GYC Canada: The Cross Connection: Love & Law Combined

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GYC Canada

Plenary

Justin Kim

Mercy and Truth are Met Together

Amara Sims

Testimony: Woman on a Mission

Sebastien Braxton

The Story of Redemption: The Love and the Law Combined

Gem Castor

The Joy of the Cross

Christ’s Life; Our Life: The Law and the Gospel

The Cross and Salvation: The Plan of Salvation

Final Charge: Take up Your Cross

Father in heaven, what a privilege we have here tonight at the end of such a long day to be back in the presence of God.

Father, when we get to heaven and we can see you undiluted, we're never going to be weary of being in the presence of God.

Every day will seem like something new, But until then, you've given us this moment.

And it is our prayer, Father, that you would do something special tonight.

That you would take this man who is but dust in your sight.

That you would speak through me and you'll speak to me.

May the sweet, sweet Spirit of Jesus rest upon this place, impressing the truth upon the mind of every soul and help us to respond in complete and utter surrender to His majesty and His glory.

And we offer this prayer from our hearts in Jesus' name, Amen.

If you have your Bibles, turn with me to the Gospel of Matthew, the 22nd chapter.

I've entitled my sermon, when everything is not enough.

I don't know about you, but I've had some relationships in my life where I felt like I gave everything to this relationship and even though I gave my all it seemed as if for this person everything was not enough.

I bet there are some women in this audience who can understand what I'm talking about.

Who have given up themselves and It seems as if their everything is not enough.

I can imagine there are some men who feel that they've had relationships in life where it seems as if your everything, your all, is not enough.

Unfortunately, this experience continues even to our day.

It's not just between husband and wife, it is also between parents and children.

There are children even though their parents have given everything, it just seems as if, as a mother and a father, your everything was not enough.

There are children waiting for their parents just to say I'm proud of you.

But it seems as a child no matter how many accomplishments, No matter how much you succeed, no matter how far you go, and how many accolades and affirmations you receive from some of the most prestigious institutions and individuals on the planet, your everything is not enough.

There's always something more you have to do there's always something you could have done better And you can look at this person and say I gave my all and The person will look at you and say Just wasn't enough There is nothing more defeating There is nothing more discouraging than to have given your all and to discover your everything is not enough.

Can you imagine the sorrow that must rest upon such a soul?

Where everything that God has done, and all the love that God has expressed and poured out it just seems as if his everything was not enough.

Tonight I begin with God making a demand for all.

Matthew chapter 22 verse 34 the Bible says, but when the Pharisees heard that He, Jesus, had silenced the Sadducees that gathered together, Then 1 of them, a lawyer, was a smart, intelligent man who was familiar with the Old Testament scrolls.

He didn't have chapters and verses, but he knew what was in them.

He asked him a question, but his intention was not because he was sincere in knowledge seeking.

Not because he felt his ignorance or his utter dependence upon Jesus but he asked him a question the Bible says testing him people like to test God and it's never changed even in 2019 We talked about last night people toying with all kinds of entertainment and extracurricular activities because people still today like to test God.

They come to Sabbath school asking divisive questions, not because they're sincere in seeking the truth, but because they just want to test God.

People come to events like GYC Canada, mingle among the crowds, start sowing questions.

Not because they're sincerely seeking revival, but because they're just testing God.

It's good to know that Jesus fared no better than you or me because sometimes people say things to you and they're just testing you.

Sometimes people disrespect you because they're just testing you.

He knows how to handle a situation when somebody is testing you.

The lawyer said, teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?

What a question to pose to God, the commandment giver Himself.

The 1 who is the seat and the authority of the law?

To come and say, you as God, the spirit behind every scripture, what is the great commandment in the law?

Knowing there were hundreds of them in the Old Testament.

Jesus said to him in verse 37, you shall do what?

Love the Lord your God with how much of your heart?

With all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind this is the first and great commandment Jesus says the number 1 commandment is not covetousness it is not even Sabbath keeping Jesus says the greatest commandment among the family of God is to love God.

That is the number 1 rule in heaven's house.

It is to love the Lord your God with all your heart.

So the question becomes how do you violate such a commandment?

How do you break the greatest commandment in the law?

Well the first way you break this commandment is you love God with less than all your heart.

If we love God with half of our hearts we have violated the great commandment in the law.

If we are 99% Christian we have violated the great commandment in the law if we love God with less than all of our minds if we love God with less than all of our strength we have violated the great commandment in the law but you see there's another way to violate this commandment it's to love God with all your wallet but not your heart I'm a love him with something else besides my heart.

I'm gonna love him with something else besides my mind, besides my soul.

I'm gonna love God with my time, but I'm not gonna give him my mind.

I'm gonna make sure my tithe is paid consistently, but I'm not gonna love the Lord my God with my affections.

See brothers and sisters, this is the difference between someone that is on fire for God because nothing burns deeper than love we talk about being on fire for God it's not a bunch of activities It is rooted in a unabandoned desire to bestow all affections upon Jesus.

To say to God I'm gonna love you with every ounce of what I have.

But you see, it's interesting, when we look at this commandment, someone could easily ask and say, yeah, but how does God fare with this law?

Is God living in harmony with what he himself has demanded from man?

Is this the principle that actuated the life of Jesus?

You see, if this is the heart of the law, is to love God.

If that is the heart of the law, then Jesus's entire life was an expression of love to God.

Unfortunately for many of us who love to hear this sentimental interpretation of the cross, that Jesus was so in love with you and me that this pushed him to die on the cross I have news for you Jesus didn't just go to the cross for you and for me he went to the cross because he loved God His concern was not only our salvation.

His concern was also the name and the character of his heavenly Father.

He was concerned with the fact that His name has not been hallowed in all of the universe.

He was concerned that even on the earth, people consider God as someone who hates them.

People consider God as someone who forgets about them, who overlooks them.

Jesus died upon the cross because he loved God and he loved him with all his heart.

If we are questioning that, we only have to go to Gethsemane.

Even when Jesus' own being recoiled from the cross, Jesus said, nevertheless, your will be done.

When you love God, you do things that can sometimes make you sweat great drops of blood.

When you love God, sometimes you fall to the earth as a dead man, feeling as if you got nothing left, and yet God says, I need more Sometimes when you love God No 1 else understands Why you are doing what you are doing because you love God with all.

Why is it that Jesus was unhesitating in his ability and willingness to love God with all.

If in fact God had not loved with all himself, If Jesus suspected in his mind that God is demanding of me that which he himself will not live up to, Jesus might have hesitated.

He might have said, this is not a reciprocal relationship.

A friendship, some sort of romantic interest where it seems as if you're giving and giving and giving and the person is never giving?

All of a sudden, you start wanting to hold back Because you're like you know what I'm giving all of this effort and this person's given nothing They only call me when they need something But when I need something straight to voicemail Never get a call back or a text.

And it's like they purposely waited 3 days to make sure the situation was resolved before they call back.

You're laughing because you know what I'm talking about So all the sudden you decide in your mind, you know what I'm gonna need to dial it back on this relationship If Jesus suspected that God was demanding from him what God was not willing to give and to pay himself, he would have hesitated.

I'm about to bear the burden of all the sins of humanity that have ever lived and knowing according to the spirit of prophecy that Jesus's sacrifice was so efficacious so sufficient that it would cover even if sin were to arise again.

Jesus was coming with all And if he ever suspected in his mind that God was going to give him anything less, he would have hesitated and stumbled in Gethsemane.

So permit me tonight to talk about how God has already demonstrated that he's willing to love with all.

God is not asked of you or me anything He Himself has not laid on the table first.

If you have your Bibles, I want you to turn with me to the book of 1 John, chapter 4.

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Series

Plenary

Christ’s Life; Our Life: The Law and the Gospel

Transcript

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