Love Your Neighbor

I wrapped up my quick sermon series on the Great Commandment (Matt. 22:34-40) yesterday with a message focused on the second part of the commandment:  love your neighbor as yourself.

I was thinking with the congregation- what would you do if you knew you had 5 minutes left in your life? That when it boils down to one thing, what would you do?  And how would people remember you?  I think if I knew I had 5 minutes left in my life, I would make sure I told my wife and child and any other family that I love them.  I’m not sure what else would be important.

When you look throughout Scripture, a theme we find throughout the whole text is love.  It must be important.  And the message I preached yesterday is dangerous for Christians especially because Christians often do many things in their lives as stewards of the time God has given us (and many of those things are good things), but what is the most important?

I submitted yesterday that love should be at the center of Christian conduct.

Love the Lord Your God

Everybody loves something. Most people love somebody.  Many people love many things, and often assign ranking value to those things.  This is what we would call priorities.  How do you prioritize the things you love?

In preaching yesterday, I submitted this:  If we would love the Lord our God like we’re commanded, we would be more effective in living for Christ and showing Him to others because we’d be focused on the top priority.

Here’s why I said that: the context of this passage (Matthew 22:34-38) reveals two major Jewish groups, the Sadducees and Pharisees.  Both of these groups had “theological bents” according to their beliefs (Pharisees were heavy on the Law, though they didn’t truly live it; Sadducees did not believe in a bodily resurrection), and they both tried to do what I call “theological entrapment,” where they are trying to trap Jesus into saying something that could be turned around on Him to make look like a fool.  In the gospel of Matthew, we can see several occurrences where each group tries to trap Jesus from their theological bent, or angle.  But their attempts were not successful.

A Biblical Perspective of Marriage

I preached on marriage the last two Sundays.  I thought I would summarize those sermons in this post, so that’s why I didn’t write a Monday Morning Rewind last week, and that’s why this post is basically taking the place of this week’s Monday Morning Rewind.
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I believe marriage is the most valuable relationship on this earth because it was designed by God as a depiction of the relationship between Jesus and the church.  But our society is constantly refuting my belief:

• 5 states and the District of Columbia have legalized same-sex marriage.
• There is argument about loosening up on the Defense of Marriage Act, created during President Clinton’s term.
• There is an increase in cohabitation before marriage, where people are trying to experience some of the benefits of marriage without the commitment required for marriage (though it is impossible to fully experience those blessings outside of marriage).
• The divorce rate is still consistently hovering at about 50% (though there might have been a slight decrease in recent years, according to this article, although they suggest it could be for economical reasons)

Though I cannot provide an extensive perspective here, the first main point of my message was that a marriage will be strongest when the couple realizes that their marriage is the personification of Christ’s character.

I Had One of Those Father Moments

Caleb in his Johhny Jumper

I’ve heard people say that you more fully understand the love of God as our Father when you have your own kids.  Well, I had one of those moments.

6 month old Caleb was given a Johnny Jumper exerciser yesterday.  So Dad needed to assemble it so that Caleb could enjoy using it.  He’s always wiggling around, so this seems like a nice thing for him to use.  He would certainly be bouncing around in his little Johnny Jumper.

So I wrestled with assembling this thing.  The directions were a little confusing, and the pieces weren’t as easy to fit together as what it looked like they would in the directions.

But then, I had my moment.

Caleb was siting on the floor playing with the box that his Johhny Jumper came in while I was trying to connect these 2 metal pieces that made up the frame of the seat.  As I’m squeezing and pushing, the two pieces snapped together with the fold of my skin between my thumb and index finger caught in between.  Needless to say, it hurt!  And made me bleed!

My first reaction (after saying “Ouch”) was saying to Caleb, “Boy, you better be grateful for what your Dad is doing for you.” And then I caught myself.

Couldn’t God say the same thing?  Except that his pain was much worse, and his blood more abundant, and the result of His work for more than just playtime.  I think I had a moment.

I was taught humility by a Johnny Jumper.

Monday Morning Rewind: The Reputation of the Church

Yesterday, I preached the first sermon in the new series, “Living Together,” where I’m preaching through the letters to the Thessalonians.  You can find more info on this series by clicking here.

The focus scripture text was 1 Thessalonians 1 and focused on the reputation of the Thessalonian church.  Before getting into what was written in the letter to the Thessalonians, I shared the historical context of the writing so we could properly apply it.

We know that Thessalonica was the capital of Macedonia, a port city with much trade and the exchange of philosophies due to many different people traveling through.  By reading through Acts 16-18, we learn that Paul set out for Macedonia on his second missionary journey, and that took him through Thessalonica.  He spent at least three weeks with the Jews there proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah, and then was strongly opposed publicly for it.  This still happens when we boldly proclaim the gospel of Jesus.

Paul was sent on from Thessalonica probably for his safety.  But in those few weeks of being with them, a church was formed.  Paul eventually sent Timothy to check on them and report back to Paul.  Paul wrote the letters to the Thessalonians after hearing Timothy’s report.

At the start of the first letter, Paul takes time to thank God for them for what he learned about them.  He was concerned about his little church plant, and it overjoyed him to hear they were doing well in their faith.

Specifically, the church was noted for:

1- Faith, love, and hope. This was found in verse 3, and Paul gives particular attention to hope in his letters to this church.  Hope is given the prominent last position in this triad, not because the others are not important but because it is what applied most to the people there.  I explained to the congregation that the New Testament letters are examples of situational theology where the letter does not cover the entire scope of doctrine, but only addresses the issues specific to that people.  We do this today still, but we usually call it contexualizing the gospel.

2- Proclamation of the Gospel & Evidence of their Faith (v.8). Not only did they hear the gospel, but it went forth from them.  They shared it, and their faith was evident in this area.

3- Deserting Idolatry (v.9). They turned from idols to the only living and true God!  We deal with idolatry still today, which is placing anything above God in our lives.  I explained how even good thing become an idol in our lives, and told them this cliche that I’ve heard preached before: when good things become god things, they become bad things.

4- Hope for Jesus’ Return (v.10). They had a strong hope that Jesus was coming back, and no matter how troubling their affliction (we know they were persecuted from the content of this letter), Jesus was in sight.

After preaching through the chapter, I simply asked the question, what is the reputation of our church? And it must be noted that this reputation of the Thessalonian church was made known by the community around them!  Paul refers to this in verses 8-9.

If the community around our church was asked about us, what would our reputation be?