The Asterisk-Free Life: Choosing Obedience Over Emotion

• Church Mission and Core Values [00:00:00 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor outlines the Cove Church mission statement (Great Commission) and six core values derived from the Great Commandment, including loving God, loving people, taking the Bible seriously, staying united, generosity, and keeping it real.
• The Tension of Christian Living [00:02:21 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor introduces the sermon series 'The Tension,' describing the spiritual tug-of-war between the call to reach the lost (Great Commission) and the call to be set apart from the world (Great Commandment).
• Cultural Preferences and Tribalism [00:03:17 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor conducts a poll with the congregation on trivial preferences (Coke vs. Pepsi, Batman vs. Superman, etc.) to illustrate how passionately people defend their opinions and preferences, serving as an analogy for spiritual debates.
• Biblical Context of [Matthew 22](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+22&version=KJV) [00:06:49 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains the historical context of the Pharisees and Sadducees attempting to trap Jesus with a 'gotcha' question about the most important commandment, highlighting their desire to discredit Him.
• The Shema and Loving God [00:10:33 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor identifies Jesus' first answer as a quote from the Shema (Deuteronomy 6), explaining its centrality to Jewish life and how Jesus used this familiar text to establish the first part of the Great Commandment.
• Unity of Love for God and People [00:11:46 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor highlights Jesus' unique theological move of connecting Deuteronomy 6:5 (love God) with Leviticus 19:18 (love neighbor), arguing that Jesus dismantled the religious barrier that suggested loving God required separating from people.
• The Great Commandment [00:11:06 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains how Jesus uniquely connected the command to love God (Shema) with the command to love others, knocking down religious walls that separated the two.
• Agape Love vs. Cultural Love [00:16:54 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor distinguishes between the Greek word 'agape' (unconditional, action-based love) and the English word 'love' (often used for emotions or preferences like sports or food).
• Obedience as Evidence of Love [00:21:30 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that the evidence of loving God is not emotion but obedience, citing John 14:15 to show that love is demonstrated by keeping commands.
• The Role of Choice [00:20:45 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor asserts that while feelings change, love is a choice, allowing believers to love God even on days when they do not feel close to Him.
• Obedience and Exclusions [00:24:37 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the analogy of rental car 'asterisks' to critique conditional obedience, urging the congregation to remove exclusions from their relationship with God.
• Inseparability of Loving God and Neighbor [00:27:36 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues against the Pharisaical view that one must choose between loving God or people, citing 1 John 4:20 to prove that love for God is invisible without visible love for people.
• The Cross as the Ultimate Symbol [00:34:20 ▶️ 📄]
  > The cross is presented as the visual representation of the Great Commandment, pointing vertically to God and horizontally to people, demonstrating love with no exceptions.
• Divine Love and the Cross [00:36:16 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor defines true love by pointing to Jesus' sacrificial death on the cross, emphasizing that God loved humanity while they were sinners, with no exclusions or exceptions.
• Loving Like Jesus [00:37:46 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor challenges the congregation to imagine the healing and restoration in their community if they loved others with the same unconditional love that Jesus demonstrated.
• Embracing Tension [00:38:19 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that genuine love requires diving into uncomfortable social tensions and relationships rather than avoiding them, stating that Jesus stands at the center of this tension.
• Receiving Love vs. Chasing Love [00:40:59 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor corrects the misconception that love is something to be chased through relationships or success, asserting instead that God actively chased humanity through Christ's incarnation and sacrifice.
• Salvation and Commitment [00:42:00 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor issues an invitation to receive Jesus as Savior, defining this act as a conscious choice to follow Him with all one's heart, soul, and strength, rather than relying on feelings.

• Sermon Illustration [00:03:17 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor engages the congregation in a rapid-fire poll of cultural preferences (Coke vs. Pepsi, Batman vs. Superman, Taco Tuesday vs. Pizza Friday, Star Wars vs. Star Trek, McDonald's vs. Chick-fil-A, Apple vs. Android) to demonstrate how people get passionate and tribal about their choices, using this as a setup for the spiritual tension discussed in the sermon.
• Sermon Illustration [00:22:12 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about renting a car in Florida. He found a cheap price online, but upon checkout, the price quadrupled due to hidden fees and exclusions (facility, convenience, insurance, etc.) revealed by a tiny asterisk. He uses this to illustrate how people place 'asterisks' on their relationship with God, hiding the true cost.
• Sermon Illustration [00:19:48 ▶️ 📄]
  > A humorous story about a man who tries to sleep in on Sunday morning. When his wife tells him to get up for church, he complains he doesn't feel like it. She replies that everyone in the house goes, and 'you're the pastor.'
• Sermon Illustration [00:22:44 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about renting a car where the advertised price was a 'glitch' hiding numerous fees and exclusions, using this as an analogy for how people add 'asterisks' to their obedience to God.
• Sermon Illustration [00:25:15 ▶️ 📄]
  > A story about a couple, John and Jen, who were living together despite being faithful church attendees; after hearing a message on honoring God, they chose to marry, demonstrating obedience even when uncomfortable.
• Sermon Illustration [00:34:20 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor describes the cross as two pieces of wood reaching upward to heaven and outward to humanity, symbolizing the intersection of loving God and loving people.
• Sermon Illustration [00:37:09 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the imagery of the cross to illustrate the magnitude of God's love, describing it as a visual representation where Jesus held a man and said, 'I love you this much,' with no asterisks or exceptions despite the man's sin and baggage.
• Sermon Illustration [00:38:19 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor contrasts the 'bubble' of comfort and distance from hurting people with the messy, uncomfortable reality of diving into tension, illustrating that true love is found in the middle of these difficult interactions where Jesus stands.
• Sermon Illustration [00:41:20 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the analogy of chasing love versus being chased, explaining that people fail to find love by chasing relationships, money, or success, because God actually chased humanity by leaving His throne, being born as a baby, and dying on the cross.

• Pastoral Charge [00:14:04 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor leads the congregation in a prayerful commitment to respond to God, pursue spiritual growth, and actively love God and others.
• Pastoral Charge [00:21:30 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor commands the congregation to demonstrate their love for Jesus by obeying His commandments.
• Pastoral Charge [00:37:46 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor urges the congregation to actively choose to love like Jesus, specifically by running towards relational tension and living out the great commandment.
• Pastoral Charge [00:42:25 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor invites the congregation to pray a specific prayer of repentance and commitment to Jesus as Savior and Lord.

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:00:00] Hey, last week we kicked off a brand new series called The Tension, where we are going through our mission statement and our core values.
[00:00:09] And hopefully you caught last week as Will kicked us off, but our mission statement is really just the Great Commission.
[00:00:15] And we're going to say that again today because it's important for us to know what is the mission here at the Cove Church.
[00:00:20] It's the one that Jesus gave us, but we have a way of saying it here, and that is our Cove mission statement.
[00:00:25] We'll put it up on the screen. Here we go. We're going to say this all together as one church.
[00:00:30] the cove church we will introduce our friends to jesus learn to follow him and celebrate his presence in our lives if you haven't seen that uh introduce that's evangelism learn to follow him that's discipleship and celebrate is we're going to have a good time while we're doing it and that's
[00:00:48] exactly what the mission statement that jesus gave his disciples that's the big c of the great commission but there's another big c as well in scriptures anyone know what that is the great commission and the great commandment or the great command. And that is where we pull our core values
[00:01:06] from, or the first two at least, specifically is where our core values come from. And so you may not know what the core values, but the core values is why do we do the great commission? What compels
[00:01:16] us to do those things? And I'm going to list them all on the screen, but here they are. We love God passionately. That's the first one. That's where it all starts. The Bible even says we love him
[00:01:26] because he first loved us.
[00:01:28] Number two, we love people unconditionally.
[00:01:31] Number three, we take the Bible seriously.
[00:01:33] We believe what God's word is his authority to us.
[00:01:36] He speaks to us today.
[00:01:38] Number four, we stay united.
[00:01:40] There's a lot of things trying to divide us apart, but we wanna stand united, major on what is important and let the rest go.
[00:01:47] Number five, we are generous.
[00:01:49] We talk about that every single Sunday.
[00:01:51] Generosity is the heart of the gospel.
[00:01:53] Jesus gave everything for us, And so we can't help but respond by giving.
[00:01:56] And then number six, we keep it real, all right?
[00:01:59] And that's not, I have no filter.
[00:02:01] I'm just gonna say whatever I want that comes to my mind.
[00:02:03] Some people think that's that core value.
[00:02:05] That's not what that means.
[00:02:06] What that means is, hey, we all realize that we're broken individuals, that we need Jesus, and we're not doing anyone a favor, especially ourselves, if we hide behind all the walls that we put up.
[00:02:16] So these are our core values, and we are calling the series The Tension.
[00:02:21] And you might be wondering, why are you calling it The Tension If it's about your mission statement and core values, it's because this sometimes when you follow Jesus, you will find yourself in a spiritual tug of war. So what do you mean? Well,
[00:02:35] because on one hand we are called to reach the lost with the gospel, right? That is the great commission. But on the other hand, we are also called, scripture tells us to be set apart from
[00:02:47] the world. We're supposed to be different. Our love is supposed to be different. And that's the great command. And so here's the tension. Which one is more important? Reaching a loss or being like Christ and separate from the world? It's the kind of question that always creates tension. Why?
[00:03:06] Because everybody has an opinion on which they think is better. And that's true, not just spiritually, but in every area of our life. And to prove it, let's do a quick poll this morning.
[00:03:17] I'm going to ask some questions. I want you to shout out. This is going to be a group exercise.
[00:03:21] it's going to be great. I want you to shout out what you think is best. All right, ready? Here's the first one. Coke or Pepsi? Oh my goodness. There was one person who was a little bit ashamed
[00:03:33] to say it. They said Pepsi, but man, Coke overwhelmingly destroyed. All right, Pepsi, I feel for you there. Okay, here's the next one. Here's the next one. Batman or Superman?
[00:03:47] I heard Bat-u-um. That's what I heard, but I heard Bat right away. So for all of the Batman people. All right. I feel you. But if you're a fan of the Cape Crusader, here's just one question.
[00:03:57] Can Batman fly? All right. Point proven. Next. All right. Here's another one. Taco Tuesday or Pizza Friday? We're pretty split there. I heard a lot. My boys would be like both. We want both.
[00:04:14] And sometimes in one night. All right. Here's another one. Here's another one. Star Wars or the Bears. No, just kidding. Star Wars or Star Trek. All right. There's like five nerds here.
[00:04:27] They're over here somewhere. I heard them say Star Trek. All right. Some of our, some of our middle schoolers are like Star what? I've never heard of that before. All right. All I have to
[00:04:35] say for all of you Star Wars fans, actually, I like Star Wars better. I just practiced really hard as a kid to be able to do that. And I wanted to be able to show that off. So there you go.
[00:04:47] Okay. Here's another one. It's going to be a hard one. McDonald's or Chick-fil-A?
[00:04:55] All right. That was a trick question. There's only one correct answer because there's only one place that serves the Lord's chicken and all God's people said, amen. It comes free blessed.
[00:05:03] There you go. All right. For the one person, the one person that said McDonald's, come see me afterwards for counseling. We'll figure out. We'll figure you out. Okay. Next one. Apple or you guys are like oranges bananas no apple or android yeah apple people are the loudest they're
[00:05:25] the worst that's fine blue bubbles unite you ever seen that you know you have a text group text message and if you got an apple and all of a sudden there's a green enters the chat and you're
[00:05:37] like you ruined it for all of us why don't you just leave until you come back with the listen that's the thing okay if you're an apple snob just you got to embrace it all right for the one
[00:05:47] person who also said android you can come afterwards for the mcdonald's person and we'll we'll figure it all out all right last one last one six seven ah okay i had to do it because today
[00:06:01] is six seven it's actually june seven so and that was also a shout out to all of our middle schoolers no cap um i'm pretty cool all right it's fine all right survey is over you guys are like get
[00:06:15] all away from that right now. Seriously though, what's funny though, some of you got pretty passionate about your answers, especially Batman and Superman. That seemed to be like a little bit more of a tense subject there. And he says, why, why, why, why do we do that? Why does it seem like
[00:06:30] we always have a preference? Because whether we're talking about Batman or the Bible, we tend to get really passionate about what we think is best. And in Matthew chapter 22, Jesus finds himself in the middle of one of the most heated theological debates of that day among the
[00:06:49] religious leaders. And that was this, which commandment in the law was the most important of all? You see, in total, there were 613 laws in the Old Testament. And so you can imagine that there was quite a topic of tension that would take place between the different religious groups.
[00:07:08] And the main two of that day, you had the Pharisees and you had the Sadducees.
[00:07:14] They were two different religious sects that were kind of competing for attention and really for authority.
[00:07:20] And each emphasized and even added to the commands that they thought were the very most important of those laws, which put them at odds with each other.
[00:07:29] They weren't really big fans with each other.
[00:07:31] But the one thing that they could agree on is they didn't like Jesus.
[00:07:35] They had a disdain for Jesus.
[00:07:37] They were always looking for opportunities to try to trip Jesus up in an attempt to discredit him.
[00:07:43] And so if you read Matthew chapter 22, you'll find that both the Pharisees and the Sadducees, two different religious groups, try to trap Jesus with a gotcha question.
[00:07:53] We see this today, right?
[00:07:54] Where people will ask a leading question.
[00:07:56] They want to get a little social media, kind of a soundbite or a little clip.
[00:07:59] And they want to ask the question a certain way to kind of get you in a gotcha moment.
[00:08:03] But unfortunately for them, they're dealing with Jesus.
[00:08:05] and the only one who got got is them and so they kind of have to run away with their tails between their legs but they didn't give up they weren't really smart they didn't have great um they hadn't
[00:08:16] figured it out that this was going to work and so they wanted to give it another attempt but this time they brought the big big guns out and they brought out a lawyer and not a lawyer like we
[00:08:26] think of it today but a lawyer in the in the biblical times lawyers were also often called scribes and they were experts in the old testament law they were the ones that knew the law of moses
[00:08:40] both forwards and backwards they knew all 613 and only did they teach the law they were the ones who interpreted the law in jewish schools and also in the synagogues in other words no one knew
[00:08:53] the law like a lawyer they were the authority considered the authority on the subject of the law, and even they disagreed with each other on what law was most important. So when they asked this question, it was designed to be a gotcha or an impossible question, because here's the thing,
[00:09:13] no matter what Jesus responded with, no matter what commandment he gave them, someone would have an argument against what he said. So surely this was going to be a question that would be the undoing of Jesus' authority, and they would once again grab that power back. Take a look, let's see
[00:09:29] what happens. Matthew chapter 22, we're going to start in verse 34. But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, right, they weren't fans of that, they gathered together.
[00:09:40] And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? And he said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with
[00:09:52] all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the
[00:10:04] prophets. See, a lot of times Jesus would answer questions that were designed to trap him with a question of his own. We see this many times. And that question that he asked would silence these
[00:10:14] Pharisees or Sadducees because it was a question that they didn't have an answer to. They would recognize that. But this time Jesus doesn't do that. This time he not only directly answers the question but he does something remarkable the lawyer asks for which one was the great commandment
[00:10:33] he asked for one commandment but jesus gives him what two see jesus quotes from deuteronomy chapter six first and in the hebrew that was known as the shema hebrews chapter six is called the shema
[00:10:46] because that first word means here that's here oh israel the lord our god is one god love the lord your God with all your heart, all your soul. So he's quoting the Shema and that would be
[00:10:55] instantaneously recognizable by any Jewish person that was there because the Shema was the heartbeat of their society. It was something that one of the first things that Jewish kids would memorize.
[00:11:06] In fact, if you were a good Jewish faithful Jew, you would quote the Shema word for word in the morning and the evening, twice a day. It was to the point where they would actually take little
[00:11:18] parchment and they would tie it around their forehead because it was such an important part of what it was in their society to love God with all your heart and all your soul. So that
[00:11:27] wasn't surprising for them to hear. A lot of scholars, a lot of rabbis would have argued that the great command was the Shema. But what Jesus does that is extraordinary is he connects the command of loving God found in Deuteronomy chapter six, verse five, with the command of
[00:11:46] loving others in Leviticus 19 verse 18. That had never happened before. See, for the religious leaders of the day, loving a holy God meant separating from sinful people. They saw loving God and loving people almost in a sense as opposites, two sides of a spectrum. See, the
[00:12:07] closer you got to God meant the farther you got away from people. That's why they were always pride themselves on how separate and how they much better and all the different ways that they were
[00:12:19] not like the common man. But by connecting these two statements together, which had never been done before by any of the rabbis before, Jesus knocks down the religious walls that they had built that they were separating the two with. You see, Jesus wasn't just giving an answer to a question. He was
[00:12:36] giving the answer for everything. That's why he says in verse 40, on these two depend all the law and the prophets. The Greek word that Jesus is using here means to literally hang from. So loving
[00:12:55] God and loving people are like two hinges that everything else hangs on. Remove just one and it all comes crashing down that is why here at the cove our first two values that we have our core
[00:13:10] values is love god passionately and love people unconditionally why because church if we don't get this right nothing else matters let's pray father thank you for this morning thank you for this opportunity to dive into your word and maybe to unpack some scripture in a way that we've never
[00:13:26] seen before i pray you would be with me that i would speak your word lord i don't want to be guilty of what the Pharisees or the Sadducees or any religion tries to attempt. And that is to try
[00:13:36] to reach you. Lord, that's impossible. You came down to us and Lord, I'm thankful for that. And today we even have the Holy Spirit that empowers us. It's going to do two things. One, it's going
[00:13:45] to empower me to speak your word with authority because it's not me. It is you. Second of all, it's going to empower us to receive you, what your word has to say. And even for those that may not
[00:13:55] be followers of you today, I pray that their hearts would be softened by your Holy Spirit, that you had been doing work long before anyone stepped into these walls or at any of our campuses. God, we just want to
[00:14:04] really experience what you have for us today. We want to respond. We want to grow. Lord, we want to love you and love people.
[00:14:13] And we can only do that through the power of your Holy Spirit and his leading.
[00:14:16] In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
[00:14:19] Number one, the first core value that we're taking a look at is love God passionately.
[00:14:22] That's the first one. We're going to go back to our text here. Matthew chapter 22 verse 37. And he said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with what? All your heart and with all your soul and with all
[00:14:36] your mind. This is the great and first commandment. So as we've already looked at, again, Jesus is quoting from the Shema. The Shema in Deuteronomy chapter six is actually what Moses gave the Israelites right before they were about to go in the promised land. And if you, if you really look
[00:14:50] at it, what did God give back at Mount Sinai to Moses was the what? The 10 commandments. Okay.
[00:14:57] we're familiar with those. And really what he was doing is he was summarizing the first four of those commandments, right? The first four commandments, if you look at them, all have to do with your
[00:15:07] relationship with God. The last six all have to do with your relationship with others. So essentially he was simplifying and he was saying, hey, here's what it is, love God. Now that's a simple thing to
[00:15:19] say, right? We hear, yeah, you need to love God, love God. But what does that actually mean? I think that's the question that we're going to dive into this morning. What does it mean to actually love
[00:15:28] God? In fact, I'll even go further. What does it mean to love? See, in the English language, we use the word love for everything, right? We love our families. We love our sports teams. We
[00:15:39] love football. We love Chick-fil-A. We love our car. We love our house. We love our cats. Well, I don't love your cats because I'm allergic, but you love your cats. So you get the point is we
[00:15:51] we'll say we love. But when we say it, that can mean a whole bunch of different things depending on the context. See, if I said I love my wife and I also love Moose Tracks ice cream, that'd be a
[00:16:05] little weird if I meant those the same, right? It'd be weird if I love Moose Tracks the same way that I love my wife. That's different. Okay, see here the problem is, is that we use the word love so
[00:16:16] much and it's become so overused that it's kind of lost its weight. It's kind of lost its significance. And so in our culture, it's almost turned into a term that we can make love whatever
[00:16:27] we want it to be. It just says this buzzword. You guys got a lot of love. Love is love. It's whatever we want it to be. And so when we use the word love, it's kind of confusing because we might mean
[00:16:37] multiple things. But when Jesus says to love God, he uses a specific word. It's a Greek word. And the greek word is agape let's say that together agape okay agape love was a different love a
[00:16:54] specific love you see in the greek they didn't just have one word for love like we have in the english language they had lots of different ways to describe love because there was different loves
[00:17:03] and they had different loves that were describing everything from a brotherly love that's why you probably heard phileo love right philadelphia that's where we get that from the city of brotherly love all right you have phileo love all right then they also have a romantic love they had everything
[00:17:16] that described all these different types of loves, but the most supreme, the highest form of love, the most powerful form of love was agape love. Agape love was an unconditional love, a love that was endless, a love that had no limits. It was an action love. You see, in our culture, when we use
[00:17:36] the word love, most of the time we are referring to an emotion or a feeling. It's what we experience it's the butterflies in our stomach on a first date it is the warmness that washes over us after
[00:17:53] we've connected with an old friend and while those are wonderful feelings that actually can't be the basis for love why is that because your feelings why change your feelings change all the time eventually the butterflies disappear and the warmness wears off the thing that you loved
[00:18:15] about the person that you were dating right away after a few years, you're like, that's not so cute anymore. I don't really love that they do that, right? The thing starts to kind of, the thing that
[00:18:23] first was like, I love this about you. All of a sudden those feelings begin to fade. And so this, I'll tell you right now, this is one of the big reasons why so many marriages fail today.
[00:18:34] Because the whole relationship was built on a feeling, right? I like the way you make me feel.
[00:18:40] I'm attracted to you.
[00:18:42] I have this feeling.
[00:18:43] But let me ask you a question.
[00:18:44] What happens when the way you feel about someone, they don't make you feel that way anymore?
[00:18:51] Because if that's what love is, see, watch this.
[00:18:54] If you can fall into love, you can fall out of love.
[00:19:00] And so many times, this is where we're at.
[00:19:02] It's this feeling.
[00:19:03] And so what do we do?
[00:19:04] If we don't feel that feeling that we think is love, then we're gonna go find it somewhere else.
[00:19:10] And what that does is it puts us an endless loop, an endless cycle of always chasing, watch this, a changing emotion.
[00:19:20] See, if loving God was a feeling that we got, we would never be able to follow this command.
[00:19:25] It'd be impossible.
[00:19:27] You wanna know why?
[00:19:28] Because there will be times where you don't always feel like loving God.
[00:19:34] Sometimes you don't always feel it.
[00:19:36] It reminds me of the guy who tried sleeping in on a Sunday morning only to be woken up by his wife and her loud voice as she said, get up. It's time to go to church. The man grumbled,
[00:19:48] groaned, kind of rolled over and he said, I don't want to go to church. I don't feel like it. Give me one good reason why I should go to church today without skipping a beat. His wife said,
[00:19:57] I'll give you two. Number one, everyone under this roof goes to church on Sunday. And number two, you're the pastor. Church, can I just be really honest with you for just a moment?
[00:20:18] There are days, even as a pastor, that I don't always feel very close to God.
[00:20:23] There are days where I struggle to read my Bible.
[00:20:27] I struggle to pray.
[00:20:29] Days where I don't feel like preaching a message.
[00:20:31] Days where I don't feel like sharing my faith.
[00:20:33] Some days, the emotions just aren't there, and I'm not feeling it.
[00:20:39] I don't know if you've experienced this before.
[00:20:41] There's just some days where I don't feel like loving God.
[00:20:44] But can I tell you something?
[00:20:45] Even on the days that I may not be feeling it, I can still choose to love God. Why? Because loving God isn't a feeling you follow. It's a choice that you choose. It is a choice that you choose. You can't control how you always feel,
[00:21:05] but you can control what you choose. And that's why Jesus says in John chapter 14, verse 15, if you love me, keep my what? Commandments. Notice he doesn't say, if you love me, feel really good hey if you love me chase that high hey if you love me get those butterflies
[00:21:30] in your soul no he says if you love me you will what you obey you will keep my commands because the evidence for loving God isn't emotion it's obedience see you can tell someone all day long
[00:21:44] that you love them but it means nothing if there is no action to back it up right don't say you love me? What? Show me you love me. It's why the great command is to love God with what? With all
[00:21:58] your heart and all your soul and all your mind. You know what that's saying? In everything that you are, all that I am, all that I will be, I'm bringing my whole self to God. No exceptions.
[00:22:12] A few weeks ago, our family traveled down to Florida for a little family reunion that we had.
[00:22:17] And so, since we were driving quite a distance, I figured it might be worth it to rent a car.
[00:22:22] And so, I went online, put in the dates for our travel, and quickly kind of searched it up.
[00:22:28] And it popped up, and I was shocked at how cheap it was to rent a car.
[00:22:34] I was shocked.
[00:22:35] In fact, when I say cheap, I mean like it was less than $100 for a week rental cheap.
[00:22:42] And so, some of you are already smirking right now.
[00:22:44] And so, I was like, man, this is great.
[00:22:46] this is the deal of a lifetime and so I hit the checkout button and when I hit the checkout button the price nearly quadrupled and I said something's got to be wrong there's a glitch here and so I was
[00:22:57] like maybe I can't see what my my eyes deceive me so I went back I refreshed the original page sure enough it shows the price less than 100 bucks but this time I saw something I didn't see
[00:23:08] the first time because at the bottom of the page there was this tiny little asterisk and when you clicked on that asterisk, they took you to a page of a list of all the fees and exclusions.
[00:23:23] You see, apparently the price that they show you is just to rent the car. If you actually want to drive the car, that's a total different fee. I mean, there were fees for everything. There was a
[00:23:35] facility fee, a convenience fee, a processing fee, a fee for the FIFO, FIFI, FIFI, Fofum fees. It was ridiculous. And that's what's worse. On top of that, there was a bunch of exclusions that the
[00:23:47] price didn't include, that big number didn't even include insurance, not included. Extra driver, got to pay for that. Returning early, not included. You want a steering wheel, got to pay for that.
[00:24:00] I mean, it's ridiculous. I mean, at this point, they might as well say, bring your own tires if you want to drive the car. See, the price seemed great at first, but that tiny little asterisk
[00:24:11] changed everything. Church, I wonder how many asterisks we have placed on a relationship with God. How many times have we made exclusions in our obedience to him? God, you can have my prayers, but don't mess with my priorities. God, you can have my worship, but hands off my wallet.
[00:24:37] God, you can have my dreams, but stay away from my dating life. God, you can have my Sunday, but don't touch my sin. Church, you want to know if you really love God? Check your obedience.
[00:24:53] How are you obeying?
[00:24:55] In every area of your life, maybe, hey, watch this.
[00:24:58] Maybe it's time we stop filling our faith with a bunch of fine print.
[00:25:03] And we say, God, I'm willing to obey you.
[00:25:06] No exceptions, no exclusions, no asterisks.
[00:25:12] About a month ago, we were in our series.
[00:25:15] It's called Keeping God First.
[00:25:16] I may remember that series.
[00:25:18] It's like a series ago, so hopefully you remember that.
[00:25:22] And in the series, it's all about keeping God first, honoring God in all of our relationships. And after one of the messages, there's a woman at our campus who came up to me and she said, Josh, I need to honor God. You see, she and John,
[00:25:40] they had been coming to our campus and they were faithful to attend. And they had built a wonderful life together. They had two girls, they had a house. They had all these wonderful things. But
[00:25:52] the problem is, is that they were living together, but they weren't married. And after hearing the message, I said, we've got to honor God. We need to obey God in every area of life. And so after
[00:26:05] that conversation, I had a chance to meet with John and Jen, and they said, we're going to do it God's way. We're tired of doing it our way. We're going to obey him in every area of our life.
[00:26:14] And so I had the privilege on May 9th, I'm going to show you a picture, to be able to marry John and Jen. And in front of their girls, they were able to say, hey, we obey even if it's uncomfortable.
[00:26:28] Church, can I tell you something? That's what loving God looks like. It's I will choose to obey you even if it's uncomfortable. No exceptions, no exclusions. Church, maybe it's time we said, God, I will choose to be obedient even when I don't feel like it. That's what loving God looks
[00:26:52] like. So let me just ask you a question. How's your obedience? How's your obedience in relationships?
[00:27:00] How's your obedience in your giving? How's your obedience in generosity? How's your obedience in your serving? How's your obedience in your sexuality? There is no exclusion, no asterisk when it comes to loving God, we're saying, God, I give you all of me, no exceptions. But number one,
[00:27:18] we see that great command doesn't just include loving God. Jesus continues, which leads us to our second core value. It's not just about loving God passionately. Number two, the great command is what? Love people unconditionally. Check this out. Verse 39, Jesus says, and a second is like it.
[00:27:36] you shall love your neighbor as yourself on these two commandments depend on the law and prophets and so verse 39 jesus really brings in the heavy hitting because he knocks down the self-righteous attitude that so many of the religious leaders held they pride themselves remember on how
[00:27:52] distant they were from the common people that's why you see the story of the pharisee and the public land the pharisee prays up on the street corner he says god i'm thankful that i'm not like that guy. Like I'm separate from them, right? I love God. So I don't love, I'm not like
[00:28:08] this person. So watch this. When the lawyer asked Jesus, what's the greatest command? He wasn't actually looking for an answer. He was looking to argue. See, he wasn't interested in what Jesus had to say. He was there because he had an agenda. An agenda that required you to pick one or the
[00:28:30] other because the pharisees and sadducees loving god meant separating from people and loving people meant getting farther away from god you had to pick one or the other but jesus declares hey the second is like it what he does is he connects the two together he's not saying he's saying you've
[00:28:46] got it wrong it's not a choice between loving god or loving people loving god is loving people this is why scripture says hey watch this this is a powerful scripture i hope you write this down
[00:28:59] 1 John 4 20. If anyone says, I love God and hates his brother, he is a what? A liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. John's saying, hey,
[00:29:17] listen, you want to know the evidence for your love for God? It is invisible until it becomes visible in your love for people. That's why all the time it's like, well, you know, I love God,
[00:29:28] I just don't like people wrong why because people is the whole mission see like the goal can I just tell you something for a second the goal is not to show up on church on Sunday and you should
[00:29:49] the goal is not to serve and you should the goal is not to read your bible and you should the goal is not to pray and you should the goal is to have a relationship with God and to reach
[00:30:03] people. Those are simply means to an end that points to the end, which is loving God and loving people. And you cannot separate one from the other. You can't do one without doing the other.
[00:30:15] Jesus says, these are two things that are inseparable. See, the problem with the Pharisees is they wanted to split apart what was never supposed to be separate. They wanted their own great commandment. They wanted to create their own version of commandment that was convenient
[00:30:30] and comfortable and fit their agenda and their worldview.
[00:30:33] And the truth is, we do the same thing today.
[00:30:36] Maybe not like them, but what we want to do is we want to create a simple, sanitized version of the gospel, right?
[00:30:44] We want a gospel that fits our agenda, one that is safe and easy and works best for us, right?
[00:30:50] We don't want to get in the mess.
[00:30:51] Why?
[00:30:51] I'll tell you why.
[00:30:52] Because we want to avoid the tension.
[00:30:57] See, watch this.
[00:30:58] It's really easy to listen to a sermon and sing songs about loving God on Sunday, but you know what's not so easy?
[00:31:07] Loving your coworkers on Monday, right?
[00:31:11] Honoring your boss that doesn't honor you.
[00:31:14] You know what's not so easy?
[00:31:16] Showing up at 1 a.m. to the hospital for your friend.
[00:31:20] You know what's not so easy?
[00:31:23] Speaking kindly to the neighbor who always gossips about you.
[00:31:27] See, those are not easy.
[00:31:29] And what we'd rather do is just avoid the tension to not get involved, to not have to worry about it.
[00:31:35] And so we kind of want to distance ourself hey, I love God, I'm good over here.
[00:31:38] But loving God requires you to get into the tension.
[00:31:41] It requires you to get into the mess.
[00:31:44] And see, we can say we love God all day long, but it's just a bunch of empty words if we are not loving people.
[00:31:50] This is why Jesus tells us in John chapter 13, 34 through 35, he says, a new commandment I give to you that you love one another just as I have loved you.
[00:32:03] You are also to love one another.
[00:32:04] By this, all people will know that you are my disciples.
[00:32:07] if you have what? Love for one another. Did you catch that? How are we supposed to love others?
[00:32:19] Like who? Like Jesus. See, the church, the proof that we love God is found in loving people like Jesus loves us. And how did he do that? I just want you to stop and think about this for a minute.
[00:32:42] Jesus didn't have to leave heaven. He didn't have to be born in a broken world. He didn't have to be ridiculed and rejected by the people he came to rescue. He didn't have to do that. In fact,
[00:32:58] Jesus didn't have to do anything. He had every right and every reason to just leave us in the mess that we had made for ourselves. He could have said, your problem, you did it. I created
[00:33:15] this perfect environment for you and you went against that. He would have been just to leave

[00:33:23] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:33:23] us to rot in the hell we deserved, but he didn't do that. Jesus didn't avoid the tension. He stepped

[00:33:35] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:33:35] into it. He stepped into our hurt. He stepped into our brokenness. He stepped into the tension.
[00:33:43] Even watch this, when it meant it was going to cost him everything. This is why he tells his disciples in John 15, 13, greater love has no one than this, that someone laid down his life
[00:33:59] for his friends. This wasn't just a motivational speech he was going to give his disciples.
[00:34:06] Jesus lived this out.
[00:34:10] He spoke it and then he did it.
[00:34:14] Church, you want to know what the most powerful symbol of love in our world is?
[00:34:20] It's not a heart.
[00:34:23] It's not a diamond.
[00:34:24] It's not a wedding ring.
[00:34:27] It's two pieces of wood.
[00:34:33] One reaching upward to heaven and the other reaching outward to humanity.
[00:34:41] see the cross is a visual representation of the great commandment it points us vertically to love god with all our heart and all our soul and all our mind and it points us horizontally to love
[00:34:59] other people every time we look at the cross we are looking at the great commandment watch this guess who you will find where those two beams cross love himself love himself church don't you see it the irony of this entire story the irony of this entire passage the entire irony
[00:35:31] of the lawyer's question is that he was speaking to the very living breathing embodiment of the great command. You see, it was only Jesus who perfectly loved God with all his heart, all his soul, all his mind. It was only Jesus who perfectly loved his neighbor as himself. And so what happens
[00:35:50] every time we live out the great commandment, you know what we were doing? We are pointing back to the cross. We are pointing back to Jesus, the one who is love, the one who was beaten and mocked for
[00:36:03] you, the one who was pierced by nails that were meant for your hands and nails that were meant for your feet, a God who poured out his blood for you while the father's wrath poured out on him,
[00:36:16] a God who died the death that you and I deserved. Romans chapter five or seven and eight, for one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person, one would even dare would dare even to die but god shows his love for us and that while we were
[00:36:40] worthy no while we were in our best state while we were sinners christ died for us you want to know what love is look to jesus look what jesus has done for you if you ever wonder what love
[00:37:09] looks like all you have to do is look at a cross and there it held a man who said, I love you this much. He said, and even though you were in the worst of places, and even though you didn't deserve
[00:37:21] it, I had no exclusions. I had no asterisks. I had no exceptions. I don't care what you have done.
[00:37:28] I don't care how much baggage you have brought in. I don't care the lies that you have told. I don't care of the sin that you have committed. I love you. Church, can I just ask this question? Imagine,

[00:37:46] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:37:46] imagine what this place would look like if we loved like Jesus. Imagine the healing that would

[00:37:52] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:37:52] take place, the shame that would lift, the marriages that would be mended, the bondage that would be broken, the addictions that would break, all in the name of Jesus. Watch this.
[00:38:02] imagine how crowded heaven would be if we choose to live out the great commandment of loving God and loving others. If we choose to ran towards the tension instead of away from it. So yeah,
[00:38:19] the tension is real. Yeah. It's messy to get involved with people. Yeah. It is uncomfortable to dive into the tension, but that is where love is found because that's where Jesus always is standing at the very center of loving God passionately
[00:38:41] and loving people unconditionally.
[00:38:45] Maybe it's time we stopped using loving God as a reason to write people off and loving people as an excuse to justify our sinful behavior.

[00:38:57] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:38:57] Maybe it's time we stood where Jesus did, right in the middle of the tension.
[00:39:06] Let's pray.
[00:39:06] Father, thank you.

[00:39:08] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:39:08] Thank you for the cross.
[00:39:09] thank you that you didn't just live the great commandment you embodied it you were the visual representation of it lord you don't just love us you are love first john says god is love and that love that you gave us had no exclusions no exceptions no clauses it was while we were in
[00:39:35] our worst you loved us and so god we don't love others because they deserve it we love others

[00:39:43] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:39:43] because you love us heads bowed and eyes closed maybe you're here today you've forgotten the great commandment. It's just been easier to distance yourself from the people that have hurt you.

[00:40:02] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:40:02] It's just been easier to not get involved in the mess. It's nice to be in the bubble. But if you're going to love God and love others, you got to break out of it. I just wonder if there's some
[00:40:15] conversations that need to be have. Might be some phone calls that need to be made. There might need to be some areas in life where I need to start obeying fully. Some things that I need to stop

[00:40:35] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:40:35] looking at. Some bottles that need drained. Say, God, and I love others, no exceptions. But maybe you're here today and what you are missing is real love. See, you thought love was a thing.

[00:40:59] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:40:59] You thought it was a feeling and you've been chasing it. And no matter where you turn, every relationship in this life, the money that you were going after, the success that you were chasing, it always seemed that no matter how hard you tried to chase after love, it always escaped
[00:41:20] you. Can I tell you why? Because you don't have to chase love. Love chased you. He did it when he left his throne in heaven and he came in this world and he was born as a baby and he lived the
[00:41:33] perfect life and he was ridiculed and rejected. And then he died on a cross and he rose again because he loves you. And if you were the only person on the planet, he would have still done
[00:41:41] it anyways. And there's nothing you can do that can separate him, separate you from his love.
[00:41:49] and maybe instead of chasing after love this morning, what you need to do is receive love himself.
[00:42:00] You know what that means?
[00:42:02] It means, God, I choose you fully with all my heart, all my soul, all my strength.
[00:42:08] I obey, I choose, I repent of my sin.

[00:42:11] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:42:11] I'm gonna choose to follow you.
[00:42:14] Not what I feel, but I choose to follow you, Jesus.

[00:42:18] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:42:18] If that is you here in this room or across any of our campuses, you're watching online, today, right now, you can receive love.

[00:42:25] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:42:25] the greatest love, and it has a name, and it's Jesus. Would you pray something like this? It's not the prayer that saves you, it's the person behind it. Dear Jesus, for loving me, thank you
[00:42:41] for meeting me in the middle of the tension. Even when I don't deserve it, God, I may have made a mess of my life, but you've chosen to meet me even in my mess. And so all I can say is I want

[00:43:04] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:43:04] a relationship with you. I choose love today and ask you to forgive me of my sins. Forgive me of my disobedience. Today, from this day forward, I choose to follow you for the rest of my days and
[00:43:18] to make you Lord and leader and king of my life and all my heart, all my soul, all my strength,

[00:43:28] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:43:28] all my mind. Father, you heard every prayer of every heart that right now just received you as Savior. With heads bowed and eyes closed, I just want to ask this question. If that was you today

[00:43:44] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:43:44] and you just said, I chose love, I chose Jesus as my Savior, can I just rejoice with you for just this moment? If that's you, would you just lift up your hand right now all across this place? You
[00:43:53] said, I chose love today. Just put it up right now if that's you, anyone in this place. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. I see some hands that are going up all across our place. Man,

[00:44:01] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:44:01] that is the greatest, greatest choice you could ever choose. Father, thank you for those who now

[00:44:10] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:44:10] just have chosen a relationship with you.
[00:44:13] And for those of us that know love, may we show love.
[00:44:18] God, help us to love you passionately and love people unconditionally.
[00:44:21] It is in Jesus' name we pray all these things.
[00:44:24] And God's people said, amen and amen.