Love the Lord and Love People
Category: Worship & Praise
Key Passage: Matthew 22:36-40
Speaker: Paul Chisgar
Date: June 25, 2023
Matthew chapter 22. Matthew chapter 22, if you would, in God’s word, Matthew chapter 22. For the internet, the title will be, “Love the Lord and Love People.” I just felt like the Lord was leading this way. Sometimes you know why God wants you to preach something. Sometimes you do not know; you just try to be obedient. That is kind of one of those nights tonight. Just feel like the Lord is leading that way.
Love the Lord and People, in Matthew chapter 22. Let us say a few words about it before we get going tonight. Jesus here is quoting from Deuteronomy 6. This saying is mentioned, of course, in the law, if you will, in Deuteronomy. The Jewish people knew it very well. Some Jewish people would quote it in the morning and at night in their phylacteries—sometimes the box that would have scripture in it and whatnot; they would have this in there often. So it was very known to the Jewish people and refers back to the law. We talk about the Ten Commandments, the main part of the law. There is much more than that. But it is interesting: the first four of the Ten Commandments have to do with God and man, and the last six have to do with man and his fellow man. You will notice some things about that as we read it.
We are in verse number 36, Matthew 22, verse number 36. Would you please stand if you are able to, just to show the word of God respect? Matthew 22, verse number 36, of God’s word. I am in 23—that is not going to work. Matthew 22, verse number 36: “Which is the great commandment in the law.” Jesus said unto him, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.” It is mentioned several times throughout scripture—Old Testament, New Testament, both. Twice Jesus mentioned it in the New Testament, one time another man mentioned it in the New Testament. All of them really start with the whole heart. That is the core. It is the spring. Out of it come the issues of life. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, with all thy mind.” This is the first and great commandment. It is amazing if we could get that, and nobody is perfect at it. But if we were to get that one right, all the time, really everything else would take care of itself. It is the first and great commandment. “And the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Just for a bit tonight. Love the Lord and people. Would you pray with me that God would really just maybe fine-tune us for Him, help me more in love with Him, and love people more? Would you do that? Pray that as I pray the same. Lord, we do come. Father, I want to be obedient to You. Help me just say everything You want said. I believe You are leading that way. So, Lord, help me in all the specifics. Lord, would You help me to say everything You want said and the way You want it said? Would You use it, Lord? Send Your Spirit. Lord, I pray it will not kill, but bring life and help and grow us through this, Your truth. We will thank You, Lord, for what You do. Father, we ask for this in faith, in the name of Jesus. We pray. Amen. Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated.
Suppose you were out and about, maybe at the mall or a park or somewhere, and someone just came to you and said, “Let me—can I just give you a quick interview, just off the cuff?” And if they were to ask, “What do you love?” A lot of church people just say, “What do you love?” Well, would it be Mustangs? Nothing wrong with cars. Maybe Corvettes. We already have a division going right now! I’ll tell you what—what was it, Mike? Lime green, 1967 fastback Mustang, whatever it was. Corvettes, all of these. Would it be houses? Boy, I love a house in the country with a wrap-around porch. What would it be? Would it be, “I love to fish”? “I love hunting.” “I love guns.” What would it be? If God just kind of called us out of the church setting, off the cuff, would God even be on the list? Would it be the overwhelming thing? “Man, I love the Lord.” I am not saying all these other things are bad, but do we have a heart and a mind and a soul that loves Him? Is it just the overwhelming heartbeat: “I love the Lord”? He has been so good to me. He has redeemed my soul. He has really redeemed my life, and He has put things back together. Would it be just, “I love the Lord”?
Miss Stoner spent a couple of days in the hospital very recently and had a blood clot in her lungs, which created pneumonia and all these different things. There was concern about her heart. You know how that is; they run every test in the world on your heart. If somehow they could put an echogram or something—an EKG or whatever—on our heart that can monitor what we really love: Would it be money? They are concerned; they are focused on money. If they could somehow hook it to my heart, what would it be? Does he love clothes? The latest gadget? The latest phone? What would it be? If they could just put it in there and monitor what we really love—would it be luxury, or the ease of life, or having money in the bank? I am not saying these things are bad, but if they could somehow monitor what we love, would it be off the charts for the Lord? Would those things seem so menial, so minute, in comparison to our love for God?
The greatest commandment in all the Bible, the first and greatest commandment, is real simple: to love the Lord your God with all your heart, your mind, your soul, your strength. Do we really love the Lord like we ought to? I am talking about myself, preaching myself just as much as anybody else. Can I say this: the root issue of our sin really goes back to our lack of love for the Lord.
By the way, in our daily prayer time with the Lord, a portion of that time alone with the Lord should be, “Lord, search my heart.” I always think it is interesting in the Model Prayer—we call it the Lord’s Prayer, the Model Prayer. You know it. Would you say it with me? Over there, Matthew 6. Help me out. Here we go: “Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread.”
Did you notice? He did not get to the part about asking for forgiveness until towards the end. I do not mind different acronyms for prayer—adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication. I do not think it is bad. But I have thought about it: Why is it that He does not want us to really get to this part, “forgive us our debts,” until towards the end? I do not understand all about it, but I know the Lord is right. I think many times He tells us that because if I were just to start off, maybe a little bit lighter at the beginning, but really get into more, “Lord, what if I have wronged? Tell me this sin. I need to get this thing right.” I think sometimes He does not want us to list that or really dive into that deep until later on. If I just do it off the cuff at the beginning, I would maybe list some things that are very obvious. But after I have spent time with the Lord, and I have really gotten close to Him and closer to the light, then things that I would not think of, or do not know of, or that are not really brought into the light until I get close to Him, become real obvious.
Part of my prayer time with the Lord should be saying, “Lord, would You show me those things that are not right with You?”
Go over to Isaiah 59. These are great, familiar verses. Isaiah 59, verses 1 and 2, are along the same line. Look at verse 1: “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save.” Here lately, the Lord has convicted me, and I am working at it. I feel like sometimes I have seen so many situations like, “Well, I know where that is going to end up,” and I have lost my faith that God can still save and change lives. I do not want to get there. God is a mighty God, and His hand is not shortened that it cannot save. He can still take a messed-up life and make it beautiful, and we have seen Him do it so many times. His hand is not shortened that it cannot reach down in someone’s life and change them. I love how it starts off: “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, and it cannot save. Neither is His ear heavy that it cannot hear.” He still hears the prayers of God’s people. He is still changing lives. He is still putting marriages back together. I enjoyed hearing someone give testimony; he said his marriage is so much better now that they were saved in church and serve the Lord. Praise the Lord for those things. His ear still hears the prayers of God’s people, and He is still changing lives.
But here is where we get it: verse number 2, “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, that He will not hear.”
Iniquities are sin in your heart. If I regard iniquity in my heart—that sin in my heart—that is where it gets a little deceiving. Nobody knows about it. If you are not careful, there is heartless deceitfulness, but look above all things: who can know it? Your heart will deceive you, and you think everything is good, but no.
Here is what I am getting at: It is a good thing during your prayer time, especially when you are really drawing near to Him, to say, “Hey, Lord, is there some iniquity that is separating between me and You? I want to be close to You. I need You. Would You show me the iniquity that is separating between me and You? What is it, Lord? What is offending You? What is bothering You that is in my heart?”
He is a righteous God. If He turned His back when He had our sin—only Him here—we are not going to get close to Him when we have that iniquity in our heart. “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God.”
Here is the thing: We are getting back to our original point. If I have sin or iniquity in my heart, the root issue is, I do not love Him like I ought to. Sometimes, when you say, “All right, Lord, please show me if there is something separating between me and You, and You are hiding Your face because of my sin and my life,” and the Lord begins to reveal that to you, it is pretty humbling sometimes. When I say, “Lord, really, I know the problem is I do not love You like I ought to,” what a shame. After You have loved me so much, gave Your own begotten Son, and You have given me life, and You made me, You created me, You redeemed me, You showed mercy—we sang about it: “The mercy of the Lord endureth forever.” Praise the Lord for His mercy. I was singing of the mercy of the Lord, and after all that, I do not love You like I ought to. That is pretty humbling.
Of course, the Bible does say if we confess, He gives us grace to the humble. Honestly, the honest truth of it is, I do not love Him like I ought to. I can blame, I can make excuses, and I can point fingers, but at the end of the day, the reason for the sin in my life is because I just do not love the Lord like I ought to. That is tough, but that is true.
Why do I not love Him like I should? Look over in 1 John 2, verse number 15, if you would. First John is so good about these subjects. Why do I not love the Lord like I should? There are probably so many different things the Holy Spirit can lead you to regarding this fault. Let us look at this for just a minute. 1 John 2, verse number 15: “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
When our kids were little, we began to see a pattern. For our kids, for sure, it was an issue. Sunday afternoon, after their meal—Tammy made a good meal for them—we had a tough time getting them to eat. We realized a lot of times our kids would ride a bus in the morning where they got snacks and candy. Then they went to Sunday school where they got candy. Then they went to Children’s Church, and they got candy and snacks. Then a lot of times they were riding a bus home in the afternoon, and they had candy. No wonder we were at the dentist’s office later on! We had to force them to eat anything on Sunday afternoon because they were full of junk food. It tasted good, though, and it kept them quiet so they listened to that Bible story.
Now here is the scenario. Sometimes we just have no room left to love the Lord because we are full of the world, the junk, the silver lining, and all their flashy lights. Not necessarily even sinful things, but just worldly things. We are so caught up on having all this and loving the world and the things that are in the world that we do not have heart left to love the Lord. If you are not careful, this old world and the devil’s system is always pulling—every commercial, everything—just pulling you to love this and love that, and that this will make you happy. If you get this, you will be satisfied. We get so caught up in all that that we are really not having room to love the Lord in our hearts. The media, the pull, the draw, the glitter—we do not have enough time or energy, and we are kind of giving the Lord the leftover of it all. We are not loving the Lord, and God says, “I love you so much, and the thing I am asking you back for the most is just to love Me.”
You do not have to have talent. You do not have to have a certain personality and charisma. You could be in a nursing home, bowed in a bed. Praise the Lord for Brother Tim going and having service there every Sunday. But you could be in a nursing home, be bedridden, unable to talk, unable to witness like you want to. You could not do all these things that God wants to do, but you could still love Him with all your heart, mind, and soul, and God says that is the greatest commandment. If I am not careful, I will be so caught up on all the world’s music and every little thing they can think of to make an extra buck, and I just do not have anything left to love the Lord. That is a sad thing. I can be guilty of it.
What is another reason why we do not love Him like we ought to? Sometimes my heart is just so full of the world. Maybe along the same line, we sing that song, “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus.” That is a great song. That one verse always speaks volumes to me: “The world behind me, the cross before me.” By the way, notice how the song puts them on polar opposites. The world behind me and the cross before me. Because of the world’s system, they crucified our Savior. Sometimes I do not love the Lord like I ought to because I just have not fully turned my back on the world. I have been so infatuated with the world. It is a sad thing when Christian young people get infatuated with the world. Sometimes some people who have been out in the world realize what a messed-up world it is and how it can mess you up; they have sometimes done a better job of turning their back on the world because they know it is a messed-up world that will drain you. Why will I not turn my back on the world when all it does is take and take and take from you? It does not give back to you. It offers a bunch of fake satisfaction. It gives you a smile for a minute, but then heartbreak for the rest of your life. It will pull apart your marriage. It will ruin your kids. It will take down your mind and your thoughts. Why in the world would I give my loyalty to the world and its system? Turn your back on the world: “The world behind me, the cross before me.” That will help me have a heart that just loves Him. It is sad when I let the world pull me from Christ, when the world, at the end of the day, will just step all over you. Sometimes I am so full of the world, I do not have time and energy left to love Him. I just have not fully turned my back on the world. But when I say, “Lord, help me turn my back on the world; I want to love You.”
This is the wonderful thing. Look over in Psalm 37. It is a great chapter. There is a wonderful formula over here in Psalm 37. By the way, when I am preaching against the world like that, I am not preaching against the individuals in that world. I love them; they need Christ. They have to get rid of that old system. That old system and everything that goes along with it will bring them down—and me too, if I get caught up in it.
Psalm 37. We will start at verse number one: “Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity, for they shall soon be cut down like the grass and wither as a green herb.”
“Trust in the Lord and do good.” That is how you get saved. Trust in the Lord and do good. Get baptized. Get involved in church. Join an old-fashioned Baptist church. Grow in the Lord. Trust the Lord and do good; so shall thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. God takes care of His people.
His great promise: “Delight thyself also in the Lord.” “Delight” is an interesting word. Strong’s concordance says it has to do with being pliable. You delight in Him; you focus on Him. You sing “Just As I Am” from your heart; you sell out to Him. “Delight thyself also in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.”
Now, that does not mean He gives you what you desire here. It means He gives you the desires; He gives you the very desire. He changes what your heart desires. He puts those desires in your heart.
Look at the next verse. You are delighting in Him, and He is giving you the desires; He has changed your wants, if you will. You are wanting what He wants you to want now. “Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.”
That clause in verse 5 is very important to me. I think it has to do with when you go through rough times while trying to live for Him. You are trying to delight Him; He is giving you some good, godly, right desires. You have committed to Him, but there will be times you just have to trust also in Him. Sometimes you wonder, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” Well, you trust also in Him. Look at the last phrase of verse 5: “And He shall bring it to pass.” What is the “it”? Those good desires He gave you.
How can I love the Lord like I ought to? When I get saved, I grow, I do good, and I delight in Him, and He changes my heart. It has been a privilege over the years to watch God change the hearts of people who get in church and sell out for the Lord. I think about Brother DeWayne. He was never what the world would say, a bad man; he was a good man, and I love Brother DeWayne. But I remember when he first started coming, he was pretty high up in his company, and he would work a whole lot of hours. He would tell me sometimes he would work 100-plus hours a week, especially in certain seasons. He was very qualified and knew what he was doing. But you could tell that when you work 100-plus hours, you do not have room for a whole lot else. That was kind of his desire.
But after he got in church, God grew him, and he became a great Christian. He was, I believe, one of our first deacons; he was our head deacon for a while and our youth director for a while. It was amazing how God changed his desires. God still blessed him, and it was amazing how every section of his company that God put him over seemed to grow. In fact, in one of his later reviews, he said the guy asked him, “How can I explain that every department we put you over just grows?” He said, “I will tell you how I can explain it: Joshua 1:8. You do not let the law depart out of your mouth, and you meditate on it day and night.” God says, “That is how your prosperity is happening.” God still blessed him, but it was God’s way. I noticed how his desires changed. It was not so much about making the most and moving up the ladder; he really became a great soul winner.
I remember one time he was having these dreams—I do not know if it was just one dream or several—but it was life-changing for me. He said he would dream at work in his office that people would come in and come to his desk, and he would have the privilege to lead them to the Lord. They would leave, and somebody else would come in who wanted to get saved, and he would lead them to the Lord. Just one after another. After a while, he said he went to the door and looked outside, and there was just a line of people waiting to get saved, as far as he could see. God really changed his desires; it is amazing to see. That is where some of you delight in the Lord, and He uses the desires of your heart.
God did use him so much. There are people in our church today whom he led to the Lord, invited into the church. God did use him. Brother Martin, did he get you to come? I cannot remember which way it is. But that was his desire: he desired to be used by God, and God fulfilled that.
But he had major health issues, heart issues, and he ended up with very aggressive cancer and went home to the Lord at 40 years old. Toward the end, his heart was such a thing. He went to the Mayo Clinic, and they shaved some of his heart muscle, but there were still issues there.
I remember one time he took the teens to an activity. I think there was just one teenager who went that time—a boy named Matthew. Brother DeWayne would hurt for the next three or four days afterwards. I remember going to him and saying, “Brother DeWayne, with your heart issues, if you cannot go to an activity, you do not have to take the teens. We will get somebody else. I am concerned about you and your heart.” I will never forget what he said: “Pastor, if I only have a couple of years left, this is the way I want to spend it.” He said, “I loved just taking that boy.” We had a great time, and God had changed his heart. We are to love the Lord with all the heart. How do you do that? Delight in Him; He changes your heart.
He ended up with very aggressive cancer. The last weeks of his life, he spent at the cancer center. I remember going to visit him; he had an incredible attitude during that time. On the last day he lived here, he kept telling people he wanted to go home. I really thought he meant going back to his house in Walter Hereaway, but that is not what he meant. He wanted to go home.
That Wednesday night after service, my wife and I got a call, and we took off up there. We got there before family. We went into his room—he was in heaven. I have seen a fair amount of people pass, but I have never seen a body with such a smile on his face. The nurses were commenting, “Wow, he went out with a smile.” It is amazing how God changes our hearts when we delight in Him. Even in the end, his heart was all about the Lord and going home, to the point where everybody was saying, “Wow, he went out with a smile.”
I have a whole other point, but I am not going to cover it. Let me just say this: We are going to be done for tonight. If you love the Lord like you ought to, you will love people. There is no such thing as, “Well, I love the Lord, but I can’t stand people.” That is not true for Him. If you hang around the Lord long enough, you will get His heart, and His heart is for people. God is love. When you get in love with God, yes, people will irritate you here and there—I am not saying that will not happen; you will get hurt—but you will love people.
It is a wonderful thing to see someone who just loves God, and somehow the love of God has rubbed off on them, and they love people. Bobby Robertson of Alcertown, North Carolina, is just such an example. We had the privilege of having him preach here and spent a couple of days with him. He just loved people. He was not a big-shot pastor of a big church we had never known; just down-to-earth, humble. They just loved people. While visiting him at the motel, I went to pick him up one morning. I said, “Let’s go to Cracker Barrel.” They said, “Ah, free meal here. I got a good meal. These are good people. Let’s just eat here.” And you love those people at the hotel, and you love God, and pretty soon His heart will rub off on you, and you love people. You love people.
Would you bow your heads and close your eyes? Lord, help me to love You like I ought to—the first and great commandment: love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Help me to love You like I ought to. Lord, would You share Your heart with me? Help me to love people like You love people—love my neighbor as myself. Would you tell Him that tonight?
We are going to stand if you would. We are going to have a word of prayer. Just tell Him, “Lord, help me to love You like I ought to. I give You my heart tonight. Help me to delight in You. Give me the right desires. Help me to love people. Share Your heart with me. Help me to be in love with people also.” Would you tell Him that?
Father, thank You for Your love to us. Lord, forgive me; so many times I do not love You like I ought to. It is amazing that in the midst of all that, You still love me. You always have, always will. I am amazed. Lord, help us to love You back more. Help us, Lord, to turn our backs on this old world and turn our sights fully on You. Lord, help us not to love the world and the things we are in. Help us just love You. And then, Lord, I pray, would You change our hearts so we have the right desires and we are in love with You and we love others? Bless our people tonight. Help us in that, Father. Give us grace and mercy in it. We will thank You for what You do. It is in Jesus’ name we ask. Amen.
This term uses the phrase “entangled with the affairs of this world.” Sometimes I just find myself so entangled with this world, and I can feel it pulling me from the Lord. It bothers me. Sometimes you have to go in there and cut some of the strings. No, I am for the Lord. I want my heart. I want to love Him with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength. Maybe tonight would be a good night to do that? Let us just say, “Lord, I want to be in love with You like I ought to.” Just talk to the Lord about that as we sing. Let us stay in love with Him. The church at Ephesus left its first love, and He said, “Remember, repent, and do the first works.” God wants that back. I am glad you are in church on a Sunday night; that is a good step towards loving Him with your heart. Amen. I am thrilled you are here. Praise the Lord for a good weekend. God, work in hearts and lives. What a blessing! Four different people joined the church this morning and tonight. Looking forward to a good weekend next weekend celebrating our country. Praise the Lord for America. I love it here. Praise the Lord for just great people. You are awesome. Choir, man, the choir sounded so good you could hear them. Those choir mics were working this morning. What a difference—night and day! That was great. Getting monitors set up is going to work. We might even have both sides of the choir hearing the piano and being together. That is awesome. The difference in that choir this morning was night and day; you could hear them. It was just good. Praise the Lord for that, and thank you to the PA guys working on that. The choir is doing a good job. Praise the Lord for it all. We are glad you are here.
How many of you have gotten to meet Kyle and Kaylee’s little one, Betayas? How many got to meet him? He was smiling good in the lobby today. That is great.
Original File: Pastor Paul Chisgar- - Love the Lord and Love People - Sunday PM 06252023