Second Message - Major James Jones
Message Description
Guest speaker Major James Jones continues the Second Message series teaching out of the New Testament sharing about how to properly respond to God's love.
Message Transcript
Amen, amen. Praise the Lord, everybody. Praise the Lord, everybody. Come on and put your hands together and give the Lord some praise, for this is the day that the Lord has made, and we shall rejoice and be glad in it. Amen?
Amen. It is good to be alive. It is good to be in church. It is good to be alive in the church. Can I get a witness? Amen. I want to thank Orchard Hill for such a warm welcome. I want to thank Kurt for the invitation to be with you this morning. I am ecstatic to be here with this family this morning. My wife is with me; her name is Melinda. Would you stand up, please? That's my wife, that's my baby, she's the sugar in my tea, the syrup on my pancake, the butter on my toast, the jelly on my biscuit, mm-mm-mm. That's her right there, right there. Amen. Thank you, Major Melinda, and Orchard Hill Church for being here this morning.
Let us pray. Father, we come this morning lifting up your holy and righteous name. Father, we thank you for life, health, strength, and the ability to move and breathe today. We all know that you're already here, and Lord, we just ask that you let your Spirit run free in this place today. Bless every woman, man, and child today. God may your Word go out with strength and power and do what it does, and we pray in Jesus' name, and the church says it, amen.
Amen, and amen. As a minister of the gospel, I would say the first important message for a person to hear and understand from the Word of God is the gospel message. Can I get a witness? Amen.
Because the gospel message is the foundation of Christian faith, this message, the gospel message, is captured in a snapshot, if you will, in a familiar passage found in the book of John, chapters 3, 16, and 17. And it reads this way: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." In a snapshot, that is the gospel message. Therefore, after a person accepts this as truth, confesses their transgressions, as they believe this in their heart, believes Jesus Christ died and rose again for the atonement of their sins, then God enters the conditions that we are in through Jesus Christ. He stamps us approved and gives us worth and dignity. We become a part of God's body. We become a part of God's process to build his kingdom. But then we live to work out God's unfolding plan for our purpose. We live to work out God's unfolding plan for our purpose to acquire eternal life. Can I get a witness? Amen.
Now, that is a brief take on the gospel message and the acceptance of the gospel message. So, church, with that said, the first message would be the gospel. What would be the second message? What would be the second message, the important message I want to communicate? Well, for those who have your Bibles, let's look at the synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, in particular for this reading, Luke chapter 10, verses 25 to 28.
I like Luke's account of this text, although Matthew and Mark do parallel quite closely. Luke 10:25. It reads: "On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. 'Teacher,' he asked, 'what must I do to inherit eternal life?' 'What is written in the Law?' he replied. 'How do you read it?' He answered, 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and "Love your neighbor as yourself."' 'You have answered correctly,' Jesus replied. 'Do this and you will live.'"
This brings me to raise a question this morning. What does it take to acquire eternal life? Friends, if we want to live, loving God and loving our neighbor is a requirement to receive the gift of eternal life. Can I get a witness? Amen.
God's Word tells us when we love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our strength, and with all our mind, and love our neighbor as yourself, Jesus said, "Do that thing, do this, and you will live." In our text, Jesus didn't say you need a lot of money. He didn't say we need a big, perfect house. He didn't say we needed a fancy car. He didn't say we need the best job. He didn't even say we need the perfect children. He didn't say that we need an elite education. There are no contenders here, no qualifiers. What is required is simply love. In other words, we have to love God with everything within us, and with everything we got, including loving our neighbor as yourself.
In our text, Luke sheds light on an important commandment. But over in the book of Mark, Mark also gives us an interesting dialogue on this occasion as well. Mark chapter 12, Jesus has a conversation with the Jewish religious leaders. They were trying to trap Jesus. The conversation came as a result of a parable Jesus had spoken of about a vineyard owner. The religious leaders understood that Jesus was comparing them to the unrighteous and the rebellious vine-growers, and they were offended. So, they went away to regroup and decided on a new tactic to trick Jesus. They decided to send some of the best teachers of the law to try and catch Jesus in his own words. The first question to Jesus was about loyalty to Caesar versus loyalty to God. The second question focused on life after death. But Jesus answered both questions in ways that expose the religious leaders' deceptiveness.
However, one of the experts of the law recognized Jesus was not going to be tricked, so he asked a sincere question. He wanted to know what commandment was the first and most important of all. And Jesus replied, Jesus quotes from the Old Testament passage Deuteronomy 6:4 and 5, which is the same Scripture we read this morning. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself."
Now, what does it mean, church? What does it mean to love God with all your heart, with all your soul, mind, and strength? Well, I'm glad you asked this morning. I believe we first need to know how God defines love. Well, I looked it up and found a word, agape. It's a Greek word for love which is agape. It means to have a preference for or to regard the welfare of. It is to take pleasure in, to prize it above other things, to be unwilling to abandon it or do without it, to welcome with desire, and to long for. That is the definition in the Greek terminology of agape.
So, how are we to love? How are you and I to love? How is the human race to love? Well, my first point, we are to love God exclusively. We are to love God exclusively. The Bible says in Matthew chapter 6, verse 24, "No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and wealth." Why? Why is that? First of all, because God is a jealous God. Can I get a witness? Amen.
He created us to worship him and no other things. What Jesus wants to communicate in this verse is, do not let your desires for power, do not let your desires for pride, do not let your powerful position or money, drugs, or alcohol, lust, vanity, or anything else affect your love for God. Are you with me? In other words, don't let stuff get entangled with your relationship. Don't let stuff get entangled with your love for God. God wants all you have and all you got, with all your strength. To love God, we must love him exclusively. No other gods can have our attention. No other stuff can get in the way. Our hearts must be set only on what delights the heart of God. Our minds must be anchored only to his Word as the final authority. Our souls must be satisfied only with what pleases him. Our strength must be spent on what serves him and him alone. Can I get a witness? Amen.
The second thing I want to communicate this morning is we are to love God with a surpassing love, a surpassing love. Matthew chapter 10:37-39 says, "Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me." Ouch. "Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it."
In other words, Jesus is describing the cost of being a believer. The cost of being a true disciple. We are to love God more than anything, a surpassing love. We are to have a made-up mind and a strong determination to follow him despite any persuasion or influence that would hinder our paths. A surpassing love for him. The love for God that Jesus described should cause us to give up anything and everything that prevents our passion for him. Can you agree? Our love for God is to transcend the reach we have for our loved ones. Our love for God must surpass our love for other people and the things of this world.
The third and last thing I want to communicate: What does it mean to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength? And to acquire eternal life, we must love our neighbors. I was told a little girl said last night, "What's a neighbor?" That touched me when I heard that. Going back to our text, when Jesus explained that the way to eternal life is to love God and love our neighbors, Jesus was again questioned about the definition of neighbor in the text by an expert in the law of that time. You can find that in Luke chapter 10, verse 29, and it says, "But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, 'And who is my neighbor?'" So, Jesus used the parable of the Good Samaritan to explain what being a neighbor requires.
At that time, the Samaritans and the Jewish people despised one another. They hated each other. In the parable, a Jewish man was beaten. He was stripped and robbed. He was left half dead, lying in the street. A passing priest and a passing Levite ignored him. Both of them were from his culture. Both of them should've stopped and helped him, but they did not. But the least likely person that came to help him was the Samaritan. "Help me, somebody." He was the only one who stopped, the only one who stopped to be a true neighbor, to be a true neighbor.
Now, that is an example right there in this text, what a true neighbor is. He picked him up, healed his wounds, put him on his donkey, took him into a hotel, sat him up, stayed with him all night, watched over him, probably got a little bit of sleep, and made sure he was breathing. The next morning, he took out his coins, gave the innkeeper two denarii. He said, "Whatever he needs, take care of him. Whatever it is, if it's not enough, when I come back." He didn't give up on him. He said, "When I come back, I'll take care of the bill."
That's a true neighbor. That's the way God expects us, especially Christians, but just the human race to treat one another. That's a neighbor. Now, that is the example of a neighbor. The Samaritan showed the kind of love we are called to show. When we reach out in love and kindness towards those the world tells us to hate, we show our love for Jesus. Conflict, mistrust, and hate still exist today between groups of people. We still see prejudices and segregation. People still disassociate with others based on all sorts of self-righteous criteria. Self-righteous criteria. However, the message of the parable of the Good Samaritan is as relevant today as it was 2,000 years ago. Can I get a witness? Amen.
Church, sisters, and brothers in Christ, we are called to help those in need. It might be ourselves. "Love your neighbor as yourself" means love everyone despite the size they are or how they smell. Trust me. Trust me. Come on down to 821 Walnut Street in McKeesport. You will run back here. When God calls, do we listen? When he puts a circumstance in our path, do we walk around it, that's not love, as the priest and Levite did, or take it on as the Samaritan? Do we let our obligations and worldly wishes get in the way of loving our neighbors as Jesus asked us? I sure hope not.
Jesus said if we love God exclusively, love him with a surpassing love, and love our neighbor as we love ourselves, he said do this and we will live and have eternal life. That's the second message. Love God with everything you've got, love your neighbor as you love yourself, and we'll have a lot more harmony in the church, in our communities. Does anybody here want to live? That's the requirement. It's to get into heaven for eternity. I challenge you all to love God with everything you have. I challenge you to put differences aside and just be free in God and do his will, do his work. Can we do that? That's the second message I wanted to communicate to us today.
Let us pray. Father, thank you. Father, bless everyone here. May this word go out with strength and power. May it touch hearts, break down barriers, knockdown stereotypes, and may you be glorified. I just thank you, God, for what you're doing in our midst this morning. Continue to bless this great church and the leadership here, and every family, every child, and every family. Have your way today, and we pray in Jesus' name, amen.
I want to thank you for coming this morning to church. Thank you for being with us today. May you go in peace and have a great day.
