WEBVTT 00:00:00.400 --> 00:00:01.880 Good morning, Watermark. 00:00:04.060 --> 00:00:05.379 Is everyone awake? 00:00:06.660 --> 00:00:09.580 It was like a funeral, like, 00:00:10.259 --> 00:00:11.040 Good morning. 00:00:12.099 --> 00:00:13.540 Good morning, everyone. 00:00:14.300 --> 00:00:16.019 There we go. That's better. 00:00:16.839 --> 00:00:19.379 Sometimes silence is better than the, 00:00:19.600 --> 00:00:20.660 Good morning. 00:00:21.559 --> 00:00:22.100 I don't know. 00:00:23.519 --> 00:00:26.359 It's good to hear wide awake everyone. 00:00:27.320 --> 00:00:29.019 Today is a big day. 00:00:29.019 --> 00:00:31.079 It's the last day of 2017. 00:00:31.879 --> 00:00:33.259 Graham talked about how, 00:00:33.479 --> 00:00:37.600 Graham talked about how at the end of the year, 00:00:37.679 --> 00:00:38.899 sometimes we look backwards 00:00:38.899 --> 00:00:40.780 and reflect on the year that's just come. 00:00:41.780 --> 00:00:44.280 But something else that happens at the end of the year 00:00:44.280 --> 00:00:46.920 is a lot of people look forward to the upcoming year 00:00:46.920 --> 00:00:49.039 and make resolutions about the new year. 00:00:49.120 --> 00:00:50.200 Does anyone make resolutions? 00:00:51.519 --> 00:00:53.120 Yeah? A few people do. 00:00:55.000 --> 00:00:57.320 There's a lot of popular resolutions. 00:00:57.320 --> 00:00:59.780 Things such as, 00:00:59.880 --> 00:01:00.640 I want to eat healthier. 00:01:00.880 --> 00:01:02.060 I want to exercise more. 00:01:02.119 --> 00:01:03.859 I don't know what your resolutions are. 00:01:04.319 --> 00:01:07.239 But a lot of people have resolutions of things 00:01:07.239 --> 00:01:08.659 that next year, 00:01:08.939 --> 00:01:11.540 I want to be different than this year. 00:01:12.700 --> 00:01:14.599 And when we look down at it, 00:01:14.599 --> 00:01:15.480 ultimately, 00:01:16.859 --> 00:01:18.900 resolutions are about priorities. 00:01:18.900 --> 00:01:21.280 We're saying, 00:01:21.460 --> 00:01:22.420 when we make a resolution, 00:01:22.420 --> 00:01:25.700 I want to prioritize this thing in my life this year 00:01:25.700 --> 00:01:27.480 more than I have in the past. 00:01:28.180 --> 00:01:30.820 And if we don't make an official set of resolutions, 00:01:31.280 --> 00:01:32.940 what we're saying is, 00:01:33.180 --> 00:01:35.880 I don't really feel the need to reprioritize my life 00:01:35.880 --> 00:01:36.840 too much at this point. 00:01:38.000 --> 00:01:40.520 I don't typically write down a list of resolutions, 00:01:40.820 --> 00:01:43.200 but I sort of have some goals in my mind 00:01:43.200 --> 00:01:44.600 of things that I want to do this year, 00:01:44.599 --> 00:01:46.579 like I want to run a full marathon 00:01:46.579 --> 00:01:47.759 for the first time ever. 00:01:48.419 --> 00:01:49.000 To do that, 00:01:49.039 --> 00:01:52.359 I need to prioritize running and training in my life 00:01:52.359 --> 00:01:54.299 to be ready for that, right? 00:01:54.659 --> 00:01:57.500 So resolutions are about priorities. 00:01:58.579 --> 00:02:02.000 And all of us prioritize things in our lives. 00:02:03.039 --> 00:02:03.939 Some of us, 00:02:04.060 --> 00:02:06.899 it may be family or school or work 00:02:06.899 --> 00:02:08.379 or whatever it is, 00:02:08.560 --> 00:02:10.879 we all prioritize things in our lives. 00:02:10.919 --> 00:02:12.479 And as we get ready to start the new year, 00:02:12.479 --> 00:02:13.979 I want to ask you, 00:02:14.119 --> 00:02:16.319 are the things that you're planning to prioritize 00:02:16.319 --> 00:02:17.879 in your life this year 00:02:17.879 --> 00:02:21.339 the same things that God wants you to prioritize 00:02:21.339 --> 00:02:22.879 in your life this year? 00:02:23.819 --> 00:02:26.399 Are the things that you're planning to prioritize 00:02:26.399 --> 00:02:27.679 in your life this year 00:02:27.679 --> 00:02:31.179 the same things that God wants you to prioritize 00:02:31.179 --> 00:02:32.679 in your life this year? 00:02:34.159 --> 00:02:35.780 Today we're going to hear from Jesus 00:02:35.780 --> 00:02:39.219 about what God says our priorities should be. 00:02:39.219 --> 00:02:47.060 and what God says our priorities should be are loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, 00:02:47.120 --> 00:02:52.740 and strength. Basically everything we have and everything we are loving God and loving our 00:02:52.740 --> 00:02:58.900 neighbors as we love ourselves. And to get there, we're going to talk about understanding God's 00:02:58.900 --> 00:03:05.620 priorities, aligning ourselves with God's priorities, and responding to God's priorities. 00:03:05.620 --> 00:03:11.200 So let's pray, and then we'll jump in and start looking at the passage. Father, we thank you for 00:03:11.200 --> 00:03:17.400 this chance today to come together to look at your word, to hear from you. We pray that as we come 00:03:17.400 --> 00:03:22.680 together that you would speak to us, that you would shape our lives, that you would reshape our priorities 00:03:22.680 --> 00:03:27.700 to be your priorities, and that your Holy Spirit would transform us today to be people who love you 00:03:27.700 --> 00:03:35.140 and love one another. In Jesus' name, amen. So first off, we have understanding God's priorities. 00:03:35.620 --> 00:03:42.539 If we look at today's passage in Mark chapter 12, basically a guy comes with a question for Jesus 00:03:42.539 --> 00:03:49.680 about priorities. To give a little background and context, Jesus, there's a group of religious leaders 00:03:49.680 --> 00:03:56.240 who are not very happy with him. They want to get him into trouble, and so they've come up with this 00:03:56.240 --> 00:04:02.360 series of questions that they want to ask him to try and trap him. Basically these questions, 00:04:02.360 --> 00:04:06.820 they're expecting either he's going to say something that's going to make the Jewish community upset, 00:04:06.820 --> 00:04:13.040 or make the Roman community upset. Either the people in the area where he lives, or the government 00:04:13.040 --> 00:04:18.080 that's ruling over that area is going to be upset from the answers to these questions. And so they give 00:04:18.080 --> 00:04:24.960 him one question, and he answers it in a way that is faithful to the Bible, but doesn't make the Romans 00:04:24.960 --> 00:04:30.960 upset. And then they ask another. And every question they ask him, he has the exact right answer for it. 00:04:30.959 --> 00:04:38.599 And there's this one guy who's sort of sitting back watching, and he realizes Jesus has some pretty 00:04:38.599 --> 00:04:44.879 incredible answers to all of these questions. I have a question I want to ask him. And he comes up, 00:04:45.000 --> 00:04:51.659 and he says, which commandment is the most important of all? This is a question about priorities. 00:04:52.259 --> 00:04:57.719 God has given hundreds and hundreds of commandments to the Israelites. And this guy is saying, 00:04:57.720 --> 00:05:04.620 look, like, there's so many of these things. How can we keep them straight? Is there a simpler way 00:05:04.620 --> 00:05:09.540 that we can prioritize so we know, like, this is number one, and if we're doing this, we're doing 00:05:09.540 --> 00:05:18.340 pretty good? And Jesus says, yes, there is. He says the one thing is love the Lord your God with all your 00:05:18.340 --> 00:05:23.740 heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength. And the second is like it. Love your neighbor 00:05:23.740 --> 00:05:30.680 as yourself. Love for God, number one. Love for neighbor, number two. And despite Jesus' clarity, 00:05:30.819 --> 00:05:38.519 I think a lot of us probably still have a little bit of confusion about what he's really getting at 00:05:38.519 --> 00:05:44.620 here. And I think a lot of this is because of our understanding of what love is. We live in a 00:05:44.620 --> 00:05:51.680 culture that surrounds us with a definition of love that's not exactly in line with the Bible's 00:05:51.680 --> 00:05:58.480 definition of love. And I found a definition slash explanation of love this week from a psychologist. 00:05:58.699 --> 00:06:03.519 She wrote a book in, I think it was 2005. Her name is Dr. Deborah Annapol. I probably pronounced 00:06:03.519 --> 00:06:09.360 that wrong. Her book is The Seven Natural Laws of Love. And this is what she says. She says, 00:06:09.480 --> 00:06:16.939 love is a force of nature. However much we may want to, we cannot command, demand, or take away love 00:06:16.939 --> 00:06:21.120 any more than we can command the moon and the stars and the wind and the rain to come and go 00:06:21.120 --> 00:06:27.500 according to our whims. And if you think about it, like this is the message about love that we are 00:06:27.500 --> 00:06:35.300 fed day in, day out. Have any of you ever seen the movie Hitch? A few of you. One, one, one, two of you. 00:06:35.379 --> 00:06:42.500 Okay. It's a movie. It was popular like maybe when I was in high school. But in this movie, it's a rom-com, 00:06:42.600 --> 00:06:45.540 so you know what's going to happen. They're going to end up together. Spoiler alert. 00:06:45.540 --> 00:06:51.840 But Will Smith plays the main character, Hitch, and he falls in love with a character played by 00:06:51.840 --> 00:06:57.660 Ava Mendez. And there's this scene at the end of the movie where she's upset at him and he's come to 00:06:57.660 --> 00:07:02.620 her apartment to try and like get back together with her. And he's standing outside her door and 00:07:02.620 --> 00:07:06.800 she's sort of inside the door like looking through the peephole. So he's at this weird fish eye angle 00:07:06.800 --> 00:07:14.400 in the camera. And he gets there and he's trying to find the words to say to express how he feels 00:07:14.400 --> 00:07:20.199 about her. But he can't. He can't find words. And so he just starts making faces like... 00:07:24.800 --> 00:07:31.439 Because love is this force of nature in his life that's overwhelmed him so much that he can't even 00:07:31.439 --> 00:07:37.699 find words. And when he finally does find words, he starts explaining to her how when he's with her, 00:07:37.759 --> 00:07:43.759 he's miserable. But he wants to be miserable if that's what it takes to be with her. 00:07:44.660 --> 00:07:52.360 Nobody wants to be miserable. But this idea of love as a force of nature, it's so strong. It 00:07:52.360 --> 00:07:58.860 overwhelms us. It takes over our rationality. It's just this wave of emotions that crashes over us and 00:07:58.860 --> 00:08:04.699 we have no control over when or who or how. That's the message of our culture. That's the 00:08:04.699 --> 00:08:10.720 message of Hollywood. And I think that's probably a message that a lot of us, without even realizing 00:08:10.720 --> 00:08:16.460 it or thinking about it, sort of sink into believing. And if we look further into her quote, she says, 00:08:16.520 --> 00:08:24.520 we cannot command, demand, or take away love. And again, I think this is something a lot of people 00:08:24.519 --> 00:08:31.879 in the world would agree with. But that creates a big problem with what's happening in this passage 00:08:31.879 --> 00:08:42.000 today. Because what's Jesus doing? It's commanding love, right? He is saying, you have a command 00:08:42.000 --> 00:08:49.039 to love. The exact opposite of what this quote is saying. And I think if we're honest with ourselves, 00:08:49.039 --> 00:08:56.079 in the course of day-to-day life, a lot of us functionally probably tend to agree with this quote 00:08:56.079 --> 00:09:04.099 in the way that we live our lives. Like, how often do we hear or say things like, you know, I've fallen 00:09:04.099 --> 00:09:10.599 out of love with this person and there's nothing that can change it. You know, I could never love someone 00:09:10.600 --> 00:09:18.560 who treats me the way that my boss or father or spouse or fill in the blank treats me. You know, 00:09:18.580 --> 00:09:25.639 no matter how hard I try, there's nothing I can do to feel love for this person. Each of these comments 00:09:25.639 --> 00:09:31.580 shows this deep-seated belief in our hearts that love just has to occur naturally. It can't be commanded. 00:09:31.940 --> 00:09:37.480 Or if it can be commanded, there's no one who has commanded it that actually has the authority 00:09:37.480 --> 00:09:43.600 to command it in my life. And even if we don't make these statements ourselves, 00:09:44.360 --> 00:09:51.480 people make them to us. And how do we respond when they do? Do we say, yeah, you're right. 00:09:52.180 --> 00:09:54.740 You can't love someone who's done these things to you. 00:09:57.120 --> 00:10:04.700 Or do we say, you know what? Like, God does command us to love. God has given us a different picture 00:10:04.700 --> 00:10:12.360 in a different way when it comes to love. And here's why this is a big deal. Because if we 00:10:12.360 --> 00:10:18.520 say that we believe about Jesus, what the Bible says about him, if what the Bible says is true, 00:10:19.580 --> 00:10:29.040 then this cultural definition of love is false. And chasing it is going to lead to pain and destruction. 00:10:29.039 --> 00:10:41.279 And so if this isn't love, or at least isn't a full picture of what true love is, what is love? 00:10:42.419 --> 00:10:48.860 I think the best definition of love that I've found is probably this. Love is a commitment to pursue the 00:10:48.860 --> 00:10:54.399 ultimate good of someone or something else, even if it comes at great cost or sacrifice to yourself. 00:10:54.399 --> 00:11:02.059 love. Now again, this needs a little bit of nuance, because ideally this commitment is accompanied by 00:11:02.059 --> 00:11:07.539 those feelings of love most of the time. But there are going to be days, if you're married, you know 00:11:07.539 --> 00:11:11.720 this, there are going to be days where you wake up and you're just not feeling it. Anyone ever been 00:11:11.720 --> 00:11:17.600 there? You don't need to put your hands up. There are going to be days where you wake up and you're just 00:11:17.600 --> 00:11:23.159 not feeling it. And in those days, feelings versus commitment, which is more important? The commitment, 00:11:23.159 --> 00:11:29.360 obviously. Just because you don't feel like being married to your spouse that day doesn't give you free 00:11:29.360 --> 00:11:34.879 reign to go do whatever you want. You still have this commitment that you need to stick it out. And so love, 00:11:35.579 --> 00:11:40.719 yes, hopefully should be include the feelings. And if you don't have those feelings, we should be praying 00:11:40.719 --> 00:11:47.839 for God to give us the feelings. But ultimately, the commitment side is way more important than the feeling 00:11:47.840 --> 00:11:54.740 side. And again, I know that just reading this definition, it can seem like love is really cold and impersonal. 00:11:54.820 --> 00:12:00.620 And biblically, that's not the goal. The goal is that God is transforming our hearts to give us these feelings 00:12:00.620 --> 00:12:08.180 of love so that the commitment and the feelings go together. But the commitment side is huge. It's so important. 00:12:08.179 --> 00:12:14.699 I would say it's more important than the feeling because feelings come and go. And feelings can't 00:12:14.699 --> 00:12:23.459 really be commanded. But commitments can be commanded. As a spouse, even if you wake up not feeling love, 00:12:24.339 --> 00:12:29.459 that commitment that you made to your spouse to stay faithful still carries this moral weight in your 00:12:29.459 --> 00:12:37.639 life. Love as a commitment can be commanded. Love as a feeling cannot. And if you look at the teachings 00:12:37.639 --> 00:12:45.199 that Jesus did and the way that he lived his life, this lines up so much better with the way that Jesus 00:12:45.199 --> 00:12:49.480 lived and the way that Jesus taught. Because I mean, think about it. He commanded love. 00:12:51.080 --> 00:12:58.699 If you can't command love, as this psychologist said, then Jesus is out of line right off. But also in 00:12:58.699 --> 00:13:05.580 the way that he lived his life, he went out and he found this group of men to follow him, his disciples. 00:13:05.580 --> 00:13:09.620 And he taught them lots of things over the course of three years. He said things like, 00:13:10.020 --> 00:13:14.540 if anyone's ashamed of me, then I will be ashamed of you when I come to judge the world. 00:13:15.740 --> 00:13:21.040 And he taught them and he showed them who he was. And he had this dinner with them the night before he 00:13:21.040 --> 00:13:26.540 died. And at this dinner, he turned to one of them, Peter. And he said, Peter, tonight, 00:13:27.379 --> 00:13:32.000 before the sun comes up, before the rooster crows, you're going to deny me three times. 00:13:32.000 --> 00:13:39.700 And Peter says, no way. Peter says, that's not going to happen. I would die for you before I did 00:13:39.700 --> 00:13:45.899 that. And sure enough, a couple hours later, Jesus is arrested. And Peter, three times, says, 00:13:45.940 --> 00:13:52.759 I've never even met him. I don't know who he is. Leave me alone. Jesus gets killed. He rises from 00:13:52.759 --> 00:13:57.879 the dead and he comes back. And what does he do? He has a conversation with Peter where he confronts 00:13:57.879 --> 00:14:03.899 Peter, acknowledges that what Peter did was wrong, but forgives Peter and restores Peter to a 00:14:03.899 --> 00:14:09.279 relationship with himself. Now, how does this show love as a commitment rather than just a feeling? 00:14:09.559 --> 00:14:13.320 Well, first off, if Jesus was going for love as a feeling, not just a commitment, 00:14:14.439 --> 00:14:18.879 seeing the way that Peter hurt and betrayed him probably would have just destroyed any feelings 00:14:18.879 --> 00:14:25.940 he had in the first place. But beyond that, love as a feeling doesn't want to hurt feelings. 00:14:27.879 --> 00:14:35.279 Because love as a feeling is seeking the short-term good of someone, even if that comes at the expense 00:14:35.279 --> 00:14:40.100 of the long-term good. We don't want to offend someone because if someone is offended or upset, 00:14:40.259 --> 00:14:44.080 that means that we've done something wrong. We've failed them. We haven't loved them properly when 00:14:44.080 --> 00:14:49.700 love is a feeling. But Jesus is willing to confront Peter. He's willing to have this difficult 00:14:49.700 --> 00:14:57.659 conversation that it says Peter was grieved from this conversation. But he caused this short-term 00:14:57.659 --> 00:15:02.579 hurt for the sake of Peter's long-term good because he saw love as a commitment and he was willing 00:15:02.579 --> 00:15:06.759 to pursue Peter despite the difficulties and the pain that that could include. 00:15:10.539 --> 00:15:18.199 And if love is a commitment, not just a feeling, that means each one of us is demonstrating love 00:15:18.200 --> 00:15:26.580 every single day in some way, shape, or form. Because each of us spends our time prioritizing things. 00:15:27.340 --> 00:15:31.140 Maybe it's work, maybe it's school, maybe it's kids, maybe it's money, maybe it's power. 00:15:32.620 --> 00:15:37.759 In Matthew chapter 6 verse 21, Jesus says that our hearts will be where our treasure is. 00:15:38.400 --> 00:15:43.759 Basically, the things that we invest our lives in are the things that we love. 00:15:43.759 --> 00:15:50.100 Where we put our time, where we put our money, where we put our energy, that's where we put our love. 00:15:50.659 --> 00:15:56.720 Since all of us put time, money, and energy into things every single day, all of us are investing love 00:15:56.720 --> 00:16:04.480 into something or someone or somewhere every single day. So when Jesus says, 00:16:04.960 --> 00:16:08.500 love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength, 00:16:08.500 --> 00:16:14.460 love your neighbor as yourself. He's not saying you have to go out and generate some love in your 00:16:14.460 --> 00:16:21.620 heart magically that wasn't there before. What he's saying is all of us love. The problem is 00:16:21.620 --> 00:16:29.620 we love the wrong things in the wrong ways. We invest our time and our money and our energy 00:16:29.620 --> 00:16:34.580 into things that are not going to ultimately fulfill us. And it's not an issue of creating a love that 00:16:34.580 --> 00:16:41.860 doesn't exist. It's an issue of reprioritizing our love. It's not magically generate love in your 00:16:41.860 --> 00:16:47.440 heart. It's, hey, you know that love that you have for Game of Thrones all the time and money and energy 00:16:47.440 --> 00:16:53.940 that you invest into watching it and following it and having all of the merchandise? You're created 00:16:53.940 --> 00:16:59.640 to operate best when that money and energy and time and focus is put into your relationship with God. 00:16:59.639 --> 00:17:08.299 He's saying it's an issue of reprioritizing, of making a commitment to love God rather than the 00:17:08.299 --> 00:17:15.819 other things that call out for our attention every single day. So for us to properly obey God's command 00:17:15.819 --> 00:17:21.220 to love him and love others, we first need to understand that love is a commitment that can be 00:17:21.220 --> 00:17:28.359 commanded by God, not just a feeling, and that it's about reprioritizing love, not just creating new love 00:17:28.359 --> 00:17:37.659 in our hearts. But next up, we have aligning ourselves with God's priorities. See, if we go 00:17:37.659 --> 00:17:41.979 back to the passage, Jesus is asked a simple question, what's the greatest commandment? And he 00:17:41.979 --> 00:17:48.859 actually doesn't give one answer, he gives two. Do you ever notice that? He says, the most important 00:17:48.859 --> 00:17:53.519 is, hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, 00:17:53.519 --> 00:17:59.720 mind, strength. And the second is, I'm going to give you a bonus answer, love your neighbor as yourself. 00:17:59.940 --> 00:18:07.740 There's no other commandment greater than these. And I think if you look at it, not just in the church, 00:18:07.819 --> 00:18:12.240 but sort of in society at large, a lot of people really like the second part of what he says, 00:18:13.039 --> 00:18:17.460 right? This idea of loving our neighbors. That's something we feel good about. Even if we don't do it 00:18:17.460 --> 00:18:24.079 ourselves, we sort of like the idea of it. And some people might think, like, that as yourself part 00:18:24.079 --> 00:18:30.600 might be a little extreme, but generally in society, I think most people would be like, yeah, you should 00:18:30.600 --> 00:18:38.140 care about others, love your neighbor. The part where a lot more people have problems is the first part of 00:18:38.140 --> 00:18:43.299 what he says. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, 00:18:43.299 --> 00:18:49.039 with all your strength. Now, for non-Christians, it sort of makes sense why this would be a problem 00:18:49.039 --> 00:18:54.619 for them. If you don't believe that God exists, why would you care about loving him? But the shocking 00:18:54.619 --> 00:19:04.019 thing is that for many Christians, this has become a problem as well. If you look across the world, 00:19:04.159 --> 00:19:08.579 many churches, many denominations over the past hundred years have just stopped teaching certain 00:19:08.579 --> 00:19:15.759 parts of God's word. They've said, you know, this is uncomfortable. We're not going to say it. And the 00:19:15.759 --> 00:19:22.339 logic that they use is basically, you know, God says to love our neighbors. When we teach on these 00:19:22.339 --> 00:19:28.939 specific topics, it makes our neighbors uncomfortable or upset. And going back to this definition of love 00:19:28.939 --> 00:19:33.679 as a feeling, if we're making them upset or uncomfortable, we're not really loving them. So in order to love 00:19:33.680 --> 00:19:39.960 them, we need to cut out certain parts of God's word so that we don't make people upset or uncomfortable. 00:19:42.299 --> 00:19:49.100 And on the surface, the motive seems to be good, doing it to love others better. But in reality, 00:19:49.360 --> 00:19:56.860 that's not what's happening. Because in reality, love is about pursuing someone's greatest good. And our 00:19:56.860 --> 00:20:03.160 greatest good is to know God as he is and have a relationship with him. And if we're distorting the 00:20:03.160 --> 00:20:08.420 picture of who God is in the name of loving other people, what we're doing is we're cutting them off 00:20:08.420 --> 00:20:14.800 from the opportunity to know God as he is. We're cutting them off from their greatest good, cutting 00:20:14.800 --> 00:20:21.540 them off from the one thing that they need more than anything else. It's a deadly mistake when a church 00:20:21.540 --> 00:20:32.040 does this. To truly love our neighbors, we actually need to start by loving God. There's a reason that 00:20:32.039 --> 00:20:36.759 Jesus lists these things in this order. First, loving God. Second, loving others. 00:20:39.299 --> 00:20:45.099 Because our ability to love others flows out of our love for God. 00:20:47.399 --> 00:20:53.079 C.S. Lewis has this essay that he wrote. It's called, very creative title, First Things and Second 00:20:53.079 --> 00:20:59.879 Things. And in it, he talks about first things and second things. And when he talks about first things and 00:20:59.880 --> 00:21:04.980 second things, it's in terms of the order of priority, like first priorities and second priorities. 00:21:05.260 --> 00:21:09.320 And he has this really insightful quote from this book. And he says, 00:21:11.240 --> 00:21:16.180 you can't get second things by putting them first. You can get second things only by putting 00:21:16.180 --> 00:21:23.080 first things first. Very deep. And we're probably all like, what's he talking about? Basically, 00:21:23.140 --> 00:21:28.180 what he's saying is there are certain things in life where we have a priority. And when we pursue that 00:21:28.180 --> 00:21:33.060 priority, secondary benefits happen. If you're a company and you focus on your primary quality, 00:21:33.279 --> 00:21:39.660 primary priority of creating good products for your customers, you're going to get the secondary 00:21:39.660 --> 00:21:47.060 result of making a profit. However, if you get your priorities switched around and you focus on your 00:21:47.060 --> 00:21:52.840 secondary priorities as if they were primary, you focus on making the profit more than anything else, 00:21:52.839 --> 00:21:57.699 you're going to make terrible products, cut down on quality to cut costs so that you can maximize 00:21:57.699 --> 00:22:03.740 profits. And you end up making a worse product that no one buys and you don't make the profit and you 00:22:03.740 --> 00:22:09.000 don't make quality products. Because you put the secondary thing first, you miss out on the first thing and 00:22:09.000 --> 00:22:19.500 the second thing. Does that make sense? Yeah? One more example. In marriage. In marriage, I want my wife to be happy. 00:22:19.500 --> 00:22:22.559 Is that a primary or a secondary priority? 00:22:26.259 --> 00:22:35.180 No, not primary. It is secondary. Because primary is loving her. I'm supposed to love her and if I'm 00:22:35.180 --> 00:22:40.619 loving her well, hopefully she will be happy. Happiness is a secondary result of me loving her well. 00:22:41.420 --> 00:22:47.380 And see, here's what happens when I switch that up. Because it's so easy to focus on trying to make 00:22:47.380 --> 00:22:53.020 your spouse happy instead of trying to love your spouse well. What happens is you put all this effort 00:22:53.020 --> 00:22:59.220 into trying to make them happy and inevitably someday they're not happy. And there's nothing 00:22:59.220 --> 00:23:04.720 that you can do to fix it. You don't need to put your hand up, but I'm guessing a lot of us have been 00:23:04.720 --> 00:23:14.240 there before. If my focus as a husband is simply on Justine being happy and she is not happy no matter what 00:23:14.240 --> 00:23:21.920 I do, I'm going to take that really personally, right? Because she is not responding the way that 00:23:21.920 --> 00:23:27.660 she's supposed to be responding. And so I'm going to do one of two things. Either I'm going to get 00:23:27.660 --> 00:23:33.400 really frustrated and try harder to make her happy, or I'm just going to give up and be like, you know 00:23:33.400 --> 00:23:38.799 what? Nothing I do is going to work anyway, so why even bother? Now, you don't have to be married to know 00:23:38.799 --> 00:23:47.519 this. Frustration and giving up are those good ways to make your spouse happy. No, they're not. 00:23:49.519 --> 00:23:55.680 But let's rewind here. Instead of just focusing on trying to make her happy, if I focus on loving her, 00:23:56.299 --> 00:24:02.519 no matter what, she gets really upset. How do I respond? I can respond with kindness and patience. 00:24:02.519 --> 00:24:11.240 Now, if you compare frustration and giving up with kindness and patience, which response is more 00:24:11.240 --> 00:24:20.319 likely to make someone get happier faster? Kindness and patience, exactly. So by seeking the secondary 00:24:20.319 --> 00:24:26.519 thing, her happiness, as if it was primary, I actually miss out on loving her, and we both get 00:24:26.519 --> 00:24:32.259 upset at each other. But when, it's only when I seek to keep the first thing first and love her, 00:24:32.519 --> 00:24:42.339 that I'm able to love her, and to have her be happy. Got it? So when Jesus tells us the first thing 00:24:42.339 --> 00:24:50.000 is to love God, the second thing is to love others, when we try to take the second thing, loving others, 00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:56.379 and put it first, what happens is we miss out on our opportunity to love God and our opportunity to 00:24:56.379 --> 00:25:01.539 love others. It's only when we put love for God first, like Jesus says it's supposed to be, that we get 00:25:01.539 --> 00:25:09.180 love for God and love for others. And as long as we try to prioritize love for neighbors over love for 00:25:09.180 --> 00:25:13.779 God, we're going to miss this, and we're not actually going to love anyone well. 00:25:13.779 --> 00:25:26.279 So for us to love God properly, step one is keeping that as the main thing. Keep the first thing first. 00:25:29.139 --> 00:25:34.579 Now yeah, loving others by society's definition is probably easier. It requires less sacrifice. 00:25:35.059 --> 00:25:39.359 It doesn't put them in as much danger as of getting upset with us. 00:25:39.359 --> 00:25:46.740 But again, when we do that, we're actually cutting them off from the thing that they need 00:25:46.740 --> 00:25:52.779 more than anything else. And I don't know about you, but when I read this command, 00:25:53.079 --> 00:25:59.559 love God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength, that seems huge, 00:25:59.879 --> 00:26:03.719 right? Like, I just look at that and I'm like, that's too much. I can't. 00:26:03.720 --> 00:26:12.460 But actually, this transition to loving God to the extent that we're called to, 00:26:13.339 --> 00:26:20.299 in terms of how we live today, our day-to-day lives, may not, it may, but it may not actually 00:26:20.299 --> 00:26:26.740 look too different from what we're doing now for some of us. And here's what I mean. 00:26:26.740 --> 00:26:34.579 When I'm trying to love Justine, I'm going to do a lot of the same exact things that I would do if I 00:26:34.579 --> 00:26:40.420 was trying to make her happy. In either case, if she's like, hey, I have a grocery list for dinner, 00:26:40.700 --> 00:26:44.620 I'll be like, hey, do you want me to run out and pick up the groceries? Whether I'm trying to love 00:26:44.620 --> 00:26:49.220 her or whether I'm trying to make her happy. The difference isn't what I'm doing, the difference 00:26:49.220 --> 00:26:55.099 is why I'm doing it. In one case, I'm trying to manipulate a response out of her. In the other case, 00:26:55.099 --> 00:27:01.199 I'm just trying to love her and pursue and invest in a relationship. And with God, 00:27:02.179 --> 00:27:08.859 a lot of times, the actions may look the same of prioritizing ourself versus prioritizing God. 00:27:10.879 --> 00:27:16.439 But the difference is the motives behind it. The questions that we're asking that inspire our 00:27:16.439 --> 00:27:24.480 actions are different. The what stays the same, but the why changes. So I think there can be a 00:27:24.480 --> 00:27:30.960 tendency for us to think that with God, we do these things so that God will respond a certain way. 00:27:31.180 --> 00:27:35.940 I go to church, and if I go to church, then my next week will be good. If I read my Bible today, 00:27:36.079 --> 00:27:41.240 then my business meetings go well, and I just had a bad meeting. It was probably because I forgot to 00:27:41.240 --> 00:27:47.319 pray before I went into it. That type of thinking, right? That is trying to manipulate God. 00:27:47.319 --> 00:27:53.659 Now, reading our Bible and praying and going to church are good things. We should be doing them. 00:27:53.919 --> 00:27:59.119 But the difference between manipulating God and loving God with these things isn't the things 00:27:59.119 --> 00:28:05.419 we're doing. It's the way that we approach them. Instead of asking questions like, how can I make God 00:28:05.419 --> 00:28:13.839 do what I want? We ask questions, how can I stir up love for God in my heart? What are the things that 00:28:13.839 --> 00:28:21.000 are going to help deepen this relationship? Instead of, what can keep me out of trouble with God today? 00:28:22.359 --> 00:28:31.059 We ask things like, how can I pursue God? What's he calling me to do today? When we're seeking this 00:28:31.059 --> 00:28:36.419 relationship, instead of seeking things through our lens and trying to get God on the same page as us, 00:28:36.639 --> 00:28:41.079 we're seeking first. You know, who does God want me to date? How does God want me to do my work? 00:28:41.079 --> 00:28:48.839 How does he want me to approach these things? And again, working for God in a way to try to love him 00:28:48.839 --> 00:28:53.480 versus working for ourselves in a way to try to promote ourselves or in a way to try to manipulate 00:28:53.480 --> 00:28:57.839 God. Either way, we should be going to work. We should be working hard. We should be doing our job 00:28:57.839 --> 00:29:02.500 well. We should be honoring God in the way that we do our job and interact with others. The difference 00:29:02.500 --> 00:29:08.960 isn't what we're doing. It's why we're doing it. Am I doing it for myself? Am I doing it for my advancement? 00:29:08.960 --> 00:29:11.940 Or am I doing it for this relationship with God? 00:29:15.559 --> 00:29:21.039 And the more we see God's commands as being given for our good, the more we see the way that God 00:29:21.039 --> 00:29:25.799 loves us and that he's actually seeking what's best for us in what he tells us, 00:29:25.880 --> 00:29:29.720 the more we're going to start having this transition where we're asking the right questions, 00:29:29.920 --> 00:29:34.180 focusing on the right things, pursuing the right things for the sake of the relationship. 00:29:34.180 --> 00:29:41.400 So we need to understand God's priorities. We need to align ourselves with God's priorities, 00:29:41.400 --> 00:29:48.640 but then we need to respond to God's priorities. If you look back at this passage, the guy comes in, 00:29:48.700 --> 00:29:53.279 he says, what's the greatest command? Jesus gives him an answer. And then the guy responds and he says, 00:29:53.320 --> 00:29:58.980 you're right. And he repeats what Jesus said back to Jesus and says, you nailed it, you got it. 00:29:58.980 --> 00:30:06.460 And Jesus gives a response that I think is maybe a little bit offensive for our 21st century years. 00:30:07.200 --> 00:30:14.160 He says to him, you are not far from the kingdom of God. He's like, you're close, 00:30:14.420 --> 00:30:21.200 which is another way of saying you're not there yet, right? I think for a lot of us, we see Jesus' 00:30:21.360 --> 00:30:27.099 response. We hear the guy respond to him. We're like, he's got it. Yeah. You know, if he was here in 00:30:27.099 --> 00:30:32.179 church, we would be like, all right, pray this prayer with me, and then let's find out when the 00:30:32.179 --> 00:30:40.099 next baptism is, right? Like, you're in. And Jesus doesn't say that. He says, you're close. You're not 00:30:40.099 --> 00:30:49.379 far away. And why is that? It's because understanding God's priorities intellectually and agreeing with them 00:30:49.380 --> 00:30:57.120 intellectually is not enough. We need to be transformed by them. It's not an issue of 00:30:57.120 --> 00:31:02.620 intellectually saying, yes, I agree that this is right. It's an issue of having our hearts gripped 00:31:02.620 --> 00:31:10.840 and transformed by these things. And we can't work this transformation on our own. We need God to 00:31:10.839 --> 00:31:18.579 change us. No matter how strongly we try on our own to prioritize something, we fail. There was a 00:31:18.579 --> 00:31:26.359 Business Insider article I read this week. They said, 80% of New Year's resolutions fail by the second 00:31:26.359 --> 00:31:34.299 week of February. That means if you, if you like find four other people sitting around you, if all of 00:31:34.299 --> 00:31:40.359 you made New Year's resolutions, one of you would still be going in six weeks. And by the end of the year, 00:31:40.359 --> 00:31:48.219 only 8% are successful. It's very easy to commit to something. It's very hard to stick it out and 00:31:48.219 --> 00:31:55.419 follow it through. And here's the even bigger problem. Let's say that you and I are part of that 00:31:55.419 --> 00:32:01.759 8%. We're the ones who can make a commitment and just stick with it and we're going to get it, 00:32:01.759 --> 00:32:04.619 if for no other reason than that we said we were going to get it. 00:32:04.619 --> 00:32:12.639 We fight on our own effort to prioritize God, to love him, to love others. And we get to the end 00:32:12.639 --> 00:32:19.500 of the year and we look around and we say, I did it. And we look around and realize that like 00:32:19.500 --> 00:32:25.759 nine out of 10 people around us didn't do it. What are we going to think about them? How are we going 00:32:25.759 --> 00:32:35.879 to feel towards them? They're weak, soft-willed people. Should have had the discipline that I had. 00:32:37.720 --> 00:32:45.119 What are we doing? We're not loving them. We've put all this time and effort and energy into trying 00:32:45.119 --> 00:32:50.879 to love people. But because we're doing it on our own time and effort and energy, we're cutting off 00:32:50.880 --> 00:33:00.420 our ability to love them. Our love doesn't come from us just mustering up the strength. Our love 00:33:00.420 --> 00:33:07.840 comes from somewhere else. So what? Is this command to love God and love others just something that 00:33:07.840 --> 00:33:14.840 we're never going to be able to accomplish? Well, in one sense, yeah, kind of. But that's the whole 00:33:14.839 --> 00:33:22.959 point of the cross. The whole point of the cross is that we couldn't do it. I couldn't do it. You 00:33:22.959 --> 00:33:31.279 couldn't do it. We failed. And we're destined to fail again and again and again as long as we're relying 00:33:31.279 --> 00:33:40.500 on ourselves. And God knew that. And he stepped down to rescue us and redefine us and give us a new 00:33:40.500 --> 00:33:50.259 chance. Not a new chance to fix ourselves, but a new chance to have a new identity in him. The cross 00:33:50.259 --> 00:33:59.319 is God's way of saying, you messed up. You can't do it yourself, but I'm here to rescue you. That's why 00:33:59.319 --> 00:34:07.640 Jesus died for us, because we can't obey like we're supposed to. And the message of the cross is not just 00:34:07.640 --> 00:34:12.480 that we're forgiven for our failure, but that we have a new identity moving forward. You know, earlier 00:34:12.480 --> 00:34:21.300 we were talking about Peter and the story of him failing. Now you look at Peter. He had all the 00:34:21.300 --> 00:34:26.840 strength and resolve that you could have, right? He's sitting there at dinner with Jesus, and he's like, 00:34:26.940 --> 00:34:33.140 I will die for you. He's the guy who's at the New Year's Eve party running around bragging to everyone 00:34:33.139 --> 00:34:40.199 about how excited he is about his New Year's resolution. And he fails within hours, right? 00:34:40.239 --> 00:34:44.139 He's the guy, he's running around bragging to everyone about how I'm going to give up social 00:34:44.139 --> 00:34:47.539 media in the new year. It's going to be so great. I'm going to be a new man. It's going to be so 00:34:47.539 --> 00:34:53.279 different. And then the next morning he wakes up and he rolls over and he grabs his phone and takes 00:34:53.279 --> 00:34:58.900 a selfie and posts it to Instagram before he even gets out of bed, right? He's that guy. He's so confident, 00:34:58.900 --> 00:35:03.039 so full of himself, and he fails flat on his face immediately. 00:35:06.960 --> 00:35:11.420 But that's not the end of the story for Peter. Why? Because of the power of the cross. Because of 00:35:11.420 --> 00:35:18.500 the power of the Holy Spirit living inside him. See, what happens after Peter fails? Jesus has this 00:35:18.500 --> 00:35:25.260 conversation with him. He forgives him. He restores him. Peter experiences the transformation that comes 00:35:25.260 --> 00:35:32.560 from Jesus dying for him. Peter is filled with God's Holy Spirit and empowered. And he goes out 00:35:32.560 --> 00:35:38.740 and he preaches sermons that lead thousands of people to come to Christ. He becomes one of the 00:35:38.740 --> 00:35:44.520 leaders in the early church, and he does end up actually giving his life for Jesus like he said he 00:35:44.520 --> 00:35:52.820 would. Not because he learned the seven steps to becoming a better you, but because he experienced a 00:35:52.820 --> 00:36:00.680 transforming power in his life beyond what he was able to do for himself. So how do we have a similar 00:36:00.680 --> 00:36:06.740 type of transformation? Well, it's not about trying to pull ourselves up and do better. 00:36:09.580 --> 00:36:15.860 It's about letting God reshape us, reshape our priorities so we'd love God first and love others 00:36:15.860 --> 00:36:22.900 second. I'm not going to give you a long list of to-dos right here because good actions in this area 00:36:22.900 --> 00:36:29.059 can often hide wrong motives. And what God's after is not actions to put on a show, but he's after our 00:36:29.059 --> 00:36:36.539 hearts. But I have some reflection questions I want us to think through as we wrap up our time together 00:36:36.539 --> 00:36:44.039 today. You know, Jesus says that our treasure will be where our heart is. 00:36:48.239 --> 00:36:53.500 And that our hearts will be where our treasure is. So as you think about the upcoming year, 2018, 00:36:54.320 --> 00:36:57.759 do you want God to be your treasure and your passion this year? 00:36:57.760 --> 00:37:10.260 If you're sitting here and your answer is like, no, or, you know, maybe, but I think there are other 00:37:10.260 --> 00:37:14.960 things that are higher on my priority list. I think that's a great way to start just having a talk with 00:37:14.960 --> 00:37:22.600 God and saying, God, I know you should be top of my priority list, but you're not. Change me, transform me, 00:37:22.599 --> 00:37:32.039 reprioritize my life. Do you want your priorities to line up with God's priorities this year? 00:37:36.639 --> 00:37:40.339 And this is something that each of us is going to have to think through individually, but what are 00:37:40.339 --> 00:37:46.579 the steps that we can take to pursue this type of love for God and love for others this year? 00:37:47.239 --> 00:37:51.779 That might look different for each of us. It's not about putting on a show, 00:37:51.780 --> 00:37:58.519 but what are the steps that will really help us develop and grow in this love for God and for others? 00:38:06.440 --> 00:38:13.100 If we do want to prioritize God more this year, it's going to mean prioritizing other things less. 00:38:13.220 --> 00:38:19.280 We have limited capacity. If you want more focus and energy and effort and time on one thing, 00:38:19.280 --> 00:38:24.160 it's going to cost something else. So if you do want God to be a higher priority this year in your 00:38:24.160 --> 00:38:27.420 life, what are the things in your life that you would look at and you'd say, 00:38:28.460 --> 00:38:33.300 this isn't necessarily a bad thing. It might be a good thing, but I know that God is better. 00:38:33.740 --> 00:38:38.680 And so I need to cut back on this good thing for the sake of pursuing something better. What are those 00:38:38.680 --> 00:38:44.120 things in your life that need to get cut back this year so that God can be a higher priority in your life? 00:38:44.119 --> 00:38:57.940 It may take sacrifices, but if Jesus is who the Bible says he is, it's always worth it to make these 00:38:57.940 --> 00:39:05.019 sacrifices. You know, I started off our sermon today with this quote from this psychologist, and I 00:39:05.019 --> 00:39:09.900 disagree with her definition of love, but she says something here that I think is really, 00:39:09.900 --> 00:39:15.880 really, really, really insightful. She says, love is a force of nature. However much we may want to, 00:39:15.960 --> 00:39:20.539 we cannot command, demand, or take away love any more than we can command the moon and the stars and 00:39:20.539 --> 00:39:26.900 the wind and the rain to come and go according to our whims. You know what? On one sense, she's right. 00:39:27.200 --> 00:39:34.880 You and I, we don't have the power or authority to command or demand love. We also don't have the 00:39:34.880 --> 00:39:43.260 authority to command the wind, the rain, the moon, the stars. Do you know who does have the authority 00:39:43.260 --> 00:39:49.420 to command the moon and the stars and the wind and the rain and does it every single day? 00:39:51.660 --> 00:39:59.019 Same one who commands us to love. He can command us to love because he has the authority. He has all 00:39:59.019 --> 00:40:06.259 authority. As we go into this year, are we going to listen to him? Are we going to prioritize our 00:40:06.259 --> 00:40:11.539 lives the way that he calls us to? Or are we going to pursue something else as our top priority? 00:40:12.699 --> 00:40:19.320 Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your love for us. We thank you that we can love because you have 00:40:19.320 --> 00:40:24.199 first loved us, that it's not about us trying harder. It's not about us doing better, but it's about 00:40:24.199 --> 00:40:31.859 you coming to us to rescue us when we were hopeless. We thank you for Jesus. We thank you for his life 00:40:31.859 --> 00:40:38.239 and his death to rescue us. And we pray that as we start this new year, that our priorities would be 00:40:38.239 --> 00:40:42.960 your priorities. That the things that you want for us would be the things that we are seeking in our 00:40:42.960 --> 00:40:49.659 lives. That we would pursue loving you first and loving others second. And that anything else would be 00:40:49.659 --> 00:40:54.319 would be used for the sake of these two things, to show love for you and love for others. 00:40:56.199 --> 00:41:01.639 God, we love you, but we want to love you more. I pray that you would transform our hearts. In Jesus' name, amen.