Love is Truth. Share my story of digging around my parent s room and finding my dad s gun

Love is Truth Share my story of digging around my parent’s room and finding my dad’s gun. The three ​commandments ​ of gun safety: ALWAYS keep the gun...
Author: Stephen Briggs
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Love is Truth Share my story of digging around my parent’s room and finding my dad’s gun. The three ​commandments ​ of gun safety: ALWAYS keep the gun pointed in a safe direction. This is the primary rule of gun safety. ALWAYS keep your finger off the trigger until ready to shoot. ALWAYS keep the gun unloaded until ready to use.

These are important and they are put in place to benefit you and to benefit others. Traffic laws or ​commandments ​ : Do Not Enter. One Way. No U turn. Yield. Wrong Way. Stop. Deer X – ING. Again, these are important and there is great benefit to you and to others by following them. Jewish rabbis counted 613 individual statues in the law and attempted to figure out between “heavy, or great and “light” or little commands. Mark 12: 28 – 34 ​One of the teachers of religious law was standing there listening to the debate. He realized that Jesus had answered well, so he asked, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ​ ‘Listen, ​ O Israel! The LORD our ​ 30 ​ God​ is​ the one and only LORD. ​ And​ you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.‘ No other commandment is greater than these.” 29

The entirety of scripture is about ​relationship​. It’s Jesus coming from heaven to earth to restore our relationship with God and w/others. Love God, love your neighbor. Love God; love others - that’s the target. What is God calling us to do as followers of Jesus is to love Him. It’s not a suggestion it is a command and it is tied to another command; to love others. So today I am going to attempt to answer these questions: What does it look like to love God in this way? Why does God call us to this? What is the result of living this way? What does it look like to live out? How will we be different if we live this way? What are the

benefits of following these commandments? What is the downside of not following these commandments ​ of Jesus? ​Is it even possible? When our love for God grows passionate our love for people grows powerful.

​ What does it look like to love God in this way? All, not some. Here’s what God knows and about us: If he is not in the rightful place in our heart and life we insert someone in his place. Guess who that is? Me, myself and I. The tri-fecta of a train wreck. Why does God call us to this? It brings Him glory. It brings you and me the most satisfaction in life. True satisfaction isn’t found in chasing after fame, fortune, material possessions, notoriety or anything else. That’s all temporary satisfaction. What is the result of living this way? You begin to develop a deep love for your neighbor, a love for others. But “I’m not a people person”. Or I am an introvert. That doesn’t exclude you from loving God and allowing him to overflow into others; to open your spiritual eyes to those who need you to reach out to them. One of the ways our lack of love for God is revealed in our lives is by the lack of active love that exists in our relationships with others.



If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people ​ we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see? 1 John 4:20 (NLT) As followers of Jesus if we don’t love God above all else we will never love our neighbors as ourselves. It is only when God is in his ​rightful place in our hearts that others will be in the appropriate place in our lives.

1 Corinthians 13: 1 - 3 ​If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t ​ ​ love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing. If you don’t love you’ve missed the point. ​When our love for God grows passionate our love for people grows powerful. As we begin to mature as followers of Jesus we begin to truly love God and truly love others as we love ourselves.

The Bible doesn’t call Satan the “father of greed” or the “father of lust.” Satan is the father of ​lies. ​His number one weapon is to convince you that you aren’t who God has made you to be. You can’t live up to God’s calling. You can’t lead your family. Your identity comes from what you do and you’re not doing well. You’re a terrible husband or a terrible wife. You’ll never be a great mom. You’re a lousy dad. You’re too sinful to serve at a church. You don’t have what it takes. All lies. The danger is this: A lie believed as truth affects your life as though it’s true.



Here is what God thinks about you: So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children.[a] Now we call him, “Abba, Father.”[b] 16 For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. 17 And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. Romans 8: 15 – 17a. How will we be different if we live this way? What are the benefits of following these commandments? Less worry, anxiety & stress. Peace in turmoil. You begin to speak and think differently about people. You begin to worship & pray differently. What is the downside of not completely following these commandments of Jesus? I mean can’t I just go to church, serve once a month and check off my list? You miss out on seeing God work in amazing ways in your life but also in the lives of others. God loves ​unlovable people ALL the time. The reason I know that is He loves me and I am unlovable at times. If you are honest, so are you. But here’s the BIG question many of you have today: Is it even possible? Can I really love God and love others will ALL my heart, soul, mind and strength? No. Not on your own.

All our service for God must flow from those two commands to love God and love others, or it is not real service; it is fleshly effort. When we try on our own it becomes legalism. Instead of it bringing Joy and freedom it brings bondage, guilt, remorse, frustration and doubt. No amount of willpower will help us truly love others w/o God’s Spirit leading the way. Live in active surrender and daily dependence. Phil. 2:13 ​For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. When we surrender, when we do what God word tells us to we give the Holy Spirit access to us. His power begins to work in us and give us the power to live this way, to live this out. Even when we don’t have the desire to love God and love others, God promises to give us the desire and power to live this way. There are three parts: My part, God’s part & their part. We can only do our part. We can’t do God’s part or their part, just our part. 32

The teacher of religious law replied, “Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth by saying that there is only one God and no other. 33 And I know it is important to love him with all my heart and all my understanding and all my strength, and to love my neighbor as myself. This is more important than to offer all of the burnt offerings and sacrifices required in the law.” 34

Realizing how much the man understood, Jesus said to him, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” And after that, no one dared to ask him any more questions. In essence Jesus said you got it! Right on target! Keep living it out! What would Jesus say to you, to me, about how we are loving God and loving others? How could our lives look if we loved God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and loved others at: work, school, in our neighborhoods and even in our own families? What changes could that bring to our church? To our world? We will be tempted to try and take back control, to try and do this on our own. We will be tempted to give up on God and give up on people. That’s why we have to actively surrender control to God and daily depend on his presence, his power and his grace to flow through us.

But when our love for God grows passionate our love for other people grows powerful & it will change you, me and the lives of others. Bridge Group Questions: 1. What did you hear that really grabbed a hold of you? Did anything challenge your way of thinking or give you fresh insight into what God wants from his followers? 2. Read Mark 12: 28 – 30. What do you think the teacher of law was thinking when Jesus shared the two most important commandments with him? What are your initial thoughts about those two commandments? 3. Based on what Jesus said to the teacher of the law, what do you think is the most important thing(s) to him? Does this line up with what you think is most important in life? Why or why not? 4. Steve said: “When our love for God grows passionate our love for people grows powerful”. What does it look like in your life to love God this way? If God is not in his rightful place in your heart and life who do you insert into his place? What does that look like for you? 5. Read 1 John 4:20. What message is John, one of Jesus’ closest disciples, trying to get across to us? Do you find it more difficult to love God or love people? Share about that in your life. What can get in your way of loving God with ALL that you are and loving people in the same way? 6. Share about a time you felt wholly loved by God. 7. John 8:44 reminds us that the devil is the “father of all lies”. What are some of the lies he has whispered in your ear when you have tried to love God with all you are and love others in the same way? What truth from God’s Word combats those lies? 8. What are some of the benefits of following the two most important commandments that Jesus shared? What can we potentially miss out on if we choose not follow them? 9. Jesus never commands us to do something without providing the way and means to accomplish it. How does it look in your life to live in active surrender and daily dependence on the Holy Spirit? Read Philippians 2:13. What does this verse promise to those who follow Jesus? What does that do for you?

10. What are the correct motives that should drive us to love God and love others? Why is it so important to love God and love others with the correct motives? What can potentially happen if we don’t? 11. Steve shared three parts to living a life of loving God with all that we are and loving people as ourselves: My part, God’s part and their part. What part are you responsible for? What part do you tend to try and control that you are not responsible for? What can you do to change that? 12. Every day we choose by God’s grace to try and live a life of loving God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength and attempt to love our neighbor as ourselves we ​will face opposition from our enemy. What steps can you take daily to not put yourself in God’s rightful place? What can you specifically do to trust Him and not try and love in your own strength? What can you do when you are tempted to give up on loving people?