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Amen. Amen. The title of my sermon this morning is The Great Commandment. The Great Commandment, the Bible reads in verse 28 there of Mark 12, 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, hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than thee. So this is the great commandment is to love the Lord thy God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. And then he said the second commandment is to then love your neighbor as yourself. Flip over to Matthew chapter 22, Matthew 22. After Jesus said that, the scribe said to him, you turn to Matthew 22, I'll finish in Mark. 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 whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. So he's saying, look, it doesn't matter how much you contribute, even if you were to make all kinds of offerings unto the Lord, sacrifices unto the Lord, the greatest thing that you could do more than that would be to love God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength. And it's funny because this chapter kind of circles back to that point at the end when you see the people putting a lot of money in the offering at the end and Jesus said, well, they're not really putting in a lot because of the fact that they have an abundance, they're doing it for show, it's this widow that puts in what she has that gave more. But look down at Matthew 22 verse 35, then one of them which was a lawyer asked him a question tempting him and saying, master, which is the great commandment in the law? 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 and the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. And then watch this powerful statement, on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. The Bible says elsewhere that the whole law is briefly comprehended in this one word, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself and the one word there is love. Love is the great commandment. So not only is it the first commandment, the greatest commandment, there's no other commandment as great, having love is better than all manner of sacrifices and burnt offerings you could possibly bring and the entire law and all the prophets, everything is hanging on this commandment, love God. That's pretty important, isn't it? This is a pretty important thing to look at. Now what does it mean to love? Sometimes the words that we use the most often, we can sometimes be unclear about what they mean or different people have different opinions about what they mean. I looked up love in the dictionary and of course a word like love in the dictionary has a lot of entries, lots and lots of different entries because it's such a deep word. But in the dictionary, definition number one was this, a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person. That was the first definition. Profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person. Number two, a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection as for a parent, a child, or a friend. And I also liked definition number ten which was strong predilection, enthusiasm, or liking for anything. And what I want to point out about these definitions of the word love is that they use words like profound, passionate, deep, warm, enthusiasm, right? So this is a powerful feeling. And then if you would, flip over into your Bibles to Song of Solomon chapter 8. Song of Solomon in the Old Testament, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon is right before the book of Isaiah. If you find the book of Isaiah, it's just right before that. Song of Solomon chapter 8. So love is a feeling. That's obvious because we have experienced, unless you're just a complete psychopath or something, you know, we've all experienced love in our lives and we know love to be a powerful feeling. We know love to be a powerful emotion, don't we? And the Bible talks about love as a powerful feeling or a powerful emotion just like the dictionary described. Look at Song of Solomon chapter 8 verse 6 for example. It says, Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm, for love is strong as death. Jealousy is cruel as the grave. The coals thereof are coals of fire which hath a most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it. If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would be utterly contempt. So we see the description of these powerful feelings of love. Song of Solomon is talking about the love between a husband and wife, but obviously love is love whether it's between us and the Lord or whether it's with a spouse, our brothers and sisters in Christ, loving our neighbor as ourself. Obviously the love of God transfers to loving our neighbor, the second commandment. But it talks about the powerful feeling of love and it gives all this poetic language. But look at that last statement. I want to focus on this last statement where it says, If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contempt. Now it doesn't say condemned, it says contempt. Now this is an old word that we don't use anymore, but you're probably familiar with the word contempt, right? What does it mean to have contempt for something? It means basically that you're just totally disgusted by it, you hate it, you don't like it, you don't want it, right? Contempt for something is something that you don't respect. If you treat someone with contempt, you're treating them with disrespect. And so what the Bible is saying here is that if a man gave all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contempt. Why would people have contempt for someone giving all the substance of his house for love? Love cannot be purchased with money is what it's saying here. Love cannot be purchased, it can't be bought, alright? And this is because love is a gift from God, it has to be given by God, it cannot be purchased. Go to Ephesians chapter 3 if you would. If you go back to the Hebrew in Song of Saul, it says money can't buy me love, no I'm just kidding. But anyway, go if you would to Ephesians chapter 3, Ephesians chapter 3, and while you're turning there, Acts chapter 8 verse 20, But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money. So the gift of God can't be purchased with money, love comes from God. Love is a gift from God, it's not something that you can buy. Look at Ephesians chapter 3 verse 14, For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit and the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that ye being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. So here the Apostle Paul is talking about knowing the love of Christ, being filled with all the fullness of God, knowing that height and breadth and width and length, being rooted and grounded in love the Bible's talking about. Now notice that it says in verse 19 that the love of Christ passeth knowledge. Now love passes knowledge, this is why it's hard to define love, this is why it's hard to just, you know, write a dictionary definition, they can write 30 definitions and they're not going to be able to fully quantify this because love, and especially the love of God, the love of Christ, biblical love, passes knowledge. So go if you would to 1 Corinthians 13, the first thing I want to say is don't oversimplify love to just being, doing the right things. Some people today have oversimplified love to where they just believe that love is just when you do all the right, they say, you know, love is a verb and if you do the right things that's love. And they'll take verses like, for example, where the Bible says, for this is the love of God that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous. Or 2 John verse 6, this is love that we walk after his commandments. So they'll basically just get up and say, hey, loving God just means keeping his commandments. Hey, of course loving God means keeping his commandments, but is that really all it means? Is it really just doing the right things? Let me ask you this, if I love my wife, does that just mean that I pay the bills and that I don't cheat on her and that I'm kind to her and that I fix things around the house or something? I mean, is that what it means to love my wife? Or would it be possible to do all those things without loving my wife? Would it be possible for her to cook me all the meals and say all the right things and do all the right things without actually having love? Actually that is quite possible. That's what we need to understand and not just oversimplify love. Well love, that's just keeping God's commandments. Shut up and keep the commandments and that's all we have to say about love. Preach on love. This is love. Keep his commandments. That's part of it. That's an aspect of it and we're going to get to that a little later in the sermon. But remember, love is a passionate feeling. Love is an emotion of actually caring. The Bible over and over again talks about the bowels of Christ Jesus. Talks about the heart. It talks about a powerful, fervent, burning feeling. Now obviously there are people out there who have turned the whole religion of Christianity into feelings and discarded the word of God, discarded doctrine and that's your Charismaniac movement that takes it too far. But let me tell you something. We don't want to go too far in the other direction and just strip Christianity of all love and feeling and heart and just turn it into all brain and no heart because the Bible talks about love. Amen? Now look what the Bible says. I'm going to prove to you from the Bible that it is possible to do all the right things without having love. It's possible as a husband, as a wife, as a child, as a parent, as a church member, as a friend. Look what the Bible says in 1 Corinthians chapter 13 verse 1. Though I speak with the tongues of mannative angels and have not charity, which charity in the Bible is synonymous with love, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal and though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not charity, I am nothing and though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and though I give my body to be burned and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Let me ask you something. Is it possible to give all of your money to charity without having charity? Is it possible to give everything to the poor and not have love? Absolutely because otherwise the Bible wouldn't waste our time describing something that doesn't exist. He says, look, I could give my body to be burned. I could sacrifice my life. I could give all manner of sacrifices and burnt offerings of animal sacrifices. I can obey the commandments. I can do the right things. I can go through the motions. That does not guarantee that I have love because Paul says, hey, I could preach, I could do all these works, but if I don't have love, I'm nothing. Then it shows that you could do those things without actually having love. So don't oversimplify love or strip down love to where love simply only means doing the right things. Now obviously that's part of it and we're going to talk about that, but don't just say that that's all it is. It's not a feeling. It's just you do what needs to be done. That's love. You know, no, actually there's more to it than that. All right, now let's keep reading in 1 Corinthians 13. It says in verse 4, charity suffereth long and is kind. Charity envieth not. Charity vaunted not itself, is not puffed up. Now let me ask you something. Does love do the right things? So get this, it only, it's a one-way street here. This is not a two-way valve, okay? Does love do all the right things? Yeah, but does doing all the right things mean you have love? No. Do you see how that's the difference, okay? So here's the thing. If I love God, I'm going to keep his commandments. But just because I keep commandments, that doesn't mean that I love God. Does everybody see how this is a one-way valve, okay? So yes, charity in verse 5 does not behave itself unseemly. But just because you don't behave unseemly doesn't mean you have charity. This is a one-way thing. Seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. So love does all the right things, but doing all the right things isn't necessarily love. So this is all kind of introduction that I'm going to give into, I'm going to get into the ways that we can actually develop love in our hearts. Because look, if this is a big commandment, right? The big commandment, love God, love your neighbor, if that's going to fix everything, if the whole law and prophets all hangs on that, then we need to figure out, hey, how do I get more love in my heart? Because that's what's going to help me to succeed as a Christian and do the right things by having love in my heart. So I'm going to get to that, flip over if you would to 1 John chapter 4. But before I do, let me give you an illustration about something that I love, which I love running. Now running is not something that most people love, but I love running. Now here's the thing about running, okay, stop and think about this, okay. If I said, oh man, I love running, but I never run, would you believe me? You'd be like, wait, you talk so much about loving running, I don't see you running. That would be ridiculous. So that's kind of like, oh, you say you love God, why don't you keep his commandments? But here's the thing, would it be possible to do a lot of running without loving it? Who's done a lot of running, but you didn't love it? See what I mean? So you see that's a one-way thing. You can go through the motions, you can do the right things without actually having love in your heart. I was reading a book about running one time and this is what the author said in the book that I was reading. He said, it wasn't so much that I loved running, it's that I wanted to love running. He said I wanted to become a person who loves running. And here's what I would say to you this morning, you need to want to become a person who loves God. And guess what, that author, he didn't love running, but he said I wanted to love running. And you know what he ended up doing? He ended up loving running. He became what's known as a born-again runner, alright? And you know, it's funny, it's kind of funny to say that, you know, because there are some people out there who are born-again, where running has become like a religion to them and they literally call themselves a born-again runner, okay? Which I'm a born-again runner, but I'm not a born-again runner, alright? So anyway, the point is though, here's the thing, you know what, I used to not love running, I used to hate running. Until I was 29 years old, I had never run more than a mile and a half in my life. And when I ran a mile and a half, I hated every minute of it, okay? But around the time I was 29, 30 years old, you know what, I started running not because I loved it, but because I wanted to love it. And not only just because I wanted to love it, I was just going through the motions and I remember I had that one breakthrough run, that born-again experience, no I'm just kidding, but anyway I had that one breakthrough run where I remember going on a run and just enjoying it and just loving it and just thinking to myself, this is what I want to be doing right now. This feels good, this is great, I'm enjoying this. And you know, most of you never will experience that. But anyway, but the point is, you can do something because you know it's good for you or maybe the gym teacher's making you do it or the military's making you do it or you know, hey I got to do this for my health. And then there are other people who actually love running. Well here's the thing, it's the same thing with God. You know, some people are dragging themselves to church, some people are dragging themselves through Bible reading, they're dragging themselves through prayer, they're dragging themselves through soul-winning. But you know what, if you actually love God, you can actually live to go to church and live to read your Bible and just look forward to these things. Folks, I guarantee you that there are people in this room right now, this is where they want to be right now. They want to be in church. And when they wake up in the morning, they reach for their Bible because they want to reach for their Bible. Not because they'd rather, you know, grab the remote control and watch some brain-dead morning show or something. And morning shows are the most brain-dead programming on the planet. I don't even know if that's even a thing anymore with the internet. Do people still watch these brain-dead, stupid morning shows or listen to them on the radio? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And you start your day with that? Folks, I'm telling you, reading the Bible is the best part of waking up. Not Folgers in your cup, all right? I'm telling you, when you wake up in the morning and you want to read the Bible and you're looking forward to church. Look, some people save up their money and their vacation is a missions trip. They save up their money and their vacation is to go visit some church and listen to preaching and go soul-winning and have fellowship. Why? Because it's love that's motivating. It's just like you might not be able to understand how someone could just crave to go running. Oh, what? You're just like, I never want to go running again. Other people, man, they can't wait to get out there and run. Do you see how this works? If you love it, here's a famous quote, choose a job you love and you'll never work a day in your life, right? Because some people love their job and so they're not like, oh, well, you know, it's Friday. At least this week's almost over. Some people, they just want to get through the weekend so they can get back to their job on Monday morning because they love their job so much. It's out there. It's true. Love, my friend, can make serving God easier. It can make serving God enjoyable. It can make serving God pleasurable when you actually love the Lord and you actually love the Word of God. You know, most of us in this building are not forcing ourselves every day to just do what's right and it's this drudgery. We like it. All right? Now, obviously, none of us has ultimate love and none of us is perfect and we're all going to go through low points where our love kind of has its ups and downs. But I'm telling you, God wants us to love Him with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. And when you do that, when you love the Lord, you know, keeping the commandments is going to come easier to you and doing the right things is going to come easier to you because you find yourself wanting to do those things. So you're like, well Pastor Anderson, how do I get there? You know, how do I get to where I love the Lord? And that's the million dollar question, isn't it? I wish I could just get other people there. I wish I could just hand out love for God. I wish I could just like lay hands on people and pray a prayer over them and they would just walk away loving God. Wouldn't that be an amazing power? That's the superpower right there, right? You just, I just lay my hands on somebody, say a prayer, and they would just walk away just loving God. You know what that would mean? That person would live for Christ. That person would do amazing things for God because love is the key that opens every door in the Christian life. So how do we get there? Now obviously this is the hard part. It's easy to talk about how important love is. It's easy to talk about what a powerful feeling love is. It's easy to talk about how it's the greatest commandment. Everything hangs on it. Everything hinges on it. But how do we get there? Well let me try to at least scratch the surface of this or try to at least point you in the right direction of how you can love the Lord. Number one, this is kind of obvious, I'm going to start with that which is kind of obvious, but number one you've got to be saved. You've got to get saved. Look at 1 John chapter 4 verse 7. The Bible says, Beloved, let us love one another for love is of God and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God for God is love. So the first thing we see is that everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. Now obviously there are unsaved people. They have a fashion of love or a type of love. There are things that they love. There are people that they love. But it's not the same as God's love. The love of Christ passes knowledge. The love of Christ is on a totally different level. That's why the Bible says, you know, hey scarcely for a righteous man would one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God committed his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. God's love is on a higher level. The love of a Christian, the love of Christ in our hearts is more powerful than what the world has in regard to love. So the love that we're talking about, how do you get love? The first thing you've got to do is you've got to be born of God. You've got to be a child of God. And how do you do that? Just by simply believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. Believing that he died and was buried and rose again. Believing that he's the only way to heaven. Call upon him for salvation. It's so easy to be saved. It's as easy as walking through a door or taking a drink of water or eating a piece of bread. These are the things that Christ compared salvation to. Just believe and thou shalt be saved. You've just got to believe on him. So number one, get saved. But number two, it doesn't just say born of God. It says everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. So number two is you need to get to know God. Even the apostle Paul who'd been saved for years said that his goal in life was that I may know him. He said I want to know him. So obviously being saved is one thing, but then there's knowing God. Getting to know God. That's going to help you love God. And here's the thing. If you love God, you're going to love your neighbor because these two things are connected. But number three, spend time in the word of God. Now if you would flip over to Luke chapter eight, Luke chapter eight. Spend time in the word of God. Now you say, what do you mean when you talk about loving God? What does that even mean? What does that even look like? You know what? How many times have you read your Bible and had tears come down your face because of just the powerful emotion and feeling of love for the Lord Jesus Christ? Because if you don't know what I'm talking about, then you don't know what I'm talking about. All right? Because if you say, well, I've never felt that way reading my Bible. Well, you know what? Let me introduce you to the love of God. If you love God, what did the dictionary say love is? And I know the dictionary isn't written by God, but I mean the dictionary has some pretty good ideas. There's a lot of thought that goes into this from people who study words and things. And this is how we, it defines how words are used. What do we mean when we say love? Profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person. In this case, God. Profoundly tender, passionate affection. A feeling of warm, personal attachment or deep affection. What did the Bible say about them on the road to Emmaus? When Christ talked to them, they said our heart burned within us. They had a powerful feeling, emotion. I mean, look, we've all felt that way about something in our lives, right? Unless you're just completely just emotionally dead. I'm sure something has made you laugh or cry or shout or get excited or have powerful feelings. And maybe for you that was some kind of a boy-girl relationship or maybe for you that was just some kind of a piece of music that you heard or some beautiful view that you looked at or something like that that gave you powerful emotional feelings. But let me tell you something. Loving God is when you feel that way about the Lord. It's when you feel that way about the Bible. It's when you feel that way about preaching. That's what it means to love the Lord with all your heart and with your mind, with your soul, with your strength. You know what that tells me when it says heart, mind, soul, strength? It tells me there's different aspects to love. Love is multifaceted. Yeah, there's an intellectual component of loving God with your mind, but also loving God with your heart. And the Bible even says with your bowels, right? What are your bowels? You know, this is talking about basically your guts. You know, this is a gut love for God, a visceral love for the Lord. This is what the Bible describes and puts into words. So reading the Word of God, we said number one, get saved. Number two, get to know God. Number three, spend time in the Word of God. Why? To know him is to love him. It's hard to love someone that you barely know. You know, the people that you love the most. If I were to ask you, list for me the five people on this earth that you love the most or the 20 people on this earth that you love the most, they're probably not going to be somebody that you just met last week or somebody, I hung out with this person one time. They're not going to make the list, are they? It's going to be people that you know better. So if you want to love God, you've got to know God. You say, well I don't feel that way about God. I don't get excited about God. What did the other dictionary definition say? Enthusiasm. I don't feel enthusiasm. Well, you know what? Maybe spend a little more time getting to know God because everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God, right? Getting to know God. So get saved, get to know God, spend time in the Word of God, but let me say this though. Just reading the Bible is not enough to ensure that you're going to end up loving God because I guarantee you there are a lot of people who spend a lot of hours reading the Bible and they don't love God because we talked about it, right? Just like there's people who go out running and they don't love running. They're just going through the motions, but look at Luke chapter 8 verse 15. The Bible reads, but that on the good ground are they which in an honest and good heart having heard the Word keep it and bring forth fruit with patience. Now look, these people didn't just hear the Word of God. They didn't just receive God's Word, but they did it in a good and honest heart. So here's the thing. We want to make sure that the ground of our heart is good soil so that when God's Word comes in, it finds a good environment to develop and not a hostile environment. Now these things are hard to explain, but I'm doing my best this morning to explain these concepts because I think this is so important. And like I said, I wish I could just push a button and everyone would love God. I wish I could just touch you and you would just love God. I could be like a Benny Hinn up here. Just everybody just lines up and I'm just like bam, bam, and everybody just loves you, loves God. You're going to love him. And everybody's like, wow, I love God so much, you know. I wish if only it were that easy. You know, all I can do is try to preach to you what the Bible says here of how you can get to this. And here's the thing. I'm there. I've been there for a year. I've loved God for years. As a child, I loved God. As a child, my heart burned within me as I read the Scriptures. Look, I want to get other people there so that they love God. I love God. Now I could love him more. I need to love him more. We all should love him more. But I want to get this across to you. How can you love God? Well, one of the ways I was thinking about this is what's the opposite? Sometimes when you're trying to define something, it's good to look at the opposite, right? So I was thinking about this. What's the opposite of having an honest and good heart? So you know, you look down at your Bible there and it talks about some people when they hear the word of God, they have an honest and good heart. And then the word of God produces all this fruit because they had what? An honest and good heart. What's the opposite of an honest and good heart when we're reading the Bible? It's having a hard heart. And the Bible talks about people hardening their heart or people's hearts being hardened. Wouldn't that be the opposite? So that when that seed of God's word is thrown, it basically, it's like an Arizona desert hard as a rock earth and it just kind of bounces off. And then what happens? The fowls come and devour it up. The birds come and eat that seed and it doesn't produce anything. And here's the thing. You read your Bible. You say, well, I read my Bible and I didn't feel anything. I read my Bible and I didn't get anything out of it. I don't even know why I'm reading my Bible. In fact, I'm not even going to bother reading my Bible because there's no point. And let me tell you something. There are people who feel that way. I'll bet you there are people in this auditorium right now that feel like, well, I just don't read my Bible that much anymore because I just don't really get anything out of it or I just don't really feel anything or I've kind of heard all this before. I already read it 10 times. Hey, I don't care if you've read it 10,000 times. God's Word always has something new for you. I've read the Bible a lot. You know, training to be a pastor, being a pastor, this is my job. This is what I do. I eat, breathe and sleep the Bible and I'm constantly learning new things and I always am getting something out of it when I'm reading my Bible. But you just say, well, I just read it and I read it and I'm not getting anything. You know what? That doesn't say anything about the Word of God. God says something about your heart needs to soften up a little bit. That's what that means. It's not the Word of God that has lost its power. God's Word is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. But you know what? Even a two-edged sword can only penetrate through certain materials. I don't care what the Ginsu commercial said. You know, you're not going to bring a two-edged sword plumbing and start cutting copper pipes with it. It works on TV after 1 a.m., okay? You cutting a copper pipe and then you cut a tomato. Hey, in real life, a two-edged sword, it's sharp. It'll divide the joints and marrow but you know what? It could cut, you start swinging it at a rock. Take a two-edged sword and stab a rock. Swing it at a rock. Swing it at steel. And you know what's going to happen? It's going to bounce right off and, and you know what? That's what's going on sometimes when people read the Bible. That's how some punk can just sit in church and just hear preaching after preach. Other people are just eating it up and they're growing and they're learning and they're loving it. They're like, wow, I'm so thankful for this church. I'm getting so much out. Man, thanks. Thank God we have the King James Bible. And then somebody else is just like. And the Word of God is just like, ching, ching, ching, ching. And nothing, you know, it's nothing's getting through. It's not the sword. Well, I don't, maybe the sword's not strong enough. Maybe I need that ginsu, you know. Folks, the Bible's sharper than any ginsu. The Bible's sharper than any ginsu kitchen knife, but yet it has its limitations because guess what? When it comes to that, that earth that's hard as a rock, it's not going to get in. You need to have an honest and good heart, is what the Bible says, in order for the Word of God to get through. Now, you know, we could use this as an illustration about salvation, which is what typically we would do with the parable of the sword, but obviously it has other applications too because we always have the Word of God coming in as Christians. And if we harden, if we dry up, well then it's not going to get through. So what's the opposite of an honest and good heart? The opposite is hardness of heart. And how do we end up getting hardened in our heart? Well, one verse that popped into my mind was this, Matthew 24, 12, because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. So when iniquity abounds in our lives, does that increase our love or decrease our love? That's a love killer, alright? That's going to dry things up. And so, number one, get saved. You've already done that, you know, 90-some percent of people in here, I hope so. You know, you've already been saved. Number two, get to know God. Number three, spend time in the Word of God, but look, you better make sure if you're going to spend time in the Word of God that you're open. And so number four, I would say avoid sin because avoiding sin is going to help you love God more. Why? Why would avoiding sin make me love God more? Because what's sin doing? Sin's hardening my heart. If I just go through life sinning, sinning, sinning, and I'm just constantly indulging in sin, doing all the wrong things, you think that's making me have a heart that's tender toward God? Or do you think that that's hardening my heart toward God and making me more calloused and more brazen instead of being tender and ready to receive what God is saying to me? God speaks in a still, small voice and you've got to be listening. You've got to be tender. You've got to be sensitive to that. You've got to be able to hear that, right? Go through to Romans chapter five, Romans chapter number five. What are we talking about today? We're talking about loving God. It's the most important subject that I could possibly be preaching on to Christians because it's the first commandment. It's the great commandment. Everything hangs on this. Basically, let me put it to you this way. If you listen to every sermon that I preach and you understand every doctrine that I teach and you don't get what I'm preaching to you this morning, you know the Bible says something about you. It says you are nothing. Think about that. You're nothing. How would you like to be nothing? That's pretty bad. I mean, I need to spend a bunch of time going to church, spend a bunch of time reading my Bible and praying and then I get to heaven and it's like there's a new name written that no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it and it's just like Mr. Nothing. That's not the name I want. I don't want to be a great big nothing burger but let me tell you something. The Bible says you can do all this stuff. If you don't love, then you're nothing and not only that, he says it profits you nothing. So what could be a more key truth to try to grasp than how can we love God? The Bible says in Romans chapter 5 verse 5, it says, "'And hope maketh not a shame, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.'" So my fifth point would be to be filled with the Holy Spirit because the fruit of the Spirit is love, right? That's one of the fruit of the Spirit, love. Shed, what does it mean to shed? Well think about, we might talk about a watershed or we might think about Jesus shedding his blood on the cross for us, right? So shedding is basically like pouring and the Bible says that the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. So the Holy Ghost is basically pouring love into our hearts, right? He's pouring love into us. So the more filled we are with the Spirit, we're going to be filled with love. Now go if you would to Revelation chapter 2. Revelation chapter 2, I would say number 1, how can I have the love of Christ? How can I have the love of God? Number 1, get saved. Number 2, get to know God. Number 3, spend time in the word of God. Number 4, avoid sin. Number 5, be filled with the Spirit. And number 6 I would say is to do good works. Now here's the thing. As I said earlier, doing good works doesn't mean that you have love, but doing good works can make you more loving if your heart is right. Because what does the Bible say? Revelation chapter 2 verse 1, unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write, these things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. I know thy works and thy labor and thy patience and thou thou canst not bear them which are evil and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles and are not and has found them liars and has borne and has patience and for my name's sake has labored and has not fainted. Look these people have a lot going for them. Why? Because I mean they definitely have discernment. They can, they know who these bogus apostles are, these people who say they're apostles and they're not. They found them to be liars. These people work, they labor, they have patience, these people have endurance, they're not fainting, but it says in verse 4, nevertheless I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works or else I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy candlestick out of his place except thou repent. So how do you get the first love back? You do the first works. So doing can produce love in your heart. Doing does not equal loving, but doing helps develop love along with other things. Let me give an example in marriage for example, okay? Like I said you could go through the motions of doing everything that a good spouse should do without actually loving your spouse. Could that be possible? You know you could pay the bills, you could not commit adultery, cook all the meals, do the cleaning, say all the right things, but in your heart you could have contempt for your spouse. And you know what? It breaks my heart when I hear all the time, because as a pastor I get these kind of calls, I hear from people all the time about when people are looking for comfort or help or advice and I get the calls all the time of just my wife left me, I didn't see it coming, I thought everything was great, I thought everything was fine, there was no warning, even it seemed like she was being extra nice to me for the last week and then I get home and all her stuff is just cleared out, there's a note on the counter. I mean look, I can't even count how many stories like that I've heard. I've heard it recently, I've heard it years ago, I've heard it all the time, similar variations on that story. Why? Because you have a wife who's going through all the motions, everything seems fine, maybe she's going to be extra nice or whatever, but in her heart what's she doing? Plotting, conspiring how she's going to forsake her husband. Or flip that over, husbands that are doing the same thing, right? Husbands that are going to work, saying all the right things, acting like everything's normal and then all of a sudden it's just like boom, I'm leaving, I found somebody else, it's just like what? Because it's possible to go through the motions without actually having love in your heart. I get that, but here's the thing though. If you have a right heart, doing the right things can increase your love. Now think about the first love and the first works, right? If we do the first works, that's how we get the first love back. So think about this in marriage for example. When you're first dating or when you're first married, you know, you're probably putting a lot more effort into that relationship typically than you are five years later, ten years later, fifteen years later, right? I mean when you're first dating or you're first married, you know, you're probably just nailing it on all your personal hygiene and appearance and it's just like, right? You're shaving real clothes and you're, you know, just, you know, you're just keeping your breath just right and you're making sure that your clothes look right and everything. You know, because you're putting your best foot forward and not only that, you're probably doing things like sending all these loving text messages and emails and letters and love notes and flowers and candy and out to dinner. You're pulling out the chair so that she sits there and pushes it in. You're opening the car door, am I right? You're giving gifts. You're doing all these things and then after a while it's just like, ugh. So here's the thing, look, obviously over time marriage can deteriorate if there's not effort being put in. Marriage is going to tend toward decay just like everything else in the universe, alright? It's going to tend toward decay. It's not just going to be on autopilot for the next 30 or 40 years. Everything's just going to be great all the time. So here's the thing, ask yourself this question. Do some introspection right now and say, do I love my wife? Do I love my husband? Right? Isn't that a good question to ask yourself? And here's the thing, let's say the love is beginning to grow cold. Then here's what you do. Oh, well I need to get out of this relationship because I don't want to be in a loveless marriage. That's the idiotic advice that the world's going to give you. Hey, if you don't love each other anymore, then you know what, you just need to move on because it's so tragic to be in a loveless marriage. You know what's tragic? Divorce is tragic. You know what's tragic? Leaving your wife high and dry, leaving your husband high and dry, that's tragic. You know what's tragic? Breaking your vow that you made. That's a tragedy. And here's the thing, I don't want you to be in a loveless marriage either. You know what I want you to do? I want you to do the first works and get the first love. And isn't it amazing when people commit adultery, how much effort they put into committing adultery? I guarantee you, people that are committing adultery, they're probably spending all kinds of money, they're going through all kinds of effort, and you know, one of the signs I was reading somewhere, hey, here's a sign that your spouse is committing adultery. You know, when all of a sudden they start taking way more care of their personal appearance than they normally do. But isn't that sad because what if you actually took all the effort that you're putting into committing adultery? What if you actually pointed that same effort toward your own marriage? You'd probably fix it. Think about it. If all of a sudden you just start putting all the effort, all the hours, all the texting, all the emails, all the money, time, effort, if you actually pointed that toward your own spouse, you'd fix your marriage instead of dumping that into someone else. And so how do you get the first love? You do the first works, right? If look, if my love were waxing toward, waxing, uh, cold toward my wife, then what, what could I do to fix that? You know, I could do loving things for her. I could do the first works. I could put effort into that relationship once again and breathe some life into that relationship. And guess what? It's the same thing with God. You know, if, if your walk with God is suffering, put some effort into it. You know, I don't love God like I used to. I don't feel as deeply as I used to about the things of God. You know what? Then putting some effort into it is in order, okay? Putting some effort into it, spending some time with God, working on your walk with God, spending time with that. Do the first works to get the first love. And then if you would go to First Peter chapter one, I'm just about done. First Peter chapter one, a couple more things I would say is, you know, the Bible says in First Peter one that obeying the truth causes us to love God. You know, embrace the wisdom and teaching of God's word. Don't, don't go, you know, flirting with all the wisdom of this world. You know, embrace what God says. Love the truth of God's word. And then another thing I thought of was, you know, dealing with opposites. When we look at the opposite of love, which is Romans chapter one, the haters of God. Those are people who actually hate God. How did they get that way? Well one of the big things was they were unthankful. If you read that downward spiral, they were not thankful. Well then if we flip that over, being more thankful is going to create more love for God. You know, what if a kid didn't love their parents? You know what? They're probably not thankful for all the things that their parents are doing for them and have done for them. And if we don't love God, it's probably because we haven't stopped to think about all the great things that God has done for us. So thankfulness is also going to lead to that. Look at First Peter chapter one verse twenty-two, seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently. And I want you to focus on verse twenty-two there where it says, seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth. See obeying the truth is how they purified their souls through the Spirit and that led to what? Unfeigned love of the brethren. See that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently. What does fervent mean? Well, look at those first three letters, fervently, that comes from the same root as our word fire. This is a burning love, fervent love. The Bible also talks about the elements melting with what? Fervent heat. So that's what fervent means. Look at verse eight of chapter four, First Peter four-eight. And above all things, now again just focus on that phrase, above all things, is there anything above this? Is there anything higher? Is there anything, if we were to make a list of priorities, is there a higher priority? No because this is above all things. Above all things have fervent charity among yourselves for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. You know what? I would rather be the person with the most charity than the person with the least sin. And here's why. Because if I were the person with the least sin, that's still a bunch of sin. But if I'm the person with the most charity, charity covers a multitude of sins. Now I'm not saying that charity excuses sin, but I'm telling you that if you love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, I think he's probably going to chasten you less harshly than the guy who's hard-hearted and cold toward the things of God. And then in case that above all things didn't get ya, you don't have to turn there, but Colossians three-fourteen says, and above all these things, put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. So both Peter and Paul both agree that what? This is above everything else, put on charity, charity, fervent charity. So here's why I make a big deal about this being a feeling or an emotion, because you know what? You say, well, you know, love God, keep his commandments, but what about fervency? Not just charity, like, well, I did everything as a good husband, I did everything as a good wife, I did everything as a good Christian, I went to church, I read my Bible, I prayed. Okay, but what about fervent charity? That's a burning. Am I right? I mean, that's a burning. That's a passion. That's emotion. That's feeling. Alright, that is enthusiasm. Look, I can't even tell you how many times that I have experienced that mountaintop experience of just reading the Word of God or hearing some powerful truth preached or just spending time communing with God in prayer or reading the Bible. And you know what? You tag that summit spiritually. You tag that summit of passion and emotion and feeling. And look, I'm not a charismatic, I'm not rolling in the aisles here, I'm not up here laughing hysterically and falling on the ground or something like that, but folks, don't go too far in the other direction where you just become this cold business-like Christian. And we don't want to, as fundamentalists, we don't want to go too far in that direction and gut Christianity of its gut. The bowels, right? Hey, and you know, I know a lot of the modern versions, they don't use that, bowels. I like it. I like that term. You know, it's the viscera, right? It's the guts. It's the bowels. You know what? It's basically just the deepest part of you is where you feel love. Not just for God, but for the brethren. And you know what? This is what it takes to be a Christian that pleases God. And this is what God wants for us. He wants us to love him and that's more than, no matter how much money you put in the offering plate, God is not as impressed by that as you just loving him. And by the way, I guarantee you that this is probably what your spouse wants more than anything else is just for you to love them. I bet most women who are not psychopaths would rather be married to a guy who loves them fervently than just a guy who makes a lot of money, right? And here's the thing, you'd rather have a dinner of herbs and love therewith than a stalled ox and hatred therewith. That tells me that your husband would rather have you love him than to just cook him a five star meal. You could cook a five star meal, but if there's contempt in your heart, if there's hatred in your heart, if there's coldness in your heart, you know what? Your husband would rather have whatever's on the vegetarian menu and love therewith. He'd rather have a dinner of herbs. He'd rather have a salad with love than to have the filet mignon and asparagus and cheesy mashed potatoes with a bad attitude. Folks, this is important. And you know what? If you say, this is foreign to me, I don't know what you're talking about. I've never had those mountaintop experiences. I've never had these feelings where I'm just overcome with love for Christ, where I'm just overcome with joy and peace and love for God. I don't know what that's like. Then you know what? Get on your knees and pray for God to give you the gift of his love and shed abroad in your heart the love of God because it can't be purchased with money. It's a gift from God. And look, I'm not a Calvinist. I believe it's available to anyone. I don't believe it's like, well, some people love God and some don't, you know, what can we do? Well, some people love running and some don't. I think anybody could learn to love running and you could learn to love your spouse. If I could learn to love running, you can learn to love your spouse. All right. Because running is not fun to normal people, but you can get to the point where it is fun. You can become that sick person who actually enjoys running. It's true, but you have to want it. Okay. You have to want. Even if it's not running, I guarantee you that there are people here who know what it's like to be addicted to exercise to the point where the worst day of the week is your day off where you have to rest. Who knows what I'm talking about? Just trying to get through that rest day. It's about seven people out of hundreds. But look, you know what I'm saying? I mean, I can just like, you're just like, oh, I want to work out today. But it's like, I already worked out the last six days in a row. It's the rest day. I got to rest. Oh, you're just counting down. Now a lot of the other, the other 90 some percent of people in this room are like, what? Excuse me? You know, when you tell people that aren't like that, if you tell them like, yeah, the worst day of the week is the rest day. They're just like, you're an idiot. You know? But guess what? Isn't it the same way? People out there, they can't understand how we love God so much. They can't understand the love of Christ. They can't understand the love of church. They're like, wait, wait, you moved your family across the country to go to a church? You know, you wait, wait, wait, wait. Your vacation is soul winning? Your vacation is a mission trip? Your vacation is some conference? What? They don't get it, do they? But if you told them, hey, I'm moving for a high paying job, they'd be like, well, yeah, it's a no brainer. Because they love money. If you told them, hey, I'm going to the Super Bowl. I'm flying across the country, spending $10,000 getting an Airbnb and do it, you know, and I'm going to be backstage at this concert or I'm going to be at this sporting event or I'm going to be on this movie set or whatever. They'd just be like, what an opportunity! But why? Because they love those. They love sports. They love music. You know, there are people who they tingle at a rock concert. They tingle to go backstage and meet some degenerate rock star. They tingle to be in the live studio audience of The Price is Right. They tingle at the Super Bowl. They tingle. Look, hey, people love something, but you know what? We need to love God supremely with all our heart, mind, soul and strength where that's what we're enthusiastic about. That's what we're passionate about. That's what we're fervent about. And look, I hope that this sermon did something to try to at least set you on the path, you know, or point you in the right direction so that you could get there. So that you can experience the love of Christ with passive knowledge. I can't explain it to you because it passes knowledge. You've got to get there yourself. And I hope that the scriptures that I've given and the illustrations that I've given can help point you in the right direction, but at the end of the day, this is a quest that you must go on yourself and that you have to want it and you have to care about it. And let me tell you something, I don't care what you choose to follow in your life, it's not going to satisfy you. And if you go after the things of this world, I don't care how much money you make, I don't care how much education you get, I don't care what kind of achievements you have, athletic achievements, business achievements, scientific achievements. Let me tell you something, it's vanity. What I'm preaching about this morning is the real quest. Let's bow your heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for the love that you've shed abroad in our hearts, Lord, and thank you for those experiences, Lord, obviously our faith is founded on the rock of your word that never changes, Lord, but thank you for the icing on the cake that you've given us, these mountaintop experiences, Lord, and also we just thank you so much for the fact that you are so lovable, God, and that it's so easy to love you once we get to know you. And I just pray that those that are here this morning would somehow understand what I've preached and would set out to love you and to obey that commandment, that they're commanded to love you, help them to take that commandment seriously and embark on that journey and read your word and get sin out of their lives and go to church, but not to just go through the motions but to do it with an honest and good heart. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.