I'm so thankful for practical passages of scripture that we
can read and study and apply in our life because things that are
not practical cannot be applied. It's like giving an Old
Testament story if you just tell the narrative and just tell the
story, it's just a nice historical story but there needs
to be an application. We need to make an application
for it so we can learn and glean from it.
The same is true with the New Testament.
Same is true with the verse that is before us today.
But this verse that's before us today is a very pivotal command.
If this does not, if this is not ingrained in our life, then from
a spiritual perspective, Spect, if we are not going to be all
that, we ought to be, you know, I would imagine that if you want
to people and you asked him, do you love God?
I would imagine. The majority of people would
say, certainly I love God. I mean, who doesn't love God.
But the question is, what does it really mean to love God?
And just because we say, we love God.
Does that mean what we do love God?
What I've also found though, out in the world is the same people
that do a lot of praising of God with their lips and saying,
praise God. Or saying that they love God or
speaking about God, in that way are also often times the same
people that blame God, when something bad happens in their
life. What does that mean?
Does that mean that you love God?
Let's look at this passage more deeply now and try to understand
what Jesus was talking about. He begins by saying in Mark 12
and verse 30. The very first sentence there
and you shall love the Lord, your God now, And this is not a
request. This is not advice.
This is a hard-and-fast command and Jesus said, You shall love
the Lord, your God. Something about that word love
though. What love are we talking about?
Well, obviously, we are talking about agape, love it is
commanded love. It is love.
That is always demonstrated in action.
It's the love. That is always attributed to
God. We know a John 3:16 for God.
So loved the Of the world. Meaning he loved the world to
such a degree that he demonstrated that love by
sending his son. That is agape love.
So when Jesus commands us to love God, the first thing by
just the definition of the word love it means by service and
sacrifice. It is agape love.
And by the way, it is the highest.
Form of love that we can have. May I ask you a question though.
If you love God, he say you love God.
If something bad happens in your life.
I mean something really bad happens in your life.
Will you still love him? What if you pray to God?
What if you pray that a loved one would get better, maybe
they're sick and you by faith pray according to God's will.
And you ask God, if that person would get better.
And that person does not get better that person dies.
Will you still love it? That's the point.
Will you still love God regardless of circumstances?
And by the way, what we're talking about today, we're
talking about the kind of love that exists.
Regardless of the circumstances in your life, even if God says,
no me, give you a passage of a great character in the Old
Testament that did just that. I love this because really, this
is Faith in proper Focus. Now the prophet habakkuk wasn't
perfect at the beginning, and when he spoke on behalf of the
people that God he was frustrated, he didn't know why
God was not answering his prayer.
But by the third chapter, I want to read you something.
This is Faith in proper Focus. This is loving and trusting God,
regardless of the circumstances in your life, habakkuk chapter 3
and verses 17 and 18. Listen to this.
Though, the Fig Tree, may not blossom.
Nor fruit on the vine though. The labor of the olive May Fail
and the fields yield no food, though.
The flock may be cut off from the fold and there be no herd of
the Stalls. Yet, I will rejoice in the Lord.
I will joy in the god of my salvation.
You know what that means? That means that this was a man
that says, I don't care what happens to me, with the
circumstances in my life, it doesn't matter.
I'm gonna join Hi, I'm going to rejoice in the god of my
salvation. I'm going to love God.
And trust God, no matter what so agape.
Love is the highest form of love.
That's true. And it's intellectual love and
it's all of that and it's intellectual love.
That always does the proper thing and the best thing and
maybe you're sitting there, you're saying to wait a minute.
It's impossible to always do the proper thing and the best thing.
Okay. I'm not talking about being
perfect. I'm talking about love here.
When we demonstrate agape love, while we're doing that.
We are always manifesting the proper investing.
We are behaving properly when we stop doing that.
What are we not doing? We're not.
Loving was agape. Love.
Okay, so that's what the word agape.
Love memes. And and it is the kind of love
that we're talking about. What about when it comes to God,
though, with this kind of love? We don't love God with the
proper kind of love when our priorities are out of whack.
And that simply means this. That means that God has to be
number one in your life. I'll tell you this life is about
prioritizing. Everything's about prioritizing.
We make choices and decisions in our life based on priorities.
We think, for example, that there might be one thing that's
really important. So we're going to put all of our
faith in that we're going to put all of our effort in that.
Okay, that's fine. But God has to be number one.
You do not love God properly when God is not first in your
life. Now what does that mean?
Does that mean you don't like your family?
Does that mean you don't love your spouse?
Absolutely not what it means. Is we're going to love our
family with a all of our heart and all of that to we're just
going to love God. More God has to be number one,
in your life. You have to love God with your
all without holding back, giving our best effort and not giving
him second best. All right.
What about the word heart? That's the first thing Jesus
says. You got to love God with all of
your heart. I don't know how many times
you've heard me say this maybe hundreds of times over the years
that when we talk about the heart, that's in the Bible, we
are not talking about a better felt than told process.
Like, sometimes people say, well, I know what that's what
the Bible says, but I just feel it in my heart and I have gone
to Great pains to tell you that, that's not what the Bible means.
And that's not the heart. When the Bible says that as a
man thinketh in his heart. So is he it's talking about the
mind. So, when we talk about the heart
in the Bible and changing your heart, we are talking about the
mind. And again, it is not a better
felt than told process the heart of the Bible, which is the mind.
Thanks believes reasons and obeys.
Okay, so we get all that. That's not this word.
It's a whole nother word. This word heart here.
That Jesus says you have to love God with all of your heart it's
something totally different. It is by definition, get this.
It is loving God with emotion and affection.
You know, there's another passage where this word is used
and it's found in the book of Philemon.
You remember that? Paul wrote to Philemon and he
was asking Philemon to forgive onesimus.
The runaway slave, right? That's the story.
That's the book of Philemon, that's one chapter.
That's the book of Philemon. Do you remember what Paul said?
Paul said, as I paraphrase, I could have come to you by
authority, meaning Apostolic Authority.
And I could have told you in commanded you to forgive give
onesimus and take him back but I'm not doing it that way.
I'm appealing to you from as Paul the agent and I'm appealing
to you as one who is a prisoner of Jesus Christ.
Then he says this, but I want you to forgive him and then Paul
said, this is my whole heart. That'd be like, saying this.
Maybe like me saying, brother, Reuben, I'm asking you from the
bottom of my heart. That'd be like saying this to,
by the way. I love my family with all my
heart. That's the kind of heart we're
talking about now, this word heart does not mean the mind.
Oh, we're going to get to the mind in a minute, but this word
heart does not mean the mind. This word heart means, loving
emotion and affection, but let me tell you what we've done.
Sometimes we become afraid to show emotion.
You know why? Because of the charismatic
movement from a historical standpoint that had a tremendous
influence and impact on Christian professing religions
in the 1950s and the 1960s. And when charismatic movement
came in the idea was is don't just follow the word of God.
Truth doesn't come from the word of God.
Truth comes from experience or truth.
Comes from emotion. So basically this
experientialism came in and people were looking for some
kind of religious experience and emotionalism came in and people
were Guided by their emotions. So basically here was the deal,
this guy thought it was this way.
This guy thought it was that way and everybody's right there is
no problem because it's based on experience and emotion and
because of that because of that we become a little Robotic
sometimes in mechanical and don't show any emotion at all,
afraid to show any kind of emotion.
Now I'll tell you this, a religious practice that is based
upon emotion is not adequate. But also, at the same time, a
religious practice, that is robotic.
And mechanical with no feeling at all.
Is also inadequate. And you know what, I get to name
drop Jesus, I didn't say that. Jesus did in John chapter 4.
He said he said that God is a spirit and they that worship Him
must worship Him in both spirit. And in truth, it's both.
It can't be based on emotion, but you have to All of your
emotion in it. You know how you love, God, you
got to pour your guts out. You got to pour your heart out
to God. That's every fiber of your
emotion. Every fiber of your affection.
That's what it means to love God, with all of your heart
emotions are important. Let me give you some passages
that speak about emotions, Luke chapter, 10, and verse 20,
nevertheless, do not rejoice in this.
That the spirits are subject to To you, but rather Rejoice
because your names are written in heaven.
That's emotion. Here's another one.
Romans 12 and 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with
those who weep. That's emotion, Philippians 4,
and 4, rejoice in the lord. Always, again, I say rejoice,
Matthew 9:36, but when they saw the multitudes, he went and
moved with compassion for them because they were weary and
Scattered like sheep, having no Shepherd.
That's a motion one more though and we're going to make a we're
going to make a practical application of this passage in
Psalm 122 and 1. The Bible says I was glad when
they said to me let us go to the house of the Lord.
I'm going to tell you, we don't want to have a chaotic.
Distraction, when we come into the assembly and it is true that
we don't want to have some sort of irreverent, chaos going on.
But I like what my good buddy? Don King says I love this.
He said I don't think the Lord wants us to come into the
assembly looking like we're going to a funeral I mean, we
just wanted this to be so solemn.
Like, we're going into a funeral.
You know, even when during our worship, even when we gather
around this table and we do. So in the communion to
commemorate, the death burial and resurrection of Jesus, that
is a solemn time. I'll obviously it is.
And when we reflect back and the communion is about reflection
when we reflect back on, what Jesus did.
We are sometimes moved. Sometimes we sadness because of
what the Lord went through. But make no mistake about it, we
Rejoice because he's the only hope and because he did those
things and died on the cross for our sins.
We rejoiced because now we have hope of everlasting life.
It's a wonderful time. It's not a chaotic time.
It's not an irreverent. Time, it is not a disrespectful
time, but worship is the fat is a happy time.
Let it be that we would say that I was glad or we were glad.
When they said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord.
I'll tell you this to folks in life as we take the gospel, to
those that are lost. We have to reach people's
hearts. You can't just have cold
formality and expect people to be moved.
I know that, for example, from Acts chapter 2, when the very
first gospel sermon was being preached for the first time
where it gave man, an opportunity to respond first
time in x 2. And in verse 36, the Bible says,
let all the house of Israel, know, assuredly that God hath
made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and
Christ. The next verse says, when they
heard this, they were pricked in their heart and said to Peter
and the rest of the Apostles men and Brethren.
What shall we do? What happened?
The word of God reached their heart.
Got to reach people's hearts. That's why people don't change
things in their life either also like Christians.
Sometimes it have things going on in their life and they can't
seem to put God first. It's because they can't change
their heart. We have to change the heart.
All of the other things, take care of itself.
If we change the heart, how do we love God?
We love God with all of our heart.
But number two, Jesus says, we have to love him with all of our
soul. Now, the word soul is very
interesting word. Soul, your soul is your Eternal
being. It is something that you have,
it is you, by the way, it's your identity.
Because when you die, the body's going to go back to the Earth,
the life force or the spirit will go back to God, who gave
it, but what will continue to live on is your soul?
Have you ever stopped to consider that your soul?
Your Eternal being will exist Always Forever somewhere.
In fact, we think of all those that have passed away in the
last several years think about all those wonderful friends and
family members and Brothers and Sisters in Christ that have died
and are no longer here with us. We could start from Phil Kelly
where he sat in the front Wing, go down each row, we can find
members that were once here that have passed away.
But we Rejoice because they still exist somewhere and
they're waiting for the resurrection to have their
resurrected body to go to heaven.
The soul lives on forever. So we understand that the soul
is your identity. That's who you really are that
your Eternal being. But what's it actually mean,
though, specifically in this context to love God, with all of
your soul, the word soul is translated as life.
In other words, it is life. And the actual Greek word means
life and breath. That's an amazing passage.
In other words, if I'm going to love God properly, I have to
love him with all of my emotion and affection.
That's number one. Then that's going to be
demonstrated and what my life, my very life.
And you know what also is here, what's implied here?
Also, if I'm going to love God with all of my life, that also
means this I'm going to love God.
Even if it cost me my life. Remember in the Book of
Revelation. Remember the church at Smyrna,
the persecuted Church. remember that Jesus says, you're going to
have tribulation 10 days But be thou faithful unto death and I
will give you a Crown of Life. Remember that?
When we studied that unto death obviously would mean if you want
to apply it this way until you die obviously.
But specifically in the context hear what he was saying is love
God serve God be faithful to God even if it cost you your life.
Even if it's under death, even if you lose your life, that's
also what it means to love God, with all of your soul.
This is sacrificial living in Romans, chapter 12 and verses 1
and 2. I beseech, you, therefore
Brethren by the mercies of God, that you present, your bodies, a
Living Sacrifice, holy acceptable to God, which is your
reasonable service and do not be conformed to this world but be
transformed by the renewing of your mind.
That you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect
will of God. Let us talk about being
transformed to things. He says don't be conformed to
the world. Now he's talking to Christians
so he's talking about a growth process here.
He says, don't be conformed to the world but then he says be
transformed. And then he says how by the
renewing of your mind. So in other words, the word of
God is the source and I have to be transformed you know the word
transformed actually means it comes from the Greek word
metamorpho and it's Where we get the word metamorphosis, and I'm
not talking about him, sex bugs, and amphibians and all that.
I'm going to give you a second definition of metamorphosis and
I'll tell you, it fits, listen to this.
It is the changing of a person to a completely different
person. That's what it means to be
transformed. I'm going to change myself into
a whole nother self. I'm going to be different,
that's what it is, by the renewing of my mind.
Listen, if you are not changing in your life and you're not
changing your life. It's because you are not
following the word of God being transformed by the renewing of
your mind, got to do it. Got to renew the mind.
Here's another passage Matthew 16:25 for whoever desires to
save his life, will lose it. But whoever loses his life for
my sake, will find it. First Corinthians, 10 and 24?
Let no one seek his own but each one, the others well-being.
In other words, if I'm going to love God with all of my soul, I
must be willing to give everything that I have in my
life devoted to his service. Even if If it cost me my life,
all right? Now I'm going to say this, I
thought of this yesterday just kind of hit me.
I was looking over this passage Yeah, sometimes people say that
all that really matters, all that really matters.
Really is kind of your opinion and how you feel.
And we understand that he says you got to love God with all
your heart. Got all that got that, all your
soul got that. But if that was the only thing
that mattered, then why did Jesus list the mine?
Next It has to have a basis. It has to have a standard.
That's the third thing. I have to love God, with all of
my mind that has to do with intellect or knowledge to love
God as we should. It must be done through
knowledge. If we are biblically ignorant,
we have some work to do. Now, I'm going to tell you,
there is a difference between being ignorant because you just
don't know. And when I say that word in that
capacity that is not a criticism that is not a put-down.
There are things in my life that I am.
Ignorant of why? I just don't know them.
Nothing wrong with that. And there's times also in a
Christians life, when they are ignorant because they just don't
know. When a babe in Christ comes from
the Waters of baptism and Rises to walk in newness of life.
There's going to be a period of time when they're going to be
ignorant of some things. But there's a difference between
being ignorant, meaning you just don't know yet and being
willfully. Ignorant because of willful
rejection, big difference. Now, the only way that I can
love God, with all of my mind has to be when I gained
knowledge of his word, that's the only way.
That's the only way. Romans 10 and 3, for they being
ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their
own righteousness. Have not submitted to the
righteousness of God. Listen to this also fees ins for
and 18. This is an example of willfully
ignorant, having their understanding darkened, being
alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is
in them because of the blindness of their heart.
Remember a few years ago, I preached a sermon I talked
about. The word agnostic.
Okay. Hurt.
Somebody use that the other day again, And the word agnostic,
it's not an atheist because an atheist boldly says there is no
God. And the Bible says that a man
that says there is no, God is a fool.
So there are other people that don't want to be that Brazen in
bold. So what they do is they say you
know what, I just going to say I don't know.
I'm going to say, I don't know. I'm an agnostic.
In other words, it is a willful choice, and I'm going to say
that I'm in the category of a not.
Knowing I'm going to ride the fence.
That's what I'm going to do. Remember when I told you, what
the Latin equivalent was for the word agnostic, the Latin
equivalent is the word ignoramus.
Yeah, you see there's a difference between being
ignorant because you just don't know yet and being an ignoramus
because you've made a choice. Why is willful ignorance wrong?
Why is willful ignorance? A sin?
Willful ignorance is a sin because willful ignorance is
always attached to willful rejection.
Oh, but if I'm going to love God, as I should, with all of my
mind. It's going to take knowledge,
it's going to take knowledge. In other words, the more
knowledge that we get, the more we'll be able to love him with
our mind in Hosea 4:6, my people are destroyed for lack of
knowledge because you have rejected knowledge.
I also will reject you from being priest for me.
So, to love God, with all of our minds, we have to study acts, 17
and 11, These were more fair-minded than those in
thessalonica, in that, they received the word with all
Readiness and searched the Scriptures Daily to find out
that these things were. So one more passage along this
line. Second Timothy 2:15 from the
King James Study to show thyself approved by God a worker that
needeth not to be ashamed. Rightly dividing, the word of
Truth, our minds have to be filled with truth.
Now, I had this on a screen. I had this on a slide, we're
just going to emphasize the point.
I just got a with the point is it's going to emphasize the
point. Don't ever let somebody tell
you, there's no such thing as truth. don't ever let anybody
convince you or talk you into the fact that there is no such
thing as absolute truth because there is And if two people
disagree on a non biblical subject, a foundational biblical
subject, it means one of them is wrong or they're both wrong.
I don't understand it. We understand that, you know
what? I was in school.
You take an exam and you get an answer.
There. Is it?
True? False true.
Nope. Got it wrong.
You was false. I never had a teacher.
Say to me. Oh, Frank, what's okay?
Cuz you see it that way, maybe you felt it that way.
That's okay. So everybody's right false or
true, everybody's right. Doesn't make any sense and in no
other aspect of life, do we ever find that?
But when we come to religion, sometimes, that's where we find
that. It's okay.
You can believe that and I can believe this.
It's okay. We're both right?
No, here's the point. If two people disagree on a
foundational biblical principle, It could only mean that one of
them are wrong or they both are wrong but they can't both be,
right? Least give you me give you some
Bible. Now, have how we are commanded.
To be filled with truth, second, John verse 4.
I rejoiced greatly that I have found some of your children
Walking In Truth as we have received commandment from the
father. 3rd, John verse 34. I rejoiced greatly when Brethren
are and testified of the truth that is in you just as you walk
in the truth. So we can't love God.
With all of our mind without understanding and knowing.
Truth number four, With all of our strength.
Now, you can read Scholars and they will pretty much all agree
that we're not talking about physical strength.
When it talks about strength, we are talking about spiritual
strength, okay? So you're going to love God with
all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your
strength. What kind of strength is it?
Well, like, I just said spiritual strength, but it's
spiritual strength. That is manifested and
demonstrated in action. It has to be, it's demonstrated
in action. And the action.
Is this your abilities? It's your talents.
That's number one, you demonstrate that with your
talents, I don't have time to go into Matthew chapter 25 and you
all know about the story when Jesus gave the parable of the
talents, we understand that we touched on talents a little bit
last week. But let me just say this, the
people that were there, the, the characters in the story.
This is what Jesus said. One, got 51.
Got to one got one. Okay, so whatever you had What
was required? What was required was their
best? The guy that had five, he got
ten big guy that too. He got four.
The guy that had one, he got nothing. you know, the little
more than happy if that man would have got to Even though
it's only two. In other words, it's everything
you have remember, remember our goals here, it begins with
behavioral goals. That's personal goals.
That's when you take an introspective view of yourself
and you work to get better, then what happens, you understand
here are my talents and abilities and then you go fill a
function. And when we have members of the
body of Christ, fulfilling behavioral goals and functional
goals, guess what we're doing collectively together.
Now as the body of Christ, we are achieving our congregational
goals. Everybody has a part.
Every part in all of that everybody has that our
abilities. Our talents must be used for the
Lord. I want to make one other little
point about talents. I have seen people, I've seen
young men, That really got up there.
One of the speak so bad. Someone had to be preacher
someone to be congregational teachers.
And they had the courage to do it and they got up and they
struggled. A little bit, they didn't have a
whole lot of what you would call, maybe natural ability.
But what do they do? They kept working at it and
working at it, and working at it, and working at it, and
working at it, you know, what happens?
Ten Years Later. Hey, hey, the same guy, Hey,
it's same guy at all. 20 years later.
Not the same guy. There are some abilities that
you may have that are not readily apparent and you will
only know if you try, you will only know if you go to work.
So, the first way we have to demonstrate our strength, with
all of our strength is in our abilities.
Secondly, in our giving and that does include money.
Second Corinthians 8 beginning in verse 2.
And then also verse 5, that in a great trial of Affliction, the
abundance Hundreds of their joy and the Deep poverty abounded in
the riches of their liberality and not only as we hoped but as
they first gave to them self to the Lord and then To Us by the
will of God another passing second Corinthians 9 verse 7 and
verse 12. So let each one give as he
purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity for
God, loves a cheerful Giver verse 12 for the administration
of this service. Not only He supplies the needs
of the Saints, but also is a bounding through many
thanksgivings to God. We have to give of our self.
We have to give of our abilities.
We have to give of our money, all that stuff, it's every part
of us. And finally number three, this
is the hard one. We have to give our self Gotta
Give ourself. You ever have somebody that you
love like a one of your children or grandchildren and it's your
birthday and they give you a gift.
What would you rather have? Would you rather have them buy
something and give it to you? Or would you rather have them
make it and give it to you? I think everybody would rather
have them make it. Or what about this?
What if I gave Taylor, when she was little some money to buy
something for Tina. That's wonderful.
Thank you, thank you. But what if it was her own
money, what if she got that money?
Was she earned that money. Spend her own money.
She gave of herself. The gift just became better.
Sometimes giving of our self is difficult, but that's the
greatest way you can give to God.
That's the greatest way that you can demonstrate your love for
God by way of all your strength is to give of yourself in
Ephesians 5:15. And 16 see them that you walk
circumspectly, not as fool's but as wise get this Redeeming the
time because the days are evil Colossians 4 and verse 5 walk in
wisdom toward those that are outside Redeeming, the time What
does God want? What's your time?
He wants your time. There's 168 hours in a week. we
give him so little There's 168 hours in a week.
I saw a preacher when time get on a board and you 168, they
said well, you know, broke down, what we have to do, okay?
And in all of that, and that week, he put that eight hours of
work and what you got to sleep, you got eight hours sleep and
you got, there were still a ton of hours left.
And sometimes we say we just don't have time.
Loving God, with all of your strength is to love him with
your time. So in conclusion, We need to
understand that we cannot love God as we should unless we love
him. With all of our heart and
remember, loving him, with all of our heart memes, with all of
our emotion, and all of our affection, what kind of love is
agape love. It's comanded love.
So I need to have commanded love for God, with all my heart.
Number two, with all my soul. If I feel that in my heart and
with all my emotions and all my affections for God, you know
what's going to happen? It will demonstrate that love
through my very life. That's the soul.
It's going to be based on something to not just my own
wishes. It's going to be based on the
word of God and I'm going to be transformed and I'm going to be
changed and I'm going to be willing to submit myself to God
and love him with all of my mind and all of that leads to the
next part, with my abilities, with my money, with my time,
with my efforts, that's the strength part.
And I will love God with all of my strength.
With. We thank you for listening to
our podcast, put on by the Church of Christ at 22:15 plans.
Road in Bakersfield, if you would like any additional
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correspondence, course by mail. Please email us at info at her
Church of Christ Bakersfield.com.
Our service times are on Sundays at 10:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. and
Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m. Please make plans to join us.
We would love for you to be our honored guest.