Galatians chapter 5 verse 22 but the fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace
long suffering long suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness
temperance against such there is no law as I said to you guys coming into this
new year that I was going to teach on the fruits of the Spirit okay now you
know I know I'm gonna have a boring series on the fruits of the Spirit on
love and joy and peace hey look you know what some preaching yeah you know
it's exciting some preaching is you know and you know you follow Jesus on his
adventures and you see how he how he speaks against the hypocrites and the
Pharisees and that's what exciting but you know what excites the spirits what
excites the Holy Spirit what excites that new revived spirit the new man in
you is the fruits of the spirits you know what's exciting for you when you
go out and you knock doors and you win souls you see souls saved now don't tell
me that's not exciting it's exciting when you go and see so saved because
that's the fruit of the righteous that's your fruit you can see that with your
hard work with your growth you've been able to see soul saved praise God how
much does that then excite the spirit when the spirit sees the fruit of the
spirit developing in you okay so you know as we go through this series on the
fruits of the spirit hey you might not appeal to your flesh I don't want to
appeal to your flesh okay it's definitely going to appeal to your
spirits going to appeal to that new man and if we want to be Christians in 2019
all right that are maturing that are growing that are walking in the spirit
how are we going to test that in our lives you know because here's the thing
like I said before you guys in 2019 there's going to be times you're walking
the spirit there's going to be other times you're walking after the flesh
when you sin and you and you seek the things of this world but what we want to
do is change the ratio we want to spend more time walking in the spirit which
will reduce the time you walk in the flesh which we reduce the amount of sin
that you commit in your life okay and you'll be in more constant fellowship
with God that's what's going to strengthen you that's what's that's
what's going to grow you mature you as a believer you don't need to turn there
but I'll just read from Matthew 22 verse 36 it says master which is the great
commandment in the in the law Jesus said unto him thou shalt love the Lord
thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul with all thy mind this is the
first and great commandment and the second is like unto its thou shalt love
thy neighbor as thyself on these two commandments hang all the law and the
prophets the title of sermon tonight is thou shalt love okay the first fruit of
the Spirit that we're going to be looking at is the first one that's in
the list there in Galatians 5 which is love okay thou shalt love the fruits of
the Spirit part 1 now Jesus Christ has taught us that we ought to love many
different people okay in the Bible we already saw there from what I read that
we have to love the Lord God but we also ought to love our neighbors okay say
well who's our neighbor hey that's a question that was brought forth to Jesus
Christ at one point in time okay so we're going to start off by looking at
loving your neighbor loving your neighbor who is your neighbor you know
and here's the thing guys the only way you can love the way God wants you to
love is if you're walking the spirits you can't expect the fruits of the
spirits just developing your life if you're seeking after the flesh you need
to be able to spend time in the spirit spend time in the Word of God in church
praying to the Lord doing everything that you need to do being communion with
the Lord walking in fellowship serving the Lord all the days of your life okay
and and through that process you will learn to love through that process all
these fruits of the Spirit will develop in your life okay you know are you
someone that's you know when I look at your life when you look at yourself when
you do your self-examination are you someone that's known for their love or
are you someone that's known for their hatred you say well a bit of both well
praise God for a bit of both okay but here's the thing we've got to be careful
because you know there is a wrong type of hatred okay but there's also a
righteous type of hatred which we'll get into later on okay but we see hatred is
not one of the fruits of the Spirit but it's love you know we ought to be people
that when people look at us they say hey these are a people that love these are
people that love their neighbor that love their brethren that love the Lord
God can you guys turn to Romans chapter 13 please Romans 13 verse 8 Romans 13
verse 8 because I have heard it not by many it seems to be more of a fringe
teaching that loving your neighbor means loving your brethren like loving your
saved brethren and of course there's an element to that okay of course loving
the brethren will fall under loving your neighbor okay but is it just your saved
brethren that you ought to show love toward look at Romans 13 verse 8 Bible
says oh no man anything but to love one another hey there's something we owe man
okay that we ought to love one another okay that's a deep and profound truth
for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law okay that's nine for
this thou shalt not commit adultery thou shalt not kill thou shalt not still
thou shalt not bear false witness thou shalt not covet if there be any other
commandment it is briefly comprehended in this saying namely thou shalt love
thy neighbor as thyself what did we just read this some of the
thou shalt not where's that coming from the Ten Commandments right the Ten
Commandments that deal with our relationship with our fellow man we've
we've other you know other people okay and basically what what's being taught
here same here Jesus Christ taught if we just love our neighbor we keep it simple
just show love then we'll be keeping all those other commandments okay because
when you break those Commandments then you're not showing love toward your
neighbor to you to your fellow man all right now let's think about this in
verse number nine is loving your neighbor just you're loving your your
brethren your saved brethren well think about it right the commands were that
shall not kill well if you're if you're applying it to just say brethren well
then I shouldn't kill my safe brethren but I can kill those that are unsaved
all right I mean think about it think about like that right and then you know
that shall not still well I can't steal from my safe brethren but then I guess
it's okay to steal from you know the unsaved the non-believing world now of
course these Commandments are not just to the safe brethren they're to all
mankind okay we shouldn't be killing anyone or you know committing murder or
or stealing or bearing false witness or committing adultery or coveting the
possessions of any man your brethren and the unsaved world the unsaved
people okay so we see immediately if we're to love our neighbor these are
commands that God gave us to deal with to fellowship with with every man okay
with every man all right it also said there in verse number 10 in Romans 13
verse 10 love worketh no ill to his neighbor therefore love is the
fulfilling of the law all right they say well what's the population of the
world is it it's seven billion now I think right I think we're approaching
eight billion okay are you telling me pastor Kev that we are to love all eight
billion people in this world is that what you're asking of me
no no Bible says love your neighbor you're not going to cross paths with
eight billion people in your life you're going to cross paths with a small
percentage of that throughout your whole life okay and the people you you deal
with on a constant basis you know yeah your neighborhood you know the people
that live your your next-door neighbors and people like that people you work
with and obviously maybe you go to church with the people that you meet in
different paths you know it just just conducting your business go into the
shops just interact with whoever is that you interact with that's your neighbor
okay we're asked to keep the commands that you know to all mankind these are
your neighbors and that question did get asked if you guys can turn to Luke
chapter 10 I know already preaching this not long ago but we need to touch
upon it very quickly Luke 10 27 Luke 27 Luke 10 27 sorry Luke 10 27 Luke 10 27
and he answered answering said thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy strength and with all thy mind
and thy neighbor as thyself and he said unto him thou hast answered right this
do and thou shalt live but he willing to justify himself said unto Jesus and who
is my neighbor you know this our lawyer I believe it was I was trying to you
know work out who's my neighbor because you know he wants to justify himself you
know obviously he's not been keeping this command he's not been loving the
people that he comes across maybe he's been loving a certain percentage maybe
he's been loving the people that he that he goes to church with or not Church
back then but you know to the temple his fellow lawyers his fellow Pharisees or
whatever he's trying to justify himself he's trying to narrow it a little bit
you know and he asked the question who is my neighbor verse 30 and Jesus
answering said a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among
thieves which stripped him of his raiment and wounded him and departed
leaving him half dead now look if you're walking along your path on your foot
path and you come across someone who's still alive even if he was dead all
right I think I believe any of you guys would stop and go what in the world what
can I do all right and you probably the least you would do is get your phone and
ring the ambulance all right ring triple zero well is it triple zero here would
be right anyway you know I'm sure you would do that right but here's what
happens with this guy and he's not even dead he's half dead verse 31 and by
chance they came down a certain priest that way and when he saw him he passed
by on the other side okay and likewise I leave light when he was at the place
came and looked on him and passed by on the other side but a certain Samaritan
hey someone that's not even the same of the same people as the Jews okay someone
that is from another land another part you know and again those enmity between
the fact that the Jews and Samaritans but a certain Samaritan as he journeyed
came where he was and when he saw him he had compassion on him hey do you have
compassion for your fellow man you saw a man who's in need you know if you're
just you know you might see an elderly man whose car has broken down do you
have compassion on that person and you think hey maybe I can stop and help this
person maybe I can help stop and change their tire or whatever or call roadside
assistance for their you know who knows you know do you have compassion the way
the Samaritan did here verse 34 and he went to him and bound up his wounds
pouring in oil and wine and set him on his own beasts and brought him to an inn
and took care of him and the morrow when he departed he took out two pants and
gave them to the host and said unto him take care of him and what's over there
when I come again I will repay thee which now of these three think as thou
was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves I mean easy question and he
said he that showed mercy on him then said Jesus unto him go and do thou
likewise hey the instruction that God gives us to love our neighbors is to go
and do thou likewise you know we ought to be people that have compassion even
on the unsaved world okay if your neighbor has a need and you're able to
fulfill that need you ought to be generous even if it's going to cost you
a little bit of money like it cost a Good Samaritan to look after this fallen
person hey we need to be generous in that way we need to show kindness all
right and say well they're not believing what if they're reprobate what if they're
all this you know we'll cover that in a minute all right but you know when we
come across people in our lives they ought to say hey this person is a you
know oh you know this person's a good man this person's a good woman this
person shows generosity this person shows love to the people they come
across you know when I if we go to the shop I always greet the check-in that
the checkout person all right they're important people we come across we don't
know what opportunities might be given to us in the future to give that person
the gospel we don't know what kind of opportunities might open up just to
have a bit of a smile to say hello to say goodbye to say thank you to say
please you know to show some love and respect you to your common man can you
guys go back to Galatians 5 Galatians 5 verse 19 but are we to love everybody
is everybody our neighbor and those are the questions that come up Galatians 5
verse 19 let's look at this quickly Galatians 5 19 before we got before we
looked at the passage of the fruits of the Spirit God gave us a list of the
works of the flesh in comparison look at it verse 19 now the works of the flesh
are manifest which are these adultery fornication uncleanness lasciviousness
idolatry witchcraft hatred what's the opposite of love it's hate all right
hatred is here listed amongst the works of the flesh variants emulations wrath
strife seditions heresies envians murders drunkenness rebellions and such
like of the which I tell you before as I have also told you in time past that
they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God and before
you start panicking I've done those things am I not going into the kingdom
of God those are the works of the flesh we've all done some of those things on
that list okay and this flesh this flesh and blood will not inherit the kingdom
of God once again that's why we must be born again of the Spirit then we can
enter the kingdom of God but you know I just want to show you the comparison
there hatred is listed as a work of the flesh and love is listed as the fruits
of the Spirit okay so you know it's hate then a work of the flesh yes it is it is
according to that list but not all hates is the work of the flesh all right so
let's not confuse those things okay the reason I say that is I'll just reach you
from Psalm 5 5 it says the foolish shall not stand in thy sights in the sight of
God thou hatest all workers of iniquity we already covered that before we went
through Psalms right that God actually hates not just the iniquity but God can
hate the workers of iniquity so if hate is listed as a work of the flesh are we
saying then the hatred that God has here is the work of the flesh of course not
because God does not have a fallen sin a sinful nature like we do okay
but he can hate with a righteous hatred verse number six says that shall destroy
them that speak leasing and and the Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man
God hates those that they go about and murder okay God hates the serial killers
those that love the shedding of blood you know he abhors them which is a
stronger version of hate are we gonna then say well come on God that's a work
of the flesh and you're not supposed to hate no there is a righteous hatred and
as you'll soon see you cannot love without hating something okay I mean
these two things have to go together all right turn to Psalm 97 please Psalm 97
verse 10 Psalm 97 verse 10 we can't talk about love without first talking a
little bit about hatred and the righteous hatred that we see in the
Bible because we don't want to eliminate hatred altogether otherwise
you'll become an unbalanced Christian okay Psalm 97 verse 10 like Psalm 97
verse 10 ye that love the Lord hey you guys love the Lord do you want to love
the Lord yes it's it's a fruits of the Spirit we want to love the Lord more
right how do we do it what's the instruction you that love the Lord hate
evil hey we need to be people that hate the evil in this world the workers of
iniquity and if you hate that thing which is a righteous hatred we say we
know that God hates it that will show that you actually love God you love his
commands you love his holiness you love his his way okay instead of the way of
the world says ye that love the Lord hate evil okay he preserves the souls of
his saints he deliver them out of the hand of the wicked turn to Psalm 139
Psalm 139 verse 19 Psalm 139 verse 19 a psalm of David a man after God's own
hearts a man who loved the Lord God he's got that title what an amazing title
what a privilege to be known as a man after God's own heart and what does he
say in Psalm 139 verse 19 says surely thou wilt slay the wicked of God the
apart from me therefore ye bloody men for they speak against thee wickedly and
thine enemies take thine name in vain so these are haters of God these are that
those that speak wickedly of God he says in 20 verse 21 do not I hate them O Lord
that hate thee am I not grieved with those that rise up against thee I hate
them with perfect hatred I count them mine enemies hey there is a perfect
hatred there is a righteous hatred a hatred that comes from God from knowing
his word knowing what he loves knowing what he hates and it's right to hate the
things that God hates in fact if you do that you show that you love God all
right these things come together a perfect hatred for the wicked all right
especially for wickedness and the wicked and like reprobate to all those kinds of
people that are that hate the Lord God that hate him okay it is right for us to
count them as our enemies okay because they're first the enemies of God all
right we know we ought to love our enemies all right you might do something
wrong to me and I get a bit angry at ya you know I might count you as my enemy
for a little while but I'm still commanded to love you okay but there are
people out there that actually hate God they spies that speak wickedly of him
we're not to love those people okay now we need to be careful that the the
perfect hatred that we know of in the Bible does not you know spill over into
the flesh okay because we know the flesh also likes to hate all right so we need
to be careful and I like what David says in verse 23 because he realizes that
he's got to be careful all right he says search me Oh God and know my heart
try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead
me in the way everlasting so this is straight after he just says I hate those
that hate you know thee but then he says you know search me you know he wants to
make sure that his hatred is righteous that it's it's holy that it's perfect
and that it's not you know coming from his flesh it's not coming from his own
wickedness that he has okay so we see even David has to have a self
examination all right we shouldn't be people that just are always you know
always seeking to hate you know always know that no we should be people that
are striving to love right we should be you know saying we should be seeing
people as innocent till proven guilty and if they're proven guilty to be a
hater of God then yes now you can express your hatred to all that person
all right but start with the love first all right you don't want to accidentally
hate those that you know God has commanded us to love all right let's
keep going let's turn to our John chapter 13 John 13 verse 34 talk about
loving your neighbors originally all right loving your neighbors okay please
demonstrate love to the people you come across okay just being courteous just
being kind you know we'll show love toward your neighbors if there's a
neighboring need go and help them you don't have to check with God is this my
brethren what if they're a reprobate you don't help them anyway right innocence
you're proven guilty all right you don't know I mean look you knock doors
sometimes the best love you can show to your neighbor is preaching the gospel
going door to door that's the best way of showing love okay you ignore that
you're showing hatred to your neighbors but hey sometimes you knock the door you
might have some doubts you might be is this a reprobate you know is this a
homosexual is this someone look I don't know you know sometimes I think about it
but I don't know I'm gonna give him the benefit of the doubt and give him the
gospel all right let's keep going John 13 34 Jesus says a new commandment I
give unto you that you love one another as I have loved you that you also love
one another by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if you have
loved one to another hey this is a love for your brethren love for your safe
brothers love for your safe sisters in the Lord God commands us a new
commandment he gives us that we are to love one another as I have loved you how
much has Christ loved you how much with his life okay he died for you he took
the eternal punishment that you would have to take he stepped in he did it out
of love okay for you and he says out of that same love we ought to love the
brethren can you say that to me like you look you don't have to look around the
church but can you say to me that every person in this church I love them as
much as Christ loves me all right and if you say I can't honestly say that well
you need to work on that fruit okay you need to ask the Holy Spirit to develop
that fruit of love in you because that's a hallmark of being a true disciple of
Jesus Christ okay people can see that you have a love for the Brethren a love
for his disciples that's going to show them that you are a disciple of Christ
that you are a follower of Christ that you're seeking to follow off these
commandments please turn to 1st Peter chapter 3 verse 8 1st Peter chapter 3
verse 8 is Jesus asking too much from us I don't think so I don't think so you
know if you think he's asking too much then you've you've just forgotten how
much Christ loves you you've just forgotten how much is sacrificed for you
okay when you when you when you can just stop and consider that then you'll
realize I better love my Brethren all right if that's been commanded of him
1st Peter chapter 3 verse 8 it says finally be all of one mind having
compassion one of another love as brethren be pitiful be courteous not
rendering evil for evil or railing for railing but contra wise blessing knowing
that ye accord are they aren't accord that you should inherit a blessing hey
God wants to give us the inheritance of a blessing but first we have to have
compassion for the Brethren we have to show pity and be courteous to the
Brethren hey if the Brethren do evil to us we're not to render evil for evil or
railing for railing okay we are to show love one for another you say well you
know I don't get along with brother so-and-so I don't get along with sister
so-and-so look the command is not get along with brother so-and-so the command
is to love them all right it's possible to not necessarily get along maybe not
having the same interest you know just not having you know personality clashes
or whatever but you can still show courtesy you can still show you know
have pity on that person if they're struggling with something you can still
show love just greet in that person you know if you just ignore that person say
I don't get along with I'm just gonna ignore him well that's not showing love
that's you disobey in Jesus Christ he says here in the in his in his words
that we're to have a compassion to be courteous to one another oh courteous is
that's saying hello to one another okay that's saying bye to each other not
ignoring one another you know I don't get along with everybody but I try my
best to be courteous to be kind to us hey is there anything I can pray about is
there anything that you need that I can help you with we ought to be people like
that all right be careful you know we're commanded to love the brethren you're in
1st Peter turn to 1st Peter chapter 1 1st Peter chapter 1 verse 22 1st Peter
chapter 1 verse 22 seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth
through the spirit and unfeigned love of the brethren what's unfeigned it means
it's not fake all right it's not fake I've seen a lot of fake love in churches
all right our love for one another and that must be unfeigned unfeigned love for
the brethren see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently
know that means we've you know passionate being passionate with how
much you love them okay we give it everything you've got you know it's
similar to like a like a fire burning fervently okay that's how we ought to
love the Brethren not to love you so much that it just it just comes out of a
pure heart for the Brethren you know we might not be the best friends we might
not get along and everything but I can tell you something I love you all right
I love you you know and the reason why I wanted to be a pastor because I knew
there were Brethren up here on Sunshine Coast and needed a church I was
comfortable in Sydney but I had a love for the Brethren to do this I don't come
up here to make a name for myself I'm not here to earn brownie points with man
you know the whole purpose of coming here to have a church was to show you
some love all right to start a church we all wanted it we all wanted to happen I
knew a lot of you guys were struggling the churches you were at hey you know
that's a love you know I hope I have a fervent love and an unfeigned love for
you you know it's something that I need to keep testing asking God to examine
that in my heart you know making sure I'm not just doing it to be seen of men
I'm not interested in that I'll pull down all my sermons on YouTube if that
proves that I love the church that I love the Brethren I don't care about
YouTube all right let's keep going let's go to mark 12 mark 12 so we
commanded to love our neighbors we're commanded to love the Brethren and I
just I'm almost done now well I'm on my last point that's to love the Lord thy
God to love the Lord thy God mark 12 verse 28 mark 12 28 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
so it's like what's the what's the primary commandment is what he's asking
and Jesus answering answered him the first of all the commandments is hear o
Israel the Lord our God is one Lord and thou shall 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 okay that's in that's mark 12 28 I'll
cover that later on all right so I just want to talk about very quickly these
four points that Jesus Christ tells us that we ought to love him with right all
thy heart thy soul thy mind and all thy strength so we need to look at this you
might say I love him with all my heart but do you love him with all your
strength when I say I love it with all my soul but you love him with all your
mind okay these are four areas of our life that we need to love him with okay
let's uh please turn to Romans 6 I need to turn there Romans 6 15 I've got a
lot of verses I'm just trying to figure out which ones for you to turn to you go
to Romans 6 15 how can we love God with all our heart now each one of these
points could be its own sermon but I'll get through them pretty quickly how can
we love God with all our heart Romans 6 15 what then shall we sin because we are
not under the law but under grace God forbid no you not that to whom ye yield
yourselves servants to obey his servants ye are to whom ye obey whether of sin
unto death or of obedience unto righteousness but God be thanked that
ye were the servants of sin but ye have obeyed from the heart that form that
that form of doctrine which was delivered you you know one way that we
can love God with our hearts is to obey the Lord to obey his commandments okay
that's how we can love him with all our heart in fact Jesus says in John 14 15
if you love me keep my commandments you want to know if you love God with all
your heart are you keeping his commandments you know how well are you
keeping his commandments that's a good way for you to judge how much you love
the Lord Jesus Christ if you keep breaking I mean you don't have a care in
the world about breaking it and committing sin that's how much you love
Jesus Christ okay it shows you how much you're lacking if you have no care in
the sins that you're committing but we ought to love him by obeying okay bye
bye obeying his commandments but when we obey just like children sometimes we
ask our children to obey what we've asked them and they might have a sour
face you know they might be you know hold a grudge you know they'll do it but
they'll do you know you know holding you know holding that against you or
something like that you know you know being reluctant to obey when we when we
obey his commandments and love him with our heart we need to do it with all our
hearts okay we need to make sure we're not doing it reluctantly not grudgingly
we're doing it with purpose we're doing it because we're committed to him we're
doing it with the strength that we have in our hearts I'll just read to you
Ephesians 6 5 it says servants be obedient to them that are your masters
according to the flesh we fear and trembling in singleness of your heart as
unto Christ not with eye service as men pleasers but as the servants of Christ
doing the will of God from the hearts okay it is possible for us to obey his
commands but not to do it from the heart right it's possible for us to go
outdoor knocking and do it in our own strength in our own flesh okay just
because it's something we need to do know everything we need to do so you
know as a servant just serving the master we ought to be doing it as we're
serving Christ and doing it from our hearts obeying the will of God from our
hearts another passage that's very similar is Colossians 3 22 basically a
parallel passage says servants obeying all things your masters according to
the flesh not with eye service as men pleasers but in singleness of heart
fearing God and whatsoever ye do do it heartedly okay do it passionately do it
strongly as to the Lord and not unto men knowing that of the Lord you shall
receive the reward of the inheritance for ye serve the Lord Christ how do we
love Christ with all our hearts how we love God with all our hearts is to obey
his commandments and to do it heartedly hey do it with purpose okay whatever God
has asked us to do do it as though we're serving him please go to Psalm 146 Psalm
146 how can we love God with all our soul all right with all our soul you
know Christ came and he's delivered our soul from hell our soul has been saved
and the and the and the book of the Bible that speaks the most about the
human soul is the book of Psalms I think it's a good place to turn to how do we
love him with our soul some 146 146 verse 1 it says praise ye the Lord praise
the Lord oh my soul how can we love God with all our soul it's by praising him
by singing praises unto the Lord by rejoicing in him all right Psalm 34
please verse 2 some Psalm 34 verse 2 Psalm 34 verse 2 my soul shall make her
boast in the Lord the humble shall hear thereof and be glad what did it say my
soul shall make her boast in the Lord hey we ought to be people that boasts
not in our flesh not in our our strengths but to boast in the Lord and
how do we do that says the humble shall hear thereof you know when we talk to
our to our brethren when we talk to people we ought to talk about how God
has done great things in our life how he has blessed us how he has saved us you
know share how God has changed your life and has worked in you and developed a
new man that spirit has helped you walk in the spirit you know that's boasting
of the Lord none of yourselves next talking about how what God has done why
is that important because it said the humble shall hear thereof and be glad
all right we can make we can actually we can make other people glad by boasting
of the Lord by speaking highly of him okay
some 35 verse 9 some 35 next chapter some over 35 verse 9 and my soul shall
be joyful in the Lord it shall rejoice in his salvation the third way we can we
can love the Lord of our soul is to rejoice in the Lord and especially in
our salvation okay and that's why you know we haven't done it for a while but
I've had you guys come up here and give a testimony of your salvation when you
do that that's you rejoicing in the Lord your soul loving the Lord and and
thanking him for what he's done okay what are the three ways we can love the
Lord of our soul by praising him by boasting of him and by being joyful you
know in him in his salvation how can we love him with our mind all right how can
we love him with our mind now when I read to you before Jesus was quoting
from the book of Deuteronomy so what I'll get you to do is turn to the book
of Deuteronomy chapter 6 I believe it is I don't have it in my notes but I believe
it's chapter 6 I'll have to find it now just bear with me oh yeah
Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 4 now notice this I just thought this was
interesting this is exactly what Jesus quoted in the New Testament verse number
four hear O Israel the Lord our God is one Lord and thou shalt love the Lord
with thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might
what did Jesus do in the New Testament he added with all thy mind he actually
added words to the Bible he can do that he's God he's the author of the word he
is the Word of God all right it's something that is never mentioned in the
Old Testament in in that in that phrase that we ought to love the Lord God with
all our mind now of course you're gonna find things in the Old Testament about
loving God with our mind but loving God with our mind is something that's really
focused and emphasized in the New Testament in comparison to the Old
Testament okay and just one example of that is if you guys can turn to Matthew
5 Matthew 5 verse 27 I'll just give you a quick example of this Matthew chapter
5 verse 27 on the Sermon of the mounts Jesus says you have heard that it was
said by them of old time thou shalt not commit adultery and that's right that's
in the Old Testament that's in the scriptures but I say unto you that who
serve a look upon a woman to lust after her have committed adultery with her
already in his heart one thing we notice that Jesus is that in the New Testament
he raises that bar even higher okay it's not just the physical action but it's
also your thought life it's what's going through your mind or here going through
your heart all right and you'll see this shift when you get to the New Testament
there's a lot more focus on your mind okay because it's not just the physical
obeying the commands but it's also keeping clean on the inside as well all
right now I'll just quickly read to you from Romans 12 verse 2 it says and be
not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind
that you may prove that which is good and acceptable and perfect will of God
now God has asked us that we need to keep renewing our mind continue thinking
hey what are we what are we thinking about you know when you when you were
unsaved you're watching all those TV shows you're watching all those reading
all those books which you shouldn't be reading you know you're flooding your
mind with we've uh you know wrong philosophies in life you know and God
says you know when you get saved now you need to renew your mind you need to take
out those things that you've you've learned all that time and get into the
Word of God and make sure your mind is aligned with the Word of God that's what
it means to renew your mind that's how we can love the Lord is making sure that
our mind is thinking about godly things all right that it that it's uh tuned up
with how God thinks of things how God sees evil how God sees good how God sees
sin can you guys turn to 2nd Corinthians verse 10 2nd Corinthians verse 10
chapter 10 2nd Corinthians chapter 10 verse 5 2nd Corinthians chapter 10 verse 5
it reads casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts of itself
against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to
the obedience of Christ and having in a in a readiness to revenge all
disobedience when your disobedience is fulfilled but you see how God instructs
us to take captive every thought that we have in our minds you know when you
when you start daydreaming you're thinking about nonsense God says hey
that's a waste of your thought life take that into captivity and think of godly
things you know you know the wild imaginations of man whatever it is that
exalts itself before God we need to take those down and that's all the mental
things that that's inside of us you know how do we love the Lord with our mind
is by renewing our mind making sure that we're that we're mentally focused on him
we're focused on his word we're changing and align ourselves to think the way God
thinks about certain things and how can we love God with all our strength that's
very easy you know our strength is our is our physical body you know what can
we do with this body of course we can go soul with him and go to church we can do
good works to one another all those kinds of things you know but I'll just
read to you quickly from 1st Corinthians 6 we guys can turn there because you're
in 2nd Corinthians 1st Corinthians chapter 6 verse 18 but loving God with
our strength you know it's loving God with our physical body with the strength
that God has given us in this physical body 1st Corinthians 6 verse 18 it says
flee fornication every sin that a man do if is without the body but he that
commit a fornication sinneth against his own body what no you're not that your
body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you which you have of God
and you are not your own for you abort with a price therefore glorify God in
your body and in your spirit which are gods hey you know we know this physical
body is sin cursed we know this physical body has diseases and it's not gonna
last forever and it's got a shelf life it's got a it's got a you know used by
date on it you know but while we have this body okay we are to it God calls it
the temple the temple of God you know he dwells in this physical body of ours
all right and do you think God wants us then to look after our bodies or to
destroy them we should be looking after our bodies you know we should you know
you know try to you know I'll put in a bit of weight I'm gonna try to work that
off a bit you know the more weight I put on it's gonna put extra burden on other
parts of my body you know on organs or whatever we need to you know be be
mindful of our health now I'm not saying we should be extreme and that's all we
should be concerned about and worried about but we should be mindful about the
kinds of things we eat how we look after ourselves the kind of chemicals that we
put in our bodies because look God has given us this body so we can work his
works on this earth you know if you waste it if you abuse it if you destroy
it it's going to limit you from you from loving God with all your strength okay
you're gonna be weak and you won't better show you know your love to him
with all your strength okay so I'm almost done now so how do you measure up
by loving God you know you might say well I love God with all my heart that's
well and I make maybe 80% I love him with all my heart but with all my
strength really I'm not doing much for the Lord in my body maybe that's
somewhere around 10% you know and in my mind I don't know I spent a lot of time
watching TV and a lot of time I haven't read my Bible in ages you know I guess
I'm not loving him with my mind that's probably somewhere at 20% you know and
then you might say well you know with the with a heart or the soul yeah yeah
I come to church I rejoice in the hymns that we sing I lift up my voice I sing
at home you know that that one's around 95% you know praise God you know but we
need to make sure where do we fall short in those areas of our life if we're
falling short in our love toward God in some of those areas or target those
areas first the places that you're lacking in and work toward that and love
God with all those aspects you know of your heart your strength of your mind
your soul in conclusion guys love your neighbors love your brethren love the
Lord say that's gonna take a lot out of me I don't know if I've got that much
love you know you know what what am I going to get out of this and you know
I'll just read to you Romans 8 28 very famous passage but let's think about
what it says it says and we know that all things work together for good to
them that love God to them that are called according to his purpose if you
want everything even your your hardships to work together for good there is a
there is something you need to do it says to them that love God all right
please just because you're saved doesn't mean everything that happens in your
life is going to necessarily work for good you first have to love God okay
it's the fruit of the spirit it's the first one that's listed there how do we
love God we love him we hate evil we love our neighbors we'll have the
brethren fervently we love God with all our heart soul mind and strength okay
and then when you go through the hardships of life God promises that it's
all it's going to work itself work together for good in your life there's a
great promise there's a great privilege in there you know but it comes you gotta
love God all right let's pray