Sermon Notes

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You may be seated. I appreciate Parrish taking the time to do the announcements before I came up here. Because, when it comes to ministry, and the things that we do, there's a lot of coordination that goes on. And, I'm thankful for all of that that happens, because, there's some of us that stand behind the pulpit, and some running the microphones and do different things, but, this ministry has much that is important. And, those that don't realize, that's a huge piece, just to be able have that little break in there before me. But, on the other side of that, I’m excited, because, as I come up here, I get to sing about Jesus and talk a little bit more about Jesus, I get to share from my heart, and I pray that there's a blessing this morning.

This month, we've been talking about, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might, mind, and all your strength.” And, our passage is from Mark, twelve. I was doing some reading, and I backed up into eleven, just looking at what's going on here. What's Jesus talking about? Because, Jesus is the one who told us about this, He's the one who says this. But, he wasn't the first to say it. All throughout Deuteronomy, love the Lord your God with all, love the Lord your God with all. But, Jesus was fighting a different battle; He was standing up against something, here, He had just come in—this was just after what we would call, what we celebrate as Palm Sunday. He had just came in, and they laid down their palms, they laid down their coats, saying, “Hosanna in the highest!”  He had come in to the temple and knocked down the money changers tables, just set things askew. Because they were making the law what it was all about. They were making their merchandise, they were making, saying, “The law says you’ve got to give this. You have to give this offering. Oh, and here's how much it's going to cost.” Selling those things for a sacrifice. It was no longer a sacrifice, it was about the Law and the Book. And, Jesus was—Jesus came and He was dealing with—in this whole passage of Mark, chapter twelve, He's talking to the common people, those that would listen to Him. He's talking, at the same time, to the leaders. He's giving a dual message, at the same time. One hears one message, one hears another. I'm going to get to love with all. One of the parables he's teaching, talks about a man who sets up a vineyard and leaves, he sets it up, and makes it work, makes it run, and he lets it out to husbandman to run for him. He sends his servant back to get fruit from his vineyard. They beat him, and threw him out, and treated him badly. He said, “Well, maybe there's a mistake.” He sent more out. Eventually he sent his son, and said, “Peradventure they would respect my son.” But, no, they killed his son, and threw him out, and said, “We will kill the heir, and it's ours.” And, there's several other parables in there, but I’ll tell a little story, to lighten it up: A chicken and a pig are having a conversation out in the barnyard and the farmer over here, he's getting ready to have lunch, the pastor's coming over, the preacher’s coming, and the chickens all proud, and, the pig says, “What are you all proud about?” Chicken says, “I gave a contribution. They're having eggs and bacon.” The pig looks at him and says, “Yeah, you made a contribution, but I'm committed. I'm all in on this thing.” You think about being all in. Now, last month we talked about we would be worried about being fried, you know, being cooked up. No, last month, we talked about Jesus said, “My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” He said, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me.” Besides that, if I wasn't all in, that's when I'd be worried about being fried like bacon. That went over a lot better in my head than that.

So, Jesus is teaching the parable of the vineyard. And, He's speaking to the rulers, who are, basically, the scribes, the Pharisees who are interpreting the law. They are the ones that are saying, “This is the way you worship. This is what you do in the temple.” Jesus is coming in saying, “I am the way. I am the truth.” Jesus is coming in saying, “I am salvation.” They didn't want no part of it. They wanted—I guess it would have been the Torah. They wanted their Law. And, I'll never downplay the value of the Bible. I saw a brother one time, ask another brother for a Bible, and, he went to slide it across the floor. I thought the guy asking for it was going to come unglued. It's paper, it's ink. But, how am I treating it? And, if I'm not treating the piece of paper right, how am I treating the Word? How am I treating what's hidden in my heart? So, Jesus is speaking to the religious people of the day, the people that were taking things literally. What are we talking about?  Love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul, with all your mind, and strength. I want to read from Mark chapter twelve:

Mark 12:28-31   And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.

And this is what the scribe says back to him—and the scribes, they’re the ones who were charged with keeping the Word, writing it down, making sure that it was reproduced properly, and interpreted properly.

Mark 12:32-34   And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he: and to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. [So, he already knew this. The scribe already had this, he knew this before, he's listening to Jesus teach and, and he's repeating it back to him.] And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that durst ask him any question.

I heard a song on the radio, I'm in Love with Jesus, and He's in Love with Me. And, I had to stop and think about that for a second. Not because, whether or not I love Jesus, but, to put in my mind—because, when I say I'm in love with my wife, that means one thing. Because, I love my wife more than any other human being on the face of the Earth. And, she loves me more than anyone else. We're in love. But, people use that word, ‘love’ in so many different ways, today. I love cheeseburgers. I love pizza. I love this television program, television show. I saw this movie. “Oh, I love this show, I love this line!” That's not the love that Jesus was talking about. Talking about all, loving God with all.

So, what does that mean? Last week, Parrish talked about, or, the week before last, Parrish talked about a people oppressed, and they wanted them to sing a song. They put their harps up on a tree. Part of that message was, take your harps down. Don't let any oppression keep you from worshipping your God. From being completely fallen in love with your Jesus. Taking the time to worship Him. Chris talked about our soul. What's it worth? How much do I want to be saved? What's it worth to me? And, I know I'm not doing any of those sermons justice, but I wanted to highlight just a bit of those. I'll read from Luke eighteen, about a man who came to Jesus:

Luke 18:18-22    And a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God. Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother. And he said, All these have I kept from my youth up. Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing:…

So, he's saying, “Here's what I've done. Here's all the rules, I have done them.” Jesus's got a different answer for him. Jesus wants him to love Him with all.

Luke 18:22-27    Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me. And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful: for he was very rich. And when Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful, he said, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. And they that heard it said, Who then can be saved? And he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.

Jesus was telling them He wanted them to love Him with all, not just a follow a bunch of do’s and don’ts. Loving God with all means we understand this, not just read it. Loving God with all means we find ourselves on our knees in prayer, saying, “God, show me.” Because, I can read this (holding up Bible) from front to back; if I don’t have a godly understanding, I'm just following a book of do's and don'ts, I'm not loving God with all. I'm doing the same thing as those in the temple, coming with, “Oh, here, let me buy my sacrifice. Oh, it's going to be this much? Okay.” That's not what it's about. We take up an offering, but that's not what it's about. It's not about holding you hostage, saying, “Oh, you've got to give this much in the box in order to be saved.” It's not even about, “Oh, you didn't come to church last week! You didn't make this meeting!” As much as I enjoyed hearing from the people who shared today about the fellowship, and we gain things from those things, but, it's about loving God with all. I heard a preacher say, “You love God from the top of your head to the sole of your feet, and, your wallet’s halfway in between.” But, He's commanded to love with all. It's not about that.

There's a battle going on; it's for our soul. And, it's important to know our weaknesses, too. How do we know our weaknesses? James talks about looking unto that perfect law of liberty (James 1:25). Look, behold, and, we do it by looking into God's word. And, He shows us things.

1 Peter 5:7-9      casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.

But, we've got to attack this. It talks about love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, your mind and your strength. I'm military, if anyone’s been around me long enough, you hear me talk about my career in the Navy and the things that I've done. I spent ten years working on electronic things. Working on weapons systems to protect a ship, to protect people. I spent another thirteen years in a naval security force. I spent time reading about those that are in security work, those that fight, those that are soldiers, and they take their job very important. Because, they're the ones out on the front line. We can't sit back here and do things that they do. But, they have to be ready to do what they do. They have a lot of equipment they wear, because they know, if they walk into a building, and get shot, they’re of no use anymore. They walk into a building and get injured, they walk into someone's line of fire, if they walk—if they do anything that compromises their physical body, they're done. Game over for them. Everything that they've prepared to do is over. And, I've been reading about Navy Seals, and some of the stuff they wear is just phenomenal. From their head, you know, they wear a helmet. You know, World War II videos, and pictures, you see what they call the brain bucket. It's a pretty clumsy looking thing. It's pretty sophisticated now. But, they protect their head. They wear body armor. Body armor, over the years, has taken a lot of forms, from just what clothes they wore, to a sheet of leather, to chainmail, to a metal suit of armor, now, these high-tech Kevlar and composites, what? to protect the heart, the vital organs. They take pride, they take great care to put on their gear, and they have to wear it right.  They can't just throw it on. You've got to put it on right to protect yourself. You don't put it on right, something slips through, and you're done. You are of no use in that party anymore. You're of no use in that particular field. You can't do your job anymore. They study, they learn—and, we're talking about heart soul mind and strength. And, I'm going to get to that Scripture, here, in a minute. But, they protect their minds. They challenge each other on a daily basis. They challenge each other, they learn things, they study things. We look at—we see people going off to war, we see it on TV and videos, it's a whole different thing. They're actually—and those of those that have been in the military have sat in classrooms, you learn things. You go to a ship and learn how to put it back together when it's broke. You learn how to patch a hole, because, you know that if you're on a ship, in the middle of the ocean, the only solid ground is what's under your feet. And, you've got to keep it floating. You don't have a choice; you've got to keep that thing floating. How do you do it? Damage control. You learn that stuff in school. They beat it in our heads. We went through trainers, and they yelled at us, and they put us in the scenarios where we had to fix this mock-up trainer.  Because, in real life, if I don't fix it, I'm letting that ship sink. But, the mind. Understanding. They challenge each other on things, and a learn tactics, if they're going out to face an enemy, they learn about them. They go and study them. They study the terrain. They get a map; they make sure the map matches whatever it their objective is. They're learning; they're studying. Health. You go on the Navy base, and you look at that track, there's always somebody on it.  They’ve got those lights on; I don't think I've ever seen those lights turned off on that track. There's always someone on that Navy base running that track, running around that field, doing some kind of crazy looking exercise that, I hope I'm not told to do that. They're doing something. Why? Because they're making themselves more fit so they can do their job.

And, we're talking about loving the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. Ephesians six says:

Ephesians 6:11-18           Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

So, anyone who's been in the military knows that's not a game. And, this isn't a game. It's not about playing church. Sure, there's a time to come, and listen and learn. But, it's an active thing. It's an active thing, on a daily basis. I don't have the luxury to let it slip. There's a reason that we go over the Scripture, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” Because we got to protect that daily. I've got to protect it from the time I wake up, when I get in my car and I turn on my radio, from the time I step into work, and there's conversation going on, how protective of am I of my conversation? Am I loving God with everything I've got in that conversation, or, am I just letting it slide? Am I protecting everything about my walk with God? Am I protecting it when I decide what movie to go to? When I decide what TV program to watch? What movie to watch? What book to read? Who do I hang out with? You know, I'm not going to tell anyone who your friends should or shouldn't be, but, I have to look out for me, and say, are my friends edifying me? Are my friends lifting me up? Or, are my friends going to take me in a different direction? Because I enjoy the fellowship. We had a youth—we do that for a reason, have our youth get together, because, now we have youth getting together with like mind. Youth getting together, and, yeah, when we were kids we didn't want to hang out with a bunch of adults. We wanted to be with somebody our own age, and that's understandable. But, we can have our youth together. We can teach our youth, and give them a place to invite their friends, instead of them having to go out with their friends. And, you know, it was always a challenge on the ship, in the Navy, and, it's still there: If I want to go out on a liberty port, I had to pick my liberty buddy wisely. And, I was unwise a few times, and found myself having to get myself back to the ship and getting away from where these guys—were these other guys were going, because they wanted to go drinking. I'm stuck with them, because I signed out with them. And, they all want to me to go out. And, this is where the world wants to play with the letter of what we call the law, because, they just want to be good. They want to say that they're okay; they want to find ways to take this and say, “You're justified.” and find ways to say, “Oh, you're just good enough.” because that can be just the end. Your complacency, right there. When the world says, “You're good enough.” Just, “You're good enough.” The rulers didn't want Jesus to say who He was. They wanted things the way they were. They didn't want to have to live a spiritual life. They wanted to live by their law. They didn't want Jesus to say, “You've got to live right.” The world doesn't want to do that. The world will say find any way to say this is wrong, or find a way to minimize it, one of the two. They will find a way to say, “Hey, you're okay.” And, then, they are going to get offended, as if we're judging them. They're going to get offended, as if we're telling them they're wrong. Just because we don't want to join them and what they're doing. But, this is the battle we fight.

But, going back to last month, where Jesus said, “Learn of Me. My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” We have a joy; we have a peace in Christ. Because, you can take all this and say, “Oh, living for God is such a drudgery.” No, it's not. I know the end—I've read it; I know the end. We always get upset when someone tells us the end of a movie, you know, the spoiler, but, you can spoil the ending all you want. You can tell me about it, I don't care. Because we know, we know what our purpose is, we know what our future is, we know where we're going. Whether anyone else wants to go or not, I know where I'm going. I know this life is short, and Eternity is not. One last Scripture in Galatians, five, twenty-two through twenty-three—twenty-one through twenty-three. We're talking about, how do you know whether you're doing right? Let me kind of lay some breadcrumbs here. In Galatians:

Galatians 5:21-23            envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

Talking about loving God with all. With all my heart, with all my soul, with all my mind, with all my strength. And, I made some physical references there, because those are good to think of. Because, these are all things that, it's plain to me, that I need to protect this. If I'm working on a piece of machinery, I need to wear gloves, I need to wear my eye protection. I need to do the things to protect me. But, if I'm talking spiritual, then I've got to do the things to protect me. I've got to do things to protect my family. We've got to do things that protect each other. And, Nazira read this list off, and it was something that Parrish—it was a list of things that we talked about, when we talk to the ladies, and I want to leave you with these questions: because they're important and they are things that will define me as a person, as a Christian, as a spiritual being, and us as we really relate to each other in this ministry. These five questions: How's my worship? How's my worship? Am I worshipping with God? How's my prayer life? How's my study? How's my sharing? How's my fellowship? five simple questions. I should have given those to Pete to put up on our screen back there, because I think these are things that—we are going to keep going over these. Because, it could be easy to say that I'm just trying to make us grow in numbers. That's not what it's about. It's about those that are here. And, I, I took these personally, when I read them. And, I still do. And, I haven't done it, but I think I'm going to make a poster and I want to put it on my screensaver on my computer, because these are things that I want to remember. How's my worship? How's my prayer? How's my study? How's my sharing? How's my fellowship? Thank you.

                           Sermon notes by Pete Shepherd