Do What Matters Most

Neal Dose

Forward Together • Sermon • Submitted 8 months ago • Presented 8 months ago

Matthew 22:34–46

Love

Love of God

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A sermon on our series Forward to

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Forward Together: Glorify God

WE - It is so important for us to remember that WE are doing this together. The WE’s NEED THE ME’s & THE ME NEEDS WE. Mansfield Baptist Church Exist to Share Christ & Shape Christ Followers.

We Glorify God By Doing What Matters Most Share Christ We Shape Christ Followers We Love Authentically We are Formed Biblically We Give Sacrificially We Advance The Kingdom We Are Sent

Do What Matters Most

Turn in your Bibles to Matthew 22 I want to answer 2 questions today

What matters most? What do we do?

We are going to look at & evaluate a response Jesus gives to those trying to trap him by questioning him.

Matthew 22:34-40 “When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they came together. And one of them, an expert in the law, asked a question to test him: “Teacher, which command in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.””

There is a lot going on in this text

Saducees have just been silenced Pharisees see an opportunity for a double whammy

Silence Jesus Assert dominance over Saducees by silencing Jesus They get together…they have a meeting, a pow wow, a holy huddle to decide how they might catch Jesus.

You must understand that this is what they have been doing since Jesus came on the scene. Jesus is bad for their business. They look around their holy huddle and they look at Jeremy, a guy that was a good student but there was that one time he messed something up. NOT HIM. They look around the holy huddle and they see David, he’s done everything right, knows all the answers, buutttt remember that time last year when he forgot the part in the ritual for cleansing. Finally they look around their holy huddle and they lay eyes on Connor, an expert in the law.

I am an expert of nothing. To be an expert means you have mastered something, and this is the guy as they think back on their time together, he is the one that is the smartest guy in their graduating class, he is the one that they go to when they have questions, he is the one that knows all the answers…and he is the one chosen to confront this “prophet Jesus” This Pharisee doesn’t mess around, he goes straight for the jugular.

Because he is an “expert” in the law he thinks he has a way to trap Jesus. It’s a multi layered trap. People were going to have a problem with whatever answer he gave.

Circumcision, Sabbath, Sacrifices, No matter what law he points out there is going to be someone who will dispute him. You see they are looking at it from an individualistic standpoint.

What LAW is the greatest. Jesus knows, that every single one has merit or else it would have been given in the first place. Jesus doesn’t focus on the ceremonial, or sacrificial laws. He focuses on the heart that birthed the laws.

WHAT MATTERS TO GOD?

Jesus responds to this group of Pharisees in love saying, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Jesus silences the expert & give us great clarity! Love the Lord your God - Love God Love your neighbor - Love People Jesus uses the sacrificial, “agape” to describe the kind of love for God & our neighbor. Jesus gives us incredible insight into the heart of what matters to God. What he says is nothing necessarily new, when we look back to the meeting on Sinai with Moses & the Lord In Exodus 20 Moses has a meeting with God and he writes down as instructed the 10 Commandments.

These Ten Commandments are the heartbeat of God for the children of God.

3 Do not have other gods besides me. 4 Do not make an idol for yourself 7 Do not misuse the name of the Lord your God, 8 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy: 12 Honor your father and your mother so that you may have a long life in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. 13 Do not murder. 14 Do not commit adultery. 15 Do not steal. 16 Do not give false testimony against your neighbor. 17 Do not covet your neighbor’s house. Do not covet your neighbor’s wife, his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. -- Exodus 20:3-17

Jesus says that the most important commandment is to Love God & Love People

Commandments 1-4 deal with our love for God. Commandments 5-10 deal with loving of our neighbor.

We Glorify God by doing what matters most.

Love God Love People Belonging precedes doing

Before we DO we have to BELONG.

Let me ask you a question, how often to you try to do in order to justify your belonging? How often do you do things to justify the reason you belong in a place. We do this with our Christian lives.

We don’t belong because we of what we DO, we DO because we belong!

We say that WE — GLORIFY GOD — BY DOING WHAT MATTERS MOST.

There is a communal aspect…its we not me There is a selfless aspect…its not about me There is a clarity aspect…matters most

How do I DO what matters most?

Live from the righteousness of Christ. Obey the commands of the scriptures for what to do next.

Heart - Deut 6:5 - Is God the one thing that drives everything?

Guard my heart - Proverbs 4:23

Head - Romans 12:1-2 - What is going on in your mind? Is it being transformed?

Grow my mind - Phil 4:8 (Philippians Filter) Protect my head

Hands - Ephesians 2:10 - How are your hands working to love God & People

Use my hands - Col 3:17 Watch my hands - Matthew 6:3

How we Love God & Love People effects what we do here each week.

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