The Gathering Surf City

Before we start this morning,

I just want to ask y'all some questions
I've been dying to know.

You ready?

What is the greatest NFL team?

If you say the Panthers,

I know you're lying right now.

Okay.

It's not nobody.

No? No.

Okay. Huh?

Casey. Okay.

All right.

Well, since nobody had a rec.

What is that one?

Vikings. Okay.

Okay. All right.

Who's the greatest singer?

Nobody knows.

There you go.

That was the right answer.

All right.

Who's the best actor?

Anybody got any?

No? Nobody has any thoughts on who
is the greatest of any of these?

Oh, man.

Okay. I might be asking the
wrong questions then.

Well, the reason I'm starting out with
this this morning is because I

want us to turn to Matthew
22 this morning.

There is a reason for
those questions,

just so you know.

Because I'm not the only one who wanted
to know what is the greatest and

most important of all those things,

right? There was a scribe,

a lawyer,

a pharisee that Jesus was talking to
that came up to him and asked him,

what is the greatest commandment?

It's something that people
just want to know,

what is the greatest thing,

right?

In any arena,

in any category,

what is the greatest?

And we spend a lot of time
trying to figure it out,

right? And that was not something that's
uncommon or unique to us is

something that's spanned
all of time,

right? So let's read Matthew
22 36 through 38 together.

Then we'll pray,

and then we'll dive
in for the morning.

So says,

well, I'm going to start back in 34.

Sorry, I know I don't have
the slides for that,

but I want to start back in 34.

But when the Pharisees heard that
he had silenced the sadducees,

they gathered together,

and one of them,

a lawyer,

asked him a question to test 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 commandment.

All right,

so we're stopping right
there for today,

okay? Because next week we're going to
unpack the next part a little bit.

But today we're focusing
on that part.

And there is a hebrew word
for it called the Shema.

And so if you want to go ahead and prep
and if you have a physical Bible

with you and turn to deuteronomy,

chapter six is where we're going
to camp out for the morning.

But I'm going to pray while
you're flipping pages.

So, God,

we just thank you for this morning,

God. Thank you for being the
God who reveals himself,

God. And has written and
spoken his word.

God, just to let us
know who you are,

God, we thank you that we have the opportunity
to come together and study

your word together,

God, so that we can worship
and praise you.

The king of kings,

the God of all creation,

the God who loves us dearly
and knows us so well.

God, we just want to thank
you for this morning.

Pray that you would be with us.

God, I pray that you would,

God, just reveal your word to us.

We thank you.

It's in your beautiful
and precious name.

We pray.

Amen. All right,

so I've never preached
on a pier before,

so if I start making too much
rack and creaking too much,

y'all let me know,

okay? So,

like I said,

we're going to hang out
in deuteronomy,

chapter six today.

And it's what the section that we're
going to be reading is called the

Shema. The word shema is the
hebrew word for listen,

right? So essentially,

what Moses is trying to
get across is like,

hey. And the words that
God had spoken is,

hey, listen up,

Israel, there's something important
that I got to tell you,

all right?

And don't forget,

Jesus said that this is the greatest
and most important thing,

right?

He says,

listen up,

the Lord.

Hear, O Israel,

the Lord our God,

the Lord is one.

You shall love the Lord your God with
all your heart and with all your

soul and with all your might.

And these words that I command you
today shall be on your heart.

You shall teach them diligently to your
children and shall talk of them

when you sit in your house and when you
walk by the way and when you lie

down.

And when you rise,

you shall bind them as
a sign on your hand,

and they shall be as frontlets
between your eyes.

You shall write them on the doorposts
of your house and on your gates.

And when the Lord your God brings you
into the land that he swore to your

fathers, to Abraham,

to Isaac,

and to Jacob,

to give you with great and good cities
that you did not build and houses

full of all good things
that you did not fill,

and cisterns that you not dig,

and vineyards and olive trees
that you did not plant,

and when you eat and are full,

then take care,

lest you forget the Lord who brought
you out of the land of Egypt,

out of the house of slavery.

It is the Lord,

your God.

You shall fear him you shall serve,

and by his name you shall swear.

Okay, so again,

going back to the first
thing that was said,

hear, o Israel,

the Lord our God is one,

and you shall love the Lord your
God with all your heart,

soul, mind.

And in mark,

he adds strength.

I love it because mark was like,

just in case you didn't think
you had anything left,

there's still some strength
that you can put into,

and not just some of it,

but all of it.

We'll get to that later.

But if the most important thing that
we can do in life is love God,

I have at least three questions,

right?

There's three questions that
come to mind immediately,

and I could probably
come up with more,

but I want us to cover these three
questions this morning.

And the first one is,

if love is what we're
supposed to do,

then what is love?

Right? Because we've got
to define the terms,

right? This is an internal debate
and struggle for all of us,

whether we know it or not.

It's something that kind of comes.

It's just kind of innate in
us as we love things,

right? Because we have
one word for love.

We love our wife and kids,

and we love peanut butter
and jelly sandwiches,

right? So we have one
word in English,

but what we need to understand
is that love is not a feeling.

It's a decision that we make,

right? And I know that may be a phrase
that y'all have heard and are

familiar with,

but I really want us to break even
that down a little bit more,

too, right?

So does anybody have any idea how many
hebrew words there are for love?

There's more than that.

There's actually a lot more words
for love than five even.

There's a ton of hebrew
words for love,

but there's four primary words for
love that are used in the Bible.

All right?

And if y'all know anything about me,

I'm going to tell you what they are.

So the first one is ahavda.

It's used about 200 times,

and it's used in a familial context.

The second word is ahava,

very similar.

It's used about 30 times.

And it's an intrapersonal context.

Another one is doed.

It's used about 40 times.

It is.

We're going to say a Spousal Love.

You can infer what you need
to know about that.

And Hesed is another one.

It's just like a general
Love of things,

right?

Those are the four most prominent
words for love in Hebrew.

And the word used here in
deuteronomy six is ahav,

which is that familial Love.

Okay? So it's a relational
kind of love.

And the best example that we
have for it is marriage,

right?

God created marriage,

and it's a perfect example for what
God is trying to communicate here.

In this instance,

I almost coughed into the mic.

All right,

so keep that in mind,

ahav. It's familial.

This is the picture that God
is trying to paint for us.

He's trying to paint
a marriage picture,

right? And if you know anything
about marriage,

this is the one relationship
that you get to choose,

right, besides friends.

But you get to choose your spouse.

You get to choose your best friend.

You don't get to choose your
kids or your parents,

right?

You get who God's given you,

but your spouse,

you get to choose.

And I will say God gives
you your spouse,

too. But,

like, we get to make that decision,

and then you have to daily decide,

I'm going to love this person.

Right? So just keep that in
the back of your mind.

The words for love in Greek,

there are four that are common because
cs Lewis wrote the book the four

loves. And I'll tell you,

I will quote him a little bit because
I am no expert on love,

but so I'm going to steal
from him a little bit.

The first one.

The first greek word
for love is storge.

All right?

So that's like a parental love.

It's an affectionate love that's
just kind of innate.

You care for your kids.

It's kind of.

It's ingrained,

right?

Eros is that spousal love.

Again, Phileto is brotherly love.

And if that sounds familiar,

we've got Philadelphia,

right? The city of brotherly love.

So that's a way to remember
that Phileto.

And then the last one,

the one that probably everybody is more
familiar with than any of the

other ones,

is agape.

Everybody knows that one,

right? And that is God love.

So something that I thought was really
interesting is that the New

Testament really only uses
two words for love,

and that is Agape and Phileo.

So God love and brotherly love.

And in Matthew 22,

Jesus uses agape.

Right. Agape is that God love.

And there's something really
interesting about Agape.

And I know the Bible
doesn't use Eros,

but I found it really interesting that
those two stand in stark contrast

to one another.

Right? So Eros seeks to possess.

Right. And it's only given to
those who are worthy of it.

Right?

Agape seeks to give
and without merit,

there is nothing holding
this love back.

Right?

So I've got two conclusions here,

all right?

I'm trying to keep this
really concise,

because I don't want to spend too
much time on language studies.

That's not what we're here for.

But I've got two conclusions.

The first one is that,

like in marriage,

love is chosen,

right?

It's not always something you're born
into and it's decided or vowed and

it's not obligatory,

right? So this is the kind of love
that we're talking about here in

deuteronomy six and in Matthew 22,

and then it seeks the good of others
at the expense of myself.

So the kind of love that we're talking
about here in deuteronomy six that

God said to his people,

and the kind of love that he is saying
is that Jesus is saying is the

most important that you can have for
goddesse is to have premeditated

delight at the expense of myself.

So that sounds kind of.

It's a long,

kind of a long sentence,

premeditated delight,

right.

It means you're choosing beforehand that
you're going to take delight and

treasure and care for
and grow this love,

right? And all at the
expense of myself,

which means everything I am,

everything I will be,

everything I have,

everything I think I have,

all my time,

money and treasure will all
be spent on this thing,

right? So just like Mark said,

with all my heart,

with all my soul,

with all my mind and with
all my strength,

there is nothing left after
you give from that,

right? It's going to cost something.

And like I said,

I'm no love expert,

but there are examples quoted just from
people throughout time that I

think define this kind
of love really well.

That Jesus is expecting of people,

right? And what he says is the
most important thing in life.

So the Westminster shorter catechism says
that man's chief end is to love

goddess and enjoy him forever.

Right. We're supposed to love God,

that agape love,

that love that costs something
and enjoy him forever.

We're supposed to take delight in
spending time with our God,

right? Because that's what
he wants to do with us,

too. He wants to spend time with us.

He yearns for that like a father
yearns for time with his kids,

right? And then what's really neat is
that this agape love serves as the

foundation for all other
kinds of love.

Cs Lewis said it best.

Like I said,

I'm going to quote him
a couple more times,

but natural loves are
not self sufficient.

There is no other love that can stand
without the basis of God's love

first, because it's all his,

right. God is love.

If God's love doesn't exist,

then no other kind of
love could exist.

And he also said,

when God rules in a human heart,

though he may sometimes have to remove
certain of its native authorities

altogether, he often continues others
in their offices by subjecting

their authority to his and gives for
the first time a firm foundation.

In other words,

what he's saying is that again,

there is nothing,

there is no other kind of love that
can exist without God's love.

God's love is the foundation for
all other kinds of love.

The only reason you know how to love your
kids well is because God's done

it first,

right? The only reason you know how to
love your spouse well is because

God's done it first.

He loves his church right
to the point of death.

He died for every single one of us,

right? The only reason that we can
love our brothers and sisters and

those in the community around us is
because God has done it first and

done it best.

And without God's love,

there is no reason or purpose
for any other love.

So not only would it not exist,

but there's no reason
or purpose for it,

right? Because again,

CS Lewis,

like I said,

we want to quote him,

if love is to be a blessing
and not a misery,

it's got to be founded on the only
beloved who will never pass away,

because everything else
disintegrates,

right? And it requires everything of
you to love the way that God loves.

Sinclair Ferguson said,

God is never satisfied with anything
less than the devotion of our whole

lives for the whole duration
of our lives,

right?

So from beginning to end,

everything you have,

that's what it takes to
love like God loves.

Because again,

he's done it first and
he's done it best.

He is the example and that is that.

Agape love.

Okay, so this was a long intro,

alright?

But that was what is love?

Because I tell you,

like, I was thinking the other day,

like how,

and this is before I even found out
I was going to be preaching,

which I.

It's just cool how God
lines stuff up,

but just thinking,

like, how do you explain
to a kid what love is,

right? Like it.

I'm thinking of my two
and a half year old,

right?

Like he knows that whenever
I say I love you,

that. Well,

the good answer is to say it back,

right? But why?

Does he really understand
what's going on here?

Does he understand this verbal
transaction that we're doing?

Does he understand,

like, what all entails
in being loved?

And the thing is he doesn't,

right? And sometimes we struggle to
understand what love truly is.

But we have the perfect example.

So loving that godlike love towards
God and towards others,

right.

That love that costs something
and is given without merit.

So the next question,

I don't want to stray
too far from this,

but who do we love?

Right. The answer is pretty simple.

Jesus says it,

God said it.

He says,

the Lord our God is one.

You shall love the Lord your God.

All right,

next point,

right. But the thing is,

is that this is actually,

it's a really personal question.

Who do we love?

Because the answers are varied,

right? Because you have a million people
in your life that you love.

Maybe not a million literally,

but a million figuratively.

But between all of us,

we probably do have
a million people,

right? There's a lot we can
share love with people.

And, you know,

like, we can use the example of people
going up to western North Carolina

right now,

right? We love those people,

but it all stems out of
that love for God.

So to answer the question honestly,

we've really got to analyze
our priorities,

right? So we were given a challenge,

the pastoral group,

whenever we were all coming
up into ordination,

right. We did a pastoral
journey group.

It was myself,

Nick, John,

McGew, Jordan.

Yeah. And then Scott and Bobby
were kind of leading it.

They led both groups.

But one of the questions that
Bobby posed to us is what?

Like, strip away everything that you
think should be the answer and

really analyze and give
me a truthful answer.

What are your priorities in life?

And it really caused
me to really think,

because you have to think,

where is my time,

energy and money spent?

Right? Because those will show you
what your priorities are in life.

And, you know,

and I've always heard,

too, now,

as I've been growing up,

you know,

you have those three commodities,

and at any point in time in life,

you have to choose two.

Time, energy and money.

You can only have two,

but where are those things spent?

And what we talked about is the
first priority has to be God,

no matter what.

Second priority,

again, because it's a chosen love
and not an obligatory love.

Your wife has got to be second.

That is the person you
are tied to for life.

Third, right,

is kids.

Fourth is,

well, you can fill out
the rest of it like,

like you want to,

whatever those priorities are.

But top three are really important,

and they kind of have
to go in that order.

Because the warning that
Bobby gave us was,

if you get any of those
three out of order,

you're bound to lose all of them,

right? So God first,

spouse second,

kids and family third.

Get those out of order,

you're bound to lose all three.

So who do we love then?

Who do we love?

What are your priorities?

If we say God is number one,

then we've got to think,

we've got to really define
that relationship,

right? Because if he is.

Hold on,

let me look at my notes.

If he is a personal God,

if he is the God who created all of
all things and resides outside of

that creation,

if he is the God that sent
his son to die for you,

then you must give him exactly what he
demands because he's worthy of it

and deserves all of it.

Right? So what we have
to do then is that,

I mean,

we've got to follow through.

We have to fix our eyes on Jesus,

right? Because we've got a point,

our love in the right direction.

So.

And it's not just a challenge
that we face today,

right. I have a list right here of seven
different examples throughout

time of,

again, quotes that people have said to
point like our hearts are prone to

wander. Even though God
has given us so much,

we still are prone to wander and
put him in second or in third.

Or man.

Sometimes it sucks.

But even further down the list,

right? This is a problem
common to man,

unfortunately. Most recent
example again,

CS Lewis,

in every wife,

mother, child,

I want to add father,

spouse, just all of your
relationships,

there is a possible rival to God.

We can make idols out of
our closest family,

friends, ideals.

In the song come thou,

Robert Robertson wrote,

prone to wander,

lord, I feel it prone to
leave the God I love.

That was in 1758.

John Calvin said,

in the 15 hundreds,

the human heart is an idol factory,

man. We can churn them
out all day long,

right? Paul in romans seven said,

so I find it to be a law that
when I want to do right,

evil lies close at hand.

For I delight in the law of
my God and my inner being.

Like, we know this is who
we ought to long for.

But I see in my members,

in other words,

my actions,

just in my deepest,

I see in my members another law waging
war against the law of my mind and

making me captive to the law of
sin that dwells in my members,

wretched man that I am,

who will deliver me from
this body of death.

Right? So we've gone from the 19 hundreds
all the way back to the first

century already.

Isaiah in 740 BC,

he said,

we all like sheep,

have gone astray.

Each of us has turned
to our own way.

Are y'all finding any kind of like,

y'all feel this,

right? We've all been here and then
we can go all the way back to Adam

and eve,

they were the first ones who chose right
to turn away from the God who

had given them anything and everything
they could have ever wanted.

And he only had one rule,

don't eat the fruit.

It just goes to show us like it is,

if for some reason we have this ease
of falling into non love for God,

we have this ease of falling into chasing
after things that aren't good

for us,

we have this ease of loving other
things more than we love God.

And it's not unique to us
in this day and age.

It's not because of cell phones,

it's not because of the economy,

it's not because of politics,

it's not because of any
of those things.

They might aid it a little bit,

but I tell you what,

it's not because of those things.

It's because it's in here.

And that's something that we have to
wage war against every single day.

Right? Again,

going back to that second point,

it is premeditated delight.

We've got to decide beforehand
that we're going to love God,

because Jesus said in Luke 1426,

if anyone comes to me and does
not hate father and mother,

wife and children,

brothers and sisters,

yes, even their own lives,

such a person cannot be my disciple.

In other words,

you've got to love God above
everything else,

and you don't have to
literally hate him.

That's not what he's trying
to get across.

What he's trying to get across is that
in comparison to our love for God,

it should almost look like
we hate everybody else,

but we're commanded to
love other people,

right?

So going back to deuteronomy six,

you shall love the Lord.

And right there,

the Lord is Yahweh,

right? It's that personal God.

You shall love the Lord.

Your protector,

your caregiver,

your accountability,

your God,

the elohim,

the creator,

the powerful one.

Oh, man.

Okay, I got.

What is that,

five minutes?

Not anymore.

Good thing my third point's
a short one.

We've got to love him,

y'all. The last question
I'm going to ask is,

how do we love,

you know,

because that's a big thing,

to know what love is and
to know who to love,

but how you love him,

that's the real kicker,

because that's where it comes
into actually living it out,

right? Because it's no good to
anybody if it's all up here.

Don't be just hearers of the
word but doers also,

right? And it's a quick and
easy question to answer.

How you love somebody,

and honestly,

I'm going to give you a
quick and easy answer.

It's a real simple thing.

It's just not easy to do,

right? Pastor Nick says
that all the time.

And really the first answer is to truly
just take delight in the Lord,

right?

Do you actually delight in
spending time with him,

in spending time in his word,

in prayer,

in meditation,

in spending time with his people,

in coming here to worship?

Take delight in it,

right? Just like you
do in your spouse,

you spend time with them.

And the more time you
spend with them,

the more delight you have.

Right?

So take delight.

The second thing,

learn from the master.

The person who did it
best was Jesus,

right? He would get away early to
pray because he took delight in

spending time with the father.

So use Jesus example.

Ask yourself,

and I think I said this the
last time I preached.

I don't think,

you know,

WWJD became a trope in the nineties and
we kind of quit using it because

I don't know why.

I think it's a good question
to ask ourselves,

what would jesus do in this minute,

in this moment?

Because I want to have and encourage you
guys to live a life where we can

say, no reserves,

no retreats,

no regrets.

Something. William Borden,

he was a.

Oh, jeez,

I lost the word.

Anyway, he went around,

he was a missionary.

I don't know why I couldn't
think of that word.

He was a missionary,

went around the world,

preached the gospel.

But I tell you what,

he gave up,

you know,

Borden milk that you see in the grocery
aisle or borden cheese or any of

that.

He gave up that empire to go
and preach the gospel.

That was a big empire
back in the day,

in his time.

And he gave it all up because he knew
that God had called him to do

something else.

And he loved him so much that
he gave up everything.

Right?

Doesn't that sound like our
definition of agape love?

It cost him something.

It sounds like the kind of love
that Jesus is talking about.

So let me tell you,

the last thing you got to do
is actually follow through.

So take delight and follow through.

Plan for the long haul,

because it's not a sprint,

right? This is a marathon.

Whether we live 25 years like
William Borden did,

or if we live to 125,

it's a long haul.

Marriage isn't easy that long.

A relationship with Goddesse
isn't easy that long,

but it's worth it.

So take premeditated delight and then
share your passion with other

people. That's how you can
show what you truly love,

too. That's why we wear t shirts
with NFL teams on them.

That's why we get foam fingers and go
and stand in the freezing cold,

right? And root for
our favorite teams.

That's why we go to concerts and spend
an inordinate amount of money.

They're not $20 tickets anymore,

y'all. But it's because we love those
things and we should love God even

more.

Don't forget to do it.

That's the very last point I have,

and I have got to end now because
I am probably four minutes over.

So let's pray and then I'll get morning
glory to come on back up.

God, we thank you for this morning.

God, we thank you for showing
and sharing in your word,

God, the encouragement to love you,

God.

And not just the encouragement,

but the command to love you,

God. We don't do it
out of obligation.

We do it because you care for us and
because you've shown us how we do

it, God,

because you deserve it.

So, God,

help us to love you the
way that you love us.

God, help us to take premeditated
delight in you.

Help us to want to spend
time with you.

Help us to want to be
with your people.

Help us to love the
way that you love.

And, God,

we just pray that you would
be with us this week.

Help us not to forget these words,

not my words,

but God,

your words,

that we should love
the Lord our God,

with all of our heart,

soul, mind and strength,

with everything that
we have within us.

God, we ought to love you.

Help us to do it.

We thank you.

We love you.

It's in Jesus beautiful
and precious name.

We pray.

Amen.