agape

You Can’t Serve Two Masters

Message begins around 34:00

You Can’t Serve Two Masters

Dave Riddle - 8/28/22

Key Passage: Matthew 6:24

“No one can serve two masters…”

  • Jesus in Matthew 6:24a

  • “No one” = oudeis (οὐδείς) - not even one

    • Romans 3:10

  • “Can” = dynamai (δύναμαι) - to be able, have power whether by virtue of one's own ability and resources, or of a state of mind, or through favourable circumstances, or by permission of law or custom

  • It is impossible!

  • “Serve” = douleuō (δουλεύω) - to be a slave to (literal or figurative, involuntary or voluntary):—be in bondage, (do) serve(-ice).

  • “Masters” = kyrios (κύριος) - supreme in authority

    • Romans 10:9, Luke 6:46

“…he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other.”

  • Jesus in Matthew 6:24b

  • It’s impossible for us to love (agapaō: ἀγαπάω - perfect unconditional love) two supreme masters at once.

    • Compare to Jesus’ comments about the good “single” eye from last week, Matthew 6:22.

“…You cannot serve both God and money.”

  • Jesus in Matthew 6:24c

  • “Money” = mamōnas (μαμωνᾶς) - Mammon - everything we pursue in life. Riches, treasures, dreams, feelings, idols. Everything that isn’t God.

  • Joshua 24:15 - “…choose this day whom you will serve...”

We Can’t, but God Can

Message at 37:30

We Can’t, but God Can

Dave Riddle - 8/7/22

Key Passage: Mark 10:17-31

“Good teacher, what just I do to inherit eternal life?” 

  • Mark 10:17

Jesus’ curious response

  • Jesus tailors his answer for the question asker

  • Mark 10:18

    • Jesus starts by redefining “good”

  • Mark 10:19

    • You know the commandments…

      • He lists five of the six commandments that talk about our relationships with others.

        • He leaves out “do not covet”

    • Jesus knows this man’s heart and sets him up a little bit.

Really!? Wow.

  • Mark 10:20 - “I have kept all these commandments from my youth”

    • He saw himself as a good person.

Jesus being Jesus

  • Mark 10:21

    • Looking at him, Jesus loved him…

      • emblepō: to observe fixedly, or to discern clearly

      • agapaō: divine, unconditional, perfect love

    • “You lack one thing”

      • Sell all you have… and follow me!

        • Take up your cross and follow me.

        • Jesus knew what one thing stood between this man and his ability to surrender to Jesus.

    • Jesus see each of us clearly and sees OUR one thing that stands between us and our ability to surrender to Him.

A Poignant Moment

  • Mark 10:22

    • He was dismayed by this demand and he went away grieving because he had many possessions.

      • Jesus offered him a choice and he chose his own desires over following Jesus.

The Hard Truth

  • Mark 10:23

    • What stands between YOU and a full surrender to following Jesus?

  • Mark 10:24-25

    • The disciples were astonished.

    • It went against their cultural understanding of blessing and favor.

The original question revisited 

  • Jesus’ set up pays off

  • Mark 10:26

    • “Then who can be saved!?”

    • “With people it is impossible, but not with God. All things are possible with God”

  • Romans 8:3

    • What the law was powerless to do, God did.

What Does Jesus Command?

What Does Jesus Command?

Dave Riddle • 05/15/2022

Key Passage: John 15:12-17

John 15:12 (CSB): This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you.

  • Love = agapaō - agape, immeasurable and unconditional love.

John 15:13 (CSB): No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends.

  • He calls us friends when, in reality, we were His enemies.

    • Romans 5:8

John 15:14 (CSB): You are my friends if you do what I command you.

  • Abraham: James 2:23

  • Us! John 15:15 - no longer blindly obedient servants, but friends.

John 15:16 (CSB): You did not choose me, but I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce fruit and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you. 

  • Referring back to John 15:1-8

  • He chose us!

“These things” I command you, that you love one another. John 15:17

  • Possibly: All of His commands boil down to “love one another”.

  • Or: the result of all of His commands is that we will love one another.

John 15:17 (CSB): “This is what I command you: Love one another.”

  • Not optional.

    • Command, enjoin, an imperative

    • entolē = an order, command, charge, precept, injunction

Everything we do should be deepening our love for one another.

The Trinity in Jesus’ Own Words

Message begins around 33:15

The Trinity in Jesus’ Own Words

Dave Riddle • 05/01/2022
Key Passage: John 14:16-31

The Father will give you a helper/counselor

  • John 14:16

Jesus and the Holy Spirit

  • John 14:17-18

    • You already know Him

    • I am coming to you

  • Compare this to what Jesus said in the passage from last week.

Jesus and the Father

  • (Last week) John 14:8-10

    • “You have seen the Father”

    • Jesus and the Father are one

  • John 14:20-21

    • I am in my father and my father is in me.

Jesus’ call for us

  • John 14:21 (John 14:15)

    • If you love Me, you will keep My commands.

      • Love = agapaō all four times in this passage.

    • (Matthew 28) obey… and teach others to do the same

      • If we don’t know his commands we can’t keep them, and we definitely can’t make and teach new disciples.

  • John 14:23-24

    • …we will come to them and make Our home with them.

      • We are part of the kingdom of God right now!

        • Already, not yet.

    • Sent = pempō: dispatched or sent on an errand.

The Holy Spirit and Jesus

  • John 14:26

    • But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit —the Father will send Him in My name—will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you.

      • How do we love Jesus? Keep his commands.

        • The Holy Spirit enables this by teaching and reminding us of the commands of Jesus.

  • John 14:27

    • Peace = eirene: a state of tranquility, harmony, and safety. In a Christian context: the tranquil state of a soul, assured of its salvation, fearing nothing from God, content with their lot, whatever it might be.

Jesus and the Father

  • John 14:30-31

Believe. How? Love. How? Live in obedience to his commands. How? Through the power of the Spirit.

Do Not Love the World

Message begins around 32:00

Do Not Love the World

02/13/2021 - Dave Riddle 

Key Passage: 1 John 2:15-17

Do not love the world

  • 1 John 2:15a Do not love the world or the things that belong to the world.

  • James says it, Paul says it, John says it…

  • “Love” agapaō (ἀγαπάω) - unconditional love.

  • 1 John 2:15b If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him.

    • You can’t serve two masters.

    • There’s gotta be one Lord, Master, priority, affection of your life.

What are the aspects of the world that are most tempting to give my undivided attention to?

  • James 4:4 Adulterers! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the world’s friend becomes God’s enemy.

  • We need to be very sensitive to the Holy Spirit to recognize when things of the world begin to displace our focus on God.

    • Revelation 2:4 - …you have abandoned your first love…

Everything that belongs to the world

1 John 2:16 For everything that belongs to  the world—the lust of the flesh,  the lust of the eyes,  and the pride  in one’s lifestyle—is not from the Father, but is from the world. 

  • Not an exhaustive list

  • Flesh - Our base physical passions (Hedonism)

    • 1 Peter 2:11

      • We are foreigners and strangers here on Earth. Temporary residents.

      • Our life is not solely about what happens between birth and death.

  • Eyes - The tendency to be captivated by the outward appearance of things. An inordinate desire for the finer things in life. (Materialism)

    • Proverbs 27:20 - Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied, and people’s eyes are never satisfied. (CSB)

    • Human desires are like the world of the dead - there’s always room for more. (GNT)

  • Pride - the trust that we have in our own power, resources, abilities, insight. (Self-sufficiency)

    • Luke 14:11 - Those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

Why don’t we care about those things?

  • 1 John 2:17 the world with its lust is passing away, but the one who does God’s will remains forever.

    • Paul says the same thing in Romans 7:31

    • Jesus reframes our thinking in Mark 3:35

We need to do a heart check

  • What has your heart?

    • If it’s something other than God… it’s the wrong answer.

  • Mathew 6:21 - Your heart will always be where your treasure is.

Trust Our Unchanging God

Trust Our Unchanging God

Dave Riddle - 8/8/2021

Key Verse: Ephesians 3:14-19

We can trust in the Love of God

  • The core of our relationship with God is love

  • Ephesians 3:17

    • Rooted and established in love

      • agapē - unconditional love

We can trust in the Power of the Holy Spirit

  • Paul prays for the Ephesians to be empowered by the Holy Spirit

    • Ephesians 3:14

    • Ephesians 3:17

      • That Christ may dwell in your heart…

        • to house permanently

To Comprehend

  • Ephesians 3:18-19

    • eagerly pursue Christ’s love

To Experience 

  • Ephesians 3:19

    • Know the love of Christ

    • Know = to know something from personal experience. An intimate knowledge, not just from an observation or empirical data.

To Be Filled Up Completely

  • Ephesians 3:19

    • Filled to the measure of the fullness of God.

      • Refers to a fishing term. Trying to cram a net full of fish.