LOVE THE FOUNDATION OF THE FAMILY
Matthew 22:35-40,
Romans 12:1-2, 13:8-10
STUDY THE WORD, YOU WILL BE TESTED
Matthew 22:35-40
V:35-36. " One of them, an expert in the law, tested
him with this question:
36 "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the
Law?"
A. Not everybody who entertains you is your friend.
1. Some people
question you, just to see what you know.
2. Some questions
are designed to prove that you are ignorant.
3. Some questions are designed as a trap to
condemn you.
B. You have to beware of your audience and watch out for the
dogs
that come around
you. Philippians 3:2
1. Don't be to
quick to associate with people until you know their motives.
2. Everybody your
color is not your kind. And everybody your kind may not be
your color.
3. Jesus was
opposed by His own people.
a. He grew up
with the ruling Jews, which were his color.
b. They knew
His family.
4. They were
jealous of His knowledge and application of the Word.
5. They were
envious of the power He displayed following the Word.
6. Jesus made known
to the Jewish leaders that their traditions which
they placed
before the Word had no power or authority.
7. The Jewish
leaders hated Jesus because He taught the Word in
truth which
opposed their traditions and their authority.
THE GREATEST COMMANDMENTS
V:37-39. " Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God
with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'
38 This is the first and greatest commandment.
39 And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as
yourself.'".
A. Jesus used every occasion to teach the Word of God
correctly.
1. Jesus taught
the Word in spirit and in truth.
2. Jesus being
mindful of those who hated Him and those who loved Him,
taught the
Word so everyone could get an understanding and be convicted
by it.
3. Church begins
when believers talk about the Word of God.
4. Some who hear
the Word will be drawn to Jesus and others will
reject Him.
B. You have to know the Word for yourself to defend the
Gospel
against those
whose intent is to destroy any faith in the Word.
1. Bystanders, not
involved in your conversation will be effected by your
testimony.
2. Everyone need to
hear a word from God through you.
C. Love is the operative word.
1. God is love.
2. He first loved
us while we were sinners headed to hell.
3. God demands that
we love Him.
4. Loving God is
the most important commandment because we were
created out of God's love.
5. God loves us and
it is our duty to love Him.
6. If we truly love God we will follow His commandments. John 14:21
D. The second great commandment is
the one that trouble us.
1. It is easy to love God because He is constantly good to us.
2. We see the evidences of God's love, daily in our lives.
3. To love our neighbors is difficult because we rarely get a chance to
know our neighbors.
4. God commands us to love those we know and those we may never know.
a. There is a way to love our neighbors.
b. Strip away in your mind everything
you know and don't know about
your neighbors, so that all you see
is a child of God.
c. That is exactly what Jesus did to
love us enough to die for us.
E. When we see a child of God, we ought to see
a mirror of ourselves.
1. All the good we see in our neighbors,
we ought to see in ourselves.
2. All the bad we know about our neighbors,
we are capable of being
ourselves.
3. In other words, before God, we are no
better or worst than our neighbors.
4. In truth, our neighbors have no race or
color, they are just creations of God.
LOVE COVERS A MULTITUDE OF SINS 1 Peter 4:8
V:40. " All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two
commandments."
A. I am told that
there are 613 commands in the Bible. We can't know
all of them,
therefore we can't keep all of them.
1. The Word says
if we are guilty of one, we are guilty of all of the
commandments. James 2:10
2. We can't help
ourselves because we born in sin and shaped in iniquity.
3. The Lord Jesus
is our help and our strength.
B. These two great commands that Jesus gave covers all our
sins.
1. Jesus death on
the cross paid our sin debt, past, present and future.
2. Jesus freed us
from the penalty of the Law.
3. It is by God's
grace and His mercy that we exist in His presence.
A LIVING SACRIFICE
Romans 12:1-2
V.12:1-2. " Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of
God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to
God — this is your spiritual act of worship.
2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test
and approve what God's will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will."
A. When we consider what God has done to save us from our sins, there ought to be
some conviction
to commit ourselves to His will.
1. The Apostle
Paul urges us to sacrifice our fleshly desires for God's
spiritual
blessings.
2. It is true that
we are saved, sanctified, justified and sealed to an eternal
destination of
eternal life with Jesus.
3. There is more
to the Christian life than just being saved.
4. We should be on
a continual spiritual growth path.
5. We can only
grow spiritually if we lay aside self
and summit ourselves to the
commands of
God.
6. We have been
equipped to serve God, but if self gets in the way, we will stay
inactive and
spiritually void.
B. We must transform our thinking to consider the will of
God before we
consider
ourselves.
1. We have to make
room for God in our schedules.
2. We have make
ourselves available to God.
3. We must seek
ways to served God.
4. We must study
His Word to know what God wants us to do.
5. We must make a
commitment to serve.
C. Transforming ourselves is easy to talk about, but
difficult to put in
practice.
1. It can be done
but it takes effort on our part.
2. Pray without
ceasing. 1 Thes 5:17
a. Prayer is
our line of communication with God.
b. Before you
start your day, have a talk with God.
c. Let God
lead your daily activities.
d. Make it a
habit of lifting up Jesus in all you do.
3. The ways of the
world changes daily.
4. The Word of God
never changes.
5. Make all your
decisions according to the Word of God.
6. " Let your
conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may
know how to
answer everyone. " Col
4:6
a. Grace is
favor in love. Encourage everyone with your words.
b. At the same
time be truthful.
A DEBT OF LOVE
Romans 13:8-10
V:8. " Let no debt remain outstanding, except the
continuing debt to love one another, for
he who loves
his fellowman has fulfilled the law. "
A. The word debt here
refers to being controlled by the ways of the world.
1. The only
controlling factor in our lives should be the Word of God.
2. We are not
obligated to do what the world does.
3. We are to be
convicted by the Holy Spirit to follow the commands of God.
B. The only debt we
owe to others is to love them as God commands.
1. When we love
someone, we have their best interest in mind.
2. Even those who
mistreat us are to be loved.
Matthew 5:44 states, " But I tell you: Love your
enemies and pray for those who
persecute
you."
a. Not an
easy or desired thing to do, but it can be done.
b. Though
the power of the Holy Spirit, we know that the blessing of
God
follow our obedience to His commands.
THE GIFT OF LOVE
V:9-10. " The commandments, "Do not commit
adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do
not covet," and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in
this one rule: "Love your neighbor as yourself."
10 Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the
fulfillment of the law."
A. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Rom 3:23
1. It by God's
grace and mercy that our sin debt was paid in full by the death Jesus
Christ on the
cross.
2. That was a
single act of the love of God that set us on a heavenly path.
3. Our eternal
destiny is sealed by the blood of Jesus.
4. God does not owe
us eternal life, but His love for us guarantees it.
B. How can we deny others the same love that God granted to
us freely?
1. Jesus is our
perfect role model for the righteousness of God.
2. If we love as
God has commanded, our neighbor has to be our object.
3. We can only
experience the joy and peace of love by loving our neighbors.
4. Love is an
action word.
5. We show our love
by how we treat others.
6. Love should be
our life style.
7. It is loved that
redeemed us.
a. We can show that redeeming love to
others.
b. We must
consider that we were blessed so we can be a blessing to others.
8. We are commanded
to be in the business of loving others.
a. Seek the
best for others and not harm in any way.
b. When we
seek the best for others, we show God's love.
Rev. M. Mitchell
Asst Pastor Of Greater Macedonia
Baptist Church
For a complete list of my lessons visit my blogs
"www.revmmitchell.com" and
"goodnewsrevmitc.blogspot.com"
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