Victory Church

What does loving God and loving people look like?

Mark 12:28-31 (ESV)

The Great Commandment

28 And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Mark 12:13-17 (ESV)

Paying Taxes to Caesar

13 And they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians, to trap him in his talk. 14 And they came and said to him, “Teacher, we know that you are true and do not care about anyone's opinion. For you are not swayed by appearances,[a] but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? Should we pay them, or should we not?” 15 But, knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, “Why put me to the test? Bring me a denarius[b] and let me look at it.” 16 And they brought one. And he said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said to him, “Caesar's.” 17 Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.” And they marveled at him.

It’s a heart matter.

Mark 12:28-31 (ESV)

The Great Commandment

28 And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

1 Samuel 16:7 (ESV)

7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

When the heart is right, the actions follow.

John 13:34-35 (ESV)

34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

It’s not about me.

Matthew 16:24-25 (ESV)

Take Up Your Cross and Follow Jesus

24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life[a] will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Let go of pride.

James 4:6 (ESV)

6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

1. What is Prayer?

Psalm 27:4 (ESV)

4 One thing have I asked of the Lord,

that will I seek after:

that I may dwell in the house of the Lord

all the days of my life,

to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord

and to inquire[a] in his temple.

2. Why we must commit to grow in prayer

John 17:3 (ESV)

3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

John 15:5 (ESV)

5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

John 17:26 (ESV)

26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

Matthew 22:37-39 (ESV)

37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

3. How to develop a strong prayer life

John 17:23 (ESV)

23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

Romans 8:15 (ESV)

15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

Joshua 1:8 (ESV)

8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

John 5:39-40 (ESV)

39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.

Audio only.

Psalm 78 (ESV)

Tell the Coming Generation

A Maskil of Asaph.

78 Give ear, O my people, to my teaching;

incline your ears to the words of my mouth!

2 I will open my mouth in a parable;

I will utter dark sayings from of old,

3 things that we have heard and known,

that our fathers have told us.

4 We will not hide them from their children,

but tell to the coming generation

the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might,

and the wonders that he has done.

5 He established a testimony in Jacob

and appointed a law in Israel,

which he commanded our fathers

to teach to their children,

6 that the next generation might know them,

the children yet unborn,

and arise and tell them to their children,

7 so that they should set their hope in God

and not forget the works of God,

but keep his commandments;

8 and that they should not be like their fathers,

a stubborn and rebellious generation,

a generation whose heart was not steadfast,

whose spirit was not faithful to God.

9 The Ephraimites, armed with[b] the bow,

turned back on the day of battle.

10 They did not keep God's covenant,

but refused to walk according to his law.

11 They forgot his works

and the wonders that he had shown them.

12 In the sight of their fathers he performed wonders

in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan.

13 He divided the sea and let them pass through it,

and made the waters stand like a heap.

14 In the daytime he led them with a cloud,

and all the night with a fiery light.

15 He split rocks in the wilderness

and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep.

16 He made streams come out of the rock

and caused waters to flow down like rivers.

17 Yet they sinned still more against him,

rebelling against the Most High in the desert.

18 They tested God in their heart

by demanding the food they craved.

19 They spoke against God, saying,

“Can God spread a table in the wilderness?

20 He struck the rock so that water gushed out

and streams overflowed.

Can he also give bread

or provide meat for his people?”

21 Therefore, when the Lord heard, he was full of wrath;

a fire was kindled against Jacob;

his anger rose against Israel,

22 because they did not believe in God

and did not trust his saving power.

23 Yet he commanded the skies above

and opened the doors of heaven,

24 and he rained down on them manna to eat

and gave them the grain of heaven.

25 Man ate of the bread of the angels;

he sent them food in abundance.

26 He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens,

and by his power he led out the south wind;

27 he rained meat on them like dust,

winged birds like the sand of the seas;

28 he let them fall in the midst of their camp,

all around their dwellings.

29 And they ate and were well filled,

for he gave them what they craved.

30 But before they had satisfied their craving,

while the food was still in their mouths,

31 the anger of God rose against them,

and he killed the strongest of them

and laid low the young men of Israel.

32 In spite of all this, they still sinned;

despite his wonders, they did not believe.

33 So he made their days vanish like[c] a breath,[d]

and their years in terror.

34 When he killed them, they sought him;

they repented and sought God earnestly.

35 They remembered that God was their rock,

the Most High God their redeemer.

36 But they flattered him with their mouths;

they lied to him with their tongues.

37 Their heart was not steadfast toward him;

they were not faithful to his covenant.

38 Yet he, being compassionate,

atoned for their iniquity

and did not destroy them;

he restrained his anger often

and did not stir up all his wrath.

39 He remembered that they were but flesh,

a wind that passes and comes not again.

40 How often they rebelled against him in th

Godly Fathers

1. Teaches the ways of God

Deuteronomy 6:5-9 (ESV)

5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Ephesians 6:4 (ESV)

4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

2. leads by example.

Genesis 18:19 (ESV)

19 For I have chosen[a] him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.”

Joshua 24:15 (ESV)

15 And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

3. Disciplines his Children

Proverbs 3:11-12 (ESV)

11 My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline

or be weary of his reproof,

12 for the Lord reproves him whom he loves,

as a father the son in whom he delights.

Hebrews 12:6-11 (ESV)

6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,

and chastises every son whom he receives.”

7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

4. Has compassion for His Children

Psalm 103:13-14 (ESV)

13 As a father shows compassion to his children,

so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.

14 For he knows our frame;[a]

he remembers that we are dust.

5. Is there for his Children

Deuteronomy 1:29-31 (ESV)

29 Then I said to you, ‘Do not be in dread or afraid of them. 30 The Lord your God who goes before you will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, 31 and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place.’

Matthew 28:19-20 (ESV)

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

6. Provides for his children.

1 Timothy 5:8 (ESV)

8 But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

Matthew 7:9-11 (ESV)

9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

7. L