Love Jesus More Than You Love Anything

in this session together on what Jesus demands from the world let's think about the relationship between our love for God and our love for Jesus those are two foundational commands demands in the Gospels we all know what Jesus answer to the question what's the first and Great Commandment Matthew 22:37 the first and Great Commandment is you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind other Gospels say and strength so loving God with your heart and oil that you are is the first and great demand of Jesus and then in

Matthew 10:37 it's interesting how these verses are rememberable 22:37 1037 whoever loves mother or father more than me is not worthy of me Jesus says whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me so now you've got two powerful deep life transforming commands love God the Father with all your heart soul mind strength and love Jesus more than you love children more than you love parents surely more than you love anything and my question is what should we think about those loves fact I have four questions one would be what's the

relationship between them another would be what's the nature of the love another would be where does it come from how do you get to be this way and the last would be how important is it so let's take those one at a time what's the relationship between loving God and loving Jesus now you may think why is that a big deal well maybe the reason it's on my front burner is because it is massively relevant for Muslim evangelism but you didn't think I was going to go there but what listen one of the big issues

we face over and over Gannon in a multicultural City situation where lots of religions are coming together is don't we all worship the same God and you go through Jesus I go through another prophet so here's what Jesus says John 8:42 Jesus looked right into the eyes of the Pharisees the Jewish leaders and said if God we're your father you would love me I mean he's saying to the the most religious the most God oriented Old Testament saturated people on the planet you don't know him he's not your father in fact you're so far as

to say you're of their father the devil I mean this is just mind-boggling what's the litmus paper for knowing whether somebody is a lover of God answer do they love Jesus do they embrace Jesus for who he really is not just some human teacher not just some prophet alongside other prophets but I am the son of God so that's that's the first one John 8:42 what about John 5:40 - there it is again yep 842 and 542 Jesus has to those same leaders I know you don't have the love of God in you I have

come in my father's name and you don't receive me you see the implication you don't have the love of God in you how do I know you don't receive me so here I am dealing with a Muslim person who says ah oui I worship the true God just like you worship the true God Jesus would say you told no the true God if you don't receive the Son of God so the relationship the answer to the first question what's the relationship between loving God and loving Jesus you can't have the one without loving Jesus is

the test of whether you love God loving God is the test of whether you truly love Jesus so here's the second question what is the nature of this love now here's what I have in mind is love mainly doing what Jesus said so you love Jesus if you do what he said or is it deeper and have to do with heart and the affections he said if you love mother or father more than me you're not worthy of me if you love son or daughter more than me you're not worthy of me which means he's

thinking of the love of Jesus like the love of your children well you know of your children by doing what they say right there your treasure you die for these children they are precious to you you won't sell them for billions and billions of dollars your children are your treasure if Jesus isn't a better treasure a higher treasure you're not worthy of Jesus I had a teacher in college who made me read a book called situation ethics and in it the argument was made and every students seem to be so wowed by this argument love

cannot be an emotion or an affection because it's commanded and you can't command the emotions I'm hungry I'm 20 years old and I'm reading this thinking doesn't sound right to me well it's not right and the reason it's not right is books premise number one is false of course Jesus commands the emotions the Bible is filled with commands of the emotions we should fear we should be thankful we should be compassionate we should be earnest we should fear the right things we should hope all those are emotions of course God has the right to command

our emotions the fact that we're so corrupt so dead that we can't do the right emotion is not God's problem that's our problem it's our corruption so the question is isn't love for Jesus more than doing and people will quote what I think is John 14:15 if I remember correctly John 14:15 which says if you love me you will keep my Commandments and I've had so many people say to me they're right there it says so if you love me you'll keep my Commandments there it is love is obedience it's not feeling in a particular

thing for Jesus it's just doing what he said to which I respond that's not what you just said it said it says if you love me then you'll do this other thing called keeping up my Commandments loving Jesus is deep and foundational and transformative because you treasure him above all things and then because of that you do all that he commanded so my answer to the question what's the nature of the love is yes of course it would include obedience but oh it is not less than being transformed by a love of treasuring admiring delighting

in being satisfied by this most beautiful treasure of all like Paul said in Philippians 3 I count everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Jesus third question where does that come from and let's just get one answer from Jesus how do you get to this place remember the story in Luke 7 about the Pharisee who asked Jesus to come to dinner and so here he is he didn't wash Jesus feet he didn't kiss Jesus he didn't do anything to show affection for Jesus they're reclined around the table you remember how they ate

in those days the table would be about that high off the ground you lean on elbow your feet would be sticking out behind you and you'd eat like that and suddenly there's this woman of the street a prostitute leaning over Jesus bare feet weeping and the tears are falling on his dirty feet and she's taking her hair and washing jesusí I mean this is incredibly provocative and the Pharisee is bent out of shape and since if you knew what kind of woman that was if you you were a prophet you'd know you'd know and Jesus

let me tell you a little story mr. Pharisee Simon a man had two debtors one owed in 5105 dollars he forgave them both which will love him more and the Pharisee says well the one that he forgave more I suppose and Jesus said that's right when I came in here you didn't kiss me you didn't wash my feet she from the time I came in has wept over my feet washed them with her tears wiped them with her hair because she has been forgiven much so where does it come from what's your answer to that

question where does it come from it comes from being stunned by being loved by God right it comes from being overwhelmed by the person of Jesus dying on our behalf and rising again though we have no merit at all in our selves when that grips you then you will taste what it is to treasure Jesus and delight in Jesus and be satisfied in Jesus which leads to the last question how important is that jesus said if you don't love me more than you love your parents you're not worthy of me if you don't love me

more than you love your children you're not worthy of me what does it mean not to be worthy of him it means you won't have him if you don't love Jesus you won't have Jesus what Paul put it just as starkly as possible in first Corinthians 16:22 he who does not love the Lord let him be accursed Christianity what Jesus demands from us is not most deeply and most fundamentally decisions of the will that's later deeply and most fundamentally is this new birth deep profound transformation of what we treasure what we love and it isn't

Jesus then we're not worthy of Jesus and being worthy of Jesus doesn't mean deserving Jesus it means being suitable to be in his presence when he's your supreme treasure that's where you belong so father I ask that love would be awakened because of what you have done first we love you because you first loved us we praise you for that and as these friends discuss this massive issue of loving you and loving Christ make it happen I pray in Jesus name Amen