Weekend Sermon -- "The Greatest Commandment"

     Welcome to this edition of the Weekend Sermon.  I am glad to be able to be with you this week, and I hope that everyone is doing very well.
     If you were able to read the post on Wednesday, you know that I am going through a time of decision.  Please continue to pray for me.  Work is really getting me down, so please continue to pray for me about this as well.
     I do have one additional prayer request.  We are having tons of rain everyday where I live.  I have had problems in the past with water getting under my house and into the garage.  I had somebody come and fix this, but with all the rain, I am getting worried.  Please pray that the house doesn't flood.  I just have too much to deal with right now to have to deal with this.
     In your prayers this week, continue to pray for peace in the troubled areas of the world.  Especially be in prayer about the continuing warfare in Syria.  For our prayer focus countries this week, let us pray for Tajikistan and The United Arab Emirates.  Pray that the message of Jesus might reach around the world.
     Last week, we finished our series of messages on the Apostles' Creed.  I really enjoyed posting the sermons in that series.
     Now, we are going to move into something new.  For the next several weeks, I will be posting sermons on two new series.  The main series will be on the Ten Commandments and what they mean to us today.  I am not going to go through the commandments straight through.  Interspersed in the Ten Commandment's series I will post individual messages on another series I have been working on.  I've had the privilege of having some really nice dogs in my life.  Each one of them has taught me something.  I would like to share some of what they have taught me with you.  So, in a series of messages interspersed with messages on the Ten Commandments I will introduce you to Abraham, Colm and Blue. Of course you already know about my friend Toby.  I will share with you what the Lord taught me through the lives of my friends.
     Now, today's message will be the start of our Ten Commandments series.  It might seem like an unusual place to begin.  However, Jesus really brought all of the commandments in the Bible down to two.  I would like to focus on what Jesus said was the greatest commandment of all and the second like unto it.
     One day, Jesus was teaching when He was asked what was the greatest of all the commandments.  Jesus said that the greatest commandment was that we should love the Lord with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength.  Jesus said that there was a second commandment like unto it namely that we should love our neighbors as ourselves.  Jesus said that these two commandments summed up all the law and the prophets.
     Let's examine this greatest commandment according to the Lord Jesus.  First of all, the greatest commandment is that we should love the Lord.  This is the basis for all of our actions in the Christian life.  We can try to follow a system of rules and regulations, but if we do not love the Lord, we will not be able to follow what the Lord asks us to do.  It is our love for the Lord that compels us to do the things that please the Lord.
     Many times, ministers will preach a lot of things to do and not to do.  However, if we would all teach people to love the Lord, our love for the Lord would lead us to do what He desires for us all to do.
     Now, how did Jesus say we are to love the Lord our God.  He said we are to love the God with all of our heart.  To me this means that I am to love the Lord with all of my emotions.  This is the kind of love that you feel.  All of my feelings of love are to be expressed to God.
     We are to love the Lord with all of our soul.  This means that the Lord is the only one that we worship.  Our total allegiance is to Him and to Him alone.
     We are to love the Lord with all of our mind.  This is our intellect.  We need to show our love for the Lord by thinking about Him and learning more about Him.  We need to seek to know all about the Lord that we can know.
     Finally, Jesus said that we are to love God with all of our strength.  In other words, our love for the Lord should motivate us to give everything we have to His service.  We should strive to be all that we can be and do all that we can do for the Lord because we love Him so much.
     Jesus then said that the second great commandment was that we should love our neighbors as ourselves.  As Jesus clearly demonstrated, the whole world is our neighbor.  When we are filled with love for the Lord, we then want to spread His love to the entire planet so that they might know how wonderful Jesus is.
      These two commandments of Jesus really sum up all that we are going to cover when we look at each of the Ten Commandments over the next few weeks.  As we look at each commandment, think about how Jesus' statements that we studied today apply.
     Next week, we will look at the first of the Ten Commandments.  The following week, I will have a message from the other series I discussed.  I will alternate back and forth until both series are finished.  I will post the verses on Monday.  I hope to have a review on Wednesday.  At this point, everything in contingent on me not being flooded out.  Please pray that all will be OK and that I can stop worrying about everything.  May God bless you all.  Amen.