Love God

[0:00] ยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยยย Mark 12, we're going to go there shortly.

[0:34] Talking about the first and great commandment, someone has put it, if we did a survey and asked a hundred people what they thought was the most important element in Christianity, we could get multiple answers, so many different answers.

[0:50] Some might say faith, some might say the Bible, prayer, the church, service, or love. And really as we can see in this passage we're reading, when the Lord Jesus was asked this question, he said the foremost and first thing, the first answer to this question of the most important thing is our love towards him, our love towards God, to love God.

[1:21] And a preacher was asked this question, if you could preach only one sermon, what would it be? And it would be love God, love God. In Mark 12, we're going from verse 28.

[1:33] We see our Lord's encounter with one of the scribes. So you might just want to turn there, Mark 12, from verse 28. Mark 12, 28.

[1:47] And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, which is the first commandment of all?

[1:58] Which is the chief? Which is the number one commandment? Verse 29. And Jesus answered him, the first of all the commandments is this, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind and with all thy strength.

[2:23] This is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.

[2:34] Our Lord gives us here the first commandment of all, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. Notice the first important point really is listen to God.

[2:47] Hear, God, hear, O Israel. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, with all thy strength. This is the first commandment.

[2:57] So the question tonight for all of us to ponder is, Do you love God? Do you love Jesus? He calls us to.

[3:09] To love him. To love him supremely. With our all. It is a command, notice, a commandment. If just in some small measure we could draw closer to God tonight, then this is all worthwhile, isn't it?

[3:25] To draw closer to him. That's simply my heart and hope for us together tonight. Why ought we to love God? Think of that. That question.

[3:35] Why should we love God? He's given his all. His very son. His only begotten. So we can be forgiven. So we can have pardon. And that we can come to know him.

[3:48] What love. And for the saved. We that know him. He says he will never leave us. He will never forsake us. And he will answer our prayers. He's prepared for us a place in heaven.

[4:01] It's just around the corner. Spurgeon sums up this passage of how we are to love him. It must be sincere with all the heart.

[4:11] It must be intelligent with all the mind. It must be emotional with all the soul. It must be intense and energetic with all the strength.

[4:21] Sincere. Intelligent. Emotional. Intense. It says thou shalt. It's an imperative. You shall. This is something you must.

[4:33] But you shall do. It's imperative from God. It's mandatory. You shall. Thou shalt love. It's agape love. God's awesome love.

[4:44] The same love of which our Lord says in John 15. 13. Greater love hath no man than this. That a man lay down his life for his friends. That's the greatest of loves.

[4:57] Our great love. The great love of God. The great love of our Lord. That he would lay down his life for we. That he is blessed to call his friends.

[5:08] Thou shalt love. Thou shalt love the Lord. The one of whom we speak. He is Lord. He is supreme. He is in authority. He is Lord.

[5:18] He is master. And he is the one who calls us to make him the supreme object of our love. Lord. And we can use that word so flippantly, can't we?

[5:36] I know we can. I can. And I've reflected before how there's an Indian brother I heard praying. And he would make the point of saying, Master. Jesus.

[5:47] Master. That's what it means. He's saying, Master. I'm at your bidding. Master. I'm your servant. Master. Tell me what to do. I'm ready to hear your call. Your commission.

[5:58] Your work for me. To go where you want me to go. To do what you want me to do. Thou shalt love the Lord. Thy God.

[6:09] Thy God. It's personal. This one of whom we speak. You can personally know him. Nothing compares with this personal God. He's not some far, far away.

[6:21] A God who is far removed. But he is a God very near. Very near to your heart. Very near to you. To your need. To you. Because he loves you. And he is the one you can know.

[6:34] He is thy God. Love him. Love him. It says with all. A double L. Now in the Greek, all means all. That's what it means.

[6:44] That's what it means. There's no getting around it. This is all. This is all encompassing. All. All such that there is no room other than this. That this fills our whole allegiance.

[6:57] It's not something divided. It's whole. Love God with all. In other words, love God completely. With your whole being. This wonderful truth here.

[7:08] And as our Lord says, no man can serve two masters. When it says, love the Lord thy God with all. It means all. You cannot have two masters.

[7:19] It must be Christ. All of him. It tells of King Josiah that he had this heart, this soul, this might, this devotion.

[7:31] We read that in 2 Kings 23. You may wish to turn there. It says of King Josiah that like unto him was there no king before him.

[7:45] That turned to the Lord. It says with just these same elements. He turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his mind.

[7:58] According to all the law of Moses, neither after him arose there any like him. So neither before him nor after him. There's no king like him before him.

[8:09] There's no king like him after him. So we do well to take attention to faithful King Josiah. It says he did God's will no matter what. When he came to power, he was only eight years old.

[8:21] So there's hope for even the youngsters in our midst that God can use the little ones, the eight year olds. And he came to the throne at just eight years old.

[8:34] And it says of Josiah that he began to seek the Lord. We see that in 2 Chronicles 34 verse 3. You might want to just flick there if you've got your Bible handy.

[8:44] 2 Chronicles 34 verse 3. He began to seek the Lord. As soon as he came to power, he began to seek the Lord. We see, well it took some time, but as he began to seek the Lord, he was full on in his removal of false worship and of restoring the house of the Lord.

[9:06] We see that through chapters 34 and 35 of 2 Chronicles. He didn't have a divided allegiance.

[9:19] He had a loyalty to God. And in that authority as king, he totally removed these false idols and false gods that were all across the land.

[9:32] You see that through chapters 34 and 35. If you flick through that 2 Chronicles. He was full on in his removal of false worship. And then we read how as the workers were restoring the house of the Lord, the workers found the lost and forgotten Torah, the books of Moses.

[9:52] They found these books, the book of God that had been long neglected. They found the books of the Bible. And when Josiah was told of this, as the words were read aloud, he wept.

[10:06] He saw his clothes in repentance, in deep conviction and contrition. And that his people had turned away from the Lord. And he sought the counsel of the Lord through Huldah, the prophetess.

[10:21] And she encouraged him with the Lord's words of blessing. And it says that Josiah then later led a Passover celebration. A Passover to rival all other Passovers.

[10:33] They wanted to restore the worship that had been neglected. And it says the rest of Josiah's days, the people of Judah sought the Lord. So he tore down all those places of false worship.

[10:45] And these were things that had been ingrained in the people of Judah for over 70 years. Here he was, and this was, he didn't hold back, he pulled out all the stops.

[10:55] And he tore down all these places that the people had become accustomed to worshipping. This false worship. This false worship that was such a stumbling block.

[11:07] And so Josiah, it says he turned to the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his strength, his might. So we can see, we can see from Josiah how this can be enacted in practice.

[11:22] That this means someone is totally sold out. That was Josiah. And so, as we go back to our text, we see it says, love the Lord. He is due the first place, the highest place, the highest priority.

[11:37] Friends, this is the most important thing we can know, we can do with our lives. This is the most important thing God wants from you. The purpose for which you are made is to love him.

[11:50] And we see how we are to love him. You see, firstly, it says, love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. The heart speaks of the innermost being, about what we treasure.

[12:03] Love him, it says, with all your heart. Love him, in other words, intensely with all that is within you. It speaks of a genuine love. It's a heartfelt love.

[12:14] It's a heart-deep love. The heart speaks of affections. It speaks of feelings, of emotions, of desires, of passions. That's what our Lord wants from us. He wants us to get passionate with that heart-deep, stirring.

[12:29] Our love for God stirs the emotions. Now, we're emotional people. Even we're Baptists, aren't we? And we can get excited about something. We can get joyful. God can gladden our hearts and give us joy unspeakable and full of glory.

[12:44] Because heaven is just around the corner. And there's a gladness of heaven. There's a gladness of heart in we that know him. And it says, as there's many accounts of the people of God rejoicing.

[12:58] Why? One occasion it says our names are written in heaven. That's an occasion. That's a reason for true gladness of heart. God, we should love him with all of our heart. Love him truly, without pretense.

[13:11] It's a heart thing. You know, we know there's occasions where the people drew near to God with their lips, but their heart was far from God. We don't want that. We want rather a heart to be right.

[13:23] To give him a heart. Psalm 51.17. It reads, David said, The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and a contrite heart.

[13:35] O God, that wilt not despise. You know, when our heart is touched, there might be brokenness there too. I'm talking about joy and jubilation. But there can also be that heart-deck conviction.

[13:46] That sense of that weight of our sin. That God moves us such in our very heart. But that's a good thing. To have that heart for God. As David was a man after God's own heart.

[13:58] And friends, the heart drives our beliefs, our emotions, our thoughts, our intentions. This should be the love that motivates and moves our hearts. And with this love for God in our heart, we can have a zeal for God.

[14:12] A zeal that knows no bounds. A zeal that doesn't care for what might be against it. Or might seek to dampen it. What is in your heart is a good question.

[14:25] There's an occasion where someone had some oranges and lemons. And for some reason they looked about the same colour. But they knew which were the oranges and which were the lemons.

[14:38] Because it was what came out of them when they were squeezed. And it's the same with you and me, isn't it? Sometimes when we get squeezed, what comes out of our heart? Is it the bitterness of a lemon?

[14:49] Or is it the sweetness of an orange? The love for God. This love for God. It should affect our heart. Such that we're changed from the inside out. And this love for God, it provokes us to a heartiness in our actions.

[15:03] As we read in Colossians 3, 23. When Paul says, And whatsoever you do, do it heartily. Heartily. As to the Lord and not unto men. And when we're given an opportunity, then let's do it heartily.

[15:17] Let's do what we can heartily. From the heart. Not half-heartedly. Well, yeah. Lukewarmly. Let's do it heartily.

[15:28] Heartily. Friends, we've got only so much time this side of heaven. Now let's do things heartily for God. We can trust Him with our heart. It says, trust in the Lord with all thine heart.

[15:40] Lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him. And He shall direct thy paths. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart. Trust Him. It's a faith deep.

[15:51] It's a heart-deep faith that He wants for us. Let's be absorbed by God. Let's soak in that love that He has for us. And let that love move us.

[16:02] And motivate us. And fill us. And energize us. David says in Psalm 103 verse 1, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me.

[16:14] Bless His holy name. Bless the Lord. Tell your soul the blessing. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Let's say that together. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me.

[16:28] Bless His holy name. All that is within me. Make Him your pursuit today. It says in Matthew 6 verse 20, But lay out for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.

[16:46] For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Let's have our treasure such that it's heavenly things that are our treasure.

[16:58] It's Christ who is our treasure. We read in the Word of God, it tells us, that we have found, that believe, we have found the unsearchable riches of Christ. Wow, that's something, isn't it?

[17:10] You know, there's some wealthy people here this evening. You're very wealthy because you have found the unsearchable riches of Christ. Nothing beats that. Everything else really here, in comparison, is this dung, is dross, is nothing.

[17:27] As Paul would count all of his credentials, he says it's nothing compared to knowing Him. That's my treasure. And here's the treasure of your life, you that know Him. He captivates your heart.

[17:38] Something happens when you trust Him, that you trust Him with all your heart. He takes your heart and He changes it. He makes it brand new. And it says, seek Him with all your heart. It says in Deuteronomy 4.29, it says in part, Thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find Him.

[17:56] If thou seek Him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. And there's promises in the Word of God. If you're one still searching, the Bible says, if you search for me with all your heart, you will find me.

[18:09] So love God. Love God with all your heart. Secondly, next, love the Lord thy God with all thy soul. Now soul, apparently in the Hebrew, the word for soul is throat.

[18:22] And some have reckoned it's about what we thirst for. Now I'm going to make you all very envious here. Because you're getting very thirsty here. Soul is your throat.

[18:33] It's what you thirst for. Have you got to thirst for God? Is God the one you thirst after? It speaks about relationship with God. The soul. It's what makes us spiritually real.

[18:46] The Bible teaches us, this is the bit that's going to go forever. It's our soul. It'll live on when we die. It speaks of our will. It speaks of an intensity. When you have your soul in something, it means there's an intensity there.

[19:03] The soul is called the seat of the emotion. It reads of our Lord in Matthew 26, 38, in the garden. He saith he unto them, my soul is exceeding sorrowful.

[19:14] My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death. Tarry ye here and watch with me. This is our Lord in the garden. As it were, as it were, great drops of, as it were, sweat, as it were, great drops of blood.

[19:28] Came to his forehead as he prayed for you and me. And he says, I'm exceeding sorrowful. He says, my soul is exceeding sorrowful. So our Lord knew this soul.

[19:42] And that's the soul we should have. That's the kind of love we should have with all of our soul. So embrace God. Make him your soul's desire. Love God with your life is what it's saying.

[19:53] As we love God with our soul, it speaks how, as someone's reflected, that his thoughts become our thoughts. His feelings become our feelings. His decisions become our decisions.

[20:05] So the sense where we become entwined with him. That we are in accord with him. That's a shaping of us to fit what he would have us to be.

[20:23] Our soul gets changed as well. So love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. Love the Lord thy God with all thy soul. Thirdly, we see next, the love the Lord thy God with all thy mind.

[20:39] This love for God is not something mindless or careless. I'm quoting here. It says, in our culture today, there's voices that suggest strongly that people of faith, especially Christians, are weak-minded.

[20:54] By which they mean to imply that faith is not rational. Well, Jesus blows that notion to bits with this statement, commanding us to put our minds into loving God, too.

[21:05] Friends, it's the rational thing to do. It says, the fool has said in his heart there is no God. The fool has made his mind so prideful that he would shut God out.

[21:17] To love God is the intelligent thing to do. It's the wisest thing to do. It's the smartest thing that you can do. It's to love God with all your mind. God doesn't short-circuit our brain cells.

[21:28] He's given us a brain so we can reason together as he calls us to. Come, let us reason together. And if we love the Lord, we'll learn to meditate upon him.

[21:41] We'll learn to search the scriptures. We'll learn to rationally digest it and partake of it as a food that would feed our soul.

[21:52] And our brain is engaged in that. As a Christian, we don't disengage the brain. You know, there's some in cults who would say, blank your mind. Just let anything come into it.

[22:05] No, that's not what the Bible says. We meditate on his word, on his truth. There's a consciousness. There's a conscious decision. And you can have a volitional, rational, intelligent, intellectual, conscious decision.

[22:18] Yes, it makes sense. God makes sense to my mind. And we can make a conscious decision to love him. God helping us.

[22:30] We love him because of who he is, what he's done for us. That's the intelligent thing to do. When we love the Lord our God with all our mind, it speaks of our understanding, of our intellect. Some, sadly, have got so much intellect, they shut God out of them.

[22:46] That's the foolishness of the world. God is in our thinking. We that know our Lord, God is in our thinking.

[22:57] He is in our thoughts. He's in those thoughts, those thought processes. Our mindset is a biblical one. We can purposefully set our mind upon him. It says in Romans 8 verse 6, For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

[23:14] Romans 8 verse 6. God doesn't bypass our thinking. He harnesses it. It's the rational thing to do. A characteristic of the lost is that God is not in all their thoughts.

[23:27] They blank him out. They put this big barrier there, this big iron fence around their minds. They don't want God to answer. Really, it's the blinding of Satan, isn't it?

[23:40] Who blinds the minds. And so God is not in all their thoughts. But for we that are God's people, it says for us as God's people, we can consciously renew our mind with the word of God.

[23:51] We can overcome that negativity, depression, fearfulness or immoral thoughts and the world's barrage of anti-God messaging. We can overcome that.

[24:02] As we read another familiar one, 2 Corinthians 10 verse 5, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

[24:17] There's a sense where our mind can be captured. Our mind can be brought into a captivity that's a good captivity because it's a captivity that keeps us safe. It's a captivity that keeps us from harm.

[24:30] It's God's protection over our minds and thoughts. That's a good thing. So love the Lord, though God, with all our mind. It speaks of your attitude, of your thoughts. Another familiar one, Romans 12 too.

[24:41] I know I just about quote this every time. And be not 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.

[24:55] God wants our mind to be finding and doing and knowing His will, to know Him and what is His will for us. And we get that as we read His Word. That's the intelligent thing to do.

[25:06] It's the wise thing to do. Because wisdom is here, the beginning of wisdom. And our mind can be renewed and enlightened. Our love for God applies our mind. He engages our mind.

[25:17] And we determine with our mind, yes, this makes sense. God makes sense. And God is the one that I need to learn about, to study of Him, to learn of Him. In Joshua 1 verse 8, as Joshua was instructed, this book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night.

[25:36] And thou shalt that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein. For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then shalt thou have good success. Meditate therein.

[25:48] That's another conscious application of your mind. A sanctified mind. Our love for God frees and cleanses our minds. He washes our mindset.

[25:59] And our thoughts. It talks about the washing of water by the Word. What a picture that is. This is water. And it's a washing that comes as you apply this water to your mind.

[26:11] There's a washing of the water by the Word. And when we love God with our mind, we make decisions that are based on our love for Him. So as we more and more attune our mind to God's will and Word, it will affect our way.

[26:27] Because our mind will help us to walk in those paths He has for us. Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind.

[26:39] Fourthly, love the Lord thy God with all thy strength. God wants us to love Him with a resolve. With a resolve. With a firm, galvanized force.

[26:51] The sense of power. Of might. And it's not by our might or power. But His enabling us. His empowering us. His, as the enabler of us.

[27:04] His filling us and empowering us. Strengthening us. Spurgeon puts it as this. He talks about loving God actively.

[27:15] And I'm quoting Spurgeon here. He says, I aim to throw my whole soul into the worship and adoration of God. I'm not to keep back a single hour, a single farthing of my wealth, a single talent that I have, a single atom of strength, bodily or mental, from the worship of God.

[27:33] I am to love Him with all my strength. Can you love God with all your strength? In other words, that your energy is such that He will refresh you.

[27:46] He will renew you. We all get tired. We all have times we're tired. And humanly speaking, we've got to go beyond that, I believe.

[27:58] To know God's energizing. And He will do that. Here's another quote I picked up. Comparing our physical bodies with the spiritual aspect here. If we want to maintain our physical bodies in good condition, we know how to pour energy into exercising then.

[28:14] Being a lethargic couch potatoes, whose biggest muscle is the thumb we use to change the channel on the TV remote, isn't going to do it. Our doctors tell us we have to pour energy into exercise to be strong and healthy.

[28:28] It's the same thing in loving God. We've got to pour, put energy into it. A lot of energy, as Jesus says, with all our strength. If we exercise our love for God, then it will grow stronger and more solid and secure.

[28:43] Amen. Welcome Daniel. God bless you. I've got to start from the start again. No, you can catch it later. We're talking about love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, with all thy strength.

[29:02] And the parallel, the comparison here is of our physical exercise. Look, I know I could do with a bit more of that myself. But what about spiritually wise?

[29:13] How's our spiritual strength? You know, it can go, it can get lax, can't it? Our spiritual strength, we can get such that we lose spiritual energy.

[29:24] But to love the Lord thy God with all our strength, it's got this thought of, how can God use my energy? And you young fellas, I mean, you've got, you've got ten times the energy I've got, so you should be doing ten times the work.

[29:38] But no, really, I mean, I can look back, when I was a younger man, I was running the youth group, the prayer meeting, the Bible study, the morning and afternoon church, you know, you name it, I was running it.

[29:50] And I was driving the church bus at the same time, and I was working a full-time job as well for ten plus years. So, look, we can all run a little bit low of energy.

[30:02] But, honestly, God can energise us, can't he? God can give us the energy that we need. And that's the call here, to love God with all your strength. You that are stronger.

[30:14] And that's not necessarily, the younger ones are stronger. Some of you older men and women are stronger. God wants to use your strength. To use your strength.

[30:25] David worshipped with all of his might, it says in 2 Samuel 6.14. David danced before the Lord with all his might. And he got, copped a bit of criticism from Michal, his wife.

[30:37] But he had a might there, to dance before the Lord with all his might. And he was, he was irrepressible with his energy, with his enthusiasm, with his strength.

[30:49] And to love God with all our strength, something we could consider, isn't it? How can I put my strength, while I've got it into that, which is godly, spiritual, useful, for my soul and other souls, to do his will.

[31:06] Loving God with all our might. In this, to love God with all your capacity. You know, sometimes we would reserve something. I talked a little along that theme this morning, where we hold back, we withhold, we stop giving something, of ourselves.

[31:25] And we just have our own, selfish, corner, or sections of our lives. But God wants our all. The point of this, verse, these verses here, is he wants our all.

[31:38] He wants us to be unreserved. To love God with all of our strength, all our capacity. In other words, do what he's called you to do. We've only got strength this side of the grave.

[31:49] Let's use it. Use it while we have it. Do we give strength, to serve ourselves, or the world? What is it that occupies our time, and our energy? We do well to consider.

[32:02] What am I putting my strength into? My time? My mind? What am I occupying myself with? Use your strength, for God's purposes.

[32:16] Use your abilities to serve the Lord. In other words, love God actively. You know, we could love God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, but leave the strength out of it.

[32:27] You know, just love God kind of, as we have the comfortable aspect for ourselves.

[32:40] But loving God with all our strength, means now we want to go beyond that. We love God with all the talents that we have. To love God with our time, with our energy. To love Him with our serving.

[32:52] To love Him with our influence on others. To love Him with our relationships. Love Him with the gifts that He's given you. May we have godly aims and pursuits, that this is what I'm going to apply myself to.

[33:05] I'm going to love God actively. It's the sense of loving God with your strength. I'm going to love God such that I'm going to press through. I'm going to persevere and press on.

[33:16] I'm going to go beyond all the barriers, and all the obstacles, and all the opposition, and all my selfish inclination to quit. I'm going to love God, and keep on loving God with all my strength.

[33:26] And God's strengthening me. Love God. Friends, love God with your all. A double L. That's what it means. All. You can't make it any simpler than that.

[33:37] That this is wholehearted love. It's authentic. Love God with your whole being. That this love should permeate everything about you. That here's the Lord. Notice thy God.

[33:49] He is thy God. And I'm speaking tonight such that I'm speaking really to believers. He can be thy God. Thy God. And if you've yet to trust him, it's simply trusting that.

[34:05] Yes. My God. My God. You are mine. It's grasping that, isn't it?

[34:16] It's receiving that. That he is yours. And you are his. And if he is thy God, he made thee. He preserves thee. He'll strengthen thee. He'll give you enough strength to do what he's put on your heart to do.

[34:31] Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, with all thy strength. He goes on to say, the fifth point, love thy neighbour as thyself. Now, for the sake of time, we won't have time to take that thought much further.

[34:46] But the sense of love thy neighbour as thyself, notice that it says, the second is like it. It's an interesting thought, isn't it? If we love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, with all thy strength, and the second is like it, it means that as we love God, we'll also love others.

[35:07] We'll love others. Love thy neighbour as thyself.

[35:22] Now, of course, the audience of our Lord here, they tried to say, oh, my neighbours are those just like me. You know, the Jews, not the Samaritans, they're not my neighbours.

[35:36] But of course, our Lord demolished that argument because the neighbour is broad. It's wide. It's wide reach. And so it's got the sense we should look out for the interests of others.

[35:49] I know there's some people that are sold out, giving out gospel tracts and witnessing for Christ. And it's the love for others that motivates that, isn't it?

[36:00] But for the grace of God, we would be in the state that they are in. You know, whatever state it be. Some might be the upstanding citizens of the community. They're still lost and damned and going to hell.

[36:12] Others might be in the gutter on the last hangover or fix that they've had. But for the grace of God, we would be there. And so our love for God is expressed in our love for others.

[36:30] Suffice to say, the greatest commandment is love God. And the greatest sin is not to love Him. Is it not? Really? It's to miss heaven. It's not to love Him.

[36:43] And my plea to you tonight is grow in that love. Grow that love for Him. Grow that love for God. Listen to Him. Read His Word.

[36:55] Seek to become more like Him. To know more of Him. To know Him. Spend time to pray. To get to know Him. He's given you this book so you can know about Him.

[37:11] And know His plan, His will. It's here for you. And you can personally come into that relationship with God. That's something staggering, isn't it?

[37:22] That the creator of the galaxies, of the billions and zillions of stars out there, of the multiple billions of cells within your own body, that He would want you to know Him.

[37:35] And you can. You can know Him. Him to know. It's life eternal. You can personally come into relationship with God and He can become the Lord, thy God.

[37:45] Yes! Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine! My God! Thy God! Friends, what a joy it is to know this great blessing.

[37:56] Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, with all thy strength.

[38:08] Love thy neighbour as thou shalt. Let's pray. Lord, we bless you. These simple truths are so profound and yet always so challenging that we would hear these things and know it's only by your strength and grace that we can know you as our God to receive by faith the simple knowledge that you died on the cross for our sin.

[38:35] You are our risen, glorified, soon-coming Saviour and Lord, we can know you personally, each one, and can say, yes, my God. Yes, Lord.

[38:47] And Lord, help us as these words of our Saviour tell us to love you, to love you so wholeheartedly, so completely, so absolutely.

[39:02] Lord, I don't mean to gloss over these profound truths that I could even endeavour to describe how to love you like that.

[39:16] Lord, search our hearts, help us to be a people that will love you so that our hearts would be transformed, that we can have a new heart by faith as you save us.

[39:32] Lord, our heart can love you. Our soul, our very spirit, the very eternal part of us can love you and will love you. and heaven will be singing our praises, our love for you.

[39:47] This is not time-bound. We can love you with all our soul, with our mind, Lord, that we can intelligently, as your spirit would illuminate these pages, these truths.

[40:03] We can have spiritual treasures, the very unsearchable riches of Christ and our mind can, at least in some part, conceive of that and Lord, that with our might, Lord, we won't, we won't waste our might, our strength on things of earth unduly, Lord.

[40:24] give us grace, help us to use what, what activity we can to be an active Christian. We pray, Lord, help us to have a heart for others too, as we know that we are to love our neighbour as ourself.

[40:41] Especially we think of lost neighbours, we think of lost ones and I know at the prayer meeting we're often naming lost souls that are on our hearts and our heart goes out, Lord, to reach them.

[40:53] Help us to find ways we can touch them, Lord, that we can love them and the most loving thing we can do is to really tell them of you.

[41:08] Lord, help us to love our neighbour as ourself and to show grace, to forgive, to have a heart of love. Lord, a heart like your heart and we praise you for these things in Jesus' name.

[41:23] Amen. Amen.