Matthew 22:35-40

“One of them a lawyer,
asked Him a question testing Him:
“Teacher, which is the great
commandment in the Law?”
and He said to him
“YOU SHALL LOVE
THE LORD YOUR GOD
WITH ALL YOUR HEART,
WITH ALL YOUR SOUL,
AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’
This is the great and
foremost commandment.
The second is like it,
‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR
AS YOURSELF’
on these two commandments depend
the whole Law and the Prophets.”
This is talking about
two simple things,
boils down everything
that was in the entire old testament.
Everything Yeshua said
in the new Testament,
is boiled down to
two simple things.
Love God with all your heart.
Love your neighbor as yourself.
When I first met the Lord,
that happened to me.
When I was away at University,
and the thing that
was amazing to me,
I thought I was a Christian,
because I grew up
and went to church all of my life,
every single week.
Then I met people,
and the very first
meeting I went to,
they used some of
the strangest phrases.
One guy said, “the Lord lead me.”
Another person said “Jesus told me.”
Another person said “God showed me.”
I didn’t even know
what that language meant.
I thought to myself,
what does it mean?
“God showed me” or “the Lord told me”
I thought “I’ve been a Christian
all of my life, and as far as I know
Jesus never told me anything.
God never showed me anything.
Are these people hearing
audible voices or what?”
And it took me about 6 weeks
to figure it out.
I knew one of two things was true.
Either they had a relationship with God
I knew nothing about,
or they were a bunch
of religious Kooks
that I needed to avoid.
After 6 weeks I figured
out what it was.
You know what it was?
They loved God with all their heart.
You know what the difference was,
between them and me?
I understood and believed
certain doctrines.
I was taught of course,
that Jesus died for my sins,
rose from the dead,
and that if I believed that,
one day I’d go to
heaven instead of hell.
I didn’t want to go to hell,
so I said of course I believe that.
You know what was
different about these people?
They had given 100%
of their life to the Lord
They said,
“God, I’ll be like a coin
in your pocket.
if you want to spend me
on anything.
bus fare,
you want to buy a soda pop?
anything, you can use me
like a coin in your pocket.
I belong to you for the rest of my life.”
I had never said that,
and that’s what I discovered
was the difference.
They had a relationship
with God like that,
and I desperately wanted it.
After about 6 weeks,
once I understood that,
I just knelt in my dorm room
all by myself, prayed that prayer.
“Lord I give you the rest of my life.
You can use me
however you want.”
And that was
life changing for me.
So today I want to challenge you.
Have you given the Lord
the rest of your life?
Does He get everything you have?
Everything you are?
Are you willing to let Him
dictate His will to you?
That’s what it really means
to love God with all your heart,
with all your mind,
with all your soul,
with all your strength.
I just want to pray for you.
I pray today,
that today would be your day,
to reaffirm that the
rest of your life
belongs to God,
and that Yeshua Ha Mashiach,
Jesus the Messiah means everything.
Not just a part of your life,
all of your life.
And just consider this,
Is there any area of your life
that’s not given over to Him?
Today I encourage you,
give every area of
your life to the Lord.
Love Him with all your heart,
soul, mind and strength