Hello everyone, my name is Miko, I am in 9th grade and I go to Contra Costa School of Performing Arts, or known as Cocosba, and I am going to be reading Matthew 22, verses 34 through 40. The greatest commandment Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in law, tested him with this question Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law? Jesus replied Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, 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 to these two commandments. Thank you.

Have you ever broken the law? Never, of course not. I mean, we spend our lives trying to learn about the law and then we pretty quickly break it. How many? Anybody driven over 55 and a 55? I'm waiting for anybody driven. I've got driving teenagers here. Anybody driven over 55 and a 55? So some.

So so you, a bunch of rule breakers look at you rebels. How about? Rip mattresses off or tags off of mattresses? Anybody done that? I learned. By the way, I look into this, it's the manufacturers. Federal law says that the manufacturers can't rip the tag off, so you guys can go wild, have fun with it. I also learned this week that you can't hold I got to read this right you can't hold an orca whale in captivity to display, perform or entertain. That's illegal. In simpler terms, you can't hold an orca whale on porpoise. Thank you, it's going to be that kind of a day today, so buckle up. I also learned.

In San Francisco in 1867, they passed an ugly law I don't know if it's been lifted or not, but it was by. The board of supervisors approved its order number 873, the order banned street begging and too terrible a sight for the children to see. Avert their eyes If you were considered ugly, they would charge you $25, which is now equivalent to about $460, which is why I lose so much money going to San Francisco. But I mean, the same is asked in this passage, right? It's like, come on, they're all laws, but they can't all be the same, right? If that's true, then this whole 55 thing we're all in big trouble. I've never seen anybody drive 55 between Vallejo and American Canyon, right there in that little strip. Nobody, nobody, except my children. That's the only people who should. But it's like, what's the most important laws? And so that's.

What's happening here is that the Pharisees are testing Jesus and they're saying here are all the laws which we, the Pharisees, believe are all God-given, and these God-given laws are, because they're given by God, they're all equivalent. So then, jesus, which one do you say is the most important law? Go ahead. And so he answers so beautifully to where he says all the laws are important, but these are the two that are central to God's heart.

And at the end of this passage, actually in Mark, it's so interesting because these Pharisees it's debatable whether the Pharisees were coming to either trick them, or it says that the Pharisees came, and then it was the Sadducees, and then one of the Pharisees came. And then it was the Sadducees, and then one of the Pharisees came back. So there's a part of me that believes that this Pharisee came back because he said you're saying something that I don't understand and I want to learn more. And so at the end, jesus, in this interaction with this teacher, he even says you are getting. You are not far from God, as if to say you're getting it when you understand the heart of God, when you understand the laws. In this sense, you're getting it. So lean in, don't give up. And so that's what we get a chance to talk about today, and that's my prayer is that as we spend time studying, god's word is that we get it. And more than getting it, it's that we get the heartbeat of who God is and how we can then live that out for other people. So welcome Happy Sunday. I'm assuming none of you are football fans, so it's nice to see you. This sermon is only going to be about three and a half hours, so you'll be able to catch the afternoon ones barely, barely.

My name is Jeff, I'm one of the pastors here on staff and I get the privilege of teaching. If you're new with us. We have been faithfully preaching through the book of Matthew and I hear the snickers. I started two and a half years ago. We are right now in Matthew 22. Two and a half years ago, when I started on staff, we were in Matthew 21. So we're going to be done here real quick, real quick. No, actually it's really exciting. We're getting to the end of this. We will be lining up Our scripture, will be lining up with Eastern. So as Matthew ends, we will end the book of Matthew at Eastern. It's going to actually be a really cool celebration.

But every week we come, we open up God's word and we say this is God's word. What does it say to me and some of them? I've got to be honest. When we sit here and we see who's going to be preaching and teaching in each week, I'm like I don't want that one. That one's not a whole lot of fun. I want the next week. But it's just that's God's word. And so it says what does it mean for us in our lives today? And so that's what we're doing. Two weeks ago we started in Matthew. Again the religious leaders have been asking Two weeks ago, was that the Pharisees were asking?

They were asking questions about paying taxes. So they're asking questions about culture and what it looks like in politics, and how does that work out? And Jesus said you're thinking about it like this, but it's actually more over here like this. And then last week the Sadducees had their turn at Jesus. The Pharisees didn't tear him up, and so then the Sadducees said give us a turn and we're going to do it. And they're like well, they don't believe in an afterlife in heaven. And so they said well, what's going to happen when we die? Who are we going to be married to, if you say that we're in heaven? And Jesus says oh, you're asking this question, but it's actually a much bigger conversation out here that we are heaven-bound people and we are eternal creatures, and so we are living resurrected lives, both now here and then.

And so then this week it says that the Pharisees returned, or one of the Pharisees returned and asking a question about the law. And this time Jesus goes oh, you're asking about all these laws, but actually let's start right here. So that's what we get to do today is we get to look at. It's so big when you talk about the law in the Old Testament, but we're going to start right here, and I believe and what I see in scripture, because there are different accounts of Jesus. If you look at the gospels, we've got Matthew, mark, luke and John. Matthew is the one that we're studying, but then we'll use the other gospels to supplement that, to make sure that we get the full picture of the story and between Matthew and Mark it really gives the full story. Jesus actually teaches this in other places. You'll see the same text in Luke, because it really comes out of the Old Testament, but it's not in the same context and it's a different setting. So the Mark passage and the Matthew passage are the same account, it's just from two different perspectives. So I'm going to read the Mark passage, hold on to Matthew, and then we'll kind of look at it from there. So Mark, chapter 12, verses 28 through 34, says it like this One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating, noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer.

He asked them of all the commandments, which is the most important? The most important one answered. Jesus is this here we are, israel, the Lord, our God. The Lord is one. Love the Lord, your God, with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind and with all of your strength. The second is this love your neighbor as yourself. There's no commandment greater than these. Well said, teacher. The man replied you were right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all of your heart, with all of your understanding and with all of your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself, is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices. When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, like I referred at the start, you are not far from the kingdom of God.

And so the Pharisees. Their background comes from. They've spent their life studying the law. These are teachers and scribes and lawyers, and they've spent their life studying the law. And by law I mean a couple of different things Law, the 10 commandments given in Exodus 20, and you've got those 10 commandments. And then, when I say law, I mean the Old Testament law, 613 of them that I'm sure we all know. But those 613, 365 of them are negative laws, which essentially is saying don't do this, don't mix this fabric with this linen, and things like that, don't trim your beards. All those, and then the new. And then there's 248 positive ones. So that's law as well. And then there's also the law which is just the first five books of the Bible, known as the Torah. So these people have probably memorized the first five books of the Bible.

They have studied, they've given their lives to this and even they are asking what is the most important Now. That question could be coming for one of two reasons. One is they're trying to trick him in saying all these laws are important, they all came from God, but which one are you going to say? But I also think, and based on the interactions between Jesus and this teacher, it's also saying I've spent my life studying this and I don't totally understand it. Could you help me understand what's going on here, because I don't have a clear picture of it.

And then, either way, jesus is gracious and he answers. But let's be honest, isn't that why we're here? The way Jesus is gracious and he answers, but let's be honest, isn't that why we're here? It's why you trust us. With 70 minutes of your time, you dive into relationship with other people as you go. Look, I can. My own knowledge can only go so far, and that's true of all of us, including me. My knowledge can only go so far. So could we, as a collective group, continue to understand the centrality of the heart of God? It's why we joined the gym. Just tell me which things are going to hurt the worst and I can lift them fast and I can be out of here, right. It's why we join classes and we subscribe to news feeds. It's like there's so much out there. Can you help just kind of cut through this and to give me the highlights of this whole thing? So that's what we seek today, which is also what I think they were seeking back then.

So then, jesus obliges, and he roots his answer in the heritage of who God is, the God of the Old Testament, the God of, as we saw last week. In fact, that's where it ended. It said in Matthew 22, 32,. It said remember, god said this is Jesus talking about God. I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, talking of heaven and afterlife, and that he is a living God, both now and then which is yet to come Again talking to the Sadducees. And so then Jesus so wisely, from there, takes this Shema, which is a prayer that the Jews of this time would pray. They'd pray it in the morning, they'd pray it throughout the day, and it was a central prayer that identified God as being first and only, and then it was also then how we would then align our lives towards God. It says the Lord is one, a God of Abraham and of Isaac, of Jacob, it's all the same God.

And he's speaking to a religious group of people that know this Then. So he's starting in their foundational place. He's saying I'm going to start with you here, and then I'm going to take you someplace, and so that's what we do today. And so he starts just like in Mark. He starts with Deuteronomy 6, 4, and 5. And it says hear, o Israel, the Lord, our God. The Lord is one we don't see that in Matthew, but it's implied that it's also there as well and then from there, declaring how we are then to position ourselves.

If God is one, if he is everything to us, then there is a response that we are supposed to live by. Because of that, deuteronomy 6, 5 then says love the Lord, your God, with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your strengths. That word love. Understand that. That's a different kind of love. It's a love to care for. It means abed or agapitos, which both of those are essentially. It's this foundational root love that's not only I love you and that you are my beloved, that I have a care for you because of the place that you mean to me, but it's also a receiving love of that. You have already loved me, so of course I'm going to love you. So even when he says it, when he says you are to love God, it's because God has already loved you first. So your response is then one of love that you are giving that back to them. So then, love God with all of your heart, mind, soul and strength. And then how that's it? Now, the scary part is that when you look at that heart, mind, soul and strength that would be all of me Does that scare you, terrifies me? It's just saying so every part of who you are. You just have to give that back to God. No big deal, right? But yet here's the part that I like in that is that it does talk about our heart, mind, soul and strength.

I think it's interesting that as we talk about how to love God, if you joined us over the summer, we went through this summer series where it was called Hope and Help. We talked about this idea that mental illness is a very real thing and that God wants to meet you in that. And I loved as we talked about that idea of hope and help, is that it really broke it down into four different areas that mental illness can actually be in. A couple of them is that it could be your mental illness that you're struggling with, biological, or it's clinical, or situational, or spiritual, but in both of those, what it's acknowledging is this you are a complex person. You're like, yeah, amen, I knew that we are complex people made by a complex God, and so there is no simple answers for some of those things, including mental health which, by the way and I know that we've already talked to you about jumping in and this is the week to kind of sign up for groups and activities and just the things that we're doing there is one class that is being offered.

It's called Renewed Minds and it's starting this Tuesday at 6 30. And it is directly it's in response to Hope and Help. So if you are somebody who is struggling with mental illness, if you want to just engage in the conversation and want to know more about what Scripture says, or if you have somebody in your life. There's not a better class to go and join. And it starts this Tuesday. It's called Renewed Minds. Go out into the lobby and find out about that. But I cannot encourage enough. It was actually designed in response to hope and help. So I would encourage that in all this, because we're complex and none of this is going to be solved all in one thing.

So it says to love God with your heart, mind, soul and strength, as we see in Mark. And then it says and then what else? Who else? Just love your neighbor as yourself. Leviticus 19, 18. But think about that. Love your neighbor as yourself.

Now I know how I feel about myself on a good day and I know. But we're talking like, think about it. Like when you leave the gym and you catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror, you're like that kind of love, you know. Like when you come out of the hair salon and you just went for one of those blowouts and you're just like, oh yeah, there you go, that kind of love, you know when you and again, I've interacted with students and I have some of my own, but I can tell when their outfit is giving and they're just like, oh, yeah, mm-hmm yeah, you're like, oh, you're feeling that one right now. So that kind of love. You know how you feel about yourself. Then Other people.

Now here's the other part in this. That I know is that there are also times that if we were to talk about loving ourselves, you would say I actually don't love myself at all. Thank you very much. And so this idea of loving somebody else as I'm supposed to love myself or loving others as I love myself is actually impossible. But what I've also seen is that there are people who will then develop almost a false sense of who they are, that they will then be seeking self-love because they're not allowing God to be the one who's then fulfilling that, and you're creating a false self of who you are.

In either way, what you were doing is saying the love that is designed that agapatos, agapos is designed to be given to somebody else. Love God and love other people, and the problem comes when we reserve that for ourselves. Is then we have nothing to give to our neighbor. And who's our neighbor? Our neighbor is the one who needs mercy, the one who either gives mercy or receives mercy, and he's speaking to a group. Now understand this, as he's talking to people who are then saying love God and love other people. This is a religious group of people who said give me biblical foundations for how I can excommunicate people. They want to know who's in and who's out. Oh, you don't follow these 613 laws. I'm so sorry, but you don't belong here anymore. So you've now given me biblical proof and evidence of how I can go and shun you and put you far away from me. And that's not how this is designed. That's never how it's supposed to be.

There's a quote I ran into this week and I just love it. It says Jesus said love your neighbor as yourself. I believe this also applies to the things we chose to believe and talk about regarding our neighbors. If we don't want false, hateful things believed and spread about us, then we should be even more careful about not doing that towards others. Think about that Because here at its core, the things that we begin to identify in somebody else and say you don't belong to me Isn't it interesting that those things that we begin to identify are usually things that we struggle with the most, and yet we see them in other people and we say I want to be far away from those things.

I'll say it like this If your version of Christianity puts fewer seats at your dinner table, then you are missing what Jesus says. I'll say it one more time for the people in the back in my own self If your version of Christianity puts fewer seats at the dinner table, then you are missing what Jesus is saying. And I'll say it like this because it's in 1 John 4. It says we love because he first loves us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. And I'll say it like this If you claim to love God and you have hate for your brothers and sisters in your heart, then I have very bad news for you, because you may not love God in the way that you actually say that you are. You are not allowing God to then do and change and work in you, and we also need to recognize that not only can we love God but hate man, but we can also. Then I've also seen people who love the creation but shun the creator. Uh-oh, but yeah, so you have an opportunity to say you know what? I love people, but God, he, I just don't. He and I aren't square and I go, man, it's a package deal and the two go together. Love God, love people.

The law from Exodus is. The first. Four are talking about our relationship with God. How are we are to interact with God? The last six are actually our relationship with other people and we've been given that, and it's the core of Jesus that is helping the religious people understand how to properly order their world, because love isn't just a feeling, it's an action and it's about obedience, but it's also about response. There's an action and it's about obedience, but it's also about response. There's an action that we should take, but it also should be of an overflow of what's happening.

I could take my wife on a date and it could be out of obedience. That's what a good husband does, and it's Thursday night and that's always when we go on a date. So come on, get in the car. I guess we're gonna go. Best date ever, dear Tyree, dear Tyree, or I can go, because I love her and she loves me, and I can't wait to spend time with her and we get to sit and spend time together. Could be the exact same date, but when the heart behind it is different is that we're missing it, and it's not conditional, that's for sure, or at least it shouldn't be.

And here's what I love, going back into Mark, is that it shows love's power, that it has. It's so that foundational, beloved love that we have for God and other people is so powerful, so powerful that it says this to love him this is verse 33, to love him with all of your heart, with all of your understanding and with all of your strength and your love, and to love your neighbor as yourself and this is it is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices. Don't miss that. In their times there's burnt offerings and sacrifices. Those were worship offerings. So then, loving God and our neighbor is more important than the best that we have to give God. I've saved my first for you and I've given it. He says I would rather have your heart. I don't want your offerings if I don't have your heart. That's echoed all throughout the Old Testament.

Hosea 6 says that he desires love, not knowledge of him. That's what he wants, and he doesn't want your sacrifice. He wants you to love him. The heart of the person is paramount in worshiping God. That's where it starts, and then those offerings become a response. Do you get that? Is that when we then love God with everything of who we are, then out of it, then the worship, it becomes that response for it and for us. We are the offering.

Because then go back, it said all, all your heart, mind, soul and strength. How much of that is you? It's you so heart, mind, soul and strength, how much of that is you, it's you so? Then you get a chance to step in and to give every part of who you are, not because you have to, but because you get to Submit your life to God. Give him every part of who you are and not just some of it. Look, we all know the nice and shiny parts, and those are the parts that I'd love to show you, and I hide the other parts. But God says I see every part of it and I made it and I love you and I want it. That's what I want, that's the all.

And remember, jesus was talking to the best rule followers ever, so if anybody was going to be able to get the 613 right, it was them. But then at the same time, there was also a crowd that was sitting there and watching, and so then I recognize that in here we probably have both. There may be people here who are far away from the things of faith, or that you're at least at the point of saying this is new to me and I don't understand it. For you, my friends, first I say you are welcome here and I'm so glad that you are here, and what I would say is start here, love God, love people, inviting Jesus into your heart to do those two things. He'll begin to work with you on the other stuff.

And then for us, if you're anything like me I grew up in church man and my attendance was spotless and I wore the right stuff and I sat in a pew and we all sat in the same place and you don't talk in church, you make sure to give your 10%, you do all the things and you're a rule follower. And if you haven't experienced up to this point, then at some point in your life you're going to come to a place of recognizing that all of these things that you were doing and following and obeying are making you tired, disappointed and entitled, because how in the world can God love that person? Don't you see everything that I'm doing, which is essentially what took place and what took precedence for these people right here, and that's why Jesus is talking to them. But real talk. If I'm going to be honest with you guys, I don't like this passage Because I sit here and I go love God with all of these things.

Every one of those things in me is broken and the only way that I know to do it is to work harder and to do more. There's a parable about that somewhere, about the prodigal son and then the older brother, and that older brother in scripture talks about the fact that he says I deserve everything because of how much I've obeyed you, god or father, in this. And the father says everything I ever had was yours. I never withheld anything from you, and yet there's a sense of entitlement because of how much we have obeyed. Let me ask you a question what if? What if this passage the Shema Deuteronomy 6, 4 and 5, matthew Mark what if all these passages that we're looking at are less about doing things, these four things?

Love God with your heart, mind, soul and strength perfectly, and it's more about all that God is inviting you into. What if it's more of God is inviting you into? Experience that? Because here's what I know about myself, and I'm not going to say it for you, but for myself. I am a broken and sinful person and my heart, my mind, my soul and my strength have failed me this week alone and I know that they're going to again. However, when I take every part of that and I submit it to God, then our lives then become redeemed because of what Jesus did in our lives, and then we're able to give it back and use it for his glory. Then we have a very clear path on how we are to live, and it's not to do the things so that we earn it's. We are already here and we now get to live out of response. Those then become more powerful Let me say it slowly more powerful than burnt offerings. Your life, your love, your love to God and other people, become worship to God. It honors him, it pleases him.

And then check this out. Take that word all, and it's not quite as scary anymore because I read it and I was like all all heart, mind, soul and strength. I'm going to fail every time, but when you take it from that perspective, it's saying it's not limited to what it is that we can do or give, but rather what God has redeemed, and now what we get to share with him and the world that is so desperate and in need of an actual love that comes from Jesus, that's what we now get to live in. And let me read this for you one more time, because it gets way more exciting when you look at it with a very simple twist. My emphasis is what's put in here, but it's the same words.

I want you to notice one special word in this passage. I'm going to read again. It's this word, it's and and Very small. It's apparently a conjunction, though I don't understand grammar and in all this the word is used to connect words of the same part or speech. So when you put and things get better Peanut butter Okay, peanut butter and jelly, now we're talking Chips are fine, chips and guacamole, that's a whole meal, right. And all of a sudden it means that there is more. Let me read for you one more time part of this with a little bit of emphasis, okay.

Matthew 22, 37 through 40. Jesus replied love the Lord God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment, and the second is like this love your neighbor as yourself. I'll define it like this it's more than you could ever imagine. We conceive in our mind who God is and he is bigger, and I'll say it like this, the only way that I can conceive that, the only thing outside of a relationship with Jesus and what God is doing.

There's one other place where I feel like and is lived out on a day-to-day basis. It's Costco. Right, right, you all know that Costco is the definition of and. And have you ever seen those weirdos who walk in and they buy one thing Like what sort of self-control do you have? Like you go and you're like I just want a $5 chicken and then you walk out. That's. I was so happy I got to get a new one. I was like the best day ever. I love Costco. Where else can you get life insurance and tires and a 12-pack of tri-tip? I mean like it's just the best ever. I absolutely love it and I love it so much and some other people might know like I'm an original fan because it's Price Club. I mean like, right, you should be thank you. You know, and I never learned that idea of and at Costco more than when my wife and I were dating.

So I was at my apartment and my wife, who was my girlfriend at the time, came over and she said you can stop looking. I found it. And I was like I don't know what we're looking for, but go ahead, tell me. She goes. I found your engagement ring that we're gonna have and I found it. I found your engagement ring that we're going to have and I found it. I found the engagement ring. I was like well, I didn't start looking. So this is really handy. I appreciate that.

So she goes through and she starts talking about it. She says it has all the Cs, the color, the cut, the clarity, all the things that a good engagement ring should have. And I said, okay, tell me about it. Where should I go and get this fantastic engagement ring? And she said it's at Costco. And I said what Does it come in? Like a 12 pack? Like if you lose 11 of them? Like how does this work? And she goes no, they've got a great jewelry counter and this and that.

And I was still kind of like apprehensive. But at the time I was being mentored by our pastor at our church and I said she says that there's a ring at Costco and he goes, you, my friend, have been given a gift and you need to go buy that ring right now. And I was like, okay, here we go. So I went and I got a small little loan and then I went over to Costco and I bought a ring and a hot dog, because that's what you do when you go, you just get a hot dog. And so I'm sitting there and I'm eating my hot dog. I'm looking at the ring. I was like, well, it's just you and me hot dog, here we go. So I go and I take it.

Now this was earlier, like I had kind of a plan in place, but I was I'm slow. Let's just be honest. I was real slow to this whole thing. She knew that like we had a good thing going on. I was just dumb all day and so it just took me a little bit longer to get there. So I took the ring and I put it in a safety deposit box because I didn't want to lose it, I didn't want to rob me, because this is all the money that I ever had, and I put it over there.

A couple of weeks later we go to Costco and all of a sudden I started getting super nervous because I'm like, oh no, we're going to go and see that there isn't the ring there. And now she's going to figure out that I bought it and it's going to be ruined. And I'm going to have to propose to her in Costco and that's where we're going to get married and it's going to jewelry case. And we're walking around and again I've got like the back sweat and I'm just starting to freak out and I'm like, um, and so she's looking for this ring. That's not there because it's in the box. And she's looking for it and I said, well, what about this one over here? She's like that's a watch, are you okay? And I was like, and I'm like what about that? And go any farther. I want to say I got permission from my wife to share this. It doesn't paint her in the best light, but she also didn't know I was scheming and some people might call it lying, but whatever, I was tricking her for the sake of a surprise. So she goes, she looks and she's like it's not here. Somebody bought it. You didn't even care to look for it and now it's not here and you'll never see the best ring that was ever, ever, ever. I was like, but it's in the box and I had a hot dog and so we make up.

And then now, a couple months later and it's a long time because again kind of slow is that she's at her apartment and she goes and I go over there and she says hey, I was looking at some engagement rings, do you want to see them? And I was like, yeah, I'd love to see them. Because in my head I'm like, oh, you're going to show me a picture of that ring that I already have in a box and I'm going to be like a hero. And so she starts showing me these pictures and none of them look like the ring that I already own. I was like, hey, you know that stupid back engagement rings. I didn't. So I walk it back and I'm going to just apologize right now. I lied, I lied and it was what it was. But I took it up to the counter because I didn't know that they were going to take it back and I said it there and I said I'd like to return this please. And he goes why do you want to return it? And I just looked at him. I said she said no. I was like I needed to make it as desperate as possible. So I returned the ring and I sat there with a stack of cash and a hot dog and I had to figure out how to get another ring. Now here's what I learned that day Costco is great and I had more work to do, but the word and means there's more Rings and tires and life insurance and solar panels.

But don't miss the context. For us, it's, for our context, I want you to get caught up in the and of what God is inviting us into, all of your heart and your mind and your strength, every part of it. That's what he wants you to live into. And then also remember we can't separate loving God from already being loved. Amen, right, because here's the thing when we, when the greatest commandment is to love, it's because you have already been given it freely. So, then, that beloved love that we are receiving, it's easy to give because God has freely given it to us. And for our context, that word and actually means more than just there is more, it's immeasurably more.

I can't understand God's love. I can't understand why he would see fit to save me and yet he calls me into a beloved relationship of loving God and loving people. Ephesians 3, 20 and 21 says it like this Now, to him, who is able to do immeasurably more than all we could ask or imagine, according to his power, that is and here's where that all isn't scary. At work within us, we are able to love all because God is already working in us. To him be the glory, the church and in Christ Jesus, throughout all generations, forever and ever. And all God's people said amen. And so then when you give your life to Jesus, loving God and loving people, then he says that's a good start. Now we begin to work on all the other stuff, and the ands continue. I stopped before 40, but those ands continue and it's crucial. So look at this In 40, work on all the other stuff, and the ands continue. I stopped before 40, but those ands continue, and it's crucial. So look at this In 40, it says all the law and the prophets hang on these things, as if to say we've got this foundation of beloved love. This is where we start. And if you're going to build any of these other things, these expectations, these things that you should clean up your language or do that or give, or whatever it is that you're going to add to those things, they may be important, but if it's not rooted on a foundation of loving God and loving other people, then we don't want to have anything to do with it.

The law and the prophets are given the Old Testament was. Those laws were never designed to be something that we worship. You aren't supposed to worship, because then again, if you're able to accomplish more of them, then you feel more pride because you did it in and of yourself. The law that was given was actually designed to say you can't do it, you need a savior, and Jesus is on the way. That's what it's supposed to be. And so then, when Jesus comes, he says in Matthew 5, 17, do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. My friends, the law was never designed to save. It was actually supposed to point towards Jesus. The law that we look at is actually more of a thermometer, to say, based on these sort of things. This is how bad I'm in need of a savior. My friends, I am the chief of sinners. I need a savior.

Here in Northgate, we desire that everything that we do as a church is first to love God and secondly, to love other people. My hope and my prayer for our church is that if people are out there talking about us, they go. Man, those guys are a mess, but I'll tell you what they do they love God and they love other people. So then if in this, as we're talking about that heart, mind, soul and strength and you go, okay, that's great. But how? If you want to know how this is a good place to step in, and if you hear all this, know this about Northgate.

Northgate exists to help unchurched people become wholehearted followers of Jesus. It is our desire to have people say yes to Jesus and then continue to grow in their relationship so that they can then do that for other people, loving God and loving people. And I'll tell you this we as human beings are not perfect, and so we're probably going to mess it up, and for that I'm sorry. I think I messed it up this last week, I'm probably going to mess it up again next week. But we are imperfect people trusting in a perfect God to fulfill that which we couldn't do in and of ourselves. And I'll say it in this way. If I could break it down into three steps, it would be this One is that, as we have as a church in this last year, we've had this declaration, this one word declaration that really breaks down into three parts and it's the word represent.

And I like it because of this is that when you look at that word represent, the first part is to be present with Jesus, would represent. The first part is to be present with Jesus, to be present and to allow to experience God's love. That then becomes an overflow as we then respond back. So we are then present with Jesus and then the other two parts in that of then to be present, and then it's to represent and represent Jesus. And as we are representing and representing Jesus, we do that in community, because it was never designed to be alone, and I am sure that somebody in some church community at some point has had the potential to hurt you or be hurt by you, because I've done that, not intentionally, but it's just that we are human beings and we do it. So we live in community to continue to go back to a perfect God whose grace, amen, covers over all of our sins, and then we continue to represent and represent.

If there is two ways that I would encourage you to do it, it's this. The first is something called engage. It's a class that we have where we essentially say here's who Northgate is. It's kind of the nuts and bolts of who we are. We pull back the curtain and we go see there's no man pulling the strings and this, and that it's just here's who we are. Here's how you can get plugged in. Here's a bit of our 30-year history as a church. Here's our heartbeat, and we would love for you to be a part of that. Our heartbeat is you, it's us, so would you help us to make that heartbeat strong? Second is this is that we have it's actually launching tomorrow.

It's called Rooted and our Rooted ministry, or Rooted, is the first 10 weeks of a life group experience, and so then it allows you to be present, to represent and represent in a community of other people living in habits and patterns and rhythms of worship and celebration and generosity and confession, and after 10 weeks you are spending time and sharing things with people that you didn't know their last name on the first week and by week 10, you're telling them things that other people outside of that group don't know, because there's something very powerful about experiencing that beloved love of loving God and loving other people.

So if you were to do a couple things, that's what I would encourage you to do. But here's my prayer for us as people and as a gathering, and as a church and as a community May we be a community that is best known for loving God and loving people. All the law hangs on that. Let me pray for us. And so, father, it is so simple and we will spend our entire life trying to get it right. God, may we be a people that are overwhelmed by your beloved love, that your love, the thing that has saved us, that brings us in, that draws us near. Be then, the thing that is an overflow back to you as an offering, and also to those people that are around us that desperately need to experience the love of Christ. And again, it's spoken so simply and we will work it out with fear and trembling, as we see in 1 Peter. May we be people that submit that to you In your name. We pray Amen.