells this parable of the tenants this just upsets the uh religious leaders because they knew that Jesus was teaching about them and uh so they got they got all B out of shape they got upset uh later we saw last week some fares some herodians they try and set a trap for Jesus they're trying to trip up this new teacher that's have appeared on the scene and uh seems to be showing them all up and and Jesus gets asked this tricky question about taxes and then uh the Sadducees try and trap him with a tricky question about the resurrection and that was weird because they don't even believe in the resurrection but they're trying to trap Jesus as well and in both of these cases we see uh last week that Jesus skillfully answers their questions he he graciously turns these attacks that are coming towards him and he used them instead as teaching opportunities in a really gracious and uh and and loving way uh we get to our passage this morning where we're going to pick up in in Mark 12: 28 and we'll work our way through to the uh the end of the chapter probably spend a little bit of time at the beginning section and as we go through we'll get faster and faster towards the end um the slides are up there they're going to be available on our website um however you can normally access them through the the sermon link on the website page uh so you'll be able to get that if you if it gets too fast at the end you can't take the notes uh they'll be there on the web for you but um we pick up our reading today where uh this scribe comes up to Jesus in uh in Mark 12:28 and he's another religious leader uh kind of think of the scribes as like a cross between a a lawyer a school teacher a bit of a judge and uh and maybe a little bit of a pastor kind of thrown in they kind of this mix of all of these types of rool the scribes job was to study the scriptures they were to learn them they were to reflect on them they were to think theologically about the scriptures because they were the teachers of God's law they were the kids church leaders they were the Bible study leaders they served as judges in disputes about the law and uh they were called to write things down that's why they get the name scribes uh they were copying out documents they were um copy out the scriptures legal contracts that sort of thing and this scribe had been listening in this Temple Precinct as Jesus the teacher is uh is teaching earlier in uh the temple and he'd heard Jesus skillfully answer these tricky trap questions that the Pharisees and the Sadducees had posed to him and this scribe thinks to himself well I think I've got a chance I think I can ask Jesus my question here I don't think the the scribes trying to trap him I think he's genuinely wanting to know what Jesus thinks because he he sees him as a good teacher and uh he wants to ask him his question so if you got your Bible there have a look at uh Mark 12:28 and uh we'll read uh some of that together uh we read uh Mark's account here 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 this was a big question in Jesus day in first century Israel the religious leaders had calculated that there were something like 6113 commands that God had given to his people some of the rabbis some of the other teachers might have had a higher number but the the most commonly uh agreed upon one was 613 and so it's no surprise then that commonly uh debated amongst these rabbis and these teachers of the law was which one of these 613 was the most important it's a fairly penetrating question that cuts to the very heart of the purposes of God's commands for his people The Scribe seems obviously impressed with Jesus teaching so far and so he asked him which is the first out of all the commands which is the best one and Jesus answers him in a really surprising way he actually gives two commands in reply but they're they're linked together now look at uh verses 2 9-31 this uh most important commandment Jesus replies the most important one answered Jesus is this here 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 teacher of the Lord this scribe asked for one but Jesus gives him two for the price of one the first commandment that Jesus lists here wouldn't have been a surprise at all to the Scribe it's not a surprise to us we've heard it uh many many times before uh for the Jews this comes directly from the Old Testament from Deuteronomy 6 uh: 4 and 5 it's known as the Shamar it's a it's a familiar passage to them it takes its name the Shamar from that first word in the Hebrew that hear or listen here oh Israel the Lord Our God the Lord is one many of the Jews would recite this uh Shamar this this command of God to his people twice a day they would remind themselves at regular intervals that he was at the very core of of this idea is that God is meant to be at the center of their lives God is meant to be the one true personal God of Israel he should be at the very heart of of their life and their Community the idea the heart of this command from God to his people is that God is not something that we tack on it's not something that we add in he should be right in the very midst of it all he should shape our agendas should shape our relationships our priorities our conduct our character our actions it should all be shaped by our love for him we're to love him with everything we have we're to love God completely notice that Jesus adds to this command from Deuteronomy 6 this second command from Leviticus 18 also from the Old Testament law and that is that we're to love our neighbor as ourselves and this is the surprising bit for the Scribe because he wouldn't have expected these two to be mashed together what we learn from this is that loving God completely with everything that we have it doesn't mean that we detach ourselves from the world that to love God completely we've got to kind of hide away somewhere in in some uh Tower or Monastery and and just live a completely contemplative life only dedicated to God um this command that Jesus adds on here shows us that loving God means being in the world but letting God's love for us and our love for him flow out from our lives into our love for others into love for our world and love for our neighbors and this makes sense that you stitch them together because God is the author of Love he's the one who shows in in his actions in history his actions with the the the nation of Israel his actions right throughout salvation history God shows us that he's the one who loves this world that he has made the Bible tells us that God didn't make the world and then step back and and sit at a distance and just leave it to it no no God is is lovingly continuing to care for his creation he's continuing to care for us for those that he's made he's this whole Redemptive Arc of of the story of the Bible is one of a loving God who desires a right relationship with his creation and he goes to Great Lengths so that we could come into that relationship with him I don't know about you but sometimes I hear this conversation with Jesus and the Scribe and it this most important commandment and it seems so familiar we we've heard it many many times before it's so familiar it it's almost like a proverb you know we can say the words without considering the full impact of what Jesus is teaching here I was trying to think about how I could address that uh consider the command again with with a deeper Clarity during the week as I Was preparing for this message and uh the Lord reminded me of one of the great joys of being a pastor one of the the the really fun things that I get to do as a pastor is to officiate at at weddings with uh with couples it's a real privilege uh to be able to Journey with couples as they approach their wedding day it's a a privilege to sit with them as they prepare their wedding vows as they pause to consider the impact of the commitment that they're going to make on that wedding day before God and before their family and and Friends it's interesting as uh you listen to any wedding if you've ever been to one most of us have uh they say the vows there's always this clear statement of intent there's this kind of statement of action that gets that that gets stated you know it's always I will take this woman to be my wife or I will take this man to be my husband it shows that love is not just a feeling or an emotion but it's a it's a decision it's a choice that we make love is in the action that we take we see the love so clearly you think about that married couple for a moment and consider what it might take for them to love one another with all their heart all their soul all their mind and all their strength what would it look like for that couple for that husband or for that wife to love like that at the very least you would think they've got to spend some time together I mean you it's very hard to love somebody that you've never spent time with you got to spend time with them to be able to love completely uh it would mean listening to and talking with each other taking time to understand the other it would mean expending energy and action you know especially after those long days at work it would mean coming home ready to spend time together uh taking time to listen to each other uh when maybe you just want to curl up and go to sleep it it might mean U making time to serve the other as an act of love when you know that they've had a really long or hard day it's going to mean Financial cost maybe even at times it means being prepared to set aside that one thing that you really wanted to buy or that one thing that you wanted to do so that together you can focus on on something that you need to be saving up for as a couple it's going to mean sacrifice giving up one's own claim to your own time to your own desires to your own energy and resources and yet being willing to do that because of the deep love that they have for the other that's kind of what it would look like I'd imagine this example only helps us so far when we come to try and understand what our love relationship looks like with God because we know that these categories don't apply to God we we can't apply them to him he has no needs that we must satisfy he's not looking down on us waiting for us to give him the thing that he most needs to be satisfied no we're the ones that look to him he needs nothing from us and yet there's nothing that we could offer him he's desperately in need of we need everything from him and he's given so much for us in love so I think it must mean if we're love him our god with everything that we have to love him completely then it means that we must be prepared to give our time our energy our talents our Treasures it means we need to be willing to take the time to listen to him through his word to devote ourselves to him in prayer to commit to meeting regularly with one another to worship and encourage one another as he's instructed us to do Jesus said if you love me you'll keep my commands and so we consider the commands of Jesus our teacher this morning Jesus says it also means that love we love our neighbor as we love ourselves and we can't disconnect the second command from the first they go hand inand the more we get to know God through his word the more we learn to to love how he loves and see just how gracious that is towards us this fuels our love for him and it flows over into our love for others it's important to note that Jesus says our neighbor is just about anyone that that God would place in our path who has a need if you think about the parable that Jesus told of the Good Samaritan to illustrate that point one time he was pointing out that our neighbor can be anyone and everyone basically those who might need our assistance Jesus says love them as you love yourself now in teaching us this greatest commandment Jesus is highlighting something that we probably all know to be true but don't always like to admit I think it's pretty natural for us to love ourselves even those of us who might struggle a bit with self-esteem maybe we don't think Dave I just don't love myself that much we we still provide for ourselves right you think about that we provide for ourselves daily our thoughts are often taken up with their own worries their own anxieties our own Joys our our own projects the things that we're uh working on or the things that we've got planned we take care of ourselves most of us and it comes pretty naturally what Jesus is saying here to this scribe is that at the heart of God's intention for his people it's actually deeper than that what what he's saying is he wants to expand this out so that we're not just loving ourselves but that our love grows to include our neighbor as well to the same extent that we might take care of our own needs and that's where it gets tough when you think about it that's hard it's costly at times it's exhausting loving God with everything we have and loving our neighbor as ourself that's difficult not not only that it's kind of countercultural in a way you think about our modern Western culture everything tells us that we need to look out for ourselves we need to look out for number one it puts us at the center it doesn't put God at the center and it certainly doesn't leave a lot of room for others because our lives our our circles are just so jam-packed that hasn't changed in Forever this is not a a new problem it's always been that way I remember some years back now um uh as a teen early 90s there there used to be these ads on TV for a financial services company um National Mutual those of you that a little bit older you probably remember the ad campaign uh they had these little short Snippets of ads that would talk about somebody's retirement or somebody uh getting ready for retirement or some uh Financial thing they needed for their business and then this voiceover would come at the end of the ad and it would say for the most important person in the world and then the voice would stop and the word you would come on the screen over the person they were talking about the most important person in the world you that hasn't changed we we see that come to its ugly head during CO as people freaked out and hoarded toilet paper because they were worried that there wouldn't be enough to go around I just need to make sure I've got enough you didn't see any news reports of people handing out toilet paper or helping others out you just saw the stockpiles of people people that were freaking out there's a challenge in Jesus teaching this morning I think to live our lives in such a way as to reject this culture of our day which seeks to put us at the center and put others on the outside on the margins maybe if we get time for it Jesus says there's no G commandment than this to love God completely and to love others as ourselves wonder what your response would be if you were that scribe who'd asked the question if I'm honest if it was me asking that question I'd probably have to admit straight up that I just couldn't do it I'd be like please help Jesus or have mercy teacher because I can't do this that's not the scribe's response look at uh verses 32-33 The Scribe uh seems pretty impressed with Jesus teaching he says well said teacher the man replied you're right in saying that God is one and there's no other but him to love him with all your heart with all your understanding with all your strength and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices The Scribe says you're right Jesus it's more important than sacrifices and offerings now the scribes not saying offerings and sacrifices weren't important at this particular time in in Salvation history in Israel's history they were very important this was the way they worshiped God this was the way they had their sins forgiven but what the Scribe is saying is the the the way of love for God and love for others this is over and above even more important than how we might worship God and what we might sacrifice to him because our love for God and and our love for others is in fact a way that we worship and sacrifice and serve God it's all tied in together 1 Corinthians 13: 1 to 3 the Apostle Paul picks up this same idea again more familiar words Paul says if I speak in the tongues of men or of angels but don't have love I'm only a resounding gong or a clanging symbol if I have the gift of Prophecy and can f fathom all Mysteries and all knowledge if I have a faith that can move mountains but don't have love I'm nothing if I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast but don't don't have love I gain nothing some years ago now my grandmother moved into a nursing home and I recall this time towards the end of her life where family members would go up and visit her and as I sat back and watched this big family and and as I got chances to go and see Nan the the one that I saw the most visiting my nan was the busiest one in our family was my mom she had foster kids she's got 13 kids all up now of her own um and and she's involved in community she's involved in her church uh she's one of her foster kids that she has has got some disabilities there's medical appointments all that sort of stuff yet mom was up visiting n every single week many times a week talking with her hanging out with her sometimes hearing the same story over and over again as the uh dementia took hold why did Mom do that on top of all that she had going on with her family some might say well maybe she feels like there's a sense of obligation there as uh as one of the eldest kids in her family to do that but I I don't think that was the case I think she loved her mom and she wanted Nan to finish well you think about it guilt and a sense of obligation can lead us to sacrifice that that could be a possibility for folk but the Apostle Paul pointed out that if that's the motivation for it it's not worth it Without Love if you're only serving out a sense of obligation or guilt then it costs us nothing The Scribe was right love is greater than sacrifice notice Jesus surprising reply in verse 34 he says to the Scribe you're not far from the kingdom of God takes us by surprise a little bit if we move following along for a while the other religious leaders get criticism from Jesus here we see a little bit of a little bit of commendation though there's still a bit of a a challenge there Jesus says you're close but you're not in the Kingdom there's still something missing what was the Scribe missing what's he missing what's needed for him to enter the kingdom well in order to enter the kingdom he he needs to acknowledge the king he needs Jesus the sad irony is this very Messiah he needs is standing right in front of him and he missed it as we' been going through Mark's gospel we've seen that a lot of people missed seeing who Jesus was because they had this preconceived idea of what he was going to be this scrib s just as a good teacher you didn't see him as king he missed it that could be what's going on with the Scribe friends there's a warning there for us don't miss out on the kingdom because you failed to acknowledge the King Jesus graciously and lovingly invites us to follow him to know that this is why he came to know what he's accomplished on our behalf so we might join him in his eternal Kingdom he doesn't want anyone to miss out and this is uh the next uh bunch of verses from verse 35-37 the truth of Jesus identity he helps uh this scribe to see who he is he tries to help him out he uh look at the verses verse 35 to 37 while Jesus was teaching in the temple courts he asked why do the teachers of the law say that the Messiah is the son of David David speaking by the Holy Spirit declared the Lord said to my Lord sit at my right hand until I put my enemies under your feet it's a bit of an odd passage a little bit of a riddle um a little bit of a of a confusion there Jesus quotes Psalm 110 and uh if you have a look in your Bible uh during the week you'll see that this is a Psalm of David it's there in the text it's a it's a little sub subheading um often in the Bible the subheadings that are in your translation they've just been put there by translators for the most part but in the Psalms they're there in the original manuscripts it tells us who wrote The Psalm whether it's a song or a prayer or or what it is and Psalm 110 says it's a Psalm of King David and uh interestingly in that first verse that we read uh there um the Lord said to my Lord that's actually verse one of Psalm 110 you might notice in your Bible that the first Lord that's there uh in Psalm 110 is either all in capitals or it's got a capital l on it anytime you see a a all caps Lord or a capital l Lord in the Old Testament it's talking about God Yahweh uh Jehovah his his Covenant name for his people and uh that's that's what that means there the second Lord in that verse has got a lower case it's all in lower case that just means king just means Lord and so we could paraphrase Psalm 110 that Jesus has uh quoted there that that first thing and uh we could we could say this is a Psalm written by King David the Lord Yahweh God of Israel says to my King David's Lord sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a foot stol for your feet makes a little bit more sense now what what we see here is this is a Psalm about God Yahweh speaking to King David's Lord but who's King David's Lord that's what Jesus is trying to get the Scribe to think about David calls this guy Lord whoever he is and and the question Jesus poses is how can that be right how can King David call this other Lord Lord in ancient times only the only person a king would call Lord would be another more powerful King maybe an emperor or or maybe an ancestor a parent a grandparent it never went down so King David would never say to a a king that came from his line a a descendant he would never call them Lord they might call him Lord but not the other way around it doesn't make sense and this is the point Jesus is making about his identity he says this only works if the Messiah this Lord that David is is writing this Psalm about is not just a descendant of David but he's also the Son of God it only works if he's both human and divine and we've seen that as we go through our our exposition of Mark that this is exactly what Jesus was this is why it works quoting Psalm 110 Jesus shines this light on his identity as the Messiah as God's promised King and he's also holding up this big neon sign and arrow pointing it himself saying it's me I'm the guy I am the king this is the Lord Jesus gives a warning to his enemies in the next few verses in verses 38 to 40 we read that as he taught Jesus said watch out for the teachers of the law who are they they're the scribes watch out for the scribes they like to walk around in flowing robes they like to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces they like to have the important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at the Banquets yet they devour widows houses and for a show make lengthy prayers these men will be punished most severely Jesus calls out these teachers of the law I don't think he's singling out this particular scribe he he never really went after a single person he would often go against a group of people because I Think Jesus still came to seek and save the Lost there's still a chance for this scribe to repent and to turn to Jesus but Jesus gives the warning for those who are his enemy he's not just the Messiah he has the authority as the king we don't have any specific accusations from history against these scribes we're not given any info about what Jesus might be getting at here maybe we get some idea out of this word devour in verse 40 it might give us a bit of a clue uh some of the things we said we knew about scribes were the legal Representatives if somebody died you you might give the Scribe the job of uh handling the distribution of the estate they kind of served like a executor of a will and and distributed out the estate and uh we don't have any specific info about what was going on with these scribes here we've just got that one little phrase from Jesus they devour widow's homes but we do have some complaints in uh in ancient literature of uh some administrators is Taking Liberties at the expense of an estate maybe you've gone to they've gone the scribes gone to a particular town to administer an estate and while they're there they take really long lunches and they bill it to the estate they book themselves into the fanciest hotel and they Bild it to the estate and uh this could be what uh Jesus is talking about here we don't we don't know but there's a sense that maybe some of these scribes are getting rich and living large off the proceeds of these widows Estates and Jesus warns these guys are going to get a harsher judgment why well he'd already said in in Matthew 65 When you pray don't be like the Hypocrites they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others there's a heart problem here with these guys they love to make a show of how much they were loving God but they weren't really loving him they were loving the attention from the people instead of loving others as they loved themselves they were taking advantage of these widows in the distribution of their Estates they were failing to love God they were failing to love others and the warning Jesus gives them is they're going to have to stand before God and give an account of that we need to hear that warning too it's a warning for us because sadly the person who loves God and the person who loves human praise they can look the same Jesus says be on the lookout out for the scribes the person who loves their neighbor and the person who loves the reputation of loving their neighbor can also look the same so we need to watch out finally Jesus teaches us about this widow's challenging example in verses 41- 44 have a look at uh what we see there mark gives us Jesus sat down at the oppos opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowds putting their money into the temple treasury many rich people threw in large amounts but a poor Widow came and put in two very small copper coins worth only a few cents calling his disciples to him Jesus said truly I tell you this poor Widow has put in more into the treasury than all the others they all gave out of their wealth but she out of her poverty put in everything all she she had to live on it's a challenging passage at the end of this teaching a powerful example of the depth of love for God that is prepared to give him all and I really struggle with this one on the one hand it's a great model of Faith but on the other hand you see it's a bit of a tragedy at the same time because I really feel for this Widow I'd imagine if she was in our church and I saw it about to put in those two coins in the bag I'd probably rush over and try and stop it don't do it sister you need the money more than we do you know look you you you need your coins please it's a terribly sad scene we don't have all the details we don't know why she's poor maybe she was one of these widows who had her estate devoured by these scribes we don't know why she's left with only two small coins but whatever the reason is the tragedy is she should have been looked after Israel's laws contained all of these provisions for for people like her for the widows for the orphans for the poor for the foreigners those who are vulnerable in society there shouldn't have been a case where a lady like this would have ever made it to the temple with only two small coins she should have been taken care of that's the tragedy but here she was with their last two coins cuz her community had failed to love their neighbor as God had commanded Jesus commends this woman in uh in the verse that we just read this is where I sometimes wrestle with the text this is why it's challenging as an example because as I put myself in the picture my heart for this lady I'd want to hold her back I'd want her to keep it but Jesus commands her why because her actions show that she loves God completely she's doing what he's commanded with all her heart with all her soul with all her mind and with all strength she's kind of the hero in the story she shows us what Jesus is calling us to do she's a model of Faith as she gives not out of her excess not just a little bit that's left over off the top but she gave out of her poverty she was generous to God even though she was poor we look at that from our worldly lens and we think that doesn't seem like a sensible um uh position that doesn't seem like a wise move you know if you were meeting with her and and she was telling over a cup of coffee she's only got a few dollars left and she's not sure what to do she feels like she should give them to God and trust him or maybe you know you'd be saying keep it um you know it doesn't seem prudent it's radical and it's born out of love for God the challenge for us is I think we try and limit our love for God and for our neighbors by our boundaries by our capacity sometimes at times that's what I do I I know that that's sometimes where I fall up short Lord I'd love to give I'd love to help out uh whether it's to him or to others we want to give but we can't because we we think we might need it for something else we think we might need to to keep some back because that's what our culture tells us to do we can't give our time because we've had a busy week and we just need to hoard some of that extra time for ourselves to to make up for it I think we need to be wise I think I think we can be careful here um to go too far down this line we don't all have the same gifts we don't all have the same time we don't have all have the same resources or capacity we're all in different stages of life this widow's challenging example is not about being Reckless but it's about being faithful maybe the challenge for us this morning is to shift our thinking not from thinking first about our limits or our boundaries but maybe thinking first about love and then trust the holy spirit to guide you as you choose what that might look like for you there may be times where we push beyond our boundaries or out of our comfort zone in order to do what Jesus has commanded us to do to love with all our heart mind soul and strength and to love others as we love ourselves it's powerful when you see that love in action you've been the recipient of it I have many many times I time to go through all the times that's happened um you want to ask about one of those talk to me over a cup of tea um I'd love to tell you about that it's powerful when that happens and this is why Jesus commanded his disciples in John 13:34-35 to love one another as I have loved you because by that love the world will know that you're my disciples this type of Love In Action this type of Faith filled sacrifice it always points to Jesus friends I wish I could say that I always walk the path of that Widow that type of wholehearted complete giving of myself to God and others sometimes I'm far off maybe my guess is that you might find yourself falling short at times too because the reality is what Jesus asked us to do is not hard it's it's near impossible if we could ever do that on our own if we could you know if we all live this way we wouldn't have to lock our doors we wouldn't have to lock our cars if you ride and your push backe down to the shops kids you wouldn't have to lock your bike up when you go for a ride I'd imagine if we all live this way wholeheartedly completely giving ourselves to God and to others worrying about our neighbor needs in the same way we worry about our own if we live that way heaven right and it will be one day but not today the reality is we're not like that we don't love like this at least not all the time we try to we aspire to but we don't always get it right this greatest command shows us that our greatest failing our greatest need is this problem of our sin we don't always love God completely with everything that we have and we struggle to love our neighbors as ourselves we've been singing about the gospel this morning in our songs we know the the reason Jesus came was to perfectly fulfill this command for us we see in the way he lived that he perfectly loved God the father he he lived lived a life full of wonderful love for his neighbor not just his neighbor For All Mankind as he willingly offered up his life so that we might be forgiven in his death and Resurrection Jesus Paid the price for our sin and he guarantees Us full forgiveness and eternal life through that finished work on the cross 1 John 4 uh: 10-2 says this is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins dear friends since God so loved us we also ought to love one another no one has ever seen God but if we love one another God lives in us and his love is made complete in us we see what God is like through the life and Ministry of Jesus the teacher who do you say that he is he's definitely more than just a good teacher from our text this morning he's the one who so powerfully demonstrates God's love for us and shows us how to find our identity and our purpose in the perfect love of God through him don't be like the Scribe who got so close to the kingdom but never entered in because he didn't acknowledge the king who was standing right right in front of him Jesus desire for us as his disciples is to grow in love for him and for our neighbors and for our friends and and we can't do that ourselves we can only do it through the power of the Holy Spirit as we receive Jesus love for us at the cross let's pray Lord Jesus we thank you for showing us this kind of love for showing us your sacrificial love for God for neighbor for the World by your spirit Lord soften our hearts to obedience to your teaching strengthen our will to do what you command convict our minds of your truth and the goodness of that command enable us by your Holy Spirit to love you with all our heart mind soul and strength and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. Amen.