Well, if you got a Bible, we're going to be back in Luke chapter 7.
I hope you've been watching this week.
Some of the rainstorms.
I think it was either New Mexico or Missouri.
They got a years worth of rain in two hours.
And I don't think that would bode well here in Idaho.
Falls, but I don't think it would be a falls. We would be waiting here in the Shiloh
with our rubber duckies. But I titled today's message is loving Jesus. And I was asked last
night, what are you preaching on? So I'm preaching about a sinful woman. And if you've got any
sinful women here? Wow. A bunch of liars, too.
but it really does come down to loving the Lord.
And so we left off last time here in Luke where Jesus kind of chastises the people
saying that you're like children.
You know, you're being childish, not childlike.
I believe there's a difference.
A childlike faith is just.
climbing up in the Lord's lap and realizing that he has your life in his hand like Father Abraham,
and it was accounted to him for righteousness, that childlike faith he had.
But he says, John the Baptist, he came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say he has a demon.
The son of man has come eating and drinking, and you say, look, a glutton and a wine bibber,
a friend of tax collectors and sinners.
But wisdom is justified by her children is how he ended that statement.
And that you and I would be wise to heed the words of Jesus
and realize that he and John the Baptist's ministries were so different, right?
John had a message of judgment.
Jesus said, I didn't come to condemn the world, but to save the world.
But both of their messages were valid and neither one of them was heard very well.
and so and that that really brings us to the the loving God thing you know you hear people how could a loving God
because people don't really know what love is um love is truly those two things in tension the
judgment of God and the grace and the mercy of God and those two things are necessary for one another
how can God be gracious and merciful if he's not a God of justice and judges?
And so he gets after these folks and tells them that wisdom is justified by her children.
You want to do a great study on wisdom.
Go to the book of Proverbs.
It's a powerful thing.
And wisdom is something that, uh,
God will give if we ask, the brother of the Lord James said,
if anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all men liberally.
Do you feel like you need wisdom in these days?
I know I do.
For sure.
And so we're going to look at the last part of chapter 7 here this morning slash afternoon.
And so we're going to be in Luke chapter 6.
And I'm just going to read through it.
It'll be from verse 36 through verse 50.
It says, then one of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him.
And he went to the Pharisees house and sat down to eat.
And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner when she knew that Jesus sat at the table
in the Pharisee's house brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil
and stood at his feet behind him weeping.
And she began to wash his feet with her tears.
and wiped them with her hair, the hair of her head,
and she kissed his feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil.
Now, when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this,
he spoke to himself saying,
this man, if he were a prophet,
would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching him,
for she is a sinner.
And Jesus answered and said to him, Simon,
I have something to say to you.
And so he said, teacher, say,
on. There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed 500 denary and the other 50. And when they had
nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which of them will love
him more? And Simon answered and said, I suppose the one whom he forgave more. And he said to him,
you have rightly judged. Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, do you see this woman? I entered your house, and
You gave me no water for my feet, but she has washed my feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head.
You gave me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss my feet since the time I came in.
You did not anoint my head with oil, but this woman has anointed my feet with fragrant oil.
Therefore, I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much.
but to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.
And then he said to her, go, your sins are forgiven you.
Let's pray.
Lord, thank you.
Thank you for forgiveness.
Lord, what a beautiful thing.
And oh, how it feels good to be forgiven.
And so, Lord, as we look at this today and, Lord, the love that we have for you, or the love
that we claim to have for you, I pray that it would be evident.
in our own hearts. Lord, that we would be, maybe have a searching of our heart done by your
Holy Spirit. Lord, where we lack, I pray that you would pick up the slack and that you would
truly teach us to be your disciples. Lord, that we wouldn't just give you lip service like many
that we've seen maybe even in this church and maybe in the past or even in the scripture,
but that we would be those true blue believers that have.
surrendered all that we are to the Lord Jesus. And so Lord, we praise you. We thank you for this
passage. Thank you for these people, Lord, that we're learning so many lessons from the lives of
the people that you encounter. And Lord, I pray that today all of us would have an encounter with you
in Jesus' name. Amen. So here he is. He's got this invite from this Pharisee. And no doubt,
Jesus was popular with the Pharisees, not in a good way, some of them, but they were thinking,
wow, this guy is really doing some wild stuff here. So you wonder, what was this guy's motive
for inviting Jesus to come to his house? Can I ask you, what's your motive for following Jesus?
What's your motive? I remember 1984, my motive was because he'll bless me. I'm following Jesus because
he'll bless me, right? And at the time, I was a rodeo competitor. And I remember very specifically
getting dealt with on this issue. And it was painful, can I just say? So I was riding this
bearback horse. I'd been drawn really good, riding really good, and I draw this horse in
Cammyi, Idaho, and his name is Blockbuster. And it was funny. Just a few months earlier, we had had a
head weighing contest with some of my friends. And my head outweighed everybody's head.
My head weighed 11 pounds. And so they quickly nicknamed me blockhead. So when they found
I drew this horse, they said, ha, blockhead on blockbuster. That's a good one. So the whistle
blows and I go down to double grabbing, the horse is right at the fence and he sucks back. And my
hand stays in my rigging but my body does a complete flip over his less shoulder and so here when
everything comes tight my i'm hung up with my back to the horse like this and it feels like my hand is
going to be completely ripped off if he would have stepped on me it would have tore my hand right off at
my wrist and so all i could do was get my other hand up and relieve the pressure until help would come
and oh was i praying for help to come and it took a while
In fact, I should have brought the picture.
But as I'm laying there on the, after they got me loose, my brother and several other guys
come running out, the pickup man gets the horse stopped.
They can't get me loose.
So they have to throw me to the other side of the horse to get me loose.
And I'm sitting there and the pickup man says, hey, when I grabbed his wrist, it separated
like that far.
So it's just skin holding stuff together there.
And so, and I'm laying there on.
on the arena floor going, why, Lord?
And the Lord started dealing with me.
Scottie, why are you following me?
You following me for you or for me?
And it was quite a healing process.
It took me quite a while to get healed up from that,
both physically and spiritually, realizing,
oh, this isn't about me.
It's all about him.
It's whether I get blessing or not.
It doesn't matter.
That's not the issue.
The issue is being,
a witness and drawing close to your Lord and loving him with all your heart, your mind, your soul,
and your strength. I didn't realize that. I didn't realize how selfish I was. Do you realize how
selfish you are? Right? When you get married, that's evident. When you get kids, it's compounded.
It's more evident when you have children. But we're selfish jerks, all of us. And so, you know,
I wonder what this guy's motive is for inviting the Lord to his house and to this banquet.
He invited him to eat.
And the idea in scripture, when you eat together, it's like you're one, right?
You're eating the same stuff.
You're getting the sustenance from the very same thing.
And what's cool is Jesus is willing to do a meal with anyone.
He's not prejudice.
He'll go to the leper and the homeless and here he's with the point.
pompous Pharisee.
And because Jesus is cool with an invitation.
He responds to invitations.
Have you invited him into your life?
And I don't mean just on the front porch.
Right?
I mean all of your life.
Right?
Your thought life.
Your dreams, what you want for you and your family or what have you.
He's willing to.
to be invited to that.
And I've learned that the more you invite Jesus into,
the better things go.
Marriage, raising kids, your job, all those things.
When you have Jesus right there with you,
it goes so much better.
And so here's this guy that he's hung out with tax collectors and sinners,
and now he's with the Pharisee in,
in his home or a banqueting hall.
And it's interesting that it says,
and he went to the Pharisees house and sat down to eat.
Now, in that culture, they would have these banquety rooms that were kind of open.
You know, people could look in and hear what they were talking about
and people walking by.
And they're thinking that's how this woman got in there
because obviously she probably wasn't invited.
But, and so here she is.
She just shows up, it says, and behold a woman in the city who was a sinner.
Well, so there were women in the city who weren't sinners?
Is there some women sitting here that aren't sinners this morning?
Not.
And so obviously she was a woman of questionable character.
I used to hang out with a lot of gals like that.
There were women of questionable character.
And usually wasn't good.
Men and women are sinners, but I don't know what it is,
but why it seems like sometimes when a woman's a sinner,
it's worse than a man that's a sinner.
I don't think so.
But she is at this banqueting table.
but she's standing. And when they would sit at the banqueting table, they would actually rest with their feet away from the table on an elbow or a pillow in their face right at the table. And so she couldn't get to the head of Jesus because a lot of people think this is the same anointing that happened in John chapter 12. But that was Mary of Bethany, right? The sister to Lazarus, you remember that? This is different because she poured it right on his head right before the crucifixion.
Some think this is Mary Magdalene, though you can't prove that.
And the amount of people that Jesus impacted, this is probably somebody totally different.
This is just a woman that was impressed with Jesus.
Some believe, one commentator believed that this was a time when right after Matthew
Chapter 11 where Jesus made that incredible proclamation saying,
come unto me all of you who were weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest and you'll find rest
for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light man what an invitation right what an
invitation his yoke is easy and his burden is light and um i have to remind myself of that sometimes
maybe you do too.
Because sometimes it just feels like, you know,
life is really a bummer.
It gets weighty, doesn't it?
But the Lord goes, wait, you're all right.
Tomorrow's going to come, and it's going to have troubles too.
He's just talking to somebody about it, right?
Just focus on today's.
Don't even think about tomorrow.
Number one, it may not come.
And number two, it's going to have its own troubles.
So just focus on today and the Lord will be with you.
And so this woman, here she is.
She's sitting at the feet of Jesus.
And which is a good place, right?
We know that when Mary was there, the Lord said,
she's chose the better.
It's a good thing to sit at Jesus' feet.
Do you do that?
Do you have a time in your life?
when you sit at Jesus's feet.
Because if you're not sitting at Jesus's feet,
you're not getting the spiritual nourishment that you need, right,
to sustain this life.
So many people think, well, I go to church on Sunday.
Right?
That's like eating a meal a week.
It just doesn't work, right?
You get hungry and you're deficient.
And so here she is sitting at his feet and she's overwhelmed.
it says, and behold, the woman of the city was a sinner.
And when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisees house, brought an alabaster
flask of fragrant oil.
And this could be two things.
It could be a big one.
Many believe that's what Mary had.
But sometimes the women would wear a little one around their neck.
It was actually so acceptable and common.
that they could do it on the Sabbath day,
but they would have to break it
to get the fragrant oil out.
And it was very costly.
It was worth a lot.
In fact, in Ecclesiastes chapter 7,
it says,
Better is a good name than precious ointment.
It was actually something that extremely valuable.
You could use it to barter with
and pay for things with.
And so here's this woman.
crying and weeping at the feet of Jesus
with this fragrant oil and anointing his feet.
And it says,
and stood at his feet behind him weeping
and she began to wash his feet with her tears
and wiped them with the hair of her head
and she kissed his feet
and anointed them with fragrant oil.
Expressing a love, right?
A compassion,
a heart of gratitude towards this one that maybe had told her,
come unto me.
Are you heavy and weighed down with your sin?
Come to Jesus.
Have you made mistakes this week?
Have you brought them before the Lord and say,
Lord, I messed up so bad.
Please forgive me.
See, what's really cool about that is when you get comfortable
with doing that with the Lord,
then pretty soon you get comfortable
with doing it with each other.
Right?
And that's how we get clean,
the Bible tells us.
I shared on Wednesday night
that it's called the believers bar of soap.
Do you use it very often?
It's found in 1st John 1.9.
Right?
That if we confess our sin,
he's faithful in just to forgive us of our sin
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Have you picked up that bar of soap?
lately. And that's how we get right with each other too. When I used to have squabbles with the kids
there at the school, when I would get them face to face and they would actually confess to one
another, I hurt you and I'm so sorry, please forgive me. You know? And the kids are so resilient.
They're going, oh yeah, I forgive you. Sometimes I'd look at them and I'd say, just like that.
Don't you think I should give them a swat?
A few times there we go.
Oh, okay, go ahead, coach.
Light them up.
But she had come.
She had come and experienced that light yoke.
And so then this Pharisee sees all this going on.
Right?
You know.
we have the same look check it out he says when the pharisee who invited him saw this he spoke to himself saying
this man if he were a prophet would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching him
for she is a sinner and you're not simon you know this whole good people bad people thing
it's it's it's a farce it's a lie it's not true there are no good people
i'm you know doing some stuff when we were doing a our security training at the school we
would have the cops come in and that's how they always classified people good guys bad guys
like because they were in a uniform they were a good guy no hopefully that uniform keeps your
wicked heart in check correct
And no, they're just sinners.
And here, this guy, he's classifying while there's sinners,
and then there's, I sure live with folk.
Who have arrived.
We're so cool.
If these sinners could just get it figured out and be like us.
Right?
Wouldn't they just be good people?
And so, notice.
It says he spoke to himself.
It's like he didn't say anything out loud.
Maybe he was just whispering it under his breath or just, you know,
he was having this mental conversation with himself.
He goes, ain't no way that dude's a prophet.
Because that woman is wicked.
That's a wicked woman right there.
And he would know, he would know that she's a sinner if he's truly a prophet of God.
So maybe that was his motive.
He was putting Jesus to the test.
but it is interesting as I look at this I see Simon this Pharisee
for every sin that the woman was guilty of physically
Simon was guilty of spiritually
for every sin that the woman was guilty of physically
Simon was guilty of spiritually
his spiritual arrogance thinking he had arrived
maybe because he knew the Torah and could quote chapter and verse out of the Bible,
thinking he was above someone else.
None of us are above anyone else.
If we have the scripture in us, praise God.
Right?
But that doesn't make you better than anyone else.
It makes you maybe a little safer when it comes to judgment day
that if that word of God has kept you from going in the way of Cain or Balaam
or Sodom and Gomorrah?
Because the Word of God will convert our soul.
It will convict us.
It will keep us in a good place.
But not when spiritual pride enters in.
God hates it.
He despises it.
It's nasty.
We call it self-righteousness.
And everyone hates it.
But many of us are guilty of it.
Moi being won.
The bottom line is,
is for all of us is we need to be forgiven. That's the bottom line. It seems like this has been a
theme throughout this gospel of Luke. So verse 40 through 43 it says, and Jesus answered and said to him,
Simon, I have something to say to you. Right. Why? Because Jesus can read your thoughts. You know
what you're thinking about right now. Some of you, oh, no, really. Yeah, what you're thinking about right?
now. God knows what you're thinking about, right? He might have something to say to you. We have to be
careful, right? You take your thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ. The Bible tells us to do that.
That's a good practice. Think of, oh, how did that thought come there? Lord, forgive me. I rebuke that
in Jesus' name, that thought, it's so disgusting, it's so perverse, it's so wicked, and yet
that just went through my head, and hopefully it don't rest in my heart. So,
he says, I have something to say to you. So Simon goes, he said, teacher, say it. And then he tells
him this parable. He says there was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed 500 denary
and the other 50. And when they had nothing with which to pay, he freely forgave them both. Tell me,
therefore, which one of them will love more? And Simon answered and said, well, I suppose the one
who you forgave more. True. True story. So is there a degree of sinners then?
No, there's no degree of sinners. Jesus tells this guy this parable, trying to get him to realize
he thinks he's the guy with 50. When really we're all in the 500 category. That's how much debt we have.
all of us because there's not a degree of sinners. If you've sinned once, that would justify God
sending you to hell. If you sinned one time, because you've broken the law of God. We've all broken
the law of God. One or a thousand. You remember when Peter comes to him, he said, Lord, how many times
should I forgive my brother? 70 times seven? Or excuse me, seven times thinking he was very generous.
And that was Jesus's comeback with 70 times seven. I mean 490 times.
No, more than that.
Because we've all come to that place of sinning against God.
And it's not good sinner, bad sinner.
It's just sinners, all of us.
And Simon did not see this about himself.
But truly, when you have the knowledge, the knowledge of what you've been forgiven for.
right? That's what's powerful. That's when you realize, oh, I'm that guy. I'm that guy that
guy that has that debt of 500 denary and I can't pay it. I don't have anything to pay with.
And Jesus comes along with his blood and he says, it's wiped clean. You're set free. Your
your heart, something's terribly wrong. You're thinking way too highly of yourself. And that,
it really is our problem. We think way too highly of ourselves. Paul tells us when a man is nothing,
when you are nothing and you think you're something, no, you're nothing. We're nothing. I love the
prayer I heard years ago. Lord, because in Genesis, right, when we see the creation story, God
creates the world and all those good things out of nothing.
He creates all good things out of nothing.
He looked at it and he saw it as good.
And years ago I heard a prayer and a guy said,
Oh, Lord, make me nothing that you might make something good out of my life.
That is the cold, hard truth of the matter.
So this woman, obviously, she realized what she had done,
she realized the gravity and the weight of her sin.
And she heard this message, this we would call it the good news or the gospel.
And she responds in this way.
Oh, that we all would.
Sometimes I'm still overwhelmed at my bent that I can have these thoughts that are
so diabolically evil.
You say, well, yeah, that's thoughts, Scotty.
Everybody has those.
Yeah, but what do you do with those?
Does that not tell me?
That speaks truth to my heart that I'm capable of these things.
That's a fearful thing to me.
I'm so capable of this debauchery.
I just, it overwhelms me.
But what it does do, and I'm so thankful for,
is it makes me desperate for Jesus.
I am desperate for Jesus.
And I'm with this woman.
I want to beat his feet if I have to be on my face at his feet
and kissing him and thanking him for not giving me my just reward,
which would be eternal damnation.
And God has given me a pass and that.
So you have to look at yourself, examine yourself, the Bible says, to see if you're even in the faith.
Because if you think you're doing it on your own merit, you think you're a good guy or a good gal.
You're terribly wrong.
Terribly wrong.
But he says, well, I think whoever's forgiven most would probably love him.
Where's your love at?
how much do you love Jesus that really proves how much you know you how well you know yourself
how much you love Jesus it proves what your self view is how you view yourself
which scripturally it's really important that we view ourselves correctly
not compared to the next guy well compared to him or her a pretty good guy
Yeah. Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, I'm up on them, right? Because I haven't done physically what they did
physically. But spiritually in my heart I have. I've committed murder in my heart. Have you not? If you
haven't, you're not married. Or you haven't had children.
We did say till death do his part.
So it's biblical.
Just that you might have a jail ministry if you follow through.
But this love thing, you guys, is it's from the beginning.
Let's go ahead and read.
I'm just going to read the rest of what we got here in verse.
44 and then he says, then he turned to the woman and said to Simon. So he's looking at this woman
who Simon just despises as a sinful woman. He says, do you see this woman? I entered your house.
You gave me no water for my feet. It was customary, right? Clear back to the time of Abraham.
It was customary. When you had a visitor come, right, you wash their feet just as a good host.
You wash their feet. Simon didn't do that. So that really does make me question what his motive was
inviting Jesus. So you gave me no water for my feet, but he has, she has washed my feet with
her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. How humble is that? I feel like a broken
record when I talk about humility because God is so drawn to it. This woman is so humble.
You gave me no kiss. But this woman has not.
cease to kiss my feet since the time that I came in. Right? And it's not the, not the kiss that you
would think. It was that, that European or Middle Eastern, you know, on each side of it. It's just a greeting,
like a handshake. You wouldn't even shake my hand when I showed up. But this woman has kissed my
feet since the time that I came in.
You did not anoint my head with oil, but this woman has anointed my feet with fragrant
oil.
Therefore, I say to you her sins, which are many?
See, Jesus doesn't excuse sin.
I got the most worst argument with somebody in the hospital the other day.
Right?
And they end up telling me to F off.
F you, dude, F you.
I said, what?
Because I don't embrace the sin that they think is okay.
And I don't embrace that.
And they're touting the F word to me at the hospital.
I'm just thinking, I don't wonder what kind of witness that was.
Probably not very.
And I was a little hot when I walked away too.
But I didn't F word back.
Just saying.
Crazy. The world's going crazy, you guys. It's going crazy.
It's going crazy.
But this anointing, right? She anointed. She put this costly oil. She gave that which was valuable to her Lord.
and her sins are many.
I'm not going to say that,
but they're forgiven.
My sins are many.
The thing about it is I'm not done.
My sins are many, but I'm not done.
I still need this comfort.
I still need this person that I can go to
and be with insinity's feet.
because my sins are many.
Your sins are many.
And they just keep coming.
Well, now what do you mean by sin?
Pastor?
What do you mean by sin?
You mean doing wicked things?
Well, it's not just doing wicked things.
It's sometimes not doing righteous things.
Right where James tells us,
he who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.
So is that sin less than the sin of adultery?
Is it?
I don't believe so.
Really?
It's a sin.
Sin is sin.
Or then Paul tells us in the book of Romans,
whatever is not a faith is sin.
Well, I probably sin this morning
I fed chickens.
I don't know that I did that out of faith.
I think I did it grudgingly.
So our sins, there are many.
But we've been forgiven.
And the same loves little.
So then he said to her, your sins are forgiven.
And it's interesting that how this is worded,
where because she loved, for she loved much.
It says her sins, which are many,
are forgiven. Listen, listen to this, for she loved much. It almost seems to be in reverse, right?
Right? She doesn't love because her sins are forgiven that she loves realizing that this person can
forgive her so she automatically loves him. Therefore, she's washed clean. Do you love Jesus?
How much? Where's he out? Where's he out in husband, wife,
kids. It is amazing how much the place we put with our kids sometimes. We put them above
the Lord sometimes. Ought not to be. No, it's loving Jesus first and foremost, right? Why?
Because he is our resource for love. A resource that can't be exhausted.
You want your love cup full?
You've got to go to Jesus.
Because he's the source of that agape love that comes from God.
The love of God that will fill your hearts and minds and protect you and lead you through this life.
It comes from him.
Therefore, he deserves the preeminence in our lives.
That's where all that love that you and I like and want to give to people comes from it.
It comes from him.
That's why he has to be preeminence.
in your life. You put anything above that? Right? I'm just reading through the judges. They put
idols above their God. They love their idols more than they loved God. And a whoopin would come.
They got lots of whoopens. I think we talked about that last week. But it was her love, right?
Her sins, which are many are forgiven, for she loved much.
And that's kind of like when God comes to us,
and the Lord comes to us, and he says, listen,
if you don't forgive, you can't be forgiven.
Listen, folks say, well, that's allegorically, right?
That's just a, you know, an encouragement.
No, no.
If you don't forgive, you cannot be forgiven.
Okay?
you have to embrace that.
You say, well, how do you do that?
Pastor, you don't know what I've been through.
The people that I've talked to say,
you don't know what I've been through,
and some of them have been through stuff
that's just insane.
I cannot forgive.
I won't forgive.
If you won't, you just sealed your fate.
Right?
You just hardened your heart.
No, you forgive, right?
Because it's right, not because you feel like it.
Because most of the time, we don't feel like it.
I don't feel like forgiving them.
That dude's got what he's got coming.
And then some.
Right?
Well, are you his judge?
No, you're not.
That's the way we view it.
No, you got to let it go.
You give it to God.
You just say, Lord, bless him.
I forgive him.
I don't know how you're going to do that.
You might need to break them.
And I'm not even going to pray for that
because I could get all caught up in the whole, you know,
murdering me.
my heart. Oh, Lord, just kill them. Lord, I pray for their brakes to go out and then run into a big rock.
That's not what he's talking about. No, you don't forgive. You can't be forgiven. So let it go.
And then, then you are in that place where you're loving God and you're loving people. And that's what
Jesus called it to do. That is the bottom line. The bottom line. The bottom line.
is to love. And it's been that way from the beginning. It was even that way in the law that it's all
about loving God. The religious person doesn't love God. He loves himself. Right? Because he looks good.
Goes to church every Sunday. Right? Doesn't cuss or drink or chew or go with girls who do. Right?
You think you're okay. No, religious people. It's
it's all about you. But those who love the Lord, it's all about the Lord. Simon showed no affection at
all towards Jesus. And this woman, it was just oozing out of her, her love for her God.
Deuteronomy chapter 6, verses four and five, it says, here, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.
Right? Jesus confirms it in Matthew chapter 22, verse 37. He says,
Jesus said to him, you shall love, and then they came. They were test in name, right?
Which is the greatest commandment. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and your mind.
This is the first and great commandment, and the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Yeah, love.
Love everyone?
Yeah, love everyone.
Now, the way we go about that sometimes is, I would say, odd.
Right?
Because the book of Jude tells us to love everyone.
Share the gospel with them.
Save them by sharing the love of God with them.
If those people won't hear, then there's option two.
Scare the hell out of them.
Right?
you know what you're going to hell if you don't turn to jesus you're going to hell well that's not
very loving well if it is it if it rescues them from hell and if they then they go on their own that's on them
but all the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments love god and love people so simple
and yet so hard well the god part's not too tough sometimes
but loving each other gets a little rough sometimes, right?
Because we're prickly and stinky, right?
Like hugging a skunk or a porcupine.
So, but 1 John chapter 3 tells us this, listen to this.
Behold what manner of love the father has bestowed upon us,
that we should be called the children of God.
Therefore, the world does not know us because it did not know him.
beloved now we are children of God and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be but we know that he
when he is revealed we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is and everyone who has this hope
in him purifies himself even as he is pure behold what manner of love the father has bestowed upon us
that you and I could actually be the children of God we can be called sons and daughters of God
Who deserves that?
None of us.
So what Jesus is seems to be poking out with Simon here,
Simon,
dude, where's your love?
Where is it?
There was no water, there's no kiss, there was no oil.
There's no, where you at?
Maybe you need to ask yourself that quote.
Where are you at?
how's your love cut
verse 47
but to whom
little is forgiven the same
loves little
and that's when we just don't get it
we just don't get
that what God, what Jesus has done for us.
And then he tells the woman, he says,
your faith has saved you.
I love this humility about Jesus, right?
Jesus saved her, but she had to put her faith in him.
See, it's reciprocal.
Some people believe the whole, well, you have no choice in the matter.
Some are saved, some are not.
No, you have a choice in the matter.
She didn't have to go sit at his feet, right?
She had a choice in the matter.
She chose to come to him.
And because she chose to come to him by faith, he tells her, your faith has saved you.
And now you can go in peace.
Hot dog, you mean I'm really forgiving?
You're really forgiven.
There is no greater joy than to know that you're forgiven.
But it has to be received.
Forgiveness is always ready from God.
God's ready to forgive.
give. He's always on the ready to forgive. And as soon as anyone asked for it and humility, bingo,
you have it. There's no hesitation or shortage on God's part. It's usually our part. And if we come
with humility and loving submission to Jesus and to receive the forgiveness that he offers us by
faith, it's the greatest thing I've ever experienced in my life.
knowing that God truly really having the understanding of the omniscience of God that he knows all things,
he knows everything about me, every crazy thought that I have, every crazy deed that I did
that was so evil towards other human beings that really I should be in prison or in the hottest part of hell,
one of the two.
And God showed me mercy?
That provokes love in your heart.
But it has to be received.
Right?
You have to receive it by faith.
Because the bottom line is that we need to be forgiven.
Warren Weirsby says this.
But God's forgiveness is not automatic.
Right?
It's not automatic.
We can reject His grace if we will.
You can reject His grace.
You just say, no, I'm good.
you're not.
I say that all the time and I'm just going, well, not really.
And then he tells this story.
In 1830, a man named George Wilson was arrested for mail theft,
the penalty for which was hanging back then.
Maybe we need to bring that back, right?
Same for horse thieving.
Hanging. After a time, President Andrew Jackson gave Wilson a pardon, but he refused to accept it.
The authorities were puzzled, should Wilson be freed or hanged? They consulted Chief Justice John
Marshall, who handed down his decision. A pardon is a slip of paper, the value of which is
determined by the acceptance of the person to be pardoned. If it is refused, it is no pardon at all.
George Wilson must be hanged. If you have never accepted God's pardon, now is the time to
believe and be saved, right?
They hanged him.
He refused it.
He said, oh, no, I don't need you.
Have you ever talked to those people you told them about what Jesus has done in your life?
And they tell you, oh, that's great for you.
No, it's going to be good for you, too, if you will.
But so many won't.
They won't come to that place.
Her acceptance of the Lord Jesus, right, caused her to wipe his feet with her hair and with her tears
and caused her to kiss his feet and caused her to anoint his feet.
And when you accept Jesus, you will hear your sins are forgiven.
That's the words that she heard, right?
Your sins are forgiven.
your faith has saved you, go in peace.
Today, maybe that's what you need to hear.
Your sins are forgiven.
But have you expressed your love to him and for him?
And just maybe shown yourself and others around you
that you love him?
Your faith and your love are proof of your affection towards him.
And that's actually demanded by God.
Well, if it's demanded, is it love?
No, you have a choice.
You don't have to.
But it's found in 1st Corinthians chapter 16.
It's a very powerful passage of scripture.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 16, verse 22, and I'll close with this,
It says if anyone, listen, if anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let them be accursed.
Let them be damned to hell.
And you have the choice.
You don't have to, but the alternative is not good.
But if you do, right?
If you do accept him, then your life is blessed.
Right. You have something that you could never get by yourself. You have forgiveness of sin.
You have a source of love that can't be exhausted. And that's a good thing. So I'm going to pray.
And if you just need to reaffirm your love for Jesus, I want to give you an opportunity to do that as we pray.
So would you pray with me? Father, we do come before you. Thank you.
Thank you for your incredible love. Lord, I'm still just overwhelmed. I can't believe that you love me,
knowing what you know. And so it is with everyone in this room. Lord, there's nothing been done,
said, thought that you can't forgive and wash away and make us clean. And so for that, Lord,
I'm standing here today, Lord, just in awe of a God that can take something so vile.
and make it valuable simply because of your great love.
And so as we're just in an attitude of prayer right now,
and you feel like, Lord, I just need to express my love to you.
And just a simple act of faith, you can do that.
And so if that's you and you just say,
Lord, I just want to show you that I love you,
stand to your feet, would you?
If you're just wanting to express your love to Jesus,
just stand to your feet.
You don't have to.
This is between you and him.
If you got some work to do with them and you don't want to stand, I totally understand that.
But I want to stand with you because this is an incredible thing.
Lord, your love is, it truly reaches to the heavens.
Lord, and you loved us so much that you cast our sin as far as the east is from the west,
which is an infinite line that can never come back to us.
And so Lord Jesus, we just praise you and worship you because of that.
And we want to love you.
Lord, we want to love you with our lives the way we think, the way we act, the way we speak.
And so, Lord, I just know that I know that this week I've blown it and I just seek your forgiveness.
And I know because of your great love and because of us willing to humiliate ourselves, Lord,
and stand before you.
Lord, just is guilty of sin, but also standing before you just proclaiming our love for you
because we do love you, because you first loved us, and that's why we do it. And so, Lord, Jesus,
we just pray that you would bless your people today as we go from this place, Lord, that the name of
Jesus would be on our lips, that we would never be ashamed. Lord, this is the song we sang this morning,
that you would go before us and behind us, and all around us. Christ be all around us. In Jesus'
Holy Name. And all God's people said, amen, amen. God bless you guys. Look for opportunities to love him.
this week.