(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

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