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[0:00] Bibles, let's turn to Matthew chapter 22. Matthew chapter 22, verse 36 through 38. Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

[0:11] Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. Amen.

[0:22] Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we thank you for this word. I pray, Lord, that you would anoint this preacher and anoint these hearers, God, that we would be able to hear your word and that it would be able to penetrate into our hearts, God, and that it would be able to help us grow in you and be pleasing unto you and be fruitful unto you and bless each and every single one, God, as they hear your word tonight.

[0:44] Let it be received. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. This is that first and great commandment that we've talked about. Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all your heart, or your soul, and with all thy mind.

[0:56] And it's the first and great commandment. It's found in both the Old and New Testaments, and clearly Jesus is spelling out three distinct aspects of our being, and that is our heart, our soul, and our mind.

[1:12] Our heart, our soul, and our mind. And so first, let's try to understand the heart of mankind. When the Bible refers to the heart, it's not referring to that organ in your chest that kind of sits on an angle and pumps blood throughout your body.

[1:30] But it's actually referring to a place within us that our thoughts are conceived. It's the place where our thoughts are conceived. It's the place where our thoughts and intents begin.

[1:44] In Acts 8, verse 22, the Bible says, Repent, therefore, of thy wickedness, and pray, God, if perhaps the thoughts of thine heart may be forgiven thee.

[1:57] The thought of thine heart. And we will find out that it's not only within our hearts where our thoughts are conceived, but also in our intents, because thoughts become intents.

[2:08] That's how it starts. It starts out as a thought, but then we get intentions. Okay? Hebrews 4 and 12, For the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, the joints of marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

[2:29] It's a discerner. The word of God is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. From our hearts come our thoughts and our intents. Okay? And so why is understanding this so important?

[2:41] Well, from our thoughts and our intents comes our actions. And actions become habits. And habits will dictate our lives, whether they be for good or for bad.

[2:54] It's the habits that will dictate our lives. Do we have good habits? Do we have habits that are what God would consider evil? But it starts with our hearts. It starts with the thoughts and intents of our hearts.

[3:06] And those become actions, and the actions become habits. And habits are hard to break. Okay? And unlike what the other people see of us outwardly, God sees and knows the contents of our heart.

[3:20] Our hearts are not hidden from God. He can perceive our thoughts. There's examples of this throughout Scripture. 1 Samuel 16, verse 7, Proverbs 21 and 2 says, Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord pondereth the heart.

[3:46] Luke 5 and 22, But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, he was able to perceive their thoughts, he answered and said unto them, What reason ye in your hearts? So as Jesus was perceiving their thoughts, he said, Why are you thinking like this in your hearts?

[4:04] Was the question he asked them. Because that's where our thoughts come from. That's where they begin. That's where they're birthed. And so God can perceive our thoughts and intents, and that comes from our hearts.

[4:16] It's also important to be careful what we treasure in life. It's important that as disciples of Jesus Christ, our greatest treasure is in him because our heart lives where our treasure is.

[4:32] Matthew 6, verse 21, For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The treasure we have right now are the results of our thoughts becoming intents, and our intents becoming actions, right?

[4:48] And our actions becoming habits. But the treasures that we have right now are those thoughts becoming intents, and those intents becoming our actions until we've gotten what we have now, right?

[5:00] So we shouldn't, whatever you would call your treasure, it was obtained by you, but it began as a thought in your heart. We shouldn't work hard to accumulate things that are of the world, because that means our hearts would be worldly.

[5:15] If our treasure is things of the world, then our hearts are in the world, right? But if our treasures, things we gain through our actions, are the things of the kingdom of God, then that's the evidence that our hearts are in the kingdom of God.

[5:31] If the thing that we're after, the thing that we value, the thing that we treasure, the thing that we're trying to obtain, if it's a kingdom thing, then our hearts are in the kingdom.

[5:42] So we cannot trust our natural bar in hearts to lead us in the right direction. We must be cautious and have a self-awareness of the condition of our heart.

[5:54] You may have heard the saying, just follow after your heart, whatever your hearts desire. But I'm here to say beware, because our hearts are wicked by nature.

[6:07] Jeremiah 17, 9 through 10. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? The Lord searched the heart.

[6:18] But I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doing. So God's saying like, God says, I search the heart.

[6:30] He looks into your heart. He looks into you and sees you. And he sees what your thoughts are, what your intents are, what the desires of your heart is, what treasure you're seeking after.

[6:42] And he says he tries the reins, even to give every man according to his ways. So he will let you have what you want, in a sense.

[6:53] He's going to let you have what you want. You can obtain the things that you're after. And he's going to let you do that. And it says, and according to the fruit of his doing.

[7:04] So he's going to let you also reap the fruits of whatever it is that you're doing. Okay? So it's a warning, in a sense. It's something we need to be aware of. Our hearts are deceitful above all things.

[7:16] Looking at the fruit of our doings is how God is going to measure us. What will he give us? And that comes from the heart. Okay? And it's important to have a pure heart.

[7:29] Okay? So the condition of our heart is important to God. Matthew chapter 5, verse 8. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. So I want to see God.

[7:43] So I need to be pure in heart. So how do we become pure in heart? And just like any commandment from God, we have, because by the way, these are commandments.

[7:55] We're talking about the greatest commandments. Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all your heart, soul, and mind. Thou shall not kill. Right? You know the Ten Commandments? Thou shall not kill.

[8:06] Right? Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all that. It's not like you should love God with all your heart, soul, and mind. It's a commandment. So let's get that clear.

[8:17] We are talking about a commandment. Okay? So just like any of the other commandments from God, the Ten Commandments, for example, we have a choice to obey those commandments or not. Are we going to obey them?

[8:30] Are we going to adhere to those commandments or not? Just because God's commanding it doesn't mean that we're forced to. We get to decide. When we decide to obey the commandments of God, to love God with all of our heart, it changes our thoughts, which become our intents, which becomes our actions.

[8:47] Loving God with all of our hearts leads us to the act of true repentance. And that is the first step in obtaining a pure heart. Being repented.

[8:58] Can you repent? When we repent and we're baptized in Jesus' name, the gift that we can also obtain is the Holy Spirit in our hearts. Acts 2.38. We know this very well.

[9:10] Then Peter said, Then repent, be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of your sins. And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Galatians 4 and 6. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

[9:27] So, and that's a covenant. When we get to that step, that's a covenant with God in our hearts. In John chapter 3, Jesus explains this process as a born-again experience.

[9:41] Why is the born-again experience important? Receiving the Spirit of the new covenant with God. Romans 2 and 28. For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly.

[9:55] Neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly. And circumcision is that of the heart and the spirit, and not in the letter of the law.

[10:11] He's talking about the law. Whose praise is not of men, but of God. God. Okay? So, how do we explain this? The circumcision of the outward flesh.

[10:22] Just raise your hand if you know what that is referring to. The circumcision of the outer flesh. That was, in the Old Testament, that's how you knew you were of God's people.

[10:32] You were circumcised on your flesh. Okay? That was performed as a sign, as a covenant between God and his people. Okay? It started with Abraham.

[10:43] Abraham. This was ceremonially done in accordance with the law. It had to do with the law. But the circumcision of the heart, that is a new covenant.

[10:55] And a promise is not just a ceremony or a symbolic. It is actually a purification of the innermost part of us, our heart. It's to be a spiritual thing.

[11:06] So, the prophet Jeremiah foretold it in the Old Testament, talking about it in the future. Jeremiah said in 31 and 33, But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel.

[11:20] After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

[11:31] Okay? So, we're talking about the circumcision of the heart. The heart's important. The fruits of a pure heart.

[11:43] Okay? With a pure heart, we will also speak pure things. Along with our actions. Remember, thoughts become intense. Intense become actions. Along with our actions, what we say is the evidence of our pure heart, because what is in our heart comes out of our mouths.

[12:01] Okay? When we get baptized with the Holy Ghost, it's literally like someone's, it's like a, imagine a baptism where you're just standing under Niagara Falls.

[12:13] And you get so full, it just comes right back out. That's the evidence of that as we speak in tongues. Your heart becomes so pure, it becomes so full, that it overflows out of our mouths.

[12:29] Luke 6 and 45. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good. And the evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil.

[12:41] For out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaketh. Okay? You can tell the fruit, the tree by the fruit, right?

[12:53] What's inside, what kind of tree that is by what it's producing, what it's, in this case, we're talking about. What we speak is important. The Bible says that we overcome the enemy of our souls by Jesus laying his life down, but also us speaking our testimony to others.

[13:09] Our testimony is us sharing how his act of love on the cross and our love for him has caused us to come together and have changed lives.

[13:21] Because that's what it is. His act of love on the cross combined with our love with all of our heart to him, it created the opportunity for him to be able to change our lives.

[13:32] And now we have a testimony. I saw a picture of a precious saint in this church from a Christmas party just a few years ago in 2022 where he's taking a picture with some friends in front of a camera.

[13:49] And he's not displaying. It wasn't a gang sign, but it was some sort of a hand gesture that was highly inappropriate. Today, he's a changed man.

[14:03] Amen. And I thank God for that every single day when I pray for that precious saint of a man that attends this church. He's clapping.

[14:16] And it, I'm putting him on the spot and I'm making an example out of him. I hope I'm not embarrassing him. But in just a short period of time, when he was able to recognize what God did for him, and then he, he in his heart decided, I'm going to love God.

[14:37] I want to learn the ways of God. In a short amount of time, God can make great changes in somebody's life. And it starts in the heart. Amen. That's where it begins. And it's a, we're talking about purified heart.

[14:50] And, and we need purified hearts. Amen. So, Revelation 12 and 11. And they overcame him by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony. And they love not their lives until the death.

[15:06] So, that's what we're talking about. This awesome man of God now has a testimony. I used to be one way, but now I'm another way. Amen.

[15:16] And disciples of Jesus Christ shows forth the praises of him that saved them. That's what we're talking about. A testimony. I'm, I'm giving God praise. We, we think of praise like what we did when we sing in worship.

[15:29] You know, and that's, we think that's praise. When the Bible talks about praise, it has that in there in parts of the, of scripture. That's, it's all scriptural. To praise in that way.

[15:40] Worship, singing, dancing, those things. But really, a lot of times, the context of praise in the scripture is just using our mouths to give God praise. Man, God's awesome.

[15:51] He's so great. He, he works miracles. I couldn't imagine living life without God. Life's so much better with God in our, in our lives. Just, just giving God praise to other people.

[16:02] And praise is intertwined with thanksgiving. When you're giving God praise, you're really being, it's being thankful. Giving thanks. Giving thanks and praise is announcing to others the good things of God.

[16:14] And we have a, when we have a purified heart and a circumcised heart, the desire to do God's will is born into us. And this also produces praise and worship to God. Psalms 40 and 8.

[16:25] I delight to do thy will. I delight to do thy will. Oh my God. Yea, thy law is within my heart. I, when, when his law is in our hearts, we delight to do his will.

[16:39] It's, it's a delight to us. Psalms 86 and 12. I will praise thee, O Lord, my God, with all my heart, and I will glorify thy name forevermore. So, loving God with all of our heart leads us to repentance.

[16:52] And it leads us to want to praise and worship our God and Savior. And we can't help but show forth the praises of him that first loved us. And, and from the abundance of our hearts, our mouths will speak.

[17:05] His praises will continually be on our lips. Amen. So, we need to love God with all of our hearts. The second thing is love God with all your soul.

[17:17] Our soul and spirit represent, references the spiritual components of our being. For example, we read it earlier, and it seems to be a theme in the last few services of ours.

[17:32] Hebrews 4 and 12. For the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing and dividing asunder of soul and spirit, which we know that has to do with the spiritual side of us, and the joints and marrow, which has to do with the fleshly side of us, and that is the discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

[17:50] Okay? So, our soul is the real us. We've talked about this. It's, it's what gives us life. It's the part of us that's alive. Our flesh is, is dirt, like I've said. It's not living.

[18:01] Our flesh is, is the body, the house for our body. Okay? Um, the Bible is clear about that. There's a difference between flesh and spirit. The Bible is also clear that the flesh is earthly and the spirit is heavenly.

[18:15] Okay? Okay? And so, Jesus is known as the second Adam. Um, and what the scripture is teaching about that is that, let me read the scripture.

[18:28] Here. 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 44 and 45. So, we need to understand that the Bible, the flesh is earthly and the spirit is heavenly.

[18:44] Verse 44. It is sown a natural body. It's raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body and there's a spiritual body. In verse 45. And so, it is written that the first man, Adam, was made a living soul.

[18:55] The last Adam was made a quickening spirit. So, he's talking about a first Adam and a last Adam. Okay? And Jesus is, is known as the second or the last Adam. And what the scripture is teaching us here is that the first Adam is the one who brought in the curse of death by being disobedient.

[19:12] Right? We understand that. But the second Adam, which is Jesus, brought the gift of eternal life through the spirit. Okay? So, we're talking about the spiritual things. Our soul is eternal.

[19:22] And knowing that, we have a temporary body of flesh and also an eternal body of spirit, which makes up our soul. We should wonder, what's the purpose of all this?

[19:33] What's the purpose of all this flesh and spirit and just how we are? Well, the whole purpose is that we were originally intended for everlasting life.

[19:45] We were intended to be beings that lasted forever. You know? And we're not to fear those that kill the body, but able to kill the soul.

[19:57] Right? As we've referenced before, the scripture should now make sense to us that often most people are working on pleasing and profiting the body because that's the most obvious reality to us.

[20:12] We assume we're flesh and blood alone and forget we have a spiritual soul that is going to last eternity after we leave this body. Okay? And so, the value of the soul.

[20:25] I mean, our souls are so valuable. It's the eternal part of us. It's the part that's going to live forever. Our spiritual soul is the part of us that's promised eternal life.

[20:35] The body we have obviously isn't, so it should be the spiritual body that we invest into. The work we do, the time we spend, should be to make sure our spiritual body is going to be accepted by God as good.

[20:51] Right? So, Matthew 16, verse 26. For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

[21:02] What's your soul worth to you? Like, all your endeavors in life, all the things that you're trying to build, the life you're trying to build for yourself. Maybe you're trying to buy a house. Maybe you're trying to promote in your job, make more money.

[21:17] Like, first of all, do you think in your life that you have even a slightest chance of gaining the whole world and becoming the tyrant of the whole world?

[21:28] Is that your goal in life? No? What about all the riches in the world? Is your goal to have all the riches in the world? Do you feel like that would be obtainable to you? Absolutely not.

[21:40] I mean, it's never going to be obtainable to you even if you had all the riches in the world. And so what are you actually striving for in the world? Just to scrape out what?

[21:53] At the end of the day, what is it going to profit? You can't even gain the whole world. And you're just trying to get a—you're giving up your eternal soul. You're giving up the kingdom of God. You're giving up all the things that God has in store for you and all the eternal things for something that's not even the whole world.

[22:10] It's something that's even very much smaller than that. That doesn't even make sense when we really think about it. Everything in the world as we see it will be gone one day. And all we're going to have left is what we accomplished in the spirit realm, not in this fleshly realm.

[22:28] Okay? The importance of a pure soul. So we talked about the importance of a pure heart, the importance of a pure soul. It's through the spiritual body that our soul and spirit we commune with God because God is a spirit.

[22:41] Okay? So John 4 and 24 says, God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. And so when we obey this commandment to love God with all of our heart, soul, and mind, the love we have isn't made full instantaneously.

[23:02] And it's just like any other relationship. It takes time to develop a relationship through knowledge of one another, experiences together. You know?

[23:13] And we are to learn of him. And that's how all relationships are built. And it's no different than with God, our creator. To build a relationship with God, it's through soul and spirit, though.

[23:26] Because he's a spirit. Okay? And the Bible says in Matthew 11 and 29, Jesus speaking, Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. Learn of me.

[23:37] For I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. Okay? So how do we find rest for our souls? We learn of him.

[23:49] We dedicate our soul to him by learning of him. Learning of his word. And being obedient to it. Learning of his word. The truth. And being obedient to his word purifies our soul.

[24:02] 1 Peter 1, 22 and 23. Seeing ye have purified your souls, and obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently, being born again not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.

[24:22] Okay? In the word of God, he's asking us to purify ourselves. And to help others find truth as well. That's what unfeigned love of the brethren. That means a sincere, real, genuine love from a pure heart for those around us.

[24:41] But that's only going to happen if we have a pure soul. James 5, 20. Let him know that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sins.

[24:57] Okay? So the Bible says in James 5, 20. Let him know. That's what I'm doing. I'm letting you know. Let him know that if you convert a sinner from the error of their way, you save a soul from death and hide a multitude of sins.

[25:15] So when we help people find that right path and life towards God, we're credited with saving their soul from death. And the Bible says that it hides a large amount of sins as well.

[25:28] So we could say our salvation is secured when we help secure the salvation of others. So just love God with all of your soul.

[25:40] Love the Lord with all of your mind. It's the third aspect. Understanding the mind of mankind. In the context of the greatest commandment, the word that Jesus uses for mind, when you read the scripture, you look at the original word, can be found in other scriptures.

[25:59] You can find it. That same word in other scriptures describing the part of us that makes up our understanding, our intelligence, our imagination.

[26:10] For example, that same exact word that's mind in Matthew 22 and 37, that same word, Jesus used it for mind in Matthew.

[26:21] I'm sorry. The word he used for mind in Matthew 22 and 37 is the same word he used for understanding in 1 John 5 and 20. And we know that the Son of God has come and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even his Son, Jesus Christ, this is the true God and eternal life.

[26:48] That's a powerful oneness scripture I just realized. Even his Son, Jesus Christ, this is the true God. That's pretty clear, right? And eternal life.

[26:58] So this is a powerful scripture that lets us know that Jesus gives us an understanding, a mind, so that we may know him that is true, and that we understand we are in him that is true, and that he is the true God and eternal life comes through him.

[27:24] So some of our understanding as disciples of Jesus Christ comes directly to us from Jesus himself. So if we're disciples of Jesus Christ, our mind, our understanding comes directly from him.

[27:38] Amen. So that's a good thing because we cannot always depend on our own natural human mind or our human understanding pertaining to the things of God. Proverbs 3, 5, and 6 says, Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding, and all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

[28:00] Because we're born in iniquity as a natural man, we're born in sin, born sinful, we must be reborn even to be able to see the kingdom of God. John 3, 3, Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

[28:17] Furthermore, without being born again of the water and the Spirit, he cannot fully understand the Scriptures. 1 Corinthians 2 and 14, But the natural man, the fleshly man, receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him.

[28:33] Neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. So if you don't have the Holy Ghost, how are you going to understand the Word of God? Because it's Spirit. The Word of God is Spirit and life.

[28:45] Jesus said, My words are Spirit and life. Jesus was the Word. God manifested in flesh. The Word manifested in flesh. If you don't have the Holy Ghost, how are you going to fully understand the Word of God?

[28:58] It's a spiritual thing. And so there are going to come times in which we don't fully understand God and all his purposes.

[29:10] God said in Isaiah 55, 8 and 9, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

[29:26] Our lack of understanding should not discourage us, but it should only allow our faith to grow.

[29:38] Because it is in that exact moment that we do not understand everything, that faith has to take over. When we've gone as far as we can go in our understanding about what God's doing in our lives, about what's going on in our lives, and we're trying to figure things out, we're trying to see the big picture, we're trying to understand where God's taking us, we go as far as we can go in our minds.

[30:05] And when we get as far as we can go, we're still not going to understand. And then after that, we've expended all we have, and then it's just faith from there on, okay?

[30:15] And let's look at an example of this, of faith that goes beyond a person's understanding. Thomas had a hard time grasping something. He didn't understand, he couldn't comprehend Jesus being raised from the dead and being alive.

[30:29] So Jesus was crucified, buried in a tomb, raised again on the third day, and he began to reveal himself to disciples and apostles after that for 40 days.

[30:41] And he had been doing that, and a bunch of the other disciples and apostles had been seeing Jesus, and Thomas was missing it here and there. He was one of the ones that hadn't seen him yet.

[30:52] In John 20, verse 25, the other disciples therefore said unto him, to Thomas, we have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Thomas said unto them, except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into the side where he was pierced, I will not believe.

[31:16] Thomas had the, Thomas is saying, that's crazy. What you're saying is crazy. I need to see it for myself. Like, I need to understand this for myself. I need to, in order for me to believe that that's true, I'm gonna have to see the nail prints.

[31:32] I'm gonna have to put my fingers in the nail prints. And the apostles and disciples in the word of God, see, they had the opportunity to actually see Jesus. Jesus. I would have loved to have been able to live during that time and actually got to meet Jesus in person, like that.

[31:50] They got to see Jesus. They got to touch Jesus. But faith begins where our understanding ends. That's what faith is. Jesus said unto him, so a few verses later, four verses later, Jesus did come in, and Thomas saw him, and Thomas, you know the story, Thomas did put his finger in his hands and thrust his hand in his side.

[32:14] And Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have seen me and yet have believed. Jesus is talking about us because we haven't seen him.

[32:27] We haven't seen him like they got to see him. He's talking about us. We believe in him through faith alone.

[32:39] We haven't seen him. We didn't get to touch him. He's talking about our faith. Hebrews 11.1, now faith is the substance of things hoped for, that evidence of things not seen.

[32:50] We didn't get to see him like they did. As disciples of Jesus Christ, we have to walk by faith, not by sight, or our own natural understanding to reach our full potential on Jesus Christ.

[33:02] We love God with all of our mind, all of our understanding, and that allows our faith to grow. Okay? According to our faith, it's going to be done unto us.

[33:15] There's been a couple times through this situation that we're going through that we had to have faith that tomorrow God's going to show up and the miraculous is going to happen and it's going to go our way, and it has.

[33:31] All throughout Jesus' ministry, as found in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, he gave to those according to their faith. There's many documented examples.

[33:42] We're just going to look at one real quick. Luke 8, 43 through 48. And a woman having issue of blood 12 years, which had spent all her living, all her money upon physicians and doctors, neither could be healed of any.

[33:57] None of them could heal her. No one had an answer for her. And she came behind Jesus and touched the border of his garment and immediately her issue of blood was healed.

[34:14] And Jesus said, Who touched me? When everyone started denying it, Peter and all the others with him said, Master, the multitude is strong in you.

[34:26] Everyone's touching you. Everyone's pushing you. Everyone's trying to get their hands on you. And you're saying, Who touched me? Like, how are you to even answer that? And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me, for I perceive that virtue has gone out of me.

[34:42] And when the woman finally saw that she was not able to hide herself, she came trembling, the Bible says, and falling down before him, she declared unto him, before all the people, for what cause she had touched them and how she was healed immediately.

[34:59] And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort. Thy faith has made thee whole. Go in peace. Instantly she was healed. She spent all her life savings.

[35:10] The world couldn't give her her answer. Couldn't fix the situation. And just one touch of the hymn of Jesus' garment. But it was the faith that she had that, because Jesus said, Thy faith has made thee whole.

[35:27] Go in peace. She tried everything with no positive results. And then she got the opportunity to be in arm's reach of Jesus and she took full advantage of it with her faith and it worked.

[35:40] Where our natural mind and our natural understanding stops, faith begins. And when we exercise that faith, we obtain things that our understanding could not comprehend. Like the woman with the issue of blood, she may not have understood how Jesus could heal her or how the healing worked, but as Jesus said, it was according to her faith that she was made whole.

[36:02] And we have to have a pure mind. Much like our heart and soul can experience a purification through Jesus Christ, our mind can experience a renewing or purification through Jesus Christ.

[36:14] Through water baptism and spirit baptism and in faith, that point beyond our own understanding, our minds become transformed and renewed. We then begin to advance the good, acceptable, perfect will of God.

[36:28] Romans chapter 12, verse 2, And be not conformed to the world. Don't change yourself to match the world.

[36:39] But be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is good and acceptable and perfect will of God. When we love God with all of our mind, we do not stop at our own understanding, but we endeavor through faith to go beyond what makes sense to us.

[36:55] We allow the spirit of God to be our understanding. And so where do we end up by hearing the first great commandment? Love God with all your heart, soul, and mind.

[37:06] Where do we end up? When you love God with all of your heart, it affects your thoughts, your intentions, your actions, and that leads you to repentance and it produces praise and worship. And when you love God with all your heart, you can't help but to show forth his praises.

[37:20] From the abundance of your heart, your mouth will speak. His praises will continually be on your lips. Repentance, praise, and worship will come from the heart. When you love God with all of your soul, your relationship grows.

[37:31] You begin to understand some basic desires of the Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ. He wants what he wants and what he likes becomes our wants and likes. You learn of him. You, through his word and communing with him through the spiritual body by way of prayer and fasting unto him, you learn what he wants and he wants you to experience a new birth experience.

[37:56] When you love God with all of your mind, your faith grows and you start to see it that it may not always make sense but you trust God with faith that his word is true.

[38:06] His love for you is true and his bringing salvation through the new birth experience is true. And where we end up when we truly begin to love God with all of our heart, soul, and mind is we're prepared to repent.

[38:19] We praise him. We worship him. We learn of him. We recognize our need to be baptized in his name. We have and believe in his promises and we begin to trust him. And if we experience those things through our growing love for him, we will receive salvation and the gift of the Holy Ghost.

[38:36] Amen. So stand with me. Let's thank God for his word. Let's pray that he helps us learn to love him with all of our heart, our soul, and our mind.

[38:47]  Jesus, we thank you, God, for your word. Amen.