This sermon delves into the commandment of loving your neighbor as yourself, emphasizing the challenge of truly loving others when struggling with self-loathing or past failures. It explores the importance of understanding God's love for us, the need to embrace our identity in Christ, and the transformational work of the Holy Spirit within us. The message encourages believers to recognize their new nature in Christ, to love the work God is doing in them, and to extend that love to others as a reflection of their love for God.

Matthew chapter 22 please if you will. I'm going to talk today about loving your neighbor as yourself. Not as easy as it sounds. Loving your neighbor as yourself. Matthew chapter 22 beginning at verse 36. Father I thank you for the anointing of the Holy Spirit. God you have something so deep yet so simple so profound yet so hard to lay hold of. I pray God that as you're opening my heart to this truth that you would open it to your church today. Deliver us God from every voice of the enemy from all the condemnation of the evil one and make us a people that you promised you would have in the last days who are glorifying God in the midst of the fires. Whether they be fires of uncontrolled passion, lawlessness or rebellion. Those that are living all around and trying to push the knowledge of God out of so many parts of every society. I pray father this day that you make us a people who shine brightly in this hour. Give us the knowledge of who we are in Christ. I ask this in Jesus name. Matthew chapter 22 verse 36. Now this is a lawyer an interpreter of the law who would take the Old Testament law and he would open it up and as an expositor of sorts of that time make known to the people as it was supposed to be what he was doing that what the law was leading to. What was the sense of the law? And he came to Jesus and asked him a question. Now it was he was he was testing him. Probably a very arrogant man and the King James Bible says he asked him a question tempting him and really testing. I see it this way this this this interpreter of the law coming to Jesus and said well let's see if you're as smart as you say you are. People seem to think you are. And he asked him a question saying master which is the greatest or the great commandment in the law? In other words of all the things written in the law and all the things written in the prophets if you were to sum it up if there was one truth that stands out above and beyond all the other things that are contained in these books what is the great commandment? And Jesus said to him thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy soul and all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment and the second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Now Jesus was saying everything that you're supposed to be teaching the people is all summed up in these two commandments. If what you're teaching does not lead the people to these two things then go back to the drawing board and start picking the word apart again because you're missing the mark completely. There's a similar account in Luke chapter 10 verse 27 don't turn there let me just share it with you. Where an interpreter of the Old Testament law asked Jesus the question what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And when Jesus answers him he answers and includes another word he said not only with your heart your soul and your mind but you're to love God with your strength. Now in other words if I can put it down in its simplicity my deepest inner passion must be to love God. Folks that's where it all begins. There must be something inside of me that means loving him with your heart. The heart is the very essence of my inner passion, my pursuit, why I exist, where I'm moving to, what I'm doing. It's it's the very essence of who I am as a person and the most important commandment of God is that I'm to love him with this inner passion. My pursuit is to be of God. As the psalmist says as the deer a pen is for the water so longs my soul for thee O God. You see it in the psalmist David rather in all of his psalms where he talks about early in the morning when I seek you. You see David is acknowledging that you are the chiefest pursuit of my heart and of my life Jesus. It's to know you, it's to walk with you, it's to understand you, it's to have your life intertwined with mine. And then to this end the direction of my will which is my soul, the development of my intellect which is my mind, and the outflow of all of my inner abilities must be directed to him and to his work which is my strength. In other words the totality or of my life is directed to loving him, to knowing him, to understanding him, and to allow him to work within me and to allow that strength that he implants within my life to begin to flow out through me to humanity all around me. And that's where when you put all of this together it moves into the second. He said the second is like to the first thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself. In other words the ultimate expression of how deeply I really do love God is reflected in how I interact with other people. That's why in John, in first John, John said if any man says he loves God and hates his brother he's a liar and the truth is not in him. If a man truly loves God now the word hate also has in it the connotation of indifference. In other words if a man says I love God but is indifferent to his fellow man, indifferent to pain, indifferent to peril, indifferent to the difficulty that people without God find themselves in. If he says God is in me and I'm in God and yet he's not working in the work of God. He has no passion in his heart which ultimately is the passion of God. There's no outflow of that passion to fall in humanity around him. Then the truth isn't in him. He knows the truth but the truth is not in him. He may have had knowledge of God but that had knowledge of God has not brought him into the life or the expression of this life that Christ died to give to all those that are his. Now the ultimate expression of how deeply I really do love God as I said earlier is based on how I interact with other people. In other words the scripture says in fact I am to love my neighbor as myself. Now there's where it gets a little bit tricky. You ask me the question well what if I don't like myself? You see love is not even an issue here and correct me if I'm wrong in this but isn't self this this rotten interior thing that's to be taken and crucified? Didn't Paul say that I'm convinced within me dwells no good thing and and now I'm told that the measure of how I love my neighbor is measured proportionately with how I love myself. Now some people might be very happy with this say well I hate myself so therefore I'm justified in hating my neighbor. But the truth of the matter is what if I don't like myself? There's a lot of people here today if you were honest you don't you don't really like yourself. Loving is not even an issue here liking would be a major victory. You look in the mirror and you don't like what you see. You don't like the way God made you. As a matter of fact there are people here have controversy with God over the way you appear. Not because there's a flaw in you it's because you have a wrong definition of what beauty really is. You've been watching too much media you've been reading too many magazines and you're looking in the mirror and you have a totally wrong standard of what beauty really is. And but you still don't like what you see. What if all I see is failure? What if what if I look within my life and all these magnificent promises of God are here for me but I don't seem to be achieving any of them. There's a few little victories here and there but the overall picture is a picture of failure. I don't see myself becoming what God intended me to be. Well what if I'm not very happy with who I am? And there's so many people today. Oh folks that just buy into the lie that you are not complete in Christ and just unhappy as if God made some kind of a tragic mistake in the way that you were created or somehow you've taken this life that God gave you and you've made such a mess of it that it's it's not recoverable as it is. What if people laughed at my efforts or criticized me and said mean things to me and inwardly I think that's the way they still feel. How do I love people especially if I don't love myself? How do I do this? How do I fulfill the law? Jesus said on these two you can take all the law and all the prophets and if you could picture putting two hooks on a wall you can hang all of these teachings on these two things. That I am to love God and I can understand that with all my heart soul mind and strength but then I'm to love my neighbor as I love myself. You've got to help me to understand this because there's a deep truth in this. Paul the Apostle even in describing the marriage relationship said that if a man loves his wife he loves himself. There's there's something about this that I need to understand. I'm afraid to reach out to people many saying I don't know how to change. I'm afraid of people. I love God I can seemingly open the Bible and read it I can come into the prayer closet but when it comes to people I have a hard time I've been I've been so wounded by people and I I have a difficulty loving them. The problem is that you may not understand something that we're going to be looking at here. First John 418 says there is no fear in love but perfect love casts out fear because fear is torment and he that fears is not made perfect in love. In a sense God is saying you you are afraid of people because you are not perfected in love and you would say today well I know that that's fairly obvious. If if if God's love is in me then I should not be afraid of people. I should not be afraid of reaching out of my comfort zone into the places where they live and to see God touch their need through me. Now we ask ourselves the question what is the root of this fear in me that keeps me from loving who I am? And loving others is hardly an option at the moment that's what many of you would say but there's a fear in me that keeps me from loving who I am. What is this fear? Why don't I love who I am? Have you ever pondered this question? There are so many people here today that I know that the Lord has given me a word that is right where you're living and if you're able to hear this today and I'm talking to the I'm talking to the spiritually sincere I'm talking today to those who have an honest walk with God you you are you may not have it all together but deep down inside you know that you have trusted Christ for your salvation and you know you want to walk with God you understand in the Bible there is a great commission to reach the lost masses with the gospel of Jesus Christ you acknowledge all of this but there is a fear in you that keeps you firstly from loving who you are and if you can't love who you are then according to what I read in this commandment that Jesus said is the most important you can't possibly love your neighbor. How can I love other people when I hate myself? I don't think it's a reality I don't think it can happen you see here's the fear that many men carry women carry it all kinds of people it's the fear that deep and it's deep within every person and it's the fear that God sees us the way we see ourselves it's the fear that the way I see myself in the mirror the way I feel about myself the way that I'm aware of all my frailties and failings is exactly how God sees me it keeps people out of the prayer closet many many people can't pray in the body of Christ because they go into the prayer closet they lift up their hands and here's this whole scenario of failure before them all they see is how far they've fallen short of the glory of God how much they fail God how little they do in the name of God how seemingly insignificant their victories have been when they're told in the scriptures they should be mighty and God should be doing exploits through them they can't even reach out they can't even speak to the grocery clerk in the local store they can't even tell them that God loves them they see a person weeping on a park bench they can't stop they're so afraid of speaking to people and the root of it is I this this inward loathing of self an unholy loathing now call it that today a loathing that God does not want you to have it does not want me to have we're not to live there we're not to focus on these things now John says in 1st John 419 we love him because he first loved us you have to know this before you knew God was he loved you before you were born in your mother's womb all of your members the scriptures say were written down God knew you before you were formed in your mother's womb you were not an accident you were not some fluke of nature or some illegitimate relationship you were allowed by God to be born he allowed the seed that was in your mother to be conceived knowing that that person that was going to come forth from the womb was going to be you and he did it because he loved you he had a purpose for your life he had a plan for your life something he was going to do in you and through you in Ezekiel 16 speaking of his own people Israel verses 5 and 6 now listen how he describes Israel and it's a type of you and I know I none I pitied thee in other words you were in a terrible condition and everybody basically passed you by no one had compassion on you you were out in the open field cast out there to the loathing of your person in the day you were born God says I saw you but I was the only one that really saw you I was the only one who saw the potential in your life I was the only one who saw what you were going to be not what you are to the casual passerby who didn't know my heart there was no pity there was no compassion you were seemingly dropped off as it is in an open field you're you had no hope you had no helper in the day you were born that's the condition that you and I were born into in this world without Christ there's nobody here that would have any hope for the future our songs would be empty songs our hope of eternity would be in vain it was only because God had his eye upon us from the very moment of creation in verse 6 he says and when I passed by thee and saw thee polluted in thine own blood another translation says that when I saw you trodden underfoot when I saw that you had no hope if I didn't reach down to you I said unto you when you were in your blood live and the word live in the original text means enjoy life live again recover and be quickened I passed you by God said and I saw you in your condition I saw you in your helplessness I saw you as hopeless as you were but I'm not like other people are I stopped and I began to speak to you and I said live I said enjoy your life I said live again not live in your being trodden underfoot not live in your failure but live again recover from your condition and be quickened and in verse 7 he says I've caused you to multiply God says not only did I speak the word live to you but I gave you the strength to be someone other than who you once were if any man be in Christ he is a new creation behold all things are passed away all things are become new when Jesus saw you when you trusted in him for your salvation he spoke into your heart and gave you the power to be another person than the person that you once were God loved you when no one else did God saw you when no one else could and God cleansed you when no one else would John says in Revelation 1 5 unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood he came down gave his life on a cross and washed away all of the filth and iniquity that you and I were born in because we were born in sin and with a sin nature and God took the penalty of that sin upon himself and washed us clean in his own blood in 1st John 4 verses 9 and 10 John says in this was manifested the love of God towards us because that God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him herein is love not that we love God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation of that means the atoning sacrifice for our sins this is love not that we love God but God loved us in Luke chapter 15 we see the story of a prodigal son now this prodigal son took this inheritance of his life that his father had given him and wasted it in a faraway place from his father as many of us did before we came to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ then one day this son got up and started heading home and as he started to head home his father met him along the journey and the very first thing his father did was cover him and we see in this story that Jesus Christ and his shed blood on the cross has become the covering for all of our sin we are covered folks it's as simple as that we are covered the father brought out the best robe in the house and put it on the shoulders of his son and this robe covered him as far as anybody in the house was concerned this son was now royalty not received as a slave not received as a second-hand son having come back with all of his failings no coming into the house of the father fully covered fully recovered fully restored fully cleansed absolutely accepted and undefiled and that's exactly the way you and I stand if we're in Christ today folks we are clean if we're in Christ we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus someone on 3 verse 12 says as far as the East is from the West so far as he removed our transgressions from us there is absolutely no record in heaven of your sin there is no record in heaven of your failing if you are a genuine Christian you are received as the righteousness of Christ in heaven that's the father sees you not just for time but for all of eternity when you go into the prayer closet God the father looks at you through his son and because the son has your name at his right hand on his lips and stands there as your intercessor you are completely received with the father as fully righteous and fully cleansed fully empowered by the Holy Ghost God the father does not see your failings he sees only Jesus Christ you're the only one who sees it and the devil knows that and he will come and he will play against that and he will speak that your repeated failings your repeated struggles into your ears to try to get you convinced that this is exactly the way that God sees you the ultimate goal of Satan is to get you to loathe yourself to hate yourself knowing full well that if you hate yourself you'll not be able to love your neighbor knowing full well that what God intended to have flow through you and I as the church to a fallen society will not happen you'll not be able to speak you'll be gripped with fear you'll not have that perfect love as it is that casts out fear you'll not be able to speak the gospel of Jesus Christ to those that are around you go with me please to Acts chapter 10 I want to show you this this principle in reality this is a story of Peter in his journey at a man's house called Simon the Tanner and just before lunchtime he goes up on the rooftop to pray and as he's praying a vision unfolds before him Acts chapter 10 and verse 9 on the morrow as they went on the journey and drew night to the city Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour and he became very hungry and would have eaten but while they met made ready he fell into a trance and he saw heaven open in a certain vessel descending to him as it had been a great sheep knit at the four corners and let down to the earth wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth and wild beasts and creeping things and fowls of the air and there came a voice to him rise Peter kill and eat but Peter said not so Lord for I've never eaten anything that is common or unclean and the voice spake unto him again the second time what God has cleansed that call not thou common this was done thrice or three times and the vessel was received up again into heaven now this is a type of many believers who come to Christ you're on a journey with Christ you know that God loves you you know that God has a commission you've received that you but you're going out as it is in in this Commission deep in your heart but so powerless to go where God is calling you to go you go into the prayer closet and the moment you're in the prayer closet this this sheet as it is comes down that you think from heaven and on this sheet are all kinds of unclean things and I see it as a type for the believer of memories of the past the awareness is of your shortcomings the understanding of what the scripture calls you to be and how far short you fall of the glory of God and you look at this and you can't even get beyond this interceding as it is for the Gentiles is not even an issue you can't even get beyond this this what appears to be a revelation and the devil would love it to appear as a revelation from God to you and the Lord tells Peter there's something in this that I want you to see but but Peter is so entrenched in his own worldview or scripture view as it is of himself and other people that he can't see it at this moment so God has to repeat it to him three times he's still after the third time not even sure that he understands what it is that God is trying to tell him he sees all of this uncleanness and and the Lord tells Peter it's it's it's now yours for the taking as it is and Peter says no I can't do this these are unclean things I I can't accept this you're presenting something to me that I'm not willing to accept you're trying to tell me something that it goes against everything that is in me you're trying to tell me that that these things that are now cleansed that I consider unclean to the Christian who's in prayer for example it's like God you're trying to tell me that there's no record of my failure you're trying to tell me that there's no record of past wrongs you're trying to tell me that heaven hasn't recorded my present struggles you're trying to tell me Lord that that that all the things have changed they're not the way they used to be and the Lord is trying to tell this to Peter but he can't hear it and there's so many of God's people have difficulty with this understanding that there is no record for the true believer there's no record of your failure in heaven and you might be struggling today but if you're a true believer there is no record of your struggle in heaven you are received with God folks this should if nothing else makes you shout your whole life this should make you shout in the presence of God it should bring something of joy God Almighty you're trying to tell me that in Christ the work was complete that all my struggles and all my failures and all my trials and all my horrible self-image and all the way I feel about myself these that are always before me that look so unclean you're trying to tell me what you have cleansed then I'm not to call it common or unclean any longer this is what the Lord is saying to his church in this hour he's what it's saying to you this morning I've cleansed you you must not call yourself common or unclean anymore don't look to your failings look to the one who has cleansed you don't look to your nakedness look to the one who has covered you don't look to where you've fallen short of the glory look to the glory that now sits at the right hand of God and is resident within you in the power of the Holy Ghost look to the promises of God look to the faithfulness of God look to the fact that God is well able to make you into everything is promised that he's going to make you you see the man who continues to call himself unclean as in effect deposed God from the throne in this area of his life he's walked up to the right hand of God say excuse me Jesus for this momentary interlude would you mind getting off of the throne at the right hand of the Father because I need to sit there for a moment and judge myself I need to condemn myself I need to call myself a failure I need to call myself ugly I need to call myself unlovely I need I need to stand there and I need to become the judge of this area of my life or this season in my life I know you've cleansed me but for this moment I just would like to declare myself unclean and tragically there's a there's a certain amount of kind of a perverse religious satisfaction in that their religions all over the world that beat themselves and and the war unclean and unworthy they feel ironically the more holy they think they're becoming when in reality the knowledge that's supposed to be theirs of who they are in Christ is being completely taken away from them the end result is this deeply embedded fear that makes them strange and religious and they have no ability to relate anymore to the common man around them because they don't know that they have been cleansed from all uncleanness they don't know how they're seen in the sight of God they lose the passion for the lost they lose this deep inward working of God and ultimately lose all compassion for fellow man Isaiah chapter 54 if you'll go there with me please Isaiah 54 are you beginning to get this Isaiah 54 verse 10 here's what the Lord says to his people he says for the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed but my kindness shall not depart from thee neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee Oh verse 11 thou afflicted tossed with tempest and not comforted and that describes a lot of people in the body of Jesus Christ afflicted thrown about with different storms and inward struggles and not comforted he says now let me show you how I see you and let me show you where I'm taking you I'll lay your stones with fair colors in other words I'm I'm going to take incredible truths and build a foundation underneath of you and I'll lay your foundations with sapphires I'll make your windows of eye gates and the gates of carbuncles and the borders of pleasant stones in other words I'm going to recreate you in the image of God it's not going to be an overnight work the work of God in the Christian heart never stops really all the days of your life if you are true Christian you're going to be changing and changing and changing daily all the rest of your life more and more into the image of God it's it's something you want to do because you realize how God already sees you you realize that you're already in Christ at the right hand of God you're already fully received with God fully cleansed already the wrath of God is fully satisfied you are fully received and that is your that is your understanding I'm in Christ I'm already at the right hand of God in Christ read it in the book of Ephesians that's where I am if I die right now with all of my frailties and all of my struggles I'm in heaven I'm already there my spirit is going to join the head which is Christ you cannot separate the head from the body I'm in him he is in me I'm going to be where he is for all of eternity I will rule and reign with him and everything else that heaven has for me will be mine it's in Christ I'm not working to earn it I don't deserve it I never did I never will it's all by grace and by the goodness of God thanks be to God for this incredible salvation now God is building into me because my state is not always in line with my standing I am in Christ fully accepted fully received but I live down here on planet earth and I live in a body that has an old nature and this old nature is always warring against the new nature of Christ that is within me the new life that God has given me this old nature always wants to rise up and take over this new life but Jesus promises that that old nature will never triumph because I'm no longer living under the dominion of sin I've been set free from the law of sin and death it once worked in me and I'm brought into a new law Romans 8 2 of life in Christ Jesus no I'm not everything I'm supposed to be but I am fully received with God I am changing by the grace and glory of God every day morning by morning I wake up and there are new mercies come into my life I see God's grace I see where he's leading I see what he's doing and it puts a shadow glory in your soul it's not a license to abuse this grace of God but once you know this grace there's a cry comes into your heart Oh Jesus Oh Jesus be loved but live in me Oh God live through me be glorified in my life kick the sides out of hell through me all the days of my life I'll make your windows of agates and your doors your gates of carbuncles your borders of pleasant stones and all your children shall be taught of the Lord and great shall be the peace of thy children God says no not just going to rebuild you I'm going to rebuild your family and there's going to be a peace at the center core of your house from this day forward I'm going to give you a new lineage I'm going to give you a promise that the whole world will have to stand up and take notice that I'm with you you will be established in righteousness and be far from oppression thou shalt not fear and from terror for it shall not come near thee behold he says in verse 15 they shall surely gather together but not by me he said your enemies are going to come against you they're going to hear about this new work that I'm doing in you and they're going to come and they're going to surround you just like the surround of the Old Testament cities and they're going to shout insults towards you over the wall voices from hell are going to come against you like you've never known your entire life trying to take away your righteousness in Christ reminding of your failings reminding of your shortcomings trying to get you to look in the mirror to see if there's some good thing in you apart from Christ they'll gather he says but whoever shall gather together against you shall fall God says for your sake behold he says I've created the Smith that blows the coals in the fire and brings forth an instrument for his work and I have created the waster to destroy now God is saying they're going to gather but keep this in mind I've created them all even Satan himself as a created being from the hand of God I've created them all none of them exists without my authority to allow them to be created but he says listen you have to understand I'm in total control their voices may come against you but my word is higher than their voice verse 17 he says no weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn this is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their righteousness is of me says the Lord I've cleansed you I've accepted you no weapon formed against you no weapon no sheet with all of your failings from the past no lies about your present struggle no weapon formed against you will prosper God says I have intertwined my life with you I have come into you and I have purposed in my heart and I bound my honor to carry you through all the way through this life and right to the end you have the right to condemn every tongue that rises against you every voice that comes to take away your standing from you you have the right to condemn it you have the right to stand up against I like the story of my daughter Katie when she was about three or four years old a minister and his wife were visiting our house they were an older couple and in the evening they this minister's wife said to my wife and I could I have permission to tuck your daughter in bed and we said sure by all means so she went and sat beside her bed she said Katie does the devil ever come to you at night and try to lie to you and speak lies into your life in cases oh yes he sure does and she says and this is a little girl curly hair and she says what do you do when he comes and tries to lie to you she said I tell him to go back to hell where he belongs some of you would do well to take that advice you have the authority to condemn every voice that comes to you to take away from you you're standing in Christ now here we get back to our original point but I thought that self was to be crucified I thought self was to be denied etc etc etc yes it is but it's the old self you have an old nature that nature is to be crucified that old nature is to be denied that old nature is the one Paul was talking about when he said in me in my old nature dwells no good thing but you see you'll have another nature you have a new nature recreated in Christ to the glory and to the image of Almighty God you have a brand new nature the moment you came to Christ you were born again and you received the Spirit of Almighty God and God began to recreate you in the image of his son and it's this new nature that you are to love I love the new nature of Christ within me I love what God is doing I I'm not happy about some of the struggles but I do love the man that God is making me into and I'm not outside the scripture and saying that because Jesus said that I'm to love my neighbor as I love myself it's it's not that I'm in love with myself but I love what it is that God is doing in me I have to if I love God I have to love his creation within me isn't that a clear way of saying it I have to love what God is doing in me I love the fact that he's taken a man who didn't even care about people and he's given me a heart of compassion for all people as far as I know I love the fact that he has taught me how to be a husband and he's teaching me how to be a father and now a grandfather I love the fact that things that weren't in me are now there by the grace and the glory of Almighty God for no other reason and I love this and I should love it you should love it oh you might not be Superman when it comes to any of these things but you are changing you've been given into nature and the Holy Spirit is within you recreating you into the image of the one who is your Savior and you should love the person that Jesus Christ is making you into love the work of God within you look it's nice to love the church it's nice to come in and love this sanctuary it's nice to come in and love the praises of God but all of that is just leading to something else it's the work that God himself is doing within you you can't hate your own self in a sense you can't hate that part of yourself that God is working within you he's recreating you and making you into a new person that is in line as it is with your standing today where you are at the right hand of God in Christ Jesus the prodigal son as he came back to his father was given a ring on his hand and it's a type to us of the fact that we are to stand in the power of our God and tell other people that what God has done for us he will do for them God took me in my powerlessness God took me with all of my struggles God took me and takes me with all of my frailties he has saved me from the power of my sin saved me from eternal damnation and by his goodness he's changing me from image to image and glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord I'm changing every day God's goodness is in me I'm so happy with what God is doing inside of my life and what he has done for me he will do for you the prodigal son was given a pair of shoes and it's a type that as we walk throughout our day that when we see a person who's trodden underfoot when we see a person who feels about life