The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Falling in "Like" with Jesus

Episode Date: July 26, 2019

If the greatest commandment is to love God, how do we know if we’re actually doing it, or if we’re just falling in “like” with Jesus? To answer this question, Jeff uses Scripture passages on what it means to truly love God. He unpacks what this means for us as disciples who not only SAY they love Jesus, but ACT like they love Jesus. Check out Jeff’s episode, Created for Love, Settling for Likes, for even more Scripture on this topic. Snippet from the Show “We can only obey what we know. If we want to be obedient to God, we have to have some plan to get to know what’s expected of us. That’s what Bible study is about.” SHOWNOTES Matthew 20:20-28 - “Then the mother of the sons of Zeb′edee came up to him, with her sons, and kneeling before him she asked him for something. And he said to her, ‘What do you want?’ She said to him, “Command that these two sons of mine may sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.’ But Jesus answered, ‘You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?’ They said to him, ‘We are able.’ He said to them, ‘You will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.’ And when the ten heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers. But Jesus called them to him and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you; but whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave; even as the Son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’” Matthew 22:36-40 - “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” 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 first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.” John 14:15 - “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Romans 1:5 - “through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations” John 1:6 - “If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not live according to the truth” Luke 6:46 - “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?” Luke 16:13 - “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” John 8:29 - “And he who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what is pleasing to him.” Want the shownotes sent directly to your inbox? Email Jeff at [e-mail]. You may hear your question or comment in an upcoming podcast episode!

You're listening to the Jeff Kaven Show, episode 126, Falling in Like with Jesus. Hey, I'm Jeff Kavans. How do you simplify your life? How do you study the Bible? All the way from motorcycle trips to raising kids, we're going to talk about the faith and life in general. It's the Jeff Kaven show. Welcome to the show again, talking about falling in like with Jesus.

this week. And it's going to be a little bit of a kind of a self-reflection to find out and a very important question that I have to ask myself, and I think we all have to ask ourselves, and that is, is there a way to find out if you love God, if you actually love God, or is your relationship stuck in the like mode? And we all kind of, you know, understand that these days with social media, what it means to like something. And I find that, in my own life at times, I might be guilty of liking Jesus, but not loving Jesus. That's what we're going to talk about today. How can we find out if we love God? It's going to be a great topic to investigate. Hey, got a letter, an email from Anna in Canada, and she talks about how she's been listening

to the podcast, and they've had a big impact, a tremendous impact on her life. And I found Anna, comments to me were beautiful, especially the part where you said you have a 12-year-old son who has started listening to the podcast regularly and often reminds you of the new podcasts that are coming out. And I find that very encouraging to know that there's young people listening to the show and to all the young people. Hello. My wife and I were with a couple in downtown, where we live in Minnesota. And this lady came walking up with her husband and she said hi jeff and she said i just want you to know i listen to the podcasts and she likes the titles so it is good to get that feedback and i do appreciate it and

if you have any feedback on the show or ideas for the show you can certainly write me at the jeffcaven show at ascensionpress.com one of the frequent questions before we get into the topic of the day one of the frequent questions that we are getting uh regularly is people want to know where can get my Sunday reflection. It's an audio version of this, or video version, rather, a five-minute video version of a reflection on the daily gospel, or the weekly gospel on Sunday. And if you are interested in getting my reflections on the readings on Sunday, then here's how you go about it. If you will go to ascensionpress.com, you can sign up for a free account, and that really gives you access to a lot of stuff at ascensionpress.com, and one of them is our weekly

reflection on the gospel. And you can sign up for that, and it will be absolutely free and available to you. So go to ascensionpress.com and sign up for a free account, and then from there you can sign up for the weekly gospel reading. Also, I want to let you know that my speaking schedule, getting a lot of questions about where are you going to be speaking in the country. And if you go to my website, jeffcavens.com, there's a whole tab on speaking and my schedule, and you can see where I will be, and if I'm in your neck of the woods, love to say hi to you, and also gives you information on how you might have me come to your church this coming year to give a talk. Well, our topic today is, is there a way to find out if you love God? We're calling the show

falling in like with Jesus. I started thinking about this a number of months ago, but it was today's reading that, as my wife and I were doing Lexio de Vina in the morning, today's reading really got me thinking about what is it about Jesus that we want to be associated with and what advantage might there be for us to like Jesus? And there's a difference between liking him and loving him. The gospel reading was Matthew 20, and I'm going to read a little bit of it to you. I know you're familiar with it, but I'm going to read it. It's the story of a mother and her two sons, and it says, then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons, and kneeling before him, she asked him for something. And he said to her, what do you want? And she said to him,

say that these two sons of mine are to sit one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom. Not a bad deal, huh? And Jesus answered, you do not know what you're asking. Are you able to drink? Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink? They said to him, we are able. He said to them, you will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my father. And when the ten heard it, that's the other disciples, they were indignant at the two brothers. But Jesus called them to him and said, You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you, but whoever would be great among you must be your servant.

And whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the son of man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. So you see in the story there that the mother seems to think that there's going to be great advantage to her boys being associated with Jesus. No doubt she likes Jesus and the two sons of Zebedee like Jesus. And she sees it as an opportunity for them to rise in social status and to sit one at the right, one at the left, and that's not a bad deal. But he sort of turns the tables and talks about that if you're going to be great in the kingdom of God, if you're going to be great when it comes to being around Jesus, it means that you're going to be a servant. It sounds almost opposite of what she's thinking, that it will be a place of prestige because

we like Jesus. We like to be around Jesus. But he's saying, well, that's not the goal. The goal is that you're going to be a servant. And it even goes as far as to say, the first among you must be your slave. And we see that, that, you know, this relationship with Jesus is not just about like, but it's actually about love. Now, I think there's a natural proclivity towards wanting positions, status, recognition, whether it's in your parish, or it's in your diocese, or your diocese, or among friends, whatever social setting it, you know, it might be. but we even see this mother wants this for her sons, but to be associated with Jesus is not a like relationship, or one that brings certain social advantages, which you will see oftentimes in

church work, you know, where people want to go to a certain activity or conference or group or whatever it is, and the relationship oftentimes can stop as far as a relationship with the Lord with like instead of love. And so is following Jesus popular? can it be reduced to a t-shirt, a bumper sticker, a social club that you join? You can go to fancy conferences and just like Jesus. You can just like Jesus. And I got to thinking about this, and I was talking about it with my wife, that if Jesus had a Facebook account, or Jesus had a, I guess a a little bit more popular, today would be an Instagram account, and he put his word up on the web each day with an Instagram picture, with a nice border, and he said something,

would you like it? Most likely, if you're listening to this show, you would say, well, of course, I would like it. If Jesus posted every day on Facebook and Instagram, you bet I would like it. But here's my question. You would like it, but would your interaction with him stay at simply liking what he said, or the ideas that he has, or the great virtue that he displays, would you say, I like that, I like that, or would you go beyond liking it to loving it, and more specifically, loving him? Now, if you would like what he said, I would imagine that you would contribute to a pool of people who would make Jesus incredibly popular on the web with all the likes that he has. And the pictures of him maybe, you know, healing someone or raising someone from the

dead. Hey, that was good. I like that. I like that. In fact, I'm going to share that on my Instagram account, or I'm going to share that on my Facebook, or I'm going to retweet that. That's amazing, Lord. But the fact is, he does post his word every day. It's called Mass, and there's a gospel reading every day. And so if you're like my wife and myself, we read the gospel every day, and we do Lexio de Vina, we talk about it as we did this morning, and this morning was Matthew 20, as I shared with you a few minutes ago, if he does post it, but when you read it, here's the question, do you stop after Lexio de Vina or after reading it with simply, I like that, I'm going to give

that alike? Or do you say, oh, wow, this is going to change my day? This is going to change my day. Now, why would it change your day? Well, because loving God is not a matter of liking God. Loving God is a matter of obedience. And we're going to get into a couple of these scriptures here. It's a matter of obedience. In the world today, there are many people who like Jesus, but liking him is not the goal. loving him is. Listen to what it says in Matthew 22, and I'll put these scriptures in the show notes for you, and so you don't have to pull over or try writing when you're, you know, driving or something. But if you don't get the show notes, send me an email, the Jeff Kaven show at ascensionpress.com in the subject line, say, I want the weekly show notes. We'll give them to you.

Matthew 22, teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law? Now, pause there for a second. this is verse 36. In the law, the Torah, there's 613 commandments, okay? So he's asking a good question, teacher, Jesus, which is the greatest commandment in the law? Out of the 613, what do you think? And he said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your mind. This is the great and first commandment. Okay. So the big commandment out of all 613 is you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart. and with all of your soul and with all of your mind. It's the great and first commandment.

Now, if any rabbi in the first century was asked that question, that would have been the answer. Okay, this isn't Jesus surprising everybody. He's giving the quote unquote right answer for the day. That is to love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all your soul and with all of your mind. And then he goes on in verse 39, he says, and a second, there's a second one of the commandments.

He says, and it's like it. it. Now, that's a rabbinic way of saying that I'm going to show you what it means to love God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and all your mind. The second is, like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets. So what they're asking is, what's the greatest commandment? And Jesus says it's to love God. That's the greatest commandment. Well, how do we do that, Lord? You love your neighbor. So you love God by loving those around you. So we're talking now about the realm of loving God rather than liking God,

and that translates into loving others rather than just liking others. See what I'm saying there? So the difference between falling in love with Jesus and falling in like with Jesus is pretty deep. It's pretty deep. In fact, it leads me to the main scripture of today's show, which is John 14 and verse 15. Now in John 14 in verse 15, it says, Jesus says, if you love me, not like me, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. So the way that you can

find out if you love God rather than just like God is do you keep his commandments. Now the scary thing about this is that is that you can you can go to a conference and you can hear all about his teachings and say on the evaluation form for the conference check i like it that was a good one i like it but that's really not what should be on the evaluation form at a conference if you run conferences take note you should probably put on that form not did you like the conference but are you going to obey the word you heard that's really really a good conference, not just whether you kind of emotionally liked it or it was interesting you know, in that way. So falling in love with Jesus is to obey his commands and completely

imitate him. That's what it means to fall in love with Jesus. To fall in like with Jesus is if you like me, you will like listening to my teaching. But if you love me, you'll keep my teachings. keep my commandments. So if you want to see if you love God, you need to see if you are obeying if you're obeying him. Now, I'm going to take a break. When I come back, I want to go deeper into this as far as beginning to walk in love with the Lord rather than falling in like. You're listening to the Jeff Kaven show. Do you find it difficult to enter into the mysteries of the rosary? what about personally applying them to your life? Drawing from the writings of the saints, the Bible, and Catholic tradition,

Matt Frat has produced Pocket Guide to the Rosary, a masterful work that teaches Catholics how to truly meditate on the mysteries of the rosary, how to pray the rosary like the saints, and so much more. If you're looking to deepen your prayer life and improve the way you pray, what St. Padre Pio called the We invite you to check out

Pocket Guide to the Rosary by Matt Frad. To order, visit ascensionpress.com or Amazon. And welcome back. We're talking about falling in like with Jesus, and hopefully that is not what your goal is, and I don't want that to be my goal either, but there are times where I fall more into the like category than the love category, simply because I'm not doing what he said, I'm just liking it. And that's not where it's at. I've done some previous shows about

the internet and about our own need to be loved. In fact, that was, let's see, that was show 124, created for love, settling for likes. And we're kind of reversing that today and talking about do you love God, not do you want the likes of everybody or do you want to just like what other people are doing, but do you want to love them? We're realizing that if you love God, you will keep his commandments. And if you want to see if you love God, you've got to check, are you obeying? So do you find yourself saying, I love God, but you're not passionate about obeying him? Hmm, that's something I've fallen into a few times. The church and the catechism is real big on this phrase that comes from Romans chapter 1 in

verse 5. It's called the obedience of faith. So if we say that we love God, and we say that we love his revelation, self-revelation of Christ, revealing the Father, the Trinity to us. But we don't obey him, that it means we don't love him. And that obedience, doing his word, is called the obedience of faith. So when the faith is revealed, when his word is revealed, and if Jesus had an Instagram account and he put his word up there every day, you could check off, I like it, or I think we would have to put another button. there, and that is obedience, the obedience of faith, going to check that. I'm going to do that. I'm going to put that into practice in my life. And to be honest with you, that's where the

change takes place. That's where living takes place. That's where life takes place. That's the victory. That is the challenge. That is the adventure. It's the great adventure. It's the obedience of faith. First John 1 in verse 6 says, if we say we have fellowship with him, we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. So if we say we have fellowship with him, if we say that we are in love with him, but we walk in darkness, then we're lying and we're not practicing the truth. I'm sharing this with you today, not as any kind of condemnation. I'm talking to myself, too, which I always do on these shows. That's why I like meeting with you because sometimes I have to do it myself all the time, actually. And it's good to think

about these things. Luke chapter 6 in verse 46, Jesus says, why do you call me Lord? Lord, and do not do what I tell you. So attached to this idea of loving God rather than liking God is also the idea of Jesus being Lord of your life. Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I tell you? That's a good question. A question that's actually worth thinking about today as you're driving and answering. Jesus, I do call you, Lord. Well, then why don't you do what I tell you to do? Wow, because there's a lot of reasons for that. I'm preoccupied with so many other things like the sower, sewing the word. I'm worried about things. I'm worried about my finances. I'm building my own kingdom, I'm selfish, I'm preoccupied with things, you name it.

Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I tell you? You know, it becomes very dangerous to become satisfied with your knowledge of God and not pursue obedience. That actually is very dangerous because you can be lulled into a hazy, lazy walk with God. where you can return to this idea of, well, I know a lot about God, and that's not translated into I love God, but if you know a lot about God, it should be translated into I'm doing a lot of my living in obedience to what he has said. And that really is the measure of love. And here's an interesting thing to think about. If loving God is obeying God,

we, and this is an important idea. We only obey what we know. We only obey what we know. We're not out there obeying what we don't know. We obey what we know. If you're growing up at home, you're a teenager and your parents say, do this, do this, and don't do that, and don't do that. You know, I want you to clean up your room. I want you to be here for dinner at six o'clock. I want you to get ready for bed at 9 o'clock, and you don't do any of that. If you don't do any of that, then you are not in love. You're not in relationship, right? But if you are, then you will do that. So obedience and a knowledge of the areas of obedience go hand in hand, just like growing up and you know what mom and dad expect of you, and you obey what you know. You don't get up and clean your room and you're there

for dinner and you're getting ready for bed at 9 o'clock. You don't do that unless you know that's what is expected, right? So obedience and knowledge of these particular areas go hand in hand, and if you're not set on obeying God, then your zeal for study and prayer will diminish. And then you are vulnerable to falling. So if we want to be obedient to God, we have to have some kind of plan to get to know what's expected of us. And that's what Bible studies about. That's what the great adventure is about. The catechism of the Catholic Church, the lives of the saints. We must know, Lord, what is expected of me in my relationship with you? What is expected of me in my marriage? what's expected of me as a father or as a mother.

So this is really important. You know, when you are dating, if you're married now and you are dating at one point, the difference between liking a girl or liking a guy and loving a guy, loving a girl, is pretty radical because you're going from like to engagement to marriage. And it's a covenant relationship. It's a bridal-spousal relationship. and for our relationship with Jesus, it is a bridal spousal relationship that goes way beyond. I like you, Lord.

I am a fan, but not a follower. So in conclusion, let me share this with you this week. Luke 1613. I love this verse. Luke 1613, I'll put it in the show notes. No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one, and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. Now, one of the biggest hindrances to loving God is serving other things.

And we, as modern day activated disciples of the Lord, we have to check our own hearts and ask ourselves, is there something in my life that I am obeying or something in my life that I'm giving myself to more than Jesus? Do I love success? Do I love money? Do I love things? Do I love popularity? Do I love sports? Do I love technology? Do I love shiny silver things? Do I love them more than Jesus? And this can be a very sobering self-assessment in our own lives, but one that is necessary. And when we conclude, Lord, you're not getting the best of me. Then we need to change and we need to repent.

Or as the catechism says, and I'm so fond of, we need a radical reorientation of our lives to Christ. If you're finding out in your life today that you are perhaps not as much in love with Jesus as you have been in like with Jesus, it is time to repent. it's time to reorient your life around him. John 8 in verse 29 says, and He who sent me, this is Jesus talking, he said, And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone,

for I always do the things that are pleasing to him. I'm going to read that again, because notice as I read it, take note of the relationship between Jesus not being alone, but he's in fellowship with the Father and the things he's doing. And it says here again, John 829, and He who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him. In other words, Jesus is in love with the Father. He loves the Father, and he does everything the Father says,

and he says everything the Father is saying. You see that? And the thing I wanted to draw your attention to is, He's not alone. You ever feel alone? You ever feel like you're just kind of doing this Christianity thing, this Catholic thing, and it's just you kind of plugging along? You don't have to.

You will sense the presence of God more in your life when you're in love than liking him. You will sense the security and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit in your life if you will serve him and love him. obey him. I love that. I love it. I think it's a beautiful, beautiful text. So the key is faithfulness, right? Faithfulness. Consistently love Jesus. And let me leave this with you. Our goal this week is to consistently love Jesus, aka to consistently obey Jesus. Not perfect all the time. And I'm not saying that. And I'm not perfect all the time. But don't aim for perfection. And it's a yes or no game.

aim, you're going to do it or not do it, aim for consistency. You'll get perfect eventually. But aim for consistency, be consistent that when you hear God's word, whether it's Sunday or a weekly mass, or whether it's on Catholic radio, Christian radio, or whether it is in your own Bible reading time, or a Bible study, or a billboard with God's word on it, immediately, immediately. train your heart to say, Lord, what must I do? What must I do? Why? Because I'm in love with you. I'm in love with you. If you're in like, if you've fallen in like with Jesus, then all you got to do is acknowledge that's a cool thing. That's a good scripture. I like that. I am going to share it with others. But if you're in love with him, you will do what he says to do. I want to pray for you in a moment here, but I also want to

remind you of the great trips that are coming up one in January to Holy Land. You can find information about that on my website. And the big, big, big trip coming up next June 2020. And that's with Father Mike Schmitz. In the Holy Land, we're going to be going on a pilgrimage for young adults. Allie Aaliyah's going to sing, Taylor Tripodi, Brother Isaiah, Andrew and Sarah Swofford are going to be with us. It's going to be an amazing trip. Co-sponsored by Franciscan University in Steubenville, and all that information is there. Now, concerning this issue, have you fallen in like with Jesus? Are you falling in love with Jesus? Let me pray for you. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Lord, I thank you for giving us your word. You love us so much that you gave your

life. You obeyed the Father and everything. You laid your life down and became a servant. And Lord, you're asking us to do the same. To respond to your word with an obedience, an obedience that reflects our love for you. Lord, help us to not lose sight of the obedience of faith when we hear your tremendous revelation of who you are and your word, what you expect of us. Lord, help us to reorient our lives towards you today. And may this be a new beginning in our relationship with you as we fall in love with you. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, my friend. I love you, and I pray you have a great week. God bless.