August 11, 2021
Wednesday
Matthew 22:36-40 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
This is talking about loving God with every part of you. When you were redeemed, every part of you was purchased. Your spirit, soul, and body were redeemed and paid for. Moses had 613 commandments. Jesus only gave 2 under the new covenant. There is nothing more important than this.
John 15:1-2 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
It is very important that you see the true vine represented here. There are many false vines. Jesus is the way, the truth, the life. He is the only genuine Vine. You’ll never know the Father like He wants you to know Him without knowing Jesus. That’s why when you pray, you don’t just run straight to the Father you stop and worship Jesus. They are one in the same. They stand co-equal. They have the same mind and totally agree. Yet they are separate entities and separate personalities. You must treat them accordingly. You approach Him by worshiping Him and giving Him His proper place. That is all involved in loving Him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. There are many vines you can connect to in this life and world. Most of those are false. The vine does not bear fruit. It is the branches that are supposed to bear fruit. The branches are too valuable to cut off. The reason you are not bearing fruit is because you are living in the low areas of sin. The vinedresser (God the Father) will take you up and tie you to the terrace; out of the dirt and off of the ground so that you can grow and begin to bear fruit. When you get up off the ground, He will begin to purge things out of your life that keep you from bearing fruit. The pruning never ends. He deals with one thing at a time.
Malachi 1:1-3 The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.
2 “I have loved you,” says the Lord.
“Yet you say, ‘In what way have You loved us?’
Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?”
Says the Lord.
“Yet Jacob I have loved;
3 But Esau I have hated,
And laid waste his mountains and his heritage
For the jackals of the wilderness.”
First words out of His mouth, “I have loved you.” All He is asking is that you love Him! David wasn’t a perfect person. He was a great public leader. But David knew how to repent. And He never went after another God. God loved Him! Through all of the Children of Israel’s history, God loved them. Even when they chose other things. Many think that the book of Malachi is about tithes and offerings, and while it includes that, it’s really about the heart! Pride and selfishness blinds you! Don’t fall into the trap thinking you love God, but you aren’t loving Him with everything you are! You can’t serve Him on your terms, it has to be His terms.
1 Kings 3:3 And Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of his father David, except that he sacrificed and burned incense at the high places.
God poured out wealth onto Solomon like no other. Israel came to be the light of the world. God was giving all of this because Solomon loved Him! He was able to show the world that He is the true God. And He is a God who blesses.
1 Kings 11:1-4 But King Solomon loved many foreign women, as well as the daughter of Pharaoh: women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites— 2 from the nations of whom the Lord had said to the children of Israel, “You shall not intermarry with them, nor they with you. Surely they will turn away your hearts after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love. 3 And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart. 4 For it was so, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart after other gods; and his heart was not loyal to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David.
He started off good! God blessed His socks off. Then Solomon did the very thing God said not to do. God knew that intermarrying with women of other civilizations, would turn his heart away from Him. It was not a race issue; it was a heart issue. God is a jealous God. He will have no rivals! He wants you to be all in! Many people think they are all in when they come to church occasionally. Don’t be deceived!