Man, well it's great to be here tonight. I want to talk tonight about loving the Lord
your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. If you look down at your Bible
there in verse 28, the Bible reads,
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? And Jesus
answered him, The first of all the commandments is here, 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. This is the first commandment. And the second is like,
namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There's none other commandment
greater than these. And the scribe said unto him, Well, master, thou hast said the truth,
for there is one God, and there is none other but he. And to love him with all the heart,
and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his
neighbor as himself is more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices. And when Jesus saw
that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.
And tonight the most important commandment, the number one commandment in the Bible,
is that we love God. And we've heard that before. You've probably heard this passage. It's very
famous. To love the Lord our God is the most important commandment. But what does it mean
to love God? What does that actually mean? How do we do that? Because the Bible specifically
says here to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, with all of our soul, with all of our
mind, and with all of our strength. What does that mean? Flip over here to 1 John. In 1 John,
the Bible talks about keeping God's commandments and says, you know, this is the love of God that
we keep his commandments. But here's the thing about that. Is that really all that it means to
love God? Because a lot of people have this attitude that says, well, loving God, that's
just keeping his command. You know, just do what you're supposed to do. That's how you love God.
But what I want to preach to you tonight is that when we love God, that should be something that we
feel deeply. Now let me give you an illustration about this, okay? Let's say that I'm told in the
Bible to love my wife and wives are told to love their husbands, right? So what if I just didn't
really have any feelings for my wife, but I just said, well, you know, I pay the bills, don't I?
I mean, you don't see me out there cheating on you. You know, I mean, what am I bothering you?
Am I doing something wrong here? See, loving your wife isn't just a matter of just checking boxes of
doing your duties and not sinning against your wife and not doing wrong. But rather when we say
husbands love your wives, obviously we're talking about having a strong feeling, an emotion,
an affection toward your wife, right? Or would it be enough if my wife just like a robotic,
kind of just straight face, some kind of just going through the motions, just kind of put
food in front of me and just anything else, you know, and just did everything that she was
supposed to do. No matter how clean she kept the house, no matter how she fed the right meals,
and no matter what duties she performed or what sins she did not commit, that doesn't necessarily
mean that she's a loving wife, does it? Love is something more than that. So when the Bible,
look down at your Bible here, it says in 1 John chapter 5 verse 3,
for this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not
grievous. So the Bible says this is the love of God that we keep his commandments.
Probably on the same page in your Bible, 2 John, if you just flip over to 2 John verse 6, it says,
and this is love that we walk after his commandments. But a lot of people are
misunderstanding these verses to where they think that that's all that love is.
Yeah. Is it love to keep God's commandments? Yes. When I go to work and pay the bills,
is that love? Yes. If I'm faithful to my wife, is that love? Yes. If she cooks and cleans and
takes care of the children and does what she's supposed to do, is that love? Yes,
but it's not enough. It's not everything. Love is so much more than that. And you hear a lot of
people reacting to the charismatic movement, the Pentecostal kind of holy roller, falling on the
ground, rolling around kind of crowd and say, hey, we don't want to be emotional like that.
We don't want to, you know, get off into this kind of emotional based religion.
But what could be the danger is to go too far in the other direction because we see what the
crazies are doing. And then we could go too far in the other direction and sort of just take all
of the feeling, all of the emotion, all of the spirit out of Christianity and just turn it into
just kind of a cold, rigid kind of Christianity that doesn't really feel deeply and love the Lord
our God with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength. I mean, what does that mean?
Is that to say, well, I'm just going to keep God's commandments even harder. I'm just going
to keep God's commandments so hard. I mean, you're either keeping them or you're not.
When it talks about, you know, loving Him with all your heart and your mind and your soul
and your strength, every ounce of your being, I mean, that's a powerful emotion. That's a powerful
feeling. We should have strong feelings toward God. We should feel deeply. I mean, look,
don't you men want your wife to feel deeply about you? I'm sure your wife wants you to feel deeply
about her. Well, guess what? God wants us to feel deeply about Him and to love Him with all of our
heart. Yes, do our duty. Yes, obey the commandments. Yes, let's check all the boxes just like we do at
home. But we need to also love the Lord our God in the most basic definition of the word. Now go,
if you would, to Matthew chapter 7. Matthew chapter 7. I'm going to give you another illustration
about this when it comes to emotions or feelings. Now think about if you're building a house,
there are a lot of materials that would be involved in building a house, right?
And if I were to list off to you some building materials, you could tell me if those are
legitimate, good building materials that you would recommend. We could talk about two by fours,
and we could talk about sheetrock, and we could talk about different doors and hinges.
We could talk about roofing materials. We can talk about insulation, right? And these are
all legitimate bonafide roofing materials that would go into a quality home, right?
There could be copper pipes, and there could be all manner of different materials that would go
into a home. But here's the thing about that. You don't necessarily want to use any of these for
the foundation, do you? Now, there's nothing wrong with using wood when you're building a home. I
mean, there are places in the home where wood is appropriate, where wood is a good choice for
building material. But how would you like to live in a house that's built on a wooden foundation?
A foundation made of wood is a bad idea. You know, building your house on the sand is a bad
idea. Look what the scripture says here in verse 24 of Matthew 7. Therefore, whosoever heareth
these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house
upon a rock. So look, the foundation of our faith, the foundation of our Christian lives,
has got to be the rock. And what's the rock? The rock is hearing God's word and doing it,
right? The rock is hearing it, believing it, responding to it, doing it. That's the foundation.
That's the rock. But let me ask you this. Is that all there is to it? Is that all there is to the
Christian life? No, it's the foundation, but it's not all that there is to it, okay? Now, you're not
going to just lay down a bunch of doors and just say, I'm going to make a foundation of doors.
I'm going to use windows for the foundation. The whole bottom of the house, just under it,
is just all windows. That's an awful foundation, right? But let me ask you this. Do you like having
windows in your house, though? You want to have a door? You want to have roofing material? Now,
look, it would be possible to build the entire house out of stone and nothing else. Fred
Flintstone proved that a long time ago. You know, you could build a house of just stone. I mean,
and look, you know, you'll see people make walls out of concrete, right? There's such thing as a
concrete wall. There's such thing as a concrete ceiling because sometimes you'll be in a hotel
room and the ceiling above you is concrete because it's sort of the foundation for the next
floor. And so here's the thing. Theoretically, we could build a house out of nothing but concrete,
but who wants to live in a house like that? I don't want to live in a house like that. See,
the best house is going to be built on a foundation that's a rock,
but it's going to have other things built. And, you know, some of the other things that go into
the house, they might not even necessarily be for function. Some of them just might be to make
it nicer. You know, you've got, you're painting the walls. You don't necessarily have to paint
the walls. You know, you could just leave everything the color of the building materials,
but you paint the walls, right? You can just leave everything just blank and bland. No,
but you're going to put curtains in the windows. You're going to paint the walls. You're going to
have decorations. You're going to go beyond that, okay? Because you don't want to live in a house
that's just a cold, hard, stone house. Well, here's the thing about that is that do we want
to base our faith on emotions? Do we want to build our Christian life based on a feeling,
based on an emotion? Do you want to base your eternity on a feeling or base your salvation on
a feeling or an emotion? Absolutely not. You know, you want to make sure that when it comes
to salvation, you did what God said you have to do to be saved. You know, it says, what must I do
to be saved? And they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. That's the
foundation. I mean, that's, you know, doing what God said you need to do. And when it comes to our
foundation of doctrine, we don't follow our feelings, do we? No, it's based on a foundation
that's a rock. Now, are our feelings a rock? Do you feel the same way every single day?
Do you feel the same way today that you felt six months ago or will you feel the same way tomorrow?
No, we feel differently. Some days we feel good. Some days we're happy. Some days we're sad.
Our feelings are all over, but that's not a foundation.
The foundation needs to be the rock that never changes, the word of God, Jesus Christ,
the same yesterday and today and forever. But just because emotions are not our foundation,
just because a feeling isn't our foundation, doesn't mean we should say eliminate the feeling.
Eliminate the emotion. Get rid of those curtains. Get rid of that window. Get rid of those doors.
I want everything to be a rock. It wouldn't make any sense, would it? But that's what people are
doing when they basically go too far in the other direction. I'm saying, well, we don't want to be
too emotional. We don't want to be feelings based. So then it's just like feelings don't exist.
And, you know, oh, love God. That means keep his commandments. That's all it means.
Just do it. Just shut up and do what you're told. But that's not what the Bible teaches.
Now go if you would to Galatians chapter number five. In Galatians chapter number five. And,
you know, I'm hitting a lot of famous passages tonight. Most of these passages that we're hitting
you've heard before. They're famous passages. But let me explain to you why they're famous
because they're some of the most important passages in the Bible. That's how they got
famous in the first place. And so these are important things that we need to understand
that we need to be reminded of. And we need to make sure that we don't go too far
in the other direction. Just don't let some holy roller ruin the love of God for you or ruin
feelings and emotion for you. Go to Galatians chapter five in verse 22, the famous verse about
the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit. This is basically the effect that the Spirit is
going to have in our life. What is he going to bring forth or produce in our hearts and in our
lives? He is going to produce love, right? The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no
law. Now, if you look at this list, the first three things on this list are essentially a
feeling. They're essentially an emotion. Is joy an emotion? Joy is an emotion. Joy is something
that you feel, right? Well, guess what? So is peace. I mean, it's not like, well, you don't
see me fighting anybody. What do you mean I'm not peaceful? I never fight anybody.
Is that what the Bible means by peace? No, peace is having a serene feeling. Peace is where
basically the whole world could be coming down around you and you're like that little cartoon
dog where everything's on fire and you're just like, this is fine. Right? You're just like, hey,
I'm okay. And you know what? God will do that for you. The Holy Spirit will do that for you.
The Bible says, be careful for nothing. He's saying, don't worry about anything. It's like,
you don't care what happens. Be careful for nothing. You're not anxious or worried or
full of care about anything. Be careful for nothing. But in everything by prayer and
supplication, let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth
all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Let me ask you this.
If peace was just an absence of fighting, an absence of warfare, an absence of strife,
how could it pass all understanding? I mean, okay, I get that. You didn't pass my understanding
because I know what it means not to fight. I know what it means to not be in strife.
No. When he says the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, he's saying, look, God can give
you peace where everything's going crazy in the world. Everything might even be going crazy in
your personal life. And you know what? You just have peace because you just trust God and you
know God loves you and he's going to take care of everything. And you can just remain calm in the
most radical situations because you have peace from God. You have joy. Other people would be
mourning. You know, Paul and Silas, you know, they could take a beating. They could be in prison.
Everything's going bad. But yet they have joy from the Holy Ghost. They're singing. They're praising
God in a situation where most people would be down. Love is a feeling. Okay. We know that because
this is something that we experience in our lives from the time that we're just a little baby. We
love our mom and we love our dad and we understand that feeling of love, joy, peace. These are
feelings. Go if you would to Luke chapter 24. You know, I just heard a preacher recently say,
you don't feel the Holy Ghost. You don't feel the presence of God. You're never going to feel that.
That's just, that's just your, your brain. You thought about things that were biblical.
You thought about Bible stuff and that's just a chemical thing happening. This is a
dwarfin chemical reaction in your brain, but you can't feel the presence of God.
You can't feel the spirit of God. You're just feeling a chemical reaction because you got
emotional about stuff in the Bible. Well, you know what? That's just a foolish thing to say.
It's a foolish thing to teach. It just, you know, and my thought as I was listening to this guy
was just speak for yourself. Oh, you can't feel, you never feel the presence of God. You never
feel the spirit of God. Well, you know, speak for yourself. Maybe, you know, I believe you.
I believe you that you don't ever feel the presence of God. I believe you that you don't
ever feel anything. Maybe you're even one of those guys that's past feelings since you're preaching a
false gospel too. But you know, in Luke chapter 24, this is one of my favorite verses and we need
to take this back from the Mormons. We need to take back the burning and the bosom from the
Mormons and not let them ruin that for us. Okay. What does the Bible say in Luke chapter 24 verse
32? And they said one to another, did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us,
by the way, and while he opened us the scriptures. Man, didn't, well, that's just,
you know, intellectually, he had some really interesting stuff to teach out of the Bible.
I mean, he taught them some pretty cool doctrines that they'd never heard of. I don't think that's
what they meant here. They say, no, no, no. We were in the presence of the Lord and our hearts
burned within us, burned within us when he talked to us out of the scriptures, not just because he
was a really good preacher, but because he was the son of God. We were in the presence of God.
It was Jesus and our hearts burned within us. See, when I read this verse, I'm not thinking
to myself, Hmm, I wonder what that's talking about. I wonder what that's like. I wonder what
that, no, no, no. Cause I know, cause I've experienced that. My heart is burned within me
reading God's word, listening to the preaching of God's word, singing hymns about God's word.
I get it. You know, James White will come along and say, well, you know, you're just like, what,
what's the difference between you and the Mormons? You know, he basically, I told him, well,
the reason that I know that the word of God is the word of God is cause the word of God. That's why
that's a circular argument. And I said, well, it's the Holy ghost that bears witness to me
that this is the word of God. How do you know the Bible is true? Because the Holy ghost bears
witness to me that the word of God is true. The word of God authenticates itself. It validates
itself. Now look, if anything other than the Bible validates the Bible, then you know what,
then I guess that's your final authority. If science has to validate the Bible for you,
well then science must be your final authority. If history, well, I believe the Bible cause
history, well then history is your final authority. You know, well, I believe the Bible
because the church told me, well then the church is your final authority. No, the validation from
the Bible, it's not some council of some church that said, these are your 66 books because then
that church will be the final authority. It's not a science thing. It's not a history thing. No,
the Bible authenticates itself. The Bible is the highest final authority. You can't swear any
higher. That's why God couldn't swear by any greater. So he swear by himself, a circular,
but he swore by himself because he's the greatest. The Bible validates itself. And I told James White,
I said, Hey, the Holy spirit tells me that this is the word of God. That's how I know it's the
word of God. Cause the Holy spirit told me that. And he said, well, what's the difference between
that and the Mormons? That's just like the burning in the bus, just like the Mormons.
Let me tell you the colossal difference between that and the Mormons is that I'm right. And
they're wrong. That's the difference. That's the difference. I mean, look, you could get emotional
about something that's wrong. You could get emotional about something that's false.
Okay. You could have something fake, you know, look, I'll tell you the difference.
Let me just give you the difference right now. The difference between the burning and the bosom
that I would experience and the burning of the bosom that the Mormons would experience
is that one's from God and one's from Satan. That's the difference. The difference is
that they experienced a burning in the bosom from the devil and I experienced a burning in
the bosom from the Lord. But you know what? I don't need some counsel somewhere to tell me
what the word of God is because the Bible says, my sheep hear my voice. They know not the voice
of strangers. They know the voice of the shepherd. And the Bible says the spirit itself beareth
witness with our spirit that we're the children of God. And the Bible says that when the comforter
has come, he will lead you into all truth. And so I told James Y. I said, the Holy Ghost
leads me into all truth. And I need not that any man teach me because the same anointing
teaches me of all things and is truth and is no lie. And even as it taught me, I still abide in
him because of that unction from the Holy One, because the Holy Spirit of God, that's how I'm
guided into all truth. That's how I can discern truth. Well, you're just sound just like the
Mormons. That's not an argument. That's like when when you tell somebody, hey, Christianity is right
and every other religion is wrong. Who believes that? Amen. Christianity is right. Well, the
Muslims will say the same thing. Hindus will say the same thing. Okay, but what's the difference?
That we're right and they're wrong. There's an absolute truth. There's a right and right. That's
not an argument. Oh, somebody, I mean, what have I said about my wife? This is my wife. And then
someone else said it was their wife. What would be the difference? We're both making the same claim.
The difference is that I'm actually your husband. And that's a pretty big difference, isn't it?
Well, you know what? There's a pretty big difference between the Mormons
who are either a imagining things, working themselves up or receiving some kind of a
lying sign and wonder from the devil, some kind of a burning in their bosom or whatever.
That's a little bit different than an actual spirit filled Christian reading the Word of God
as tears come down their face and their heart burns in them because of the presence of the Lord.
Because of feeling the presence of the Lord. Being in a powerful church service where they feel
the presence of the Lord. But what's the difference? I mean, you know,
that's a foolish question. Is all the difference in the world?
Go if you would to Psalm 63. Psalm 63.
Psalm 63.
And let me say this. If you don't have emotional feelings as part of your Christianity, how could
you really say that you're keeping the greatest commandment? If the greatest commandment,
is it to love God a little bit? Yeah, I love God a little bit. You know, I mean,
you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, I, I, yeah, I do. Yeah, I think I do. I think I love him.
Is that what it says? I can learn to love him. Is that what it says? What does it say?
This is the biggest commandment. It's more than all the burnt offerings and all the burnt
sacrifices. It's, it's the big one. To love the Lord your God with all your heart and your soul
and your mind and your strength with every ounce of your being. That's a powerful emotion. That's
a powerful feeling. If you don't have any feelings like that, well, you know what? That's something
you need to work on. You know, maybe you need to spend a little more time walking and talking with
Jesus because the people who walked and talked with him, man, their heart burned within them.
Maybe you need to spend a little more time talking to Jesus, a little more time walking with Jesus
until you develop the right kind of feelings for the Lord, where you love the Lord your God with
all your heart and all your mind and all your soul and all your strength. You know, you need to have
that powerful emotion. He said, well, this doesn't sound very Baptist. So what? Then Baptists need
to love God more, get more excited or get more spiritual. You know what I mean? And look, I'm
all for crossing the T's and dotting the I's. I'm all for minding our P's and Q's and having
the doctrine right. And I'm all for checking the boxes and doing all the right things and abstaining
from the wrong things. But at the end of the day, if that's all that Christianity is, we're missing
the boat of the greatest commandment in the Bible, which is a love commandment. It's a feeling
commandment. It's an emotional commandment. And you know what? If you don't believe me,
I could spend hours and hours showing you scripture that would prove you so wrong. It's
called the entire book of Psalms. I mean, the book of Psalms is a pretty emotional book. Am I right?
Let's look at an example here. Let's look at Psalm 63. But well, before we get to Psalm 63,
let me quote you another of my favorite verses. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see
God. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. And you know, when I hear this, this,
this phony preacher saying, you don't feel the presence of the Lord. You're not going to feel
that. You're not going to feel the Holy Spirit. That's just a, that's just a chemical cocktail
in your brain because of good Calvinist doctrine coming at you. You know what? You know, I'm
thinking to myself is like, you, you are not pure in heart and that's why you haven't seen God.
Because blessed are the pure in heart. They shall see God. Now what does it mean to see God?
Now is this talking about physically seeing God? Look, I've never physically seen God.
The Bible says no man has seen God at any time, but if we love one another,
no man, see, there's two places, you know, you know, we usually hear John chapter one,
no man has seen God at any time. The only begotten son, which in the bosom of the father,
he has declared him. That's basically saying, you know, we see God by seeing Jesus. You know,
when we saw Jesus, that's God manifest in the flesh. You know, we can't see God, the father,
but we could see Jesus. Jesus allows us to see the invisible God. He's the image of the invisible
God, right? But you could go to another verse in first John chapter four, where it says, no man
has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us.
That's another way to see God. And what does the Bible say in Psalm 63? Look at verse one.
Oh God, thou art my God. Early will I seek thee. My soul thirsteth for thee. Is this like,
I read my Bible. I prayed. I went to church. I put my tithe in the plate. I checked the boxes. I went
soul winning. I didn't drink. I didn't chew. I didn't go with girls who do. But no, it says,
my soul thirsteth for thee. This is emotion. This is a feeling. My flesh longeth for thee
in a dry and thirsty land where no water is. He's saying, God, I love you so much. I love you as
much as if I were just in the driest desert with nothing to drink as much as I would love a glass
of water. That's how much I love you God. That's how I feel about you. That's a powerful feeling.
But look at the next verse because the sentence isn't over yet. He says in a dry,
thirsty land where no water is to see thy power and thy glory. So as I have seen thee
in the sanctuary. Let me ask you this. Had David seen God? Had David seen God? Obviously,
he hasn't seen him physically. No man has seen God at any time physically. But he said,
I have seen God in the sanctuary. Is that what he said? Look at your Bible. To see thy power
and thy glory. So as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. He's saying, look, I have seen God
in church. The sanctuary is the house of God. I have seen God in church and I am longing to see
God again. I don't want to just see God one time. I don't want to have one powerful experience or
emotional experience or spirit filled experience. He says, no, no, I want to see God again.
As I've seen him in the sanctuary, I'm longing for that spiritual summit once again. That spiritual
high point once again. That closeness with God once again. I want to feel God's presence once
again. I want to see God as I've seen him in the sanctuary. Because thy loving kindness is better
than life. My lips shall praise thee. Verse four. Thus will I bless thee while I live.
I will lift up my hands in thy name. Now let's get the analogy here for David's love toward God.
My soul shall be satisfied. You know, he's talking about what? Being satisfied with the Lord.
My soul will be satisfied as with marrow and fatness. Now let me ask him, is that a feeling?
I mean, look, when you eat that good meal of marrow and fatness, you know, you eat that
barbecue brisket sandwich. That's a feeling. That's an emotion. It's joy. All right, right?
It's not just like, well, I ate 500 calories, didn't I?
How many grams of protein are in this? Great, I got my protein in. All right, you know,
what was the fat? What's the carbohydrates? No, it's a feeling. I can feel it. You know,
it's an emotion, right? It's a powerful feeling. You know, biting in to that perfect barbecue
sandwich. That's a powerful feeling, my friend. All the marrow and the fatness.
And this is not a vegan meal, by the way. You know, he said, look, the way that I feel
biting into that ultimate, and maybe for you, you know, it's that cheeseburger
or whatever it is, but just biting into that ultimate meal. I mean, biting, you're starving
and hungry and it's just your favorite meal and you take that first bite. Do you love the Lord
like that? Because that's what he's saying. He said, I'm satisfied with the Lord. I'm satisfied
with the word of God. I get that kind of a feeling from the things of God that you get biting into
that cheeseburger. And it's hard to get a more powerful feeling, you know, to this side of
heaven, you know? So he's saying, look, my soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness.
And my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips when I remember thee upon my bed and
meditate on thee in the night watches because thou has been my help. Therefore, in the shadow
of thy wings will I rejoice. My soul followeth hard after thee, thy right hand upholds me.
Go back to Psalm 42. I mean, we could go all over Psalms. These are just a couple of highlights.
We could go all over the place. Look at Psalm 42. The Bible says in Psalm 42 verse one,
as the heart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God,
my soul thirsteth for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? He say,
man, I am thirsting for God. When, when is it going to happen? This is when you're looking
forward to something and you're just counting down. You know, it's like, oh man, it's two months
away. Oh man, six more weeks, five more weeks, you know, three more sleeps until whatever. And,
you know, you're, you're looking forward to it. You're excited. Think about the things that you've
gotten excited about in your life. Think about things that you've looked forward to. And you
know, another thing you could think about is, is being in love. You know, you think about
when you were first in love with your, with your wife or your husband, you know, when you first
met and you were in love and you just, you just can't get enough. You can't spend enough time
with them. You just, you know, there's, you don't get sick of being around them. You don't get sick
of talking. It's just like, you just want more. Okay. Because you're in love. You know, God wants
us to love him where we want to spend time with him. We're longing for him. And you know, these
kinds of powerful feelings, these kinds of emotions, you know, they should be a part of
our lives if we, if we're really going to claim that we love the Lord, our God with all our heart,
mind and soul and strength. And notice the second commandment. The second commandment is, man,
love your neighbor with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul. It's too much.
You know, it's like, I'm going to love my neighbor, but I'm not going to love my neighbor
that that's too much. I'm going to love my neighbor as myself
because I love myself, but I'm not just like, I'm not just like obsessed with myself. Like,
you know, I'm not just looking in the mirror. You good looking guy. You, man, you are just awesome.
Yeah. That'd be weird, right? You know, we, we love ourselves. You know, the Bible says no man
ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and careth for it. You know, we love ourselves. We
care about ourselves and you know what, all things whatsoever we would that men should do unto us,
we should even do unto them. Do unto others as you'd have them do unto you. Love your neighbor
as yourself. Just like you love yourself. Just like you care about yourself. You look out for
yourself. Care about other people. Look out for other people. The Bible says, let each esteem
other better than themselves. Love thy neighbor as thyself. And obviously there are people that
we love more than others. Our spouse, our children, family, we're going to love them more than just
kind of Joe Blow, even though we love Joe Blow too. They're going to be certain people in our
life that we love more. They're closer to us. They're an inner circle. Even Jesus had the
disciple whom he loved, you know, so we're gonna have the inner circle. We're going to have people
that we love in varying degrees, you know, but there's a love that we have for God that is
supposed to be beyond anything else that we love. We're supposed to love God more than any person.
We're supposed to love God more than any activity, more than any food, more than any drink. I mean,
we're, you can't love God too much because you're to love him with all the heart, all the mind,
all the strength, all the understanding, all of your soul, you're supposed to love God.
So it can never be too much. And is that love just keeping his commandments? Now look, it's true.
Jesus said, hey, if you love me, keep my commandments. So there's an association there.
Just like my wife could look at me and say, well, if you love me, pay my bills. I could look at her
and say, well, if you love me, obey me. You know, if you love me, submit to me as your husband.
If you love me, be faithful to me. If you love me, cook me that amazing meal. And she could say,
well, if you love me, be faithful to me. If you love me, go work hard and provide and put a roof
over our head. You know, if you love me, take care of me. And we would say, well, if a man's not
taking care of his wife, he must not love his wife. If we see a wife going out and committing
adultery and playing the whore, we'd look at that and say, well, you don't love your husband.
You're out with some other man. You don't love your husband. Would we say that?
But does that mean that that's all love in a marriage is it's just keeping the commandments?
No, it's more than that. It's also a feeling. It's also an emotion.
And so we are to love God. We are to have an emotional feeling. Now, look, obviously,
this is something that could be counterfeited. This is something that people could, you know,
get excited about other things. I mean, look, there are people that go to a rock concert
and they go backstage at the rock concert and they're just like crying and shaking.
Right. Like they just they're just like overwhelmed.
I mean, that's an emotion. That's a feeling.
Now you say, well, you know, so, you know, how can we how can we trust that?
How can we trust that feeling that we get when we read the Bible and that feeling we get?
You know, they're having it, too. But here's the thing. I'm not saying to make it the foundation.
I'm not saying to make emotion the foundation of your faith. Remember, we talked about this.
The word of God is the foundation of our faith.
OK, an emotional experience like like here's the thing. If I went to a church service
and I had a powerful emotional feeling and later it turned out that the preacher was
a false teacher, I'm not going to say, well, he can't be a false teacher because I had that
feeling. OK, the feeling is not what we use to base our faith or the foundation of our faith,
because you could go to a rock concert and have a feeling.
You know, you could be a Mormon and say, well, I've had a feeling. I know what I felt.
It's not the basis, but it's still a component. The windows aren't the basis,
but they're a component. The roof isn't the basis, but it's a component.
We need to have this in our lives. OK, we need to have love and feeling and emotion for the Lord
as a part of our life. Yeah, there are people that are out there and they could get they
could get strong feelings about a sports team or about food and drink or whatever.
But but here's the thing. God wants us to direct that emotion toward him is what it is.
He wants us to feel about him the way that that person backstage at that concert feels.
He wants us to feel that way reading our Bibles and studying the word of God and singing praises
to God and praying to the Lord. And so, yeah, there are other vain manifestations of people
getting emotional. There are people that are in false religions that get all emotional,
and then that makes them feel like, oh, this is the right religion. That's not what I'm saying.
I'm saying that the foundation of our faith is what the word of God says.
How do we know that the Bible is true? Not because of a feeling or an emotion,
but because the Holy Spirit guides us into all truth and he actually will lead us and
show us and we know the voice of the shepherd. Because if you seek, you'll find.
I mean, you say, Pastor Anderson, how do you know that you found the truth?
Because I asked and everyone that asketh receiveth and he that seeketh findeth.
And I sought God with all my heart and I found him and I knocked on the door.
So it opened because the Bible says to him, the noggin is shall be opened.
But once we have a foundation in the word of God, once the word of God
is that bedrock foundation, the emotional experience is the feelings are the icing on
the cake so that we're not just dwelling in some cold, hard, institutional home made 100% of concrete.
And a lot of churches are missing this component. A lot of people are missing this component in
their life and they don't understand that they need to get their heart involved and not just
their brain, not just mentally assenting to doctrines, but actually getting their heart
involved and getting excited about the things of God because they're burning with love to the Lord.
Now look, it's not hard to love the Lord. The Lord is great. You know, it's not like I'm putting
before you some really unlovable specimen and say, you've got to love this. You know, I'm not
giving you a bowl of sauerkraut and saying, you're going to learn to love this. I'm giving you one of
those cupcakes and saying to love it. And you're just like, I will do it. You know what I mean?
It's easy. God is a lot more like that cupcake than he is like the sauerkraut because, you know,
the Bible says, taste and see that the Lord's good.
And the Bible says that God's word is sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
And so this is something that is not some super difficult task and it's hard and, you know,
it should be easy. I mean, the Bible is such an awesome book. How can you not love it?
You know, listening to the preaching and having a preacher expound to you some biblical truth that
you never thought of. I mean, that feels good. Enjoy that. It brings joy and gladness. You know,
singing praises to God brings so much joy and gladness. And you know what? Let's say you're
a down person. Maybe you're down, but you know, some people they're just down all the time and
they're just always complaining and they're depressed. You know, maybe you're just not
singing enough hymns because singing some hymns could turn around a bad attitude. You know,
the Bible says be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs. Be filled with the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit is joy. Say, man, I just lack joy in
my life. Here, let me reach for a bottle. And I just don't have any joy. Here, let me look for
it on TV. Let me see if I can find it in worldliness. Let me see if I maybe down at the
bar. Maybe joy is waiting for me down at the strip club or down at the casino. Let me tell
you something. The fruit of the Spirit is joy. You get filled with the Spirit. I can promise you
you'll have joy. I promise. Because the fruit of the Spirit is joy. That's period. You fill
with the Spirit. You can have joy and everybody wants to be happy, right? Everybody wants to have
joy. You know what? There's real lasting joy found in serving God. And without Christ, life
is empty and hopeless and worthless. That's the reality. There are pleasures of sin for a season,
but there's no real joy out there. And you young people, just get it through your head. Just
listen to us. We're older and smarter. Just deal with it. Okay? You're young. You don't know.
We're telling you the truth. The life of sin brings you pain, suffering, sorrow.
There's no real love out there either. It's not real love out there. The real love is found in
Christianity because everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. That's where the love is.
And you know what? I can't even count how many times that I've been reading my Bible or praying
or singing a hymn. And you know, it's typically when I'm by myself that I have just burst into
tears. I've just burst into tears, just overwhelmed by emotion. And you know what? It's real. And you
know what? Sorry. Booze isn't going to do that for you. The strip club's not going to do that
for you. You're going to walk out of there with an empty feeling. The casino, you're going to walk
out with an empty wallet. Okay. You're going to walk out of the sporting arena. You know what?
There's an empty feeling there. There's an empty feeling. The real joy, the real joy is found
with the Lord. And so believe us when we tell you that. You know, your pastor gets up Sunday
morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, and he tells you there's nothing out there. There's
nothing out there. It's all worthless. It's all a waste. Don't fall for it. There are people here.
They've done it. They could tell you. They've been there. There's nothing there. It's all right here.
Follow God. Joy is found with the Lord. Get married. Have kids. Go to church. Serve God.
Go soul winning. Read your Bible. Pray. That's where the joy is. They're telling you the truth.
And Christianity doesn't have to be just a cold, concrete, white padded room for us just to keep us
from getting out of line. Christianity is not a straight jacket just to keep us from
screwing ourselves up. So we don't hurt ourselves. Christianity is not a straight jacket. It's not a
white padded room. You know what? It's a wide open expanse where God maketh us to lie down in green
pastures and he leads us beside the still waters and he spreads a table before us in the presence
of our enemies and we're so filled with joy. We're so filled with emotion. We're so filled with the
love of God that our cup runs over because there's just too much. What could you possibly want in your
life more than love, joy and peace? I mean isn't that, isn't that it? I mean what else do you need?
It's like love, joy, peace and hey that's not even all the fruit of the Spirit. That's just
the first three. You already, I'm sold. I don't even need to know the other the other six fruits
because I'm, you know, it's like give me love, joy and peace. I'm good to go but there's six other
bonus fruits that you get. Love the Lord your God. This is the, this is the most important
commandment. That's what Jesus said. The most important commandment is to love the Lord. Let's
bow your heads in our word of prayer. Father we thank you so much for your word Lord and we thank
you so much that that you've you've brought us into a relationship not as your slaves as the
as the ESV or some of these modern versions or the Calvinists are always telling us that we're
God's slaves or or something Lord. Thank you for not bringing us into a relationship where we are
your slave but thank you for bringing us into a loving relationship Lord. And Lord may we love
you with all of our mind and all of our heart and all of our soul and strength and understanding
and might Lord help us all to love you more and in Jesus name we pray. Amen.