How To Love God

-Ask almost anyone in the united states if they love God and the answer would be “Yes!”

-Sometimes, though, I think people misunderstand the question

-Sometimes they think the question is “Do you love what God does for you?”

-They have a servant kind of God

-Some think the question is, “Do you like having God around?”

-They have a friend kind of God

-Some think the question is “Do you like who God is?”

-Creator, healer, guide, protector, etc. . .

-They have a mystical God

-God is all of these, but He is so much more

-And the question is “Do you love God?”

-If you were to rate your love for God on a scale of 1 to 10, what would it be?

10, 8.5, 6, 4, 2, 1

-There was a scribe in Jesus’ day who was faced with answering this question without it even being asked

-Mark 12:28-34

-In this passage, we are given four ways we are to love the Lord

I. With All Your Heart

-This is with all your emotion

-The heart is the center of emotion

-This is where we often think of love as coming from

-If we truly love someone, we should show it in tangible ways everyday

-God shows His love to us each day

-We often are afraid to show our emotion to God

-God loves for us to be emotional with Him

-David often cried out to Him

-And expressed fear at times

-The Israelites grumbled to Him

-Abraham and Sarah laughed to Him

-Many in scripture rejoiced in Him

-Especially the women as they left the tomb

-God is not put off by emotion

-Remember: He created you with emotion

-What God wants, is for us to channel our emotions to Him in love

A. In honesty

1. Not hiding what we are feeling

-God can see right through a poker face

2. Not exchanging what we are feeling

-With something else

-In a sense, a lie

B. In openness

-Not caring what others think

-Only caring what God knows

II. With All Your Soul

-This is with all of our spiritual being

-This could be the hardest because this part of our being is the most difficult for us to understand

A. This sees our need for forgiveness

B. This sees our need for belief

-In God’s existence and character

-In the work of Christ

-In the power of the Holy Spirit

C. This sees our need for faith

-In what we cannot reason into existence

D. This sees our need for obedience

E. This sees our need for cleansing

-Getting the sin stains out

-This is far beyond forgiveness

-And requires far more

-But the blessings far exceed those of forgiveness as well

III. With All Your Mind

-This is with all of our intellect

-Our brains are amazing things

-It is said that we only use a tiny fraction of our brain’s ability

-Even the smartest among us

-We can hold so much information

-But what kind of information are we holding

-Historical knowledge

-Literary knowledge

-Entertainment knowledge

-Sports knowledge

-Business knowledge

-Household knowledge

-Automobile knowledge

-All of this is well and good, but where does all of that knowledge stack up to your knowledge of scripture

-Where does all of that knowledge stack up to your knowledge of who God is and how He works

-For most believers, it is very limited

-But, where are they Sunday morning?

-Where are they Sunday night?

-Where are they Wednesday night?

-Why is their Bible collecting dust at home?

-Why do they fill their minds with music, stories and ideas of this world rather than music, stories and ideas of God

-You see, to love God with all of our minds we must do two things

1. Fill your mind with knowledge of God

-And that doesn’t come in just 1 or 2 hours on Sunday

-I Corinthians 2:2

2. Meditate on what you know of God

-Philippians 4:8

IV. With All Your Strength

-This is with all of our physical being

-This is giving our abilities over to God for Him to use as He sees fit

-Sometimes this is inside the walls of the church, sometimes it is outside the walls of the church

-In the public schools of Switzerland each student is taught this patriotic slogan: "My duty is to obey and work for God and my native land."

A. All your abilities

-Natural and God-given

-Actually, there is no such thing as natural

-It is all God-given

-And God gives us abilities because He wants us to use them for His glory to perform His will

-Many times, there are jobs in the church that never get done because those with the ability to do them does not step up and take responsibility for them