Matthew 22:35-40
Remember last time when I said Jesus could school the religious leaders of his day? This is one of many instances. In this passage, after the Sadducees had failed to make a fool of Jesus by testing his knowledge of the scriptures, the Pharisees took a shot at it. As you can guess, they failed and just made fools of themselves instead. They say to themselves Yeah, let's ask this guy, this crazy fanatic who thinks he's the son of our God, let's ask him what the greatest commandment is. Look at us; we're so clever with our trick questions. All they cared about was following the rules. But following the rules for no other reason than to look good or because you're supposed to, sooner or later, you're just going through the motions. Faith is deeper than that... faith is a complete change of heart. You follow Jesus because you WANT to... not because your parents say you should.
So consider what Jesus said #1 Love God with all of your heart... all of your soul... all of your mind. Love God with EVERYTHING in you, every part of you. Love God with all that you are. If you loved a person this deeply, would anything in the world be able to pull you away from them? You would think about them and text them constantly... you would go over to their house, go out to the movies. You would spend every possible second you could with them. You would be obsessed and you would never have enough. There's not a person alive who has done as much or loves us as much as God... yet, we'd rather spend time with our girlfriend or boyfriend? We'd rather play video games or watch a movie or play on facebook... We'd rather do anything other than pray or study the Bible. And we wonder why our faith isn't stronger or why we don't feel closer to God. Really?
True Christianity isn't about following the rules. Jesus despised the very men that were thought to be the most righteous of his day, because they were too caught up in their man-made religion, too blinded by their own legalism to recognize that the very God they worshiped, prayed to and offered sacrifices to had come down into humanity was standing right in front of them. And then, they killed Him. So let's get beyond what we're 'supposed' to do... don't just go through the motions, don't fake it. Every time you do it's like you're helping them nail Jesus to the cross all over again. And He died once for all so get that weak sauce outta here!
So consider what Jesus said #1 Love God with all of your heart... all of your soul... all of your mind. Love God with EVERYTHING in you, every part of you. Love God with all that you are. If you loved a person this deeply, would anything in the world be able to pull you away from them? You would think about them and text them constantly... you would go over to their house, go out to the movies. You would spend every possible second you could with them. You would be obsessed and you would never have enough. There's not a person alive who has done as much or loves us as much as God... yet, we'd rather spend time with our girlfriend or boyfriend? We'd rather play video games or watch a movie or play on facebook... We'd rather do anything other than pray or study the Bible. And we wonder why our faith isn't stronger or why we don't feel closer to God. Really?
True Christianity isn't about following the rules. Jesus despised the very men that were thought to be the most righteous of his day, because they were too caught up in their man-made religion, too blinded by their own legalism to recognize that the very God they worshiped, prayed to and offered sacrifices to had come down into humanity was standing right in front of them. And then, they killed Him. So let's get beyond what we're 'supposed' to do... don't just go through the motions, don't fake it. Every time you do it's like you're helping them nail Jesus to the cross all over again. And He died once for all so get that weak sauce outta here!
God just wants to love us and bless us in ways we can't even imagine but He can only use the parts of ourselves that we give to Him. So c'mon, what are you waiting for?
Surrender everything.
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