So how do you hang up your clothes in the closet? What do you like? Are you super organized? I mean, just super organized. Like, you know, all the, the jackets are together and all the shirts are together and all the pants are together. Maybe you even kick it up a notch. You've got everything color coded in your, oh, I love the chuckles already. Some of you do that. Wow. Nice. Or maybe you just shove everything wherever it can go. Right. That's, that's just your closet, wherever it goes, you know, or maybe your closet is the chair next to your bed or maybe your closet is the floor just, just the whole room, you know, anywhere that something will go. Yeah, I'm pretty sure we all have one in our family. At least I think it was toy researcher Sid Phillips that once said organization is for people who are too lazy to look for things. There you go. That's pretty good. That's pretty good. Well, if you do hang things up in an actual closet with a great organizational system, I need to let you know that your system is pointless. Now, hang on. I know that, that's a little offensive if you're a closet ninja with a, you know, real, real sense of fashion here. So, just, just hang with me because there's a second part of that phrase, your system of organization is pointless without the bar, either a wooden bar or steel bar or maybe a, you know, system of wire rack bars, you know, whatever it is, you, you have to have the bar there or you won't have anything to hang on your system doesn't work unless you have something to hang your system on. That's not just true with your closet. That's true with life. What are you hanging your life on today when it comes to the, the very reality of your existence? But what are you hanging your existence on today? And why does it matter when we finish up our series today? Titled The Greatest Word Ever? And it is in the greatest word ever that we will find this picture, this thing that we hang all of our existence on this, this reality, this truth that we hang our existence on. It's not your opinion. It's not my opinion, it's not someone else's opinion, but everything actually hangs on very specific truth. One day, a lawyer asked Jesus what the most important commandment was? Hey, Jesus, what's, what's the greatest commandment anywhere in the universe? What's the most important thing that anyone can do with their life? And Jesus responded and what did he say? We turn to Matthew 22 in the Bible, we pick up in verse 40. Jesus says this upon these two commandments, hang the whole law and the prophets. Now, right before this statement, Jesus turned to the lawyer and said, the greatest and foremost commandment, the most important thing any human being can do with their life is to love the one true sovereign God first and most that's, that's the greatest thing anyone could do. And then he said that the second is almost just like it. The second is love your neighbor in the same way that you love yourself. Therefore, that word love becomes the greatest word ever. These are the two most important things that anyone can do with their lives. Then then here we are with the word that is the greatest word ever and that word is love. And then Jesus takes these two statements and he pulls them together and he makes this bold amazing emphatic statement that we can't shake, listen to it again upon these two commandments, hang the whole law and the prophets. Everything hangs on these two commandments. Jesus wasn't on a college campus opening up a panel discussion for ideas. He wasn't looking for alternative input. He was making authoritative impact. His words were not confusing. They were clear, he did not stutter. He did not hesitate. He was quick to say here it is when the lawyer asked now the crowd of people that's listening in this moment. They lived their lives by the law and the prophets and the commandments, their behavior, their attitudes, what they did during their work week, what they did on their weeknights, what they did on their weekends, what they did on vacation, how they spent their money, all of it came down to the law and the prophets and the commandments. This was how they did life. So, how about you, how about me? How, how did we do life just this past week, this past week? How did we do life? What defined our work week or our retirement week? What, what defined our weeknights? What defined our weekends? What defined how we spend our recreation time, how we spend our money, how we celebrated national pig in a Blankets day. Yeah. Real holiday this week. Don't miss it next year. Ok. We, we all did life this week. How did you do life? What fueled your life? What was it that drove the decisions that you made? Was it loving God first and most? Was it loving your neighbor in the same way that you love yourself or was it something else? Did you hang everything on loving God? Did you hang everything on loving your neighbor in the same way that you love yourself? Or, or did you hang life on something else? But look, I'm, I'm not passing out tickets, you know, for a guilt trip here. Ok. But the reality is the, these are fair questions. What did even if you don't believe in God, just answer the question for yourself. What you hang your life on this week? What did you hang all of your life on this week? If tragedy came to you this week, what have you been hanging your life on? If trouble comes, what are you hanging your life on? If, if, if trial and tribulation, if, if depression, if anger or frustration of fear or worry, if they come, what are you hanging your life on with grace and mercy and love and authority? Jesus said that these two things loving God first and most and loving your neighbor in the same way you love yourself. These two things everything hangs on it. E everything. What does that mean? I came across two videos this week. Both of them made around the same time from a few years back, maybe three or four years back. And, and the first video is a video where they interview kids and the question they ask kids is, hey, if you had one wish, what would you wish for? This is some of their responses. A makeup set. Of course, everybody wants to go to alta all of the Barbie dolls and all of the princesses, all of them, not one or two, all of them, all of them. A new bike, a trampoline, an iphone, an xbox. I think one kid said a switch but my parents won't let me have one, one kid said billions and billions of dollars in a whisper and said, and get a Lamborghini. Another kid said he wishes for Pokemon to be real. Ok. One kid said more wishes. Someone said a pet unicorn. Someone said, world peace. Another one said to live forever to be a kid forever to be famous. One of my favorites, one kid said, I'd really love a new colored couch. Well, wouldn't we? All right. I think he even went to because the one we have now is a burgundy and I'd like something different. One little girl even said that she would like to meet Jesus. So that's the first video. And just as a note, all of those kids were American kids. OK. The second video was a video of kids. Same question but these kids were in a war torn Middle Eastern country. Same question they were asked though. If you had one wish, what would you wish for? These are some of their answers. I wish for some meat. It's been a year since I ate meat. I'd wish for fresh bread, watermelon and a chicken sandwich. I'd want to eat with my brothers. I'm jealous of those who eat bread with their family. A little girl said, I wish to go back home. I wanna go back to school. How many kids say that? Right? Another kid said, I wish for everything to go back to normal so we can eat and drink everything doesn't hang on Barbies and princesses. Everything doesn't hang on a Lamborghini and a new couch, but everything kind of hangs on eating and drinking, right? See perspective changes everything when Jesus says that everything hangs on loving God first and most and loving your neighbor in the same way you love yourself. What he's doing is he's establishing a standard, the ultimate standard for how everything hangs for every single one of us. The most important thing applies to every single human being. Jesus sets the standard and that standard matters because what he's saying is this, that my existence and your existence does not ultimately hang on high school and college that my existence and your existence doesn't ultimately hang on, on being single and, and living a YOLO life that our existence doesn't hang on marriage and kids and kids and grandkids and cars and houses. It doesn't hang on salary and benefits and retirement and investments doesn't hang on stocks and bonds and health and wealth doesn't hang on Instagram and Facebook. It doesn't hang on Carolina and Clemson doesn't hang on Facebook and Instagram or any other social media. It doesn't hang on Coke and Pepsi. It doesn't hang on vitamins and veggies. It doesn't hang on bratwurst and bacon doesn't hang on chips and queso doesn't hang on Republicans and Democrats doesn't hang on pronouns and identity. Life hangs according to Jesus on two things. Loving God first and most and loving our neighbor in the same way that we love ourselves. Everything else falls in a very interesting category for every single one of us. In that category we hear for the first time back in the, the late 17 hundreds where someone was writing a letter and this is what they wrote in their letter. You must not take everything to be true that is told to you. That's the precursor of don't believe the hype because there's plenty of hype out there for us to listen to today. And every part of our world is designed to hype us up, to excitement, to anger, to frustration, to fear, to selfishness, to all types of other things that will stir us to disillusionment that will stir us to discouragement and 100 maybe thousands of other emotions. But with kindness and grace and mercy and love and authority. Jesus said, if you're looking for what to hang your life on, don't hang it on your candidate. Don't hang it on your denomination, don't hang it on your retirement, don't even hang it on your family and friends. Hang everything on these two things, loving God first and most and loving your neighbor in the same way you love yourself. Why? Because as we said earlier, as we celebrated baptism, those two things are the two things that take you into forever. There's a phrase that's been tossed around, particularly in politics for the last two or three decades. It's, it's used in one of two different ways. It, it goes something like this. It either is, hey, you know, we want to be on the right side of history or, hey, we don't want to be on the wrong side of history. I can't speak directly to how all other religions and all other philosophies play out in their view of, of how history is going to play out. But I can speak to what Jesus said about history and how it plays out and, and it's, it's not a hard confusing set of Bible verses that you have to look up a bunch of words and figure out you don't have to get a commentary in a concordance. You don't, you don't have to have some pastor explain it to you. You know, Jesus played out history. Super simply John 316 for God so loved the world that he gave his only son so that everyone who believes in Him, his only son will not perish but will have eternal everlasting, satisfying life. That's how history will play out. It plays out with, with life, life with God or life without God. That's how history plays out. It plays out with ultimate peace and satisfaction or it plays out with ultimate punishment and misery. I know in, in today's world, the notion of a, a full and final judgment, it sounds either mean or ridiculous. I I get it. It's, it's the culture we live in. There's really nothing new the, the same thoughts were there when Noah was building the Ark, the thought of, of judgment, the, the thought of, of some final judgment. It, it sounds either mean intolerant or, or it sounds just silly and ridiculous. At least to most people in the world statistically, however, part of the reason that every single person, past, present and future is uncomfortable with death or confused about death or rattled about death. And we all are and everybody always has been and everybody will always be whether you're Christian Muslim Buddhist or anything else. Everybody has a fear or a confusion or rattling or something about death. And the reason that fear, that rattling, that confusion is there is because deep down in who we are, we have all been created to know and understand there is more than living and dying like we know it, it's inside of us. We may ignore it, we may reject it, we may fight against it but it is there. And because we know that there's more than just living and dying. It's why we wanna be on the right side of history. When it comes to our history. We, we ain't talking about politics right now, right? We wanna be on the right side of history when it comes to, to our history. And this is what Jesus said about the full and final judgment and the difference between people who are believing in him and yielding to him and relying on him and trusting in him and clinging to him and those who are not, this is the language he used in Matthew 2546. These who are not believing will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. History is heading toward Jesus. All of history is heading toward Jesus. Are you hanging your life on him? The following description and I think is a real helpful image of what we see in this conversation with Jesus and this lawyer, it goes like this. Jesus lifts us out of history and out of the world for just a moment and shows us this scroll from a distance. Now, we can see the whole thing, the law and the prophets, the Old Testament, the story of redemption, the purposes and acts of God in all of history. And what we see is that this scroll of all history is hanging by two golden chains. And Jesus lifts our eyes to heaven and we see the chains run up and disappear into heaven and he shows us the ends of the chains. They are fastened to the throne of God. One chain is fastened to the right arm of the throne of God where the words are inscribed. You shall love the Lord, your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind. And then the other chain is fastened to the left arm of the throne of God where the words are inscribed. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. And then Jesus turns to us and says the whole scroll, the whole law, the whole prophets, the whole history of redemption and all of God's plans. All of his acts hang on these two great sovereign purposes. Everything hangs on these two great sovereign purposes. So don't miss them. Go to work, earn a living, go to the game, go out to dinner, buy a new car, wash your car, go to the lake, vote for your candidate. Pay your taxes, save some money, do life as we need to do life. But just remember this life does not hang on any of those things. Life hangs on these two sovereign purposes of God. So hang your life on those two purposes. So is your life hanging there? Is your life hanging with, with these two purposes? If not, then Jesus would say very clearly. You, you're on the wrong side of history. You, you're on the wrong side of the, of the future as well. Now someone may ask are, are you saying that all we have to do is do these two things and all is good that we don't need Jesus. We don't have to be saved that professing faith in Jesus and, and following him that being baptized or being part of a church, don't, don't have to do those things. Just love God and love people and you're good. No, that's not what I'm saying. Someone put it this way. Loving Jesus is the test of whether you truly love God and loving God is the test of whether you truly love Jesus, you can't separate. Remember for God so loved me and for God, so loved you that he sent Jesus, so the two can't be separated. Loving God and loving Jesus are together. God sent Jesus to rescue the world from sin and evil and death and hell. So the two must be together. And why should you love Jesus? Because He loved you and gave himself up for you. Now again, that may sound like some silly catchy church phrase. But there was a moment in history on a Friday afternoon where Jesus of Nazareth, the same Jesus that was born in Bethlehem, the same Jesus who was a carpenter where that Jesus outside of Jerusalem died on a cross. His dead body was taken down off the cross. It was buried in a tomb. And then three days later, he came back from the dead. These are things that were attested by people who hated Jesus. Jesus loved you and gave himself up for you. He, he didn't just give up something for lent for you, ok? He didn't just give up meat or, or sugar. He didn't just give up watching TV. He didn't just quit driving a gasoline car for you. Jesus suffered and bled and died for me and for you, this is an actual thing that, that happened AAA moment in time, a moment in history, Jesus suffered, he bled, he died to pay the ultimate penalty of sin so that we would not have to. He died. And in rising from the dead, he guaranteed that he is the only way to eternal life instead of eternal punishment. We should love Jesus because he gave himself up for us. He was the perfect substitute for me and for you, he is the only one who really has the answer to that gnawing question of fear and confusion that rattling about death. Only Jesus has the answer. Robert Lowry was a, a preacher in the 18 hundreds. In 1876 he was finishing up a sermon, decided he would write a hymn to go along like an add on hymn to go on with his sermon. And these are just a few of the words of his add on song. What can wash away my sin? What, what, what can wash away this hell in my marriage? What can wash away this depression in my family, this tragedy in my heart and my mind, what can wash away the sin that so easily entangles me? What is it a vacation? Is it a new car? Is it time? Is it beer? Is it drugs? Is it a new job? Is it a new boat? Is it new golf clubs? What can wash away? What wrecks us the most? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What an add on song. The, the history says that, that when this song came out, man, it went straight to the charts the top. I mean, they, they said that attendance where Lowry preached like quadrupled the next year because the there was something about this. What can wash away my sin? What, what can deal with this? It won't be your candidate. It won't be your retirement. It won't be your team winning the natty. It's only the blood of Jesus. And, and this is another line from the song. This is all my hope and peace. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Ultimate hope and ultimate peace can only be found in Jesus. So, in a sense when it comes to hope and peace and the, and the hanging of those two things, those things hang on Jesus. If we hang anything on anything else, it'll fade or one day it'll be gone. We forget that we actually don't even want to admit it. But again, as I've shared, it is such a humbling thing to be going through my parents' house and, and realizing how many wonderful things existed during so many wonderful years of life. And now they don't have anywhere to be. And that's sad. And yet, and yet it's those things that added to that moment of life and that's great. But life didn't hang on those things and it still doesn't hope. And peace hangs on Jesus and if ultimate hope and peace hang on Jesus, the kind of hope that cannot fade, the kind of hope that cannot be taken away from you, the kind of hope that cannot die. And if Jesus said that everything hangs on loving God first and most and loving our neighbor in the same way, we love ourselves, then for the good of our souls, it would behoove us to look and say, wait a minute, the whole history of redemption is wrapped up in those two things. The whole history of redemption is wrapped up in those two loves that matters. It's a big deal. It's not hippie dippy baloney. It is hope and peace that never fades. In 1951 CS Lewis was writing a letter to a friend of his and he included this sentence, put first things first and we get second things thrown in, put second things first and we lose both 1st and 2nd things. That's crazy. Simple math. It sounds a little crazy but it's not hard to understand. It means that one day all the second things in life will fade or be gone. But the first things, the things of God will not be gone. So the second things, they're all gifts from God. They're, they're good things, they're wonderful things. They're not bad things. But if you make the second things more important than God, then in the end you lose the second things and you lose God. It's terrible math for us. And the math according to Jesus says that the second things, if there are priorities that they don't lead to eternal life, they lead to eternal punishment. So what are the first things in your life? What are you hanging life on right now? I mean, let's just, let's get super real about this. Ok. What do you have planned for the rest of the day? What do you have planned for for this week? Coming up when you look at your plans, do they have anything to do with loving God first and most and loving other people in the same way you love yourself? Do does, does any of it look like it? I'm not saying it's wrong to go home and take a nap today. I'm just saying is that it, is that the goal? It's Sunday. I'm tired. I'm just going to take a nap. I'm going to watch TV. I'll, I'll do something about God and people tomorrow. What if we don't get tomorrow? Look, I, I, I've told you all this before. One of the reasons I love church is because I need you. You know, I ain't doing good this weekend. All right. I just ain't, I needed you today. I needed Lily and Chandler and Carter this. I needed them just so I needed to be in that pool with them. Just rejoicing in the grace of God. Life is hard. We need to love God first. We need to love other people in the same way. We love ourselves. And if we don't, we're second thing people and it's bad for us, it's not good for us. So look at your plans, look at your goals, look at how you spend time, money, vacations, weekends, weeknights and everything else and just go, hey, am I, am I in second things or mine first things for the good of your soul. We ain't trying to increase attendance here if you come. Great. That's super. But, but we for the good of your soul. Is it second things or first things? Listen again the first things first and we get second things thrown in but second things first and we lose both 1st and 2nd things. In other words, don't believe the hype and boy, the hype is going to hit you at lunch because some of you going to pull out your phone and start scrolling through Instagram and tiktok. All right, you are and the hype is going to come after you. And if it's not the hype of Tik Tok and Instagram, you know what the hype will be. It'll be those people sitting at the table next to you going nuts about whatever conspiracy theory there is in the world or the people on the other side of you going nuts about what other liberal conspiracy. The it it's all there is hype everywhere. We can't get away from it, but we can be sure not to make it. Our first thing, we can make sure that the first thing, the hype above all other hypes for us is that there is nothing more important than any of us can do than to love God first and most and love our neighbor in the same way that we love ourselves. If you want to be the right side on the right side of history, hang your life on those two things or, or maybe put another way. If you want to be on the right side of history, then we must hang our lives on the greatest word ever and the greatest word ever is love. It's love.