November 5 sermon The Greatest Commandment mark 12

November 5 sermon The Greatest Commandment Mark 12

A newly discovered chapter in the Book of Genesis has provided the answer to "Where do pets come from?" Adam and Eve said, "LORD, when we were in the garden, YOU walked with us every day. Now we do not see YOU any more. We are lonesome here, and it is difficult for us to remember how much YOU love us."
And GOD said, I will create a companion for you that will be with you and who will be a reflection of MY love for you, so that you will love ME even when you cannot see ME. Regardless of how selfish or childish or unlovable you may be, this new companion will accept you as you are and will love you as I do, in spite of yourselves."
And GOD created a new animal to be a companion for Adam and Eve.And it was a good animal. And GOD was pleased. And the new animal was pleased to be with Adam and Eve and he wagged his tail. And Adam said, "Lord, I have already named all the animals in the Kingdom and I cannot think of a name for this new animal."

And GOD said, " I have created this new animal to be a reflection of MY love for you, his name will be a reflection of my own name, and you will call him Dog." And Dog lived with Adam and Eve and was a companion to them and loved them.
And they were comforted. And GOD was pleased. And Dog was content and wagged his tail. After a while, it came to pass that an angel came to the Lord and said, "Lord, Adam and Eve have become filled with pride. Dog has indeed taught them that they are loved, but perhaps too well."

And GOD said, I will create for them a companion who will be with them and who will see them as they are. The companion will remind them of their limitations, so they will know that they are not always worthy of adoration." And GOD created Cat to be a companion to Adam and Eve. And Cat would not obey them. And when Adam and Eve gazed into Cat's eyes, they were reminded that they were not the supreme beings.
And Adam and Eve learned humility. And they were greatly improved. And GOD was pleased. And Dog was happy.
And cat didn’t care either way.


What is the greatest commandment?? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and of course love your neighbor as yourself. How do you do that?? The Pharisee wanted to be meticulous in the keeping of all the laws. he’s thinking, “While I’m keeping the law, I want to make sure that the most important one is kept,”.

DO you ever feel that way? If I could just say the right thing to my spouse, she would listen. If I could just sell a few more computers I would make enough on my commission to put a down payment on the house. If I just knew what six numbers to pick, I could win the lottery and all my troubles would be over. If I could just bring in a few more people, the church would not struggle.

If, if, if, if. I don’t think the Pharisee was day dreaming. I think he was wrestling with his life. He was wondering if he was doing the right thing in his life. He wanted to make sure he was justified before God. We all want that. We all want to make sure we “make it” thru the gates. Even if I am sliding into home thru those pearly gates I still made it.



I have a friend up in Nashville who used to say “I’ll be happy just holding the door open for everyone else and being the last one in.” Not worried about status or the mansion on the hill, he just wanted to be in the gates.
So what does the greatest commandment mean? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Just that part right there is very easy. “I love you God. With all my heart I love you. With all my soul I love you. With all my mind I love you. With all my strength I love you.” Whew…..glad I got that in.

Is there more though? We talked a couple weeks ago about selling out for Jesus. Diving in to the deep end instead of walking around in the wading pool. How do I love God with all my heart in the wading pool of spirituality???? Who is the most important person in your life, besides your pastor? Who is the one you want to spend all the time you can….besides your pastor?

Maybe your spouse or your kids. It could be a best friend from college you love to be with. Why do you want to spend so much time with them? What is it about them that makes them so special? At Shriner’s Hospital they have a pet therapy group where the kids will open up by bringing a pet in which brings some home familiarity back.


The animals absorb the children’s focus and alleviate any anxiety. What about that person you have given all your heart too?? When you get married, you want to spend all your time with your spouse. You want to share everything and do everything together.

My niece got married a few months ago. I put together a list of 8 things to know when you get married.
1. You don’t have to be right all the time, even if you are. A friend once said “is this the hill you want to die on.” Just let it go. Trust me.
2. Get away from each other once a month. One person needs to leave for the weekend...go to your mom's, to see a friend across state, to Uncle Bob’s house. But get away from each other. The time away will refresh your marriage and you will see how much you missed the other person when you get back.
3. Money is the biggest thing you will fight over...whether you have any or not. Combine all your $$ in one acct (don't have separate accts). Don't have one person responsible for the bills every month. Do them together, or at least look at them together when the other is writing them out.4. Move out of the town your parents live in. This is true unless BOTH of you have the best relationship with whatever parent lives in town. Mom and dad only want the best for their child, and they will ALWAYS pick their child over the spouse.
You may have thought the show "Everybody Loves Raymond" was funny...it was true.5. Don't get in the family bickering. Whatever mom thinks of dad or dad thinks of Uncle Joe, ignore it. Make your own relationships.
6. This also goes for in-laws bickering. What you tell your mom about your spouse and spouse's family; that is all she knows. If you tell her that "my wife's mom sent a nasty email to us", but you don't tell her about the phone call the next day to apologize and make everything better, mom will always hate the other family. Plus there is always a contest about which family is better. It gets worse when you have kids.7. Live your own life. Your new family comes first now. You do what's best for them. That can be anything including moving across the country or around the world.
8. Focus on God in your marriage. Like my auto-signature on my email says "Party clean, live righteous". It's hard to believe without really experiencing it, but when you look to God in your marriage, in making decisions, in just learning more about Him, he will guide your life more than ever. It's a great thing. Sometimes it seems things are not going like they should, but if you stay focused on God, you will have guidance.


So you probably know how to love your mom or dad or spouse or kids with all of your heart. What about God now? To Love God with all your heart, you believe everything he says to be completely true. That he made you exactly how he wanted you to be. That he does love you, even though he saw everything you did last week.

That he sent his Son Jesus Christ to earth to be the sacrifice to save us from ourselves, and all we have to do is accept Jesus as our savior and live as he lived. To love God with all my heart means to give him dominion over every part of my life; even my heart. That’s a hard thing to do.

I can keep my heart and give everything else. Take the car, the computer, the money in the bank (there’s only about $28 in there anyway). But if I can keep my heart, I can keep my secrets. I can hide my true self.

But when I give my heart to God, it will be true love. Why keep a secret from him. He knows everything anyway. Everything I do in the dark, he sees. In the OT, Jonah was told to go to Ninevah by God. But Jonah’s people hated the Ninevites. So he ran the other way. He got on a ship and went down to the bottom deck and hid in the corner. “God won’t find me here, he thought.” Oh but God did. God had to throw him overboard and have a big fish swallow him for 3 days to get Jonah to listen.
It took a while, but Jonah gave his heart to God. He did what God said. Then he understood the last part of Jesus’ message. “Love your neighbor as yourself”.

When you finally see yourself as God sees you, only then can you start to love your neighbor. You see, God sees you perfect. He doesn’t care about those labels you have put on yourself, or someone else has put on you. He doesn’t care that your nose is crooked, your hair is blue and messed up, you have bad breath.

When you give him your heart, you will start to see as he sees. You look in the mirror and see a beautiful person looking back at you. That is how God sees you. Now you are able to love your neighbor. You see beauty in yourself and then you see beauty in others.



There was a lady named Mary who hated herself. She saw herself as too fat, unmotivated, and not loved. It took time for her to realize that she was beautiful. God loved her. She was ready to change her self-image. She started looking in the mirror each morning and seeing someone she liked.



The more she liked that person, the more she liked the people she met out on the street, even those she had done her best to ignore. A few months later she started working at a homeless shelter downtown. The people she now ministered to were penniless, a different color than her, and they stunk. But she realized that God loved them just like He loved her.

In a week we are getting together to see where the focus of ministry for the church is going. We will be putting together the vision for the church to go with the mission of “Making disciples for Jesus Christ”. We will pray and come together and see where God leads the church. We will find out who our neighbors are; those we must love; those who God loves.

This week, look in the mirror. Look at the man or woman created by God and loved by God. Step outside your box now and see the other people God created. Those are the neighbors he wants you to love. We can love them together. That’s our service today and for every tomorrow.

COMMUNION
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