The single most important lesson that you have to learn in life is this how to love like Jesus
Learning to love like God loves you the whole reason God puts you on this planet
It's not to make money not to retire not to just have a lot of fun and die God put you
here on this planet to learn how to love and if you don't do that you miss the point of life
He put you here to learn how to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself and if you don't learn
that you've just missed it. The most important thing in life is to live a life of love but how do
I know that that's what's most important because in my life I've got a lot of important things
Well I'm glad you asked that question because there's a little story in scripture it's about
five verses that gives us the key to the Christian life and here's what happened this is in the new
testament there was a teacher of the law that came up to Jesus and he had an opportunity to
ask Jesus a question I know I have a ton of questions I'm sure you would as well but let's
just suppose for a moment you had one shot and one question to ask Jesus what would you ask him
Now I didn't I wouldn't have asked this question but I'm so glad this guy was here and he asked the
question that he did because he basically said this to Jesus Jesus would you please tell me
what is the most important thing in life and here's how Jesus answered Mark 12
Jesus responded this way he said love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and
all your mind and all your strength and love your neighbor as yourself there are no commandments
more important than these Jesus is saying hey look there's there's one thing that's important
in life it's this right you ready here it is it's to love me and it's to love others and there's a
third part too and this is hard for some of us and that is to learn to love yourself because
God thinks you're amazing he said this is what's most important in life is loving me and loving
others another passage in the new testament Jesus goes on to add this to it in John 13.
He says so now I'm giving you a new commandment a new one love each other just as I have loved you
and you should love each other your love for one another will prove to the world
that you are my disciples. You know Jesus always had time for people always
If we're too busy you know what we lose our sensitivity
You can be right in the midst of somebody that's hurting really bad and you're in
such a hurry that you don't even realize that God has put you in a position to have an opportunity
to be a blessing to someone by maybe just cheering them up or saying you know God loves
you or you know God wants you to know that you're precious to him Jesus didn't miss opportunities
He was going somewhere but he always had time to stop and help hurting people
We need to make sure that we notice the people around us that are hurting and we take the time
to do something to make their life better. You know some of the reasons that we're so driven
and we get burned out and I've been on the verge of burnout a number of times in my life
or we walk around feeling so empty inside or we have loneliness or with regrets
is because we're using the wrong measuring stick for when it comes to what success
really truly looks like so what does that mean exactly what means when you wake up in the morning
You make a decision and the decision is this no matter what happens today no matter what
my to-do lists are or how good or bad a day is it doesn't matter as long as they learn to love
God a little bit more and I learn to love others then that day was a great day the bible says that
day was the best day now the opposite is true as well which is if you wake up in the morning and
you're not even thinking about God you say I got to get going man I got to get out there I got to
make the sale I got to make the grade let's say for you it was the best day ever maybe you got
the promotion maybe you did get the sale it was the best day for you and it's not that all those
things were bad or wrong they're good but let's say you didn't learn to love God a little bit more
or learn to love others or even understand to learn how much he really loves you
Then God says you know what that wasn't the best day that was an okay day it was a mediocre day and
the fact that I've got something better for you you know when we derail our lives and all of us
all of us derail our lives at one point or another all of us get our priorities mixed up and twisted
around upside down God doesn't look at you in anger upset he looks at you with compassion
He says okay that's all right it's okay we'll try it again tomorrow tomorrow you'll get another
shot at it because this is important to me that this what God says this is important to me that you
get this right and so yeah all these things are great but I've got a better way for you to live
and that's the heart of God towards you he wants to give you the best day ever
and he wants to have a better way for you to live and that's to live a life of love look
at first Corinthians 16 14. Everything you do must be done in love everything so the primary
call in the life of believer is to live a life of love it's putting relationships before activities
not just building wealth not getting to the best schools not getting married not landing the best
jobs nothing wrong with all that but it's not the priority it's not what's important and God
says let love be your highest priority make life about relationships not about accomplishments
Loving like God is taking care of people who can't take care of you
Can't give you anything back at that point
God is patient with you the bible says that we are but dust and God knows that
and that we struggle and he is patient with us God is kind to you he loves you God does not envy
God does not boast God is not proud unless he's talking about you he thinks you're pretty amazing
God does not dishonor others God is not self-seeking God is not easily angered
with you God keeps no records of wrongs because Jesus paid for all of it on the cross
God does not delight in evil or the evil that happens to you
God rejoices with the truth God always protects you even when you may not realize it
God always trusts God always hopes because he is hope God always perseveres and God never fails you
That's who God is and that's who God wants you to understand about him this is his heart towards you
When he looks at you this is how he looks at you when he thinks about you this is how he thinks
about you he wants to relate to you in this way he wants you to know this is how he responds to you
So the next time you go around thinking and getting down on yourself that maybe God is
punishing you or that God is upset at you or that God doesn't like you or that God for some reason
he's out to get you think about this passage as a filter to understand and to see who God is to you
God is patient and kind and loving and he will never ever ever fail you and he loves you with
an everlasting never-ending love this is his heart towards you and so how do you spell love what is
the way we do that we've heard this many times you spell love time you show people time but it's even
more than that it's time and commitments it's time plus commitment is how we show people love and it
communicates love the most important relationship in your life the bible says is your relationship
with God working on your friendship with him listening to him talking to him letting him
talk to you letting him love on you it's making that commitment to be with him on a regular basis
And the second most important relationships we have that we need to have time and commitment for
is for people you know I've as a pastor I've done a lot of memorials and I've been to a lot
of memorials as well and I hear all kinds of testimonies it's one of the best parts about a
memorial is hearing about a person's life but let me tell you something I've never heard never once
have I ever heard this kind of testimony at a memorial he was so amazing at his to-do lists
I've never heard that before because that's not what matters what I've heard though is how this
person impacted their life through relationships how this person impacted their life because they
gave of themselves they gave up time and they kept their commitments. Attention is the greatest gift
you ever give anybody why because your attention is your life when I give you my attention
I'm giving you my time and my time is my life I'm never going to get that time back
I can always get more money I can always get other things I can't get any more time and if I give you
my time I've just given you a part of my life it's the most important thing you can give somebody
We only have so much time and we have a lot of things that I know that we want to get done and
we even have dreams that we want to get done but because we only have so much time how we invest it
and who we invested into matters with our kids and our relationships and the people around us that
we love and I promise you based on what God says you will never regret choosing what matters most
it might mean cutting back it might mean making some radical decisions in your home but it'll
be worth it you will never regret making room for what matters most never make room for love