Light on the Hill

James Kaddis: Today on Light on the Hill, making the connection between our love for God and obedience to the Lord. Your love for God is directly predicated upon your obedience to him. You cannot be one who loves God unless you obey him because your expression of love to God is obedience.

Guest (Male): If you were asked to identify what's most important in life, what would you say? How would God answer that? Well, we're about to find out today on Light on the Hill when we get this right, everything else falls into place. Turn with us to Mark chapter 12 as we listen to part two of Pastor James Kaddis’s message, “Nothing Matters Except This One Thing.”

James Kaddis: Look what it says here in verse 31, and he makes this very clear: And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is no other commandment greater than these. Jesus in Matthew actually tells us that they hang on this. The law and the prophets actually hang on the commandment that says love the Lord your God with all your soul, your mind, your strength, your heart.

Very interesting. But what is so profound about the way Jesus is bringing this up is that if you will mind the position with what is vertical, meaning when it's all about you and God, then that which is horizontal becomes a secondary function of what you've been obligated to do vertically.

Now, I've recently been accused, and this happens a lot by the way, of all kinds of crazy things. But I've been recently accused of being an ungodly and unloving person. That I’m just evil. No pastor should ever behave this way. When you have angry people that hate God tell you that, you kind of almost wear it as a badge of honor. Great, say whatever you want.

But when you have people who claim to be walking with God and seem to have a close relationship with God say something like that, it can hurt a little bit. It can actually distract you. Now, for me, I'll just tell you, anytime I have anybody offer me a criticism, even if the criticism is predicated upon bitterness and anger, it's always an open door for me to be able to say, “Okay God, it's time to be subjective, to lay myself before you and to ask you: Have I gone wrong here? Where am I going? What's happening? What should I be doing? Where did I err?” You can always learn. Because most of the time when things are going in the direction you don't want them to go, the first place to go check is what did I do? It’s an important place to be.

Now, I have had some time to be reminded of this every single time it happens. Me and the Lord always have to go through this process. Sometimes it's a lot easier to go through than others because when you're emotionally a bit of a mess, it's hard to see clearly. But there is an immediate question that gets thrown out in times like this. And that is this, in my mind: Where can I go to find the clarity that I lack because my emotions are lying to me?

Can I just tell you how much I absolutely hate the month of September? It feels as though every single year I get a new reason to hate the month of September. Years ago, I loved the month of September. I loved it because it was a month of celebration. A couple of birthdays in the month of September that we've always celebrated and enjoyed, one of them being my mom's.

And then time goes by and I remember like it was yesterday. I still remember the day and I remember the hour. I remember what day it was and I remember the very minute that my mom went to go be with the Lord. It happened to be in September. Since then, I've had lots of really bad things happen in September.

I started the month of September this year. I remember we were approaching September 1st and I said, “Lord, it's already been a tough year. Let’s just keep September safe. Let September be an easy month.” Well, that didn't happen. I don't have to get into all the details. One thing that was almost hilarious because you can see the nature of how the attack happens: on the very day that my mom went to go be with the Lord, on the anniversary of my mom going to be with the Lord, we had all kinds of crazy things break loose. Changes that come as a result. Just nuts.

And when you think you can climb out of it and you're trying to catch your breath and you feel like things are just like, “Oh man, this is tough,” my little brother gets killed. Hard to get it out of your head, the feeling of his widow just crying on my shoulders and the pain that oftentimes comes with that. A woman that I love literally with my whole heart, intensely, that my children love, that my wife loves and adores. To see the pain that the whole country is going through as a result of it.

And then to go right down the line of some of the other crazy things that have happened. You know, when somebody makes an accusation like this, like “you're not a loving guy” or “you're this” or “you're that,” in a month like the one that we just had, it is super easy to allow your emotions to completely pervert the way you look at things.

And the greatest danger that can erect as a result of being in a time period like this is that you can allow yourself to get so bitter and so angry because your emotions are so deep that you can do more damage in that time period than you ever thought possible. So what do you do? The only thing you can do.

You go before the Lord and you say, “Lord, what will it take for me to maintain the position of walking in obedience to the greatest of all commandments? What is it going to take for me to love you, love the Lord my God with all of my heart, my soul, my mind, my strength? What does that look like?” So you go through this period of time where you're trying to figure it out: “Well did I do this? Did I do that? What did I do wrong? What did I—”

And you know what's really cool? God reminds me of something that is easy to forget in the time of the greatest emotion. And he says this: “Have you ever stopped loving me with all of your heart, your mind, your soul, your strength, especially during the time period that you're questioning?” And the answer to that is no. And God says, “Then don't worry about the horizontal. Don't worry about the accusations that get made. Don't worry about what the people think. Don't worry about who's bothered and who isn't. Just worry about pleasing me.”

And I got reminded of something super critical. That's what good leadership looks like. Good leadership learns to ignore the horizontal because that's all noise and to focus on the one thing that represents the greatest signal, which is the vertical. Lord, what do you want? I can't see. I'm so blind right now that not only can I not see the spiritual, I can't even see five feet ahead of me in the physical. So what do I do?

Okay, I only have one thing to worry about. What does God want me to do? I only have one thing to worry about. How do I please God? I only have one thing to worry about. What does God say? And am I obeying? I only have one thing to be concerned with. How does God want me to navigate through it?

And folks, let me just tell you this, when you start thinking at that level and you learn to prioritize the vertical far more than the horizontal, it completely changes not only your effectiveness and the impact that you make, but it dramatically changes, dramatically, how you begin to live. Dramatically. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not going to take on the philosophy that I seemed to have developed erroneously when I was a kid that says I can be belligerent to everybody across the way from me because only thing I care about is God, I don't care about anybody else. No, that's just stupidity and it's belligerence and it's disrespectful and it's broken. You never use your relationship with God as an excuse to behave with other people belligerently. That's just ridiculous.

But there is a point in time where you have to be willing to say that it's more important to you to walk obediently to God than to be given to the problem that is oftentimes presented in the realm of the horizontal. Did you notice that God did not say that the most important was to love your neighbor as yourself? The world will tell you that. And the reason why the world will tell you that is because if you allow the most important commandment to be love your neighbor as yourself, then your whole philosophy becomes subjective to that which carries itself within the culture. It becomes existential in nature. Well they feel this way so I've got to move with that wind of doctrine. It's a very tiring thing to do.

God said if you're going to love your neighbor as yourself, you need to do the first thing first. Once you do the first thing, everything else is easy. Every single person that I've ever walked through premarital counseling will be able to tell you that. What are the two big rules? What does it center around? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, your mind, your strength; love your neighbor as yourself. You will never be able to love your neighbor, your spouse, until you love your God first. Very difficult principle to be able to explain to people.

Matthew, in this same account of this passage in 22, actually says that everything else hangs on this command to love the Lord your God with all your soul, your heart, your mind, your strength. He says nothing else can even exist without having the anchor by which it hangs on. And that anchor is that obedience to God exemplifying that love.

Look at how the scribe takes this. And by the way, the way the scribe deals with this is profound, in my opinion. I actually think it's a pretty remarkable response to read. But this goes to confirm everything that I've been telling you. Look what happens in the next verse: And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he.

Now this is interesting. That in and of itself, by the way, requires supernatural insight, doesn't it? You think about it. There's one God, we're not him. It's pretty brilliant. You know that phrase that lots of people have been throwing around as of late: “There's only one God and we're not him.” That comes from this passage that's originally found in Exodus, in Leviticus, reiterated in Numbers and Deuteronomy. There's only one God and we're not him.

Look what he goes on to say: And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbor as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. Whoa.

Okay, do you understand the depth of insight of that statement? What he's saying is this: I could take every bit of cattle on the face of the earth and sacrifice it to God and it would not carry the same weight as fulfilling that command. Why? Because he sees a parallel that very, very few people see even when they read the words of this scribe. Here it is: Your love for God is directly predicated upon your obedience to him. You cannot be one who loves God unless you obey him because your expression of love to God is obedience.

By the way, can I make myself clear with this? Men especially, men especially, men especially, pay attention to me when I tell you this: Your love that you express towards your wife must be an extension of your obedience to God. If the love that you show your wife is predicated upon the obedience that you allow yourself to be given to as it relates to you and God, then your wife will truly be able to understand what loving her means. You're never going to love your wife by doing physical things. You're never going to love your wife by providing for her, although those things are very special things to do for your family. The most effective and only way to show your love for your wife is by walking in obedience to the Lord.

By the way, do you think it's a coincidence that the prophet goes before one of the kings of Israel when the king of Israel actually chooses to disobey God? He's told to kill everything and he didn't. And the prophet hears a “baa” and a few other things that he shouldn't be hearing because it should all be dead. And he goes to the king and he says, “Hey, God told you to kill it all. You were supposed to kill all the possessions and the Amalekites themselves and you didn't do it.” And he says, “Well, here's the thing. I thought that these would make great sacrifices to the Lord, which is why I spared them.”

And you know what ends up happening? He tells the king of Israel, “Your rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. And you need to understand that your sacrifice is, in essence, the way it’s translated, your sacrifice is worthless. It pales in comparison to obedience. Your obedience is superior to what you perceive or discuss or represent as being sacrifice.”

You can do a million and a half things for your wife but that sacrifice will mean nothing if it is not the result of your obedience to the true and living God. This guy's amazing. This scribe is remarkable because he's saying, “Jesus, I see it. What you're telling me means that what I have to do surpasses by any stretch of the imagination what you associate with the very act of salvation, sacrifice. My obedience is at a higher premium.”

Think about how heavy of a statement that is. He's saying there's nothing I can give you, God, there's nothing I can sacrifice in your name that even comes close to actually obeying you. Because that's what real love is.

Verse 34: And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that durst ask him any question. Why? Because when Jesus said, “You're not far from the kingdom of God,” what Jesus was, in essence, doing was Jesus was speaking in a way that was powerfully reaching into the very soul of that man. And the reason why nobody would ever ask him a question beyond that point was because they were scared of the depth of that reach. They were fearful of what that kind of reach meant.

I think there's something to be said about a person who will walk with such a strict obedience that the effectiveness of their decision to obey God becomes a display of love that reaches so far deep into the soul of a man that it becomes intimidating. That it becomes almost unapproachable. This is what he's saying. I think it's really interesting because he develops this awareness of what's going on and Jesus is saying, “You're there. You get it.” This is something that isn't, in essence, going to be taught, not like the way we think being taught works. This is a big deal. It's a massive breakthrough.

Years ago, this is one of the many ways I've learned this lesson and I've learned some hard lessons. Years ago, I'm on my way home from Sunday night service. And typically what would happen after Sunday night service when I was a high schooler is me and a few of the guys, sometimes it was just me and another guy, we would fast all day on Sunday. Sometimes we'd fast two days, Saturday and Sunday, because we knew going to church was a big spiritual thing, we wanted to clear our minds, all that.

So Sunday night was always broken by going to a local burger place and they always had a Sunday, they called it the Sunday special, you would go and you'd buy a burger for 99 cents and it was a big nice burger. And we oftentimes would save for a few days' worth and we'd not only buy a nice burger, we'd buy the really nice crispy fries. And if we were really, really crazy, we'd buy like a pastrami quesadilla. We just went crazy. This is the way it was. You're probably surprised being the fitness expert that I am that I would do anything so terrible like that.

I remember getting in my truck, heading there, driving to the place. And the Lord told me, and I knew it was the Lord. I knew it was the Lord because of what happened, what I saw. The Lord told me, “You're going to run into a homeless man over there. And he's not going to be likable. I want you to feed him.”

“Nah, I'm going crazy. I haven't eaten in a while. That's not the Lord. That's whatever.”

On my way out of the parking lot of the church, I see the homeless guy. I know it's the Lord. I know it's the Lord. In my mind, I knew that I was supposed to put that guy in my car. He was drooling and all that. I knew I was supposed to put him in my car and feed him. During those times, money that I had was what was in my pocket, 16 years old, 17 years old.

So I look at him, I know what the Lord told me, and I said, “No. Uh-uh. I'm hungry.” And I go to the restaurant, completely ignore him. I know you guys are looking at me like I'm so evil. I completely ignore him. I sit down with my buddy, we buy the food, we get ready to eat. And as we get ready to eat, I hear this loud “whoo!” I look up and I see that man that God told me to feed. And he's sitting at the table with another guy from our church that was doing exactly what the Lord told me to do.

Now what's the likelihood that that guy is going to show up at the same restaurant that I went to when there's many more closer to the church? No. God told me, he made it clear. He said, “If you refuse to obey me because you choose not to walk in love, I'll allow you to forfeit being used by me and I'll go use somebody else.” That's scary. Can you imagine how vivid of a demonstration that actually is?

Like God says do something, you don't do it, then he has somebody else go do it in your stead the exact same way and in the exact same place. And then to hear a message: If you want to forfeit the blessing that comes from me using you as a result of your obedience, that's fine. There's many more like you that will throw their lives away because you want to please yourself in the moment.

Guest (Male): Thank you for joining us today for Light on the Hill. What you just heard is one part of a study in Mark's Gospel from Pastor James Kaddis. You can hear it again at lightonthehillradio.com or wherever you get your podcasts. Pastor James, you mentioned today just how difficult the month of September has been for you in the past, even recalling our dear friend Charlie Kirk’s assassination over a year ago. When we're in the midst of great difficulty or hit with a tragedy like this, what can help us make it through without losing our minds?

James Kaddis: It's a very simple answer to this question and that's the hope of heaven. It's understanding that one day we will be reunited with all of our loved ones. And as painful as it is to live on this earth without them, we have a lot of joy and peace and understanding in knowing we'll be reunited with them. And those are not empty and loose words. Those are words that have real value and those are words that I find very cathartic because I know that one day I will be reunited with my redeemer and so will I be reunited with all that I love that I've lost, especially those in the month of September.

Guest (Male): Amen. Thanks, Pastor James. Not long ago, Pastor James released his new book on the first half of Revelation. It's entitled “The Last Book.” He points out that Revelation isn't a book of fear, but rather a book of hope. Pastor James will help you understand the world we live in and current events through a biblical lens, preparing your heart for what lies ahead. Get a copy by going to lightonthehillradio.com or through Amazon.

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James Kaddis: I want you to reconsider how you view your relationships in this world. Going back to the accusation that got made at me, looking back on it now, I recognize God not only protected me by me doing what I was accused of doing that was ungodly, but he also used it to encourage me and to bring to life a part of me that was beginning to break up.

And if I had allowed myself to be yielded to the input that man felt like they wanted to give me that was predicated upon anger and bitterness and frustration, I would have never allowed myself to be positioned in the place that I believe God wants me to be positioned in that he might be able to do the work that he wants to continue to do. God can't continue to do a work in any of us if we're not focused on the vertical.

The greatest example of this is Christ, right? He didn't go to the cross willingly, guys. We know that. He went to the cross obediently. It's a very important thing to remember. What are we going to do? How important does it become to us to walk in that kind of love? If it becomes super important, get ready because God's going to make some big changes and those changes are going to be mind-blowing because he's going to use you to do something that you never thought could be done. Because that's how God rolls. Amen. Remember, you are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Light on the Hill with Pastor James Kaddis is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Signal Hill.