So, have you ever filled out a March Madness bracket? Ever done a bracket? If you don't know what this is? This is where there's a little diagram of all the teams that have been selected to play the annual NCAA basketball tournament, you pick your teams and as it whittles down your picks will come up with the team that you have arrived at, that's going to win the whole thing. Now, my family has been doing this for 28 years. Uh, Karen and I started doing it the first year that we got married, uh, for many years, we printed off, uh, pieces of paper and we, you know, did it that way. And then a few years ago, my oldest son got us going on the ES PN apps and now our little Fantasy League is, is digital on our, on our phones. And so, you know, we're just there, but for 28 years, whether we're using paper or whether we're using the app for 28 years, the same person has won every single year and that's my wife every time. And I'm telling you after 28 years, it's annoying. It is somebody else needs to win. So this morning, as I am getting ready for church, my wife announces to me that this year I'm going to win. This is fantastic. And she's in the nursery. I can't even gloat in front of her this morning. This is terrible. But it's fun. We, we've always enjoyed it. It's a great time and, and it's just a little thing, you know that our family does. Now, last year the folks over at dictionary.com, they put a bracket together as well and they called it goat, goat, but not greatest of all time, which is what goat spells they did go gwoat, the greatest word of all time. And they had a whole bracket. 32 words started off. Uh, they were words from awesome to oops to y'all. I mean, all kind of words there and then they had more than 14,000 votes that came in for the greatest word of all time. So, what was the winning word? Well, today we begin a new series and the series is the greatest word ever. And what we're going to be doing for the next four weeks is looking at the winning word. Here's the thing though. This word is not the greatest word ever, just because it won a bracket last year on dictionary.com. It's the greatest word ever because it's been the greatest word since before the beginning of time on earth. So, what is that word? Well, let's find out together the title of our message today is the question, begs it. And we're going to be looking in the Bible at Matthew 22 we're going to be looking at one certain day, one specific day in the life of Jesus. And we find that day in Matthew 22 listen, beginning with verse 34. But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the sadducees, they gathered together. Now, the sadducees were a religious group back in the day, they were known to be a little more wealthy than other people. And they were kind of known as being a little more liberal in their theology, just kind of how they are. They tended to focus only on the first five books of the Bible and that was what they looked at. However, if there was something in the first five books of the Bible that didn't fit in with their lifestyle, they were fine with ignoring something that they saw in the first five books of the Bible. That was just kind of how they were. Now, here's the deal. There are still plenty of people like the Sades in the world today. They're, they're still around. So the Sadducees had just approached Jesus and they had a question for him. They were trying to test him a little bit, trick him a little bit and they had a question and this was their question, listen to it if a man dies having no Children, his brother, as next of kin shall marry his wife and raise up Children for his brother. Now, there were seven brothers among us and the first married and died and having no Children, he left his wife to his brother. And it was the same also with the second brother and the third down to the seventh. Last of all, the woman died in the resurrection. Therefore, whose wife of the seven will she be? Now my first thought in reading that is bless their hearts. Those people had way too much time on their hands, right? I mean, that's quite a question. You know, they, they needed something better to do, but Jesus answered them and what Jesus said was this. He turned to them and he said, you are mistaken, you do not understand the scriptures nor do you understand the power of God. That would be a mic drop moment. You know, what are they going to respond to that? Jesus turns to these very important religious leaders in the community and says, you don't understand the Bible. You don't even understand God. But they thought they did see, they thought they were true Bible scholars. They thought they had all of the answers. They thought they were more right with God than other people were, but they were wrong. They were wrong on, on both accounts, they thought they had it all together, but they were confused. See they were acting like eternity with God was going to be like life on earth. And Jesus said, look, you guys are talking about things that are connected to jealousy, personal preferences and personal rights and those things will not be connected to eternity with God. You are mistaken. You're, you're wrong. The sadducees were sad. You see, because Jesus took their question and he undid it. He, he canceled it out because he was directing them not toward the temporary answers that they were kind of looking for. But he was trying to show them ultimate truth and ultimate reality. There's nothing different today. Jesus is still trying to show us ultimate truth and ultimate reality. And while all this was happening, there was another religious group there, the Pharisees and they were watching all this play out, they saw Jesus Silence, the sadducees. Now the Pharisees were different than the sadducees. Uh They were more blue collar, uh you know, people of the people kind of people and they were also more conservative and, and more traditional and they felt like their traditions were the things that should be focused on the most and the things that should be followed the most. There's plenty of people like the Pharisees still around today. So the Pharisees saw Jesus shut them down, saw Jesus silence, them, saw Jesus best them in this conversation and they said, you know what we want to take a shot too. So what do they do? They gathered together, they formed a little posse and they were like we're just going to go approach to Jesus. We're going to confront him. We're going to let him know who's really running the church and, and we'll see how this goes and what happened. Verse 35. And one of them, a lawyer asked him a question, testing him. So among the Pharisees, one of them, a lawyer decided that he was going to ask Jesus a question. Now, is it wrong to ask questions? No, it's not wrong to ask questions. It's good to ask questions. That's how we learn by engaging with the material, by, by asking questions of people, by building relationships. Questions are great. Is it dangerous to ask tricky? Um Let's just say hidden agenda questions. Yes, it's, it's dangerous. And, and why is it dangerous? Well, the danger of tricky hidden agenda questions is because tricky hidden agenda questions by their nature devalue the person that you're asking the question to the very nature of a tricky hidden question means that you're devaluing a person, a person that was created in the image of God. And so when you devalue people, what you're saying is how I speak to them, how I talk to them, how I ask them questions. It doesn't matter. I I can do whatever I want to because I've got got this agenda here and my agenda is more important than this human being. The problem with that is that eventually, maybe immediately, but at least eventually there will be accountability for such an attitude and such a way and habit of life as that accountability that will come. And, and what does that mean? Well, it means that tricky hidden agenda questions and tricky hidden agendas as, as a general rule, they exist for personal gain. They're not something that's good for the whole group. It's the practice of, of bullies. And so those types of hidden agendas will eventually backfire. It may happen immediately. It may happen later that you could spend your life with hidden agendas, pushing your hidden agendas through every aspect, whether it's at home or work or school or church or in the community, wherever it is and you may get away with it, your whole life getting your way with what's going. But when you arrive at the end of your life and you stand before God, you will no longer get your way. There is no ability to have a hidden agenda with God. He is clear with his truth, the Pharisees and this particular lawyer, he wasn't testing Jesus to get Jesus into an A P theology class. Now he was trying to embarrass Jesus trying to trick Jesus. He was, he was trying to in front of a crowd of people, get Jesus to say something that would cause people to go. Oh I don't, maybe we shouldn't trust this guy. Maybe we shouldn't be following this guy. And, and really what he was trying to do was in front of a crowd of people try to get that crowd, to get on his side, trying to get the crowd to, to follow after him, trying to, to whoop up the crowd so that the crowd will come after the lawyer and the Pharisees and not after Jesus. In other words, what he was really doing was a push for political and religious power. That's, that's the scene. The sadducees were pushing their liberal agenda and the Pharisees were pushing their traditional agenda, their conservative agenda. Now we, we don't know anything about that in 2024. Right? We've never heard anything like that ever have we. No, it's very familiar. There's nothing new under the sun. Jesus was going to silence them both by letting them understand the only ultimate agenda in the universe. The one agenda that is above all other agendas no matter what the agenda is and that agenda is the glory of the one true sovereign God. It was the glory of God and it is the glory of God that rules the world with grace and truth. Now, don't miss that again. When you look at your life, whatever your agenda may be, it may be religion, it may be politics, it may be sports, it may be family, it may be food, it may be finances, whatever it may be and whatever you believe about life and death or, or heaven or hell or, or the meaning of the existence of life or, or even some supreme being, whatever you believe about any of those things, whatever your agenda may be, it is good and helpful for us to know that there is only one agenda that rules the world. There is only one agenda that has ruled the world. There is only one agenda that will rule the world forever and all into eternity. And that agenda, that rule is the glory of God. There is no other agenda higher than the glory of God. In his published work, Mere Christianity. CS Lewis said this creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exist. A baby feels hunger. Well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim. Well, there is such a thing as water. And then he says this, if I find NASA in myself, a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy. The most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. Every human being, past present and future, every human being is created with a desire for the glory of God and the world of God's glory. It is inside of us. And no matter how many degrees we may have, no matter who we marry, no matter how many kids we have, no matter how much money we make, no matter how early we may be able to retire, no matter how many games, our, our favorite team wins no matter what it is that, that we are longing for or looking for in life, no matter what those things are, no matter how much time we spend at the gym or our time we spend doing and saying and thinking anything else. Ultimately, we will never be satisfied until we have the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. We'll try, we'll, we'll try all of those things, but we will not be satisfied until we have the glory of God in the face of Jesus. The lawyer wasn't looking for the glory of God. He, he was looking for personal glory. He was looking for the glory of his people. He was looking for the glory of his party. What are you looking for when you think about your life? What are you really, really looking for? Are you looking for the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ? Have you found the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ? If you have it, then please know as Augustin said, many years ago, your heart will always be restless and unsatisfied until you find this glory. Until you, you find the glory of God in the face and the person of Jesus Christ. What that means is if you're looking for God, look to Jesus, if you're looking for ultimate satisfaction, look to Jesus. The lawyer was looking to test Jesus and he asked him a question and what was the question he asked? Listen to verse 36 teacher, which is the great commandment in the law. Now, in Western culture, even for a person who doesn't believe in God who didn't grow up in church has no real religious affiliation. Even, even someone in the western world hears that question and goes, oh, I guess they were asking of the 10 commandments. Whi which one is the most important? I mean, it makes sense just from a surface standpoint, but there's more at play here than, than just the 10. The lawyer was more than likely thinking of something more than, than just the 10. See the Pharisees they saw the 10 and they thought, you know what? I bet we can kick those up a notch. I bet we can do a little something with those. So what they did was they put together 613 commandments to help people follow the 10. Now that math works right? 10 is not enough. Let's create 613 other rules that will help you follow the 10. I'm good with the 10. I think I'd just rather go with the 10, right? The question from the lawyer was a tricky hidden question. It was an agenda question. It was aimed at trapping Jesus with saying one thing and in saying the one thing making him look in front of other people like he didn't care about the other things. In other words, they were going to say, hey, there's, there's 613 things out there and most of our people, they know about these things. So if we can just get Jesus to pick one, it'll look like he doesn't care about the rest of them. And then we got him, we got him in, in the modern political world. This is called single issue politics. Right? It's where there's this one issue and the way you bait a candidate is you say, well, if this candidate is not on my one issue, then, then I'm done with them and it goes beyond that because what you do is you take your one issue and you try to get everybody else on your one issue. And if you can get everybody on your one issue and you can get everybody to praise that issue, then the other issues go by the wayside because the, the one issue is what gets all of the glory. It's not just in politics. It happens in the church for instance, let's play it out this way. Imagine that you have an issue. Let's just say it's a really good issue and you come to me and you say, hey, this issue is important. I want you to preach a sermon on it every month for the next year. And then I want us to have five special Sundays where we just talk about this issue. And then I want you to put some posters up in the hallway about this issue and let's get some T shirts for the church members that have this issue. And if you don't do this, then you're a terrible pastor and you're not a Christian and I'm going to badmouth you all over Facebook and I'll see it because I'm always on Facebook. Y'all know that, right. It may be a good issue. May be a great issue. May even be a, a Christian issue, but I will graciously say love me or hate me. I will strive to do my very best to make sure that when it comes to this pulpit and I'm standing in it, there will be a single issue and the single issue will be the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ because that is the issue and the message that our hearts will always need the most. Does it mean all the other issues in life aren't important? No, it doesn't. It just means that the issue of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ is the issue above all other issues. Bless our hearts, the lawyer and his pharisee all his little buddies. They, they were missing the whole point but they were, they were missing the point of their very own question. See, they were thinking that approaching God through 613 rules was the way to be better people with God. Hey, our, our 613 rules. This is this is how things get better between us and God. But the reality is there's only one rule when it comes to approaching God, there's only one rule one way when it comes to approaching God. And that one rule, one way is through Jesus. Jesus is the only approach to God. We just recently finished up a series on the 10 commandments. And I was reading something uh earlier in the week by Joe Rigney on how we cannot directly come to the 10 commandments. We have to come to the 10 commandments in a way indirectly, this is what he says. We come to them through Christ, who is the supreme law giver of the new covenant. And as his disciples, we seek to observe all that he commanded more than that as God's first born son, he is also our elder brother. And we seek to become like our father by becoming like his son. And he says this fundamentally, we ought to read the 10 commandments as the instructions of a loving father to his first born son. In other words, the only way we can get to the 10 commandments is through Christ because otherwise we have no shot at keeping them. We need the perfect savior, the perfect redeemer to help us run from sin and cling to what is good. It's not the 613 ways. It's the one way. It, it's, it's the one way and the one way, the one truth, the one life is always and only in Jesus. You know, when I read this account about the lawyer. I'm, I'm not mad at him. You know, I don't go, oh, that mean pharisee lawyer. He's being mean to Jesus trying to trick him now. II I don't, I'm not mad at him. I'm sad for him. And here's why I see in this lawyer the exact same thing I see in my own heart. And if you're honest in this lawyer, you see the exact same thing that's in your heart, doesn't he sound just like us? Jesus? What's the most important law? Which one do I have to follow to get good grades in school? Which one do I have to follow? To, to get on the team? Which one do I have to follow? To, to find the right person to marry? Whi which one do I have to follow to, to find the right college or, or get the right job? Which one of these do I have to follow to, to get my wife off my back? Which one of these do I have to follow, to get my husband to get in the conversation? Which one of these do I have to follow? To make sure that my kids will honor what I asked them to do? Which one? Which one do I need? That's us. S I've had multiple conversations in my own mind this week, I've had multiple conversations with other people this week where it all comes down to. I have this question. I have this issue? Which law do I have to do so that it will be fixed? Which one, Jesus is it two? Is it five, is it nine or, or from a pharisee? Is it 218? Is it, you know, 427? Is it 508? W which rule give me the rule, give me the law, give me the thing to do so that this problem can be fixed. How does Jesus answer his question? Matthew 2237. 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, this is the great and foremost commandment. And that's our winning word. Love of the more than 14,000 people that voted on those 32 words. Everybody ended up voting toward love. It's the winning word. But again, it wasn't just the winning word in a, in a bracket. It's been the winning word since before time began. What does that mean? We'll just look at creation. I mean, really just, just look at creation. The world has been made from the ingredients of God's love. How do we know that? Well, just consider the beauty of the mountains and the prairies and the oceans white with foam. Just think about the last time or, or maybe one time that you can really remember being out in nature. You know, maybe you took a trip to the Grand Canyon or to Niagara Falls or, or, you know, just to the beach or to the mountains. I mean, think of that moment that you can remember, maybe it was recently, maybe it was years ago, but you just stood in nature and went, wow, this, this is great and take that moment and in that moment does, does it really make any rational, logical human sense to say? Oh, I think that was just the quantum physics of evolutionary molecular biology. That that's how all of that happened. Does that make sense? And you consider the funniest moments of your high school years when you consider the most fun moments of, of your holidays, when you consider some of the most fantastic moments at your favorite sporting events? Just, just think of those moments when man, it was just, it was a good Christmas. It was a good Thanksgiving Easter was greater man. That that game was fantastic. Or that moment at that birthday party was great when you think of your family and your friends and your kids and your grandkids when you think of, of the beautiful things that you've enjoyed in life when you think of all of these things, does it make logical sense to say? Yep, that's just some kind of happenstance or does it make more logical human, rational sense to say man that looks like it was made with love? There is something beautiful about that. There's no way I can say it just happened, whatever question you have in life today and we all have questions, whatever question you're struggling with. Whatever question you need an answer for in the words of, of Jesus, which we will look at more next Sunday. But in these words from Jesus, whatever that question is, whatever that heartbreaking, heart aching, um heart attacking, uh heart, angering question may be the answer. The ultimate answer is found in that one word and that one word is love. I know somebody's thinking, man, that's, that's pie in the sky, man. That sounds silly. Maybe so. But it's true. Now we're not talking about, you know rom com movie love. You know, we're not talking about just a love that we have for sports or love, we have for food or family or anything like that. We're talking about love that comes from the one who is love. See, you can love me and I can love you and we can love our family and we can love our friends and we can love food and we can love sports, but we are not love. God is love. It is the essence of his being. It's what makes his being tick and it's what makes the universe tick. But we may say, well that, that's not true. I mean, gosh, just look at what's happening in the world. If you look at what's happening in the world, there's no way God's love could be holding up the world. And yet it's the only thing holding up the world. If it weren't for God's love, the world would have already crumbled as bad and as awful as anything may be, we can count on this. It is guaranteed that the glory and love of God in the person of Jesus Christ is holding all things together because if it was not, it would not be the love of God is what's holding this world of sin and evil up. The love and mercy and grace of God is seen most clearly in the person of Jesus. You know, we're, we're one week removed from, from Easter and, and all the the festivities and, and it's always a good reminder for us as Christians to remember that's great. But every Sunday, his resurrection, Sunday, all of them because every single day as a Christian, we are living in the resurrection. It is the power and the glory of the resurrection that helps us exist and follow Jesus today. Apostle Paul put it this way to the people in a place called Corinth first Corinthians 1517. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless, you are still in your sins. That that's not a great Easter message, right? But he goes on verse 18, then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ, they've perished no good news. If there's no resurrection, verse 19, if we have hoped in Christ, only in this life only for Easter Sunday. We are of all people most to be pitied. In other words, the lost atheist, the angry other religion person. They have every reason to say those poor stupid Christians. They have every reason to say it except verse 20. But the fact is Christ has been raised from the dead. He is risen, he is risen indeed. And that matters. It matters when it comes to all the questions of life. When that lawyer stood before Jesus testing him with his question, the coming resurrection of Jesus was going to matter to that question. All the questions of life, even the tricky hidden agenda, questions, all of them matter connected to the resurrection. Because when it's all said and done, when all the questions have been asked, when the last chapter of this life is written for every single one of us, there will only be one reality that's still standing. And that reality is the glory and love of God in the face of Jesus Christ. We have every reason to bank our hope on Jesus. The resurrection of Jesus gives us this reality that he died. He rose again, he never died again. And the fact that he never died again is a guarantee that what we are believing in will ultimately help us in the struggle with the things we still can't believe in because all of them will take us back to one small simple truth. And that is that everything about the glory and the love of God is real and true because of the resurrection, the resurrection of Jesus is not a Easter Sunday holiday. It is what is holding our faith together. The lawyer was trying to test Jesus, trying to trick him, trying to trip him up with a question of what happened. He got tripped up, he, he, he ended up being tripped up himself because there was and there is, and there will always be one answer to that question, one answer to all ultimate questions. And that answer is one word and that word is love, the love of God. I think some of us face questions in life that don't sound like the lawyers, right? It's not us trying to trick. We, we just are in a moment where we got a question and, and we would love an answer and it's hard and we don't know exactly what to do. Oswald Chambers was 23 years old when he started having what he described as four years of hell on earth. Ever had a time like that. This is what he wrote. He was going through for four years. Nothing but the overruling grace of God and the kindness of friends kept me out of an asylum. Been there. I that, that's real, but that's true. So four years, see what we want is maximum four days. OK? When we have the question, God, uh I prayed God, I even got down on my knees in my bedroom last night. God, I've done this four days in a row. What do you need from me? If we're honest, that's how we are. Four years of what he described as just, just hell. And then at 27 he, he had a breakthrough. So if you're in your twenties, be of good cheer, you know, whatever you're struggling with, hang in there, we've all been there. You know what the reality is. It's not just your twenties, you know, hitting those things in the fifties too, but it's ok because there, there is a breakthrough when we consider the glory and love of God and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is what he wrote about his experience. All I have to do is come as a spiritual pauper. Not ashamed to beg to let go of my right, to myself. I ain't too proud to beg, not, not ashamed to beg and to beg the question. And the question is God, will you please help, please help me? And then he goes on, it is never do and you'll be with the Lord but be be and I will do through you. See we're do, do God give me, give me what to do. Give me the law, let me fix this. Come on, give me, give me what to do and then everything will be right with you. Wrong math be be with God. Just, just pursue him, chase him, be in relationship with Him and he will do the doing. But that's not how our minds work. We just give it, give me something to do and God is calling us to be, to be with Him, to be in relationship with Him. Chambers goes on. It is a case of hands up and let him go and then entire reliance on Him. So what question in your life needs your hands up? What question in life needs that thing? That's so hard for us to give and that's surrender. What question needs your surrender to God. Justin Bazar had a similar experience as Oswald Chambers and was reading about his experience and this is how he described it. You're left shattered and starved. You're not sure if you're going to make it. You didn't know that you could experience despair and stress this deep and everything aches ever been there like chambers though Justin had a breakthrough and he said this, you begin to taste the good news of the gospel, not just stare at it on a menu. That's so good. Say it again, you begin to taste the good news of the gospel, not just stare at it on a menu. We, we stare, well, we, we come to church and we stare. OK. Music's good sermon was OK. I enjoyed seeing some people. We, we stare OK at the gospel. But when there is a, a breakthrough, we begin to taste the good news of the gospel it begins to be a part of the difficulty and the struggle and the questions, we can't get that taste out of our hearts. It's the taste of the gospel. He goes on freedom in Christ. Finally makes sense. You discover that you really deeply love God. You love him more than what you once loved most. And you wonder why you used to trust yourself so much and trust God so little. See, that's what the lawyer was doing. That's what the Pharisees were doing. That's what the sadducees were doing. They weren't, they weren't necessarily evil people. They were good religious church going people, but they trusted themselves first and most and they trusted God so little. They were looking for the law, give me a law, they were looking for law instead of love and they missed everything. And even if they were looking for love, in the words of philosopher John Lee Ham, they were looking for love in all the wrong places. You know, they just chased after all the wrong things. We never do that, do we? And that never happens to us. Does it? I mean, when our team makes it to the big game and they lose, we're ok. Right. We don't throw anything across the room. We don't scream anything. We're fine. Right. See if we're honest, we look for love in all the wrong places. We're no different but whatever question you're facing in life, whatever the, the struggle is the ultimate answer is found in the winning word. And that word is love, the love of God because God is love. Justin after coming through his time of hell has some encouragement for us. He says this friend, the hell you're walking through right now just might lead to heaven. God has not abandoned you. He's stripping you of false lovers so that you can know Him. You were created to know love, worship, adore and enjoy God. Praise Him that He loves you enough to not let you settle for anything less than Him. That's how great His love is. What's the greatest word ever? The word that would not exist without God. And that word is love.