A Love That Shows Up Beyond Transactions

Devotional

Day 1: When Payphones Cost Dimes and Love Costs Everything

The world trades in transactions—dimes for calls, attention for connection. Yet Jesus demands love that bankrupts calculators: all your heart, soul, and mind. This isn’t a spiritual subscription plan but a surrender to the God who refuses to be itemized. Like the song’s hollow longing, we often settle for surface-level exchanges. True love begins when we stop asking “what’s required?” and start giving what’s irreplaceable. [37:14]

“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.”
(Matthew 22:37-39, ESV)

Reflection: Where have you been treating love like a transaction? What one relationship or commitment might Jesus be asking you to engage with your whole heart instead of a calculated “dime”?

Day 2: The God Who Wrote His Number on Bathroom Walls

Long before Tommy Tutone’s Jenny, God scrawled His presence in unexpected places—burning bushes, desert manna, a cross. His love isn’t a creepy cold call but a relentless pursuit of the isolated. The Exodus God didn’t wait for Israel to dial Him up; He crashed Pharaoh’s party uninvited. Our calling isn’t to invent love but to imitate the One who showed up first. [40:35]

“The Lord said, ‘I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them.’”
(Exodus 3:7-8, ESV)

Reflection: When has God unexpectedly “shown up” for you? How might He be inviting you to leave a mark of His love in an unlikely place this week?

Day 3: Cards on the Altar and Fields Left Unfinished

Leviticus ties love to concrete acts—unharvested field edges, fair wages, grudge-free living. Our pledge cards aren’t invoices but first steps in a lifelong dance of generosity. Like farmers leaving grain for strangers, we practice love by refusing to tidy up every loose end. True community grows where we leave space for others’ needs amid our own harvest. [42:24]

“When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, nor shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God.”
(Leviticus 19:9-10, ESV)

Reflection: What “edge of your field” (time, resources, attention) have you been trimming too closely? What would it look like to leave a ragged margin for someone else this month?

Day 4: Messiah in the Test and the Telephone Booth

The lawyers tried to reduce love to a multiple-choice question. Jesus reframed it as a person—Himself. David’s Lord became David’s descendant, the Messiah who answers isolation with bloody knuckles on a cross. Our love isn’t graded on a curve but modeled after the One who turned the test into a testimony. [41:13]

“How is it that the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David? David himself, in the Holy Spirit, declared, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet.’”
(Mark 12:35-37, ESV)

Reflection: Where have you been treating faith like an exam to pass? How might seeing Jesus as both question and answer change your approach to love today?

Day 5: When All Means All (and Your iPhone Doesn’t Care)

A $2,000 phone demands our wallet; the cross demands our wakeful mornings, our distracted commutes, our secret grudges. “All your mind” means loving God with the same attention we give to screens. Those pledge cards at the altar aren’t finish lines but mile markers in the marathon of becoming people who pay attention like Christ paid everything. [44:10]

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”
(Romans 12:1, ESV)

Reflection: What part of your “all” (heart, soul, mind) feels most compartmentalized from the rest? What mundane moment this week could become an altar for offering that piece wholly?

Sermon Summary

Jesus offers a way to human fulfillment that costs far more than a dime or the latest phone: love of God with all the heart, soul, and mind, and love of neighbor as oneself. Technology can connect people while leaving them profoundly isolated. A phone once took a little change; now it takes attention and, increasingly, the ability to be present with another human being.

The lawyer’s test puts a familiar question to Jesus: What is required? Which commandments count most? A transactional world trains people to ask how much they owe, how to keep things even, and how to keep others in debt. Jesus refuses to make love of God and love of neighbor two separate line items. “All” is not the bottom line in a transaction. It describes what a life gives to love.

God teaches that love before commanding it. The Lord heard Israel in Egypt and came to get them before they had done anything to earn deliverance. The commandment follows the exodus. Jesus then turns the question toward the Messiah, whom David calls Lord. The one being tested is the Lord the commandment names. Within the week, the cross will show what love with everything looks like: Christ giving himself for God and for others at once.

The church learns love from this God who keeps showing up at great cost. That love takes concrete shape in provision for the poor, fair pay for workers, and the refusal to hold grudges. Financial commitments belong within that life, not alongside it as church dues. A pledge marks where commitment begins, not where it ends. It cannot outsource love to staff and clergy. At the table where Christ gives himself, the church’s grateful response becomes a commitment to show up for God and one another.

Key Takeaways

1. Connection is not the same as presence. A lonely person can imagine a deep connection to a stranger simply because technology makes contact possible. The same device that promises fulfillment can consume the attention needed to be present with people who are actually there. Love of neighbor calls for more than access to another person; it requires a life willing to give attention. [36:25]
2. Love refuses a transactional bottom line. The lawyer’s question seeks the commandments that count most, but Jesus answers with the whole heart, soul, and mind. Love of God and love of neighbor cannot become separate line items, each with a manageable price. “All” describes a life given to love rather than an amount paid to settle an obligation. [38:38]
3. God shows love before commanding it. Israel receives the commandment after God hears their suffering and brings them out of Egypt. Love begins with God showing up at great cost before anyone has earned it. The cross makes that same love visible in Christ, who gives himself for God and for others at once. [40:35]
4. A pledge begins rather than ends commitment. A financial commitment is not the price of a church seat or a payment that hands responsibility to staff and clergy. It marks a life committed to sharing the love God has already shown. Gratitude takes shape as people show up for God and one another, with the pledge serving that larger commitment rather than replacing it. [43:07]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[34:14] - Jenny, Technology, and Loneliness
[36:53] - The Cost of Loving God and Neighbor
[38:09] - Love Is Not a Transaction
[39:37] - The God Who Came to Get Israel
[40:51] - The Messiah and Love on the Cross
[41:57] - Learning Love Through One Another
[42:49] - A Pledge Is Not Church Dues
[43:27] - Gratitude at the Table of Christ

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading

Matthew 22:37-39
“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.” [37:04]

Leviticus 19:18
“You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.” [42:13]

Psalm 110:1
“The Lord says to my Lord: 'Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” [40:58]

Observation questions

In Matthew 22:37–39, what does Jesus’ answer emphasize that the lawyer’s question about which commandment matters most might overlook? [38:07]
What happened before Israel received the command to love God, and how did that experience show Israel what love looks like? [40:20]
How does Jesus’ reference to David calling the Messiah Lord connect the person being tested with the commandment being discussed? [40:51]
What concrete examples from Leviticus put love of neighbor into practice—in caring for the poor, treating workers, and handling resentment? [42:13]

Interpretation questions

Why does Jesus’ emphasis on loving God with the whole person challenge the idea that someone can do enough to settle an obligation to God? [38:38]
How does God’s rescue of Israel before Israel had earned it change the meaning of obedience? What difference would that make for someone who feels they must earn God’s care? [40:35]
How does Christ’s giving himself on the cross show that love of God and love of neighbor belong together rather than competing for attention? [41:13]
What is the difference between treating a church pledge as dues and treating it as the beginning of commitment? How might those two views shape someone’s participation in church life? [43:01]

Application questions

Technology can make contact possible while taking attention away from people nearby. When does your phone help you love someone, and when does it get in the way? What small change might help you be more present this week? [36:25]
In which relationship are you most tempted to keep score—tracking who has called, helped, given, or apologized? What might loving without keeping the account even look like in that relationship? [39:09]
God’s love comes before our efforts to earn it. When have you experienced care that you did nothing to deserve? How might remembering that help you respond to God with gratitude rather than pressure to prove yourself? [40:35]
Love of neighbor includes practical care and a refusal to nurture grudges. Which feels most challenging right now: sharing resources, treating someone fairly, or letting go of resentment? What is one step you could take, with God’s help? [42:13]
A financial gift cannot replace personal presence. Alongside whatever you are able to give, where might you offer your time, attention, or skills in the church’s life? What would make that commitment realistic for you? [43:07]
At Christ’s table, receiving his gift leads to a grateful response. As you think about the coming week, who might need you to show up for them, and what could that look like in practice? [43:58]

Sermon Clips

71s

#LoveThatShowsUp

“And the commandment to love that god comes after that exodus. So Israel learned what love is by first watching show up for them at a great cost before they had done anything to earn it. The passage ends with Jesus turning the question around. He asks, and whose son is the Messiah? And points to the Psalm where David calls the Messiah his Lord. The irony here is that the one being tested by these lawyers is the lord the commandment is about. And within the week, he will show us again what loving with all you have really looks like on a cross, giving himself for god and for all of us at once.”

47s

#FaithfulGiving

“Today is the day we offer our financial commitments for the coming year. In a transactional world, it'd be easy to hear that as some kind of dues or the price of your seat in a chair in a church. But in the love of god, that commitment is a marker for our lives. A pledge is meant to be where a commitment begins, not ends. It doesn't outsource our commitment to share the love of god over to the Vesperian staff and clergy of Saint Paul's. We are very poor substitutes for you.”

38s

#PracticingGodsLove

“We didn't invent it. We certainly don't always get it right, but we're still being shown it by a god who keeps showing up for us in costly every day of our lives. So in an otherwise transactional world, the church is meant to be the place where people learn God's definition of love practicing it on and with and through one another.”

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