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What Actually Matters Most! · In the Stillness Podcast

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  What's up y'all? It's friendly.
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  Welcome back to another episode in a fresh new week.
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  I am so excited to be with y'all today and just want to emphasize
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  that this space is about really slowing down long enough to let
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  God's Word actually shape how we live and not just what we know.
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  So today we're going to be in Matthew chapter 22, verses 34
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  through 40. And this is the passage that
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  talks about Jesus giving the greatest commandment.
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  And I want to be honest, these verses are very familiar.
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  I think to most they can be so familiar that they may even
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  sound cliche if we're not careful.
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  But I just want to emphasize that being familiar does not
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  mean that we've mastered them. I know I for sure have not.
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  And it was such an important reminder for me.
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  And so I do want to dig a little deeper into what this really
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  means and practical application of it.
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  So starting in verse 34, hearing that Jesus had silenced the
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  Sadducees, the Pharisees got together.
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  One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this
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  question. Teacher, which is the greatest
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  commandment in the law? Jesus replied.
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  Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul,
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  and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest
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  commandment, and the second is like it.
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  Love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the prophets
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  hang on these two commandments. OK, so going into a little bit
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  of context, what is really happening here?
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  The Pharisees, they're they're back again.
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  And at this point, I think we've seen this pattern.
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  They are a religious group who are trying to trap Jesus, and we
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  saw them in two episodes ago when they were trying to trick
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  him with the question about Roman taxes.
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  Yet they failed. They were theologically defeated
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  by Jesus. And instead of humbling
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  themselves and accepting the defeat, they just keep pressing
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  him, which is honestly, I had to kind of laugh about it.
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  It's wild when you think about it because they're literally
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  questioning the Son of God, like the God who created them and
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  their brains and their logic and their ability to even ask these
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  questions in the 1st place. So anyways, that was a little
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  side note. But their problem, it was not
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  confusion, it was their pride, because they cared more about
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  looking right than actually being right.
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  They wanted the image and appearance of victory, something
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  to feed their ego rather than the truth that they would have
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  to carry out. And I do want to say, before we
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  judge them too harshly, Scripture checks us in Matthew 7
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  when it commands us to take the plank out of your own eye before
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  you try to take the speck of sawdust out of your neighbors.
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  So I do want to just ask everyone as I asked myself, have
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  we ever chosen what was wrong because it was easier or stayed
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  in something that God was clearly calling you out of or
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  gone along with the crowd instead of obeying God because
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  maybe standing alone would feel more uncomfortable.
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  So I do think that this can hit closer to home than maybe we
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  would like or take away from first glance.
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  But why the Pharisees are asking this question?
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  So they followed over 600 laws. So when they're asking Jesus
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  which commandment matters the most, it's basically them
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  saying, OK, so realistically, what do we need to prioritize?
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  And that's still a relevant question, honestly, because even
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  today, when we are listening to experts, we see in this passage
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  that it's an expert in the law asking Jesus.
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  But experts today are like doctors and teachers,
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  researchers, even influencers. We have to remember that yes,
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  knowledge matters, education matters, but every human, no
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  matter their experience, is still flawed.
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  But here's the thing, God's Word is not Scripture must be our
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  foundation. It is unchanging, and nothing
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  that we believe, no matter what we hear, should contradict
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  Scripture. So we do need to be paying
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  attention to what we're absorbing and prioritizing who
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  we're allowing to influence us, especially when social media is
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  all around us and we're constantly consuming it.
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  So Jesus's answer? He responds by quoting
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  Deuteronomy and Leviticus. Put simply, he says love God,
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  love your neighbor. That's it.
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  He says. Everything else, all of the
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  laws, the 10 commandments and the Old Testament laws that they
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  had, they all hinged on these two things.
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  When you truly love God with every part of who you are, it
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  naturally flows into how you treat what and who He's made,
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  including people. Because think about it, if you
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  love God and you love people, you're not going to want to
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  steal from them. You're not going to want to
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  cheat them. You won't be looking for
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  excuses. And when I went back and read
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  Leviticus, it says in chapter 19, verse one, it sums up the
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  purpose of the law so well. The Lord is commanding us be
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  holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.
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  And it's easy to, whenever you go back and read Leviticus, like
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  see all these do's and don'ts. But God's commands, they're not
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  meant to overwhelm us. They're meant to shape a set
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  apart people for him. We were created to be holy
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  vessels and ambassadors of Christ.
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  So I do want to go into knowledge versus wisdom because
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  this really does matter. We see in Psalm 1/11/10 it says
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  the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
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  And this is a verse I memorized a few weeks ago, but it really
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  stood out to me so strongly here because the Pharisees, they had
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  the knowledge and the information, but they lacked the
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  wisdom. They knew the law and the
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  commands, but they didn't live it from reverence or love.
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  And put simply, wisdom is learning how to apply what you
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  know. It's letting the truth actually
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  change you. And the Pharisees tried to live
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  out the law without first surrendering to the Lord.
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  And it turned into something shallow because they were
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  missing the heart behind the laws.
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  The law was never about control or spiritual authority or image.
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  It was about honoring God out of love and deepening their
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  relationship with him. And I used to kind of get
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  confused whenever I would hear the fear of the Lord because you
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  hear fear. And I used to automatically be
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  like, OK, anxiety or just, you know, it's not necessarily a
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  like a positive term. But the more I learned about it,
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  it comes from such an awe of God and his power and holiness that
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  it turns into a deep respect. And everything that you do and
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  think about, you just want to respect him and love him.
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  So I want to also talk about how Jesus doesn't just say love God.
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  He breaks it down by heart, by soul and by mind.
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  And I believe that is so intentional.
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  Whenever I was reading different translations, in the passion
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  translation, it says for heart with every passion of your
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  heart. So I do just want us to go into
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  these three, Ask yourself for the first one for your heart.
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  Does anything get more of your passion than God?
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  Anyone. Anything for your soul in the
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  passion it says with all the energy of your being.
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  So what takes most of your energy?
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  Is God the central or is something you squeeze in when
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  you have time. And then for your mind, the
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  third one, passion says with every thought within you, what
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  consumes most of your thoughts during the day?
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  Is it God or is it your own effort, your own priorities?
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  And here's something important in the commentary, the Hebrew,
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  it says the word is translated as love, but it also means
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  worship. So your entire life, it is meant
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  to be worship. This is not reserved just for
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  church or your quiet time in the mornings.
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  This implies your job, your classes in school, your
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  workouts, every single conversation that you have.
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  We see in Romans 1136, Paul's tell Paul tells us for from him
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  and through him and for him are all things.
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  So God is not meant to just be added into your life.
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  He is meant to be the center of everything and then touching on
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  OK, loving your neighbor as yourself.
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  That implies that something that we don't always talk about.
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  You have to understand your own value first, and I don't say
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  this as in a prideful self-centered way.
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  I think this world can paint it in a way that just overdoes it
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  and it's all about self. But we must know whose we are
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  first because your identity in Christ, it shapes how you treat
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  others. We have to ask him for a humble
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  confidence, a humility to know that we're defined by Jesus and
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  who God says we are, but a confidence to carry ourselves
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  with that and to not let other people or other things define
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  us. And I just want to say, if you
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  struggle with your worth or value, don't avoid asking God.
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  Ask Him to help you see yourself the way that He sees you.
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  He's not distant from that prayer.
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  He invites us in to ask Him to communicate that with us, even
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  when it's vulnerable. So with all that, I'm going to
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  go ahead and close this in prayer.
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  Dear God, thank you for meeting us in honestly familiar
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  scripture that still challenges our hearts in a new way.
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  Would you show us where we've settled for knowledge without
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  wisdom or comfort without obedience?
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  Would you teach us how to love you with every single part of
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  our being, not just selectively, not halfway, but all of all of
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  us? Let our lives be lived as
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  worship God. Let it flow from reverence and
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  respect and a deep love for you. Would you help us to reflect
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  that love to all the people around us This week?
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  We want to be set apart, holy, sanctified for you, Jesus.
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  Would you continue shaping us? Father, mold us into the image
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  of your Son Jesus. We pray this all in your name.
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  Amen. OK, I hope you all have a great
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  Monday, an awesome start to a new week and I will see y'all on
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  the next episode.