You Shall Love the Lord Your God

Some of you may know that the theme of the pre-teen camp that we had here just recently, I think it was the third week of July here for about four days with our pre-teen, five to twelve year olds, was loving God and loving neighbor, two of the great commands that are found in the law of God. You know, a couple of years ago at that camp, the theme at that time was the Ten Commandments, and we spent time with the campers then going through the Ten Commandments, teaching them the Ten Commandments and the importance of them in our lives.

Of course, the first four kind of referring in a sense of how to love God and the last six of how to love our neighbor. We talked with them about those first four, focusing on them mainly in the first part of camp, and then how to worship God, how to worship Him in the right way with the right heart and the right attitude, and then the last six of how we treat people.

But this year, we kind of drilled it down a little bit, camp. We drilled it down to two commandments, not ten, but two of loving God and loving neighbor. Let's turn with our first scripture here to Matthew chapter 22. Turn with me there to Matthew chapter 22 because Jesus was asked a question one time by a Pharisee, a Pharisaical lawyer.

And this question that he was confronted with is found here in this context in Matthew chapter 22 and verse number 34. And we'll see here that Jesus discusses these same two commandments that we talked with the pre-teen campers about, and that these two commandments reveal something that is much, maybe more than what we thought and more important than anything else in the law. Matthew chapter 22 verse 34, it says that when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees. So the context here is that the Sadducees were on the liberal left, the Pharisees were on the conservative right, and they were both religious, but they didn't have the same religious understandings because the Sadducees had tried to trap Jesus Christ.

They've been talking about a lot of different questions. They tried to trap him about the resurrection. Sadducees don't believe in the resurrection, but the Pharisees do. But Jesus Christ had basically silenced them, referring to the Sadducees, and he had silenced them, and so he stumped them. And so now in verse number 34, we see when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.

So now they were going to ask him a question. Then one of them, one of the Pharisees, who was a lawyer, asked him a question, testing him. So we see a little bit of the motivation here. It wasn't just wanting to understand the truth, but there was a little test involved, apparently. And he asked the most interesting question, teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? Now that's a great question. That's really a great question.

Even though he was testing him, that's a great question because they had basically argued amongst themselves for generations of what was the greatest commandment in the law. And you know how many commandments and or laws there are in scriptures? There's over 600. You know, by some counts there's around 636, give or take a few.

But there's over 600 commandments, and the Pharisees and Sadducees would argue among themselves which one was the most important one. You know, we have hindsight now in a sense. We can look back, so we know. But think about putting yourself in their shoes for a moment. Before this was answered by the greatest teacher of all time, what would you, if I, answer to that question, what is the great commandment in the law?

You know, to me, I can think about my computer in my mind starting to buzz through, and I'm trying to think, okay, which ones come up to the rise to the top that I think are the most important?

You know, because we didn't have this if we were back in the first century before this question was asked. And so you could be thinking in your own mind, what would rise to the top?

You know, for me, it would take a while. I'd probably speculate, well, you know, there's a few important ones over here we should look at. Jesus Christ didn't hesitate.

Immediately, he doesn't hesitate. Immediately, he says in verse 37, Jesus said, you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and with all of your mind. This is the first and the great commandment. Wow! He didn't take any time at all. He knew which the first and the great one was. And then he goes on to say, and the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. So he wasn't asked that question, but he must have felt that it was so important that he said, by the way, you didn't ask me this question, but I'm going to tell you there's another one that's very much like it, and that you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I'm going to focus today on the first commandment today. And as we notice here, Jesus's evaluation of this whole thing really has to do with love, doesn't it? Loving God. And then he talks about a second one, which we're not going to focus on today, but Christ thought it was so important. He says, by the way, there's another one. It's loving neighbor.

And so we have these two parts. And then he goes on to say, in verse number 40, that all the law and all the prophets hang on these two. In other words, they're the pegs that everything else hangs on. Nothing else is independent of these two commands. So what we're going to do in the time that we have in the message today is we're going to look at the first commandment, which is the greatest one. So the title of the message here this afternoon is, You Shall Love the Lord your God. That's the title. You Shall Love the Lord your God. And specifically, what I hope to accomplish today in the message is to address the questions, the questions, Why is it the greatest? Why is it the greatest? And if it is so important, then how do we do it? How do we obey that command? How do we love God?

So we're going to look at the greatest commandment of loving God.

But then I think it's noteworthy in the section of Scripture here in Matthew, chapter 22, that we're reading here among other things, we see from Jesus that God's primary desire is that mankind loves Him. That's very important that Jesus said in addressing the question, which is the greatest commandment in the law, He said, You shall love the Lord your God with everything that you have, all your strength, your soul, your mind, your might. Now He's not saying in verse 37 that you shall worship the Lord your God. Now He does say that in other places, but He doesn't say that here in this context of this question. And He doesn't say here that you shall live a moral life. There are other Scriptures that talk about that, but that's not said here.

Now I'm going to try to pull all this together. I mean, He's not saying here you should study the Bible, but we know there's other Scriptures that say study to show yourself approval. He doesn't say any of those things here in addressing this question. What I'm trying to do is pull all these things together to make a point. He's saying in other places all those things are important. Don't get me wrong. But what He is saying is that God's desire, God's primary desire, the greatest commandment of all is that mankind love Him.

But what does that mean? What does that mean? How do we do that? How do we do that? You know, some think of it as a list of things I must do. Others think of it as a feeling. Some skip to the next verse. Well, to love God means we have to love our neighbor because if I don't love my brother who I have seen, then how can I love God whom I have not seen? And that's in 1 John 4, verse 20. I'll refer to that. We won't turn there. 1 John 4, verse 20. And, brethren, that is all part of it, but that's not all that this word love means. Those are all part of it, but that's not all that this word love means. So what does it mean to love God? What does that mean? How do we do that?

In Matthew, chapter 22, which is the context we are in, the Greek word for the word love in verse 37 is agapeo. It's agapeo. I'll spell that for you. Six letters long. A-G-A-P-A-O. A-G-A-P-A-O. Now, some of you may recognize that the word agape is a part of that word, agapeo. Agape is in it. And I imagine that some of you have probably heard, maybe even most of you, have heard the series that Mr. Gary Petty, who we just saw on the video clip here, the second one, he gave a series of sermons on agape love. It's very, very good. And if you haven't heard it, and you have the opportunity, I would recommend it highly. It's a very good series of messages. So you'll see that the word agape is in agapeo, but they don't mean exactly the same thing. Agape is God's unconditional love for you and for me. It's given without merit. It's always used in the positive sense. It always considers what is best for the other person. It's unconditional, and it's based on action, not necessarily on feelings. You do the right thing for the other person, whether you feel that or not, have a feeling towards them. That's agape. But agapeo goes beyond that, and it has a little bit of a different meaning. It's translated love and can mean love, but it also can mean an attachment or a commitment. What you are committed to, a strong commitment, an attachment. We're going to explore a little bit here of what this word means.

Most of the time, agapeo is used in a positive sense. But every once in a while, it's not. Let me give you a couple of examples. I'm going to refer to them. You can turn them if you'd like. The first one is 2 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 10. Paul is writing to Timothy, and he says this.

He says, For Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, having agapeo'd this present world. So Demas became committed to something else. He attached himself to something else. He forsook Paul. So apparently, he started down the road, in a sense, his journey towards the kingdom of God. He most likely was baptized. He was assisting Paul and helping to serve the people of God. Apparently, he forsook Paul and forsook God. It says, having agapeo'd this present world. The second reference is John chapter 3 and verse 9, when agapeo was used, not necessarily in a positive sense. John chapter 3 and verse 19, where it says that men loved darkness rather than light. They agapeo'd darkness rather than light. So it's something they were committed to. They attached themselves to. And so we see a couple of examples there. The interesting thing about this word, agapeo, is that when Jesus is quoting this commandment, you know, he answers the question. When he's quoting this commandment, he's actually quoting an Old Testament scripture. He's quoting Deuteronomy chapter 6 and verse 5. So he's quoting from an Old Testament scripture, and Jesus probably wasn't speaking Greek. You know, it's translated. You know, they wrote it in Greek, and then it became translated to English, but he was most likely speaking Aramaic.

It was translated into Greek and ultimately into English. But Jesus is actually quoting Deuteronomy chapter 6 and verse 5. So let's go over there, and what we're going to do is take a look at that commandment here, and take a look at what the Hebrew word is for love in Deuteronomy chapter 6 and verse 5. Because this command, love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul, appears eight different times in the book of Deuteronomy, but this is the one here we're going to focus on. Deuteronomy chapter 6 and verse number 5. It says, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all of your mind. And who would have thought the greatest commandment was buried in Deuteronomy chapter 6 and verse 5, but Jesus Christ knew exactly where it was. Now when Jesus quoted this Old Testament scripture, which is translated love in English, what was the Hebrew word here that's used? What's the essence? What is the meaning of this command when God said to Moses to the Hebrews and the children of Israel thousands of years ago, you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, mind, and soul. What is God trying to communicate here? What was the Hebrew word that he used for the word love? The Hebrew word is only four letters long. It's four letters long and it's ahab. It's spelled A-H-A-B. A-H-A-B. Now you and I might think of pronouncing it Ahab, but the proper pronunciation, I believe, is ahab. And that's the masculine part of it. There's a feminine part that is ahab-a. So ahab and ahab-a mean exactly the same thing. They mean exactly the same thing. And it could be translated to have affection for. It's like a friend. This word has to do with intimate friendship. It's an interesting word because there are several places in Scripture where we are told that individuals, human beings, had it for one another. They ahab-ed each other. And it has to do with intimate friendship. Let's look at a few examples. 1 Samuel chapter 20 and verse 17. 1 Samuel chapter 20 and verse 17. You remember the story about the relationship between David and Jonathan? You may remember the story. In the text here, it says that the love that he had for Jonathan was greater than the love of women. You know, an interesting thing about this is it has to do with the close sharing of one's soul. You remember the story of David and Jonathan, how close they were that they had a kinship, that they had an intimate friendship and a trust for each other. Remember that? Where they'd be willing to die for each other? That's the relationship that they have. It's not a distant thing when we talk about that they had a hab for each other.

Let's go to 1 Samuel. Did I say 1 Samuel chapter 20 verse 17? I meant to say 2 Samuel chapter 1 and verse 26. So you may want to write that one down. 2 Samuel chapter 1 verse 26 is where it says that David loved Jonathan and that his love was greater than the love of women. The scripture that I gave you before, which was the wrong one, which is the one I meant to give here, secondly, it says that Jonathan a-hobbed David. So this is going back and forth each way. They both a-hobbed each other. In 2 Samuel chapter 1 verse 26 it says that David a-hobbed Jonathan. I think it's the feminine there, a-habbed Jonathan. And then in 1 Samuel chapter 20 verse 17 it says Jonathan a-hobbed, the masculine in this case, a-hobbed David. A third example here. 1 Kings chapter 5 and verse 1. 1 Kings chapter 5 and verse 1. We're talking about David and King Hiram. That they were loyal friends. They had a relationship. They a-hobbed each other. So when we talk about loving God, Jesus is saying you shall love the Lord your God. He's referring, in a sense, to the examples in a sense that we have. Like, for instance, the way that David loved Jonathan. Not in a weird way, not in a sexual way, but as a close friend, as an individual that he had a close kinship with. They shared their heart with each other.

Let's turn to the New Testament now for some examples. John chapter 15 and verse 12. John chapter 15 and verse 12. In this context here, Jesus calls his disciples friends. John chapter 15 and verse 12. You know, I think this is what God had in mind. And Jesus says the heart and mind of God. And so when he's sharing this with his disciples and this view with them, he's sharing the Father's view. Let's notice what it says here. John chapter 15 and verse number 12.

He says, This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. This is my commandment that you agapeo one another as I have been agapeoing you. So we see here this love, agapeo. He says in verse 13, Greater love has no man than this, than someone will lay down his life for his friends. Notice what he's saying here. He's teaching them about godly love here. And that that love has to be in them and it has to be expressed to others. He says in verse 12, This is my commandment that you agapeo one another as I have agapeoed you. Now in a sense, he's referring to the second of the two great commandments here, isn't he? But remember, the second is like the first. He's beginning to teach here how to have godly love for others, whether it be our neighbor or possibly maybe even our God. But for others, how we express love to others. Verse 13, Greater love than this has no one than this, than someone would have laid down his life for his friends. And you are my friends if you do whatever I command you. Now, Jesus is not being like a great schooler here and saying, You can't be my friends unless you do what I say. You know, he's not saying that here. What he's saying is, is that you demonstrate that you are my friends when you trust me enough to do what I ask you to do. You demonstrate that you are my friends when you trust me enough to do what I command you to do. Just like Jesus Christ himself trusted the Father and did the things that the Father commanded him to do. Because he loved his Father and he felt that his Father had his best interest in heart all the time and whatever he asked Jesus Christ to do. He trusted the Father that much. Notice verse number 10 here in this context. John chapter 15 and verse 10, If you keep my commandments you will abide in my love just as I have kept my Father's commandments and I abide in his love. Jesus Christ isn't asking us to do anything that he himself didn't personally do with his Father. He loved his Father and he demonstrated that love because he trusted him. He did what his Father asked him to do. So Jesus says, when you follow me, when you respond to me, when you obey me, that's a demonstration that you are my friends. Verse number 15, No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends for all things that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. There comes a time when there's a change in the relationship. It becomes more intimate as friends, as he says, no longer do I call you servants, but I have called you friends. Brethren, there's a lot here in these four verses. Let's go through them again. Do we see what Jesus is saying in verse number 12 of John chapter 15? Verse number 12, he's saying, I have been showing you godly love. I have been loving you with a godly love of Agapeo, and I want you to love others in the same way. I want you to express this kind of love to others. In a sense, whether it be your fellow man or whether it be God, to express this to God or your fellow man. Do we see what he's saying in verse number 13? You know, godly love involves laying down our life at times, a sacrifice. You know, Jesus Christ, of course, paid the literal sacrifice. He laid down his literal life so that we could have eternal life. But you know, there's also another way to lay down our life. Let's keep our finger here, but let's turn over to 1 John chapter 3 and verse number 16. 1 John chapter 3 and verse number 16.

He says, by this we know love because he laid down his life for us, and we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. And then he talks about how we can do that. It's not necessarily a literal laying down of our lives, but possibly in other ways, a living sacrifice. Let's go back now to John chapter 15, and we'll pick it up in verse number 14. Do we notice what Jesus is saying in verse 14? What he's saying is that you demonstrate that you are my friends when you trust me enough to do what I command you to do, just as I trusted my father, obeyed him, and did the things that he commanded me to do. And then in verse 15, we begin to see the heart is involved. There's a sharing, one who shares his heart, one who enters into a different relationship, a more intimate relationship. He says, no longer do I call you servants, but I have called you friends.

Brethren, this is the essence of what God is looking for in a relationship with his sons and daughters. This is the essence, this agapeo, this ahab, this concept that's wrapped up in Deuteronomy chapter 6 and verse 5, where he says, you shall ahab the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your mind, and all of your soul, and all of your strength. A loyal affection, a trust, a faith in each other, in the one that is loved. You know, it's interesting in Genesis chapter 29 and verse 20. Go back there for a moment. Genesis chapter 29 and verse 20, it talks about Jacob. Remember the story that Jacob worked for his father-in-law, Laban. You know, Laban wanted to have his first daughter married off first, so he ended up tricking Jacob. You know, Jacob thought he was working seven years for Rachel. And we find out he worked seven years, and suddenly he finds out that the woman that he just married wasn't Rachel, but it was Leah. So Laban wanted to have his first daughter married off before his second daughter, but Jacob loved the second daughter, so the father tricked him.

And he ended up working another seven years for Rachel. So he worked seven years for what he thought was Rachel, ended up with Leah, and then he worked another seven years for Rachel. For Rachel, he says, because his love for Rachel was so great, his ahab for Rachel was so great, he was willing to work another seven years. You know, the word ahab is the one that God uses for himself. Love the Lord your God, this fiercely loyal affection that you're willing to go the extra mile, like Jacob was willing to go the extra mile for Rachel. This love that God talks about, though, God's intention is that it goes both ways. You know, he commands us to love him, but he also loves us. What's the scripture sometimes you see in the end zone of a football stadium? John chapter 3 verse 16, kind of a memory scripture. For God so agapeyod the world. He so agapeyod the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but should have everlasting life. So that's a memory scripture. But the Greek word there is agapeyod. God agapeyod us. He commands us to agapeyod him. Jeremiah chapter 31 verse 3. Let's talk about that section of scripture that talks about God's deep love for mankind. Jeremiah chapter 31 in verse 3. Jeremiah, one of the prophets of God, and that's God's sense to his people when they started to go astray, trying to get their attention, trying to bring them back. And he talks about a little bit about the type of love that God has for these people that are turning their backs on God. Jeremiah chapter 31 in verse 3 talks of God's deep love for mankind. This is what it says here. It says, the Lord has appeared of old to me saying, yes, I have ahabd you. I have ahabd you with an everlasting ahab. I've loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness, I have drawn you. God reached out first, didn't he? He says, I am drawing you with this ahab. God's always had, as his plan for human beings, a loving relationship within his family. He describes it here as an eternal love, as an everlasting love. He uses an eternal way to describe it. I have loved you with an everlasting love, a love that will never end. That's how I feel towards you. Let's continue on. Let's drop down to verse number 33. In this loving relationship, he says, I will put my law, including this great commandment that we're talking about today. I'm going to put that great commandment. I'm going to put my law and all of it that's included into their inward parts. And I'm going to write it in their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Brethren, his law is permanently planted in our hearts and minds is what his purpose is. And part of the purpose of this law is to show us how to love him and how to love other people.

Let's turn over to Hosea, chapter 11. Hosea, chapter 11, and verse 1. And by the way, Hosea is an Old Testament book. I think that captures the heart of God pretty well. Hosea, chapter 11, and verse 1. Right after the book of Daniel, Hosea, chapter 11, and we'll pick it up in verse 1.

God says, when Israel was a child, I loved him. I Ahab'd him, is the Hebrew word. And out of Egypt, I called my son.

Those of us that are parents know a relationship between a father and a son. It's an intimate relationship. God describes it in this way. He said, when Israel was a child, I Ahab'd him, and out of Egypt, I called my son. And as they called them, so they went from them. They sacrificed to bales, and they burned incense to carved images. They turned their back on their father. Instead of sacrificing to God, they began to sacrifice to false gods, to bales, carved images. Verse number 3. Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk. I taught him to walk. I took them by their arms, but they did not know that I healed them. The Good News Bible, I'll quote from that here, because I think it puts verse 3 in a more modern English for us to understand. It says, Yet I was the one who taught Israel to walk. I took my people up in my arms. You can imagine what that means. As a parent, when you do that, you're showing love to them. You're showing concern for them. They mean something important to you. I took my people up in my arms, but they did not acknowledge that I took care of them. Verse number 4, back to the New King James, I drew them with gentle cords, with bands of the hob. And I was to them as those who took the yoke from off their neck. I stooped down, and I made sure that they were fed.

The New Living Translation translates verse 4 this way, I led Israel along with my ropes of kindness and love. So, you know, he does have some restraints on us. He wants to keep us out of danger, but they're laws of love. They're ropes of kindness and love. I lifted the yoke from off his neck, and I myself stooped down to feed him, personally. You know, this is the word that he's using. It's a hob. And what it means to love God is this idea that we find in Deuteronomy chapter 6 and verse 5. Let's look at some Old Testament examples or models of a hob, of love for God and God's love for us, because they're really very remarkable examples that are here for us in Scripture. Let's take a look at the first one that we're going to turn to, and that's Abraham. Abraham, let's look at Isaiah chapter 41 and verse 8. Isaiah chapter 41 and verse number 8.

The Scripture tells us that Abraham was a friend of God. You know, that's a remarkable statement. You know, three different times in Scripture. He's called the friend of God. That's a concept that God is referring to. You know, there's another couple of Scriptures that we won't turn to that say that. That's 2 Chronicles chapter 20 verse 7, and in James chapter 2 and verse 23. But the third one is the one we're going to focus on here in Isaiah chapter 41 verse 8. Notice what it says, but you Israel are my servant, and Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend. You know what the Hebrew word is for friend?

Ahab. We're talking about a close relationship, an intimate, loving relationship as a close friend.

Abraham, my Ahab. There's other examples we can take a look at besides Abraham. There's the example of Moses. God talked with Moses as a man talks with his friend face to face. I'll just refer to Exodus chapter 33 verse 11. You can turn there if you'd like, but I'm going to refer to it Exodus chapter 33 verse 11, where it says, the Lord spoke to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend. I will have you turn, though, to Deuteronomy chapter 34 and verse 10. Deuteronomy chapter 34 and verse number 10.

God would talk to Moses as a man talks to his friend, and this is God's commentary about Moses's life here in Deuteronomy chapter 34 verse 10. But since then there has not arisen in Israel a prophet like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.

You know, Moses was there was no prophet like him apparently up to this time. In fact, he's compared in a sense that there was there was going to be another prophet that was going to come in the future that was going to be like Moses, but it wasn't going to be Moses. And of course, that prophet was Jesus Christ that came later on. But Moses was an incredible prophet of God because the prophet of God has to speak the words of God and not his own words. He has to say only what God tells him to say. And Moses was a good example of that. There weren't many times that he failed. Now, there was one time at the waters of was at Marabah where he struck the rock and God wasn't too happy with that. He didn't acknowledge God. But almost every other instance, he said what God asked him to say. He didn't add to it. He didn't take away from it. He was obedient to God. He did the job that God called him to do. Verse 10, but since then there's not arisen in Israel a prophet like Moses whom the Lord knew face to face in all the signs and the wonders which the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt before Pharaoh, before Pharaoh's servants in all of his land, and by all that mighty power and all the great terror which Moses performed in the sight of all Israel.

Wow! There's a lot of powerful things that God did through Moses, didn't he? That's interesting that most of the things in these verses have to do with very powerful things. But the reason those powerful things could take place is because God knew Moses and Moses knew God. They had a trust for each other.

God could trust Moses. God spoke to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend.

You know, it's a New Testament scripture that Jesus Christ says, you know, people said, well, we cast out demons in your name. We did this, we did that. We preached your name in the streets. He said, I never knew you. I didn't know you. Depart from me you that have been practicing lawlessness. You would have been breaking some of the commands of God. And so one of the things we know, if we really love God, we're going to obey him. You know, Jesus Christ said, if you love me, keep my commandments. So we see some pretty powerful things because God trusted Moses. They had a relationship. And I think that's the idea of Deuteronomy chapter 6, to come to this intimate relationship to a hob God and God to a hob us. A love that goes both ways.

A loyal affection that dominates a person's life. You know, by the way, what's the dominant theme or picture that God uses to portray the attitude that his attitude that he has towards the church? You know, a couple of things. Number one, he talks about it as the body of Christ, but then he talks about the church marrying Jesus Christ. We talk about our relationship, don't we? A love. And you just don't marry anyone, do you? You just don't.

And so we talk about this love here, this agapeo. We're talking about a relationship.

You often marry your best friend. You know, it's interesting. We can go to Ephesians chapter 5.

That's quite a fascinating chapter. It's one when we do the marriage ceremony, and I had the privilege to conduct and officiate the marriage ceremony of our son, Jamie, and his new wife, Kayleen. And by the way, I wish you all could have been there. It was a wonderful day. The ceremony went really well. Families and friends had a chance to come together. I think we've got them off to a good start. But now they're on their own. They've got some lessons they're going to have to learn on their own as they go forward, as we all did. But in Ephesians chapter 5, we often quote a lot of these different scriptures. In verse 23 of Ephesians 5, talking about the husband is the head of the wife, as also Christ is the head of the church, and he is the savior of the body. He's willing to put himself on the line for it. Verse 24, therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be subject to their own husbands in everything. And so we're talking about this relationship, a marriage relationship, the bride marrying the bride groom. But you know, he says, this is a great mystery. He's been talking about literal husbands and wives, but all of a sudden, verse 32, he says, but you know what? This is a great mystery. I'm not really talking about husbands and wives. I'm actually talking about Christ and the church. So we talk about this relationship, a family, an intimate relationship. This is the heart of God. It's not just a religious thing that God holds us at a distance, or we are to be at a distance from him. Yes, he wants us to respect him. Yes, he wants us to obey him. All of those things are important, but that's not all there is to this word, aha, and to this love that we talk about. It goes further than that. You shall love the Lord your God. You shall aha the Lord your God.

Brother, God's primary desire is for mankind to love him. An intimate relationship and a friendship, not simply obedience alone. Love and obedience are closely tied together. Love will produce obedience, but obedience does not always produce love. Let me tell you a story about our daughter back in the first grade, our daughter, Kelly. She's nearly 28 years old now, so this happened a few years ago, but she was a little bit of a rascal at certain times. Our daughter wasn't always a model child, and she may have taken after me because I always wasn't the model child either. I was a little rascal at times. Thankfully, I won't go there. But anyhow, when she came into first grade, she just loved her first grade teacher, Mrs. Koppelman. I mean, there was something about Mrs. Koppelman that Kelly really loved. She loved her teacher, and she was willing to do almost anything for her. You know, she wanted to obey. She wanted to be good. You know, towards the end of the school year, she made a comment to Jelinda. She said, Mama, I'm just tired of being good.

Because she had been a model student. I think Mrs. Koppelman must have thought, wow, wish I had a bunch of Kelly's. Because Kelly loved her, and she kept her rules.

You know, there was an outfit, kind of a, oh, I don't know, kind of a three-dimensional thing with a cute puppy. And Jelinda thought it was really neat, and loved it when Kelly would wear it to school, and Kelly would wear it. But Kelly confided to her years later, oh, I never really liked that outfit. But Mrs. Koppelman liked it. Mrs. Koppelman, she wore it because Mrs. Koppelman liked it. You know, let's go to John chapter 14. John chapter 14.

We'll pick it up in verse number 15. John chapter 14 and verse number 15. Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments. Now, we've already pretty much talked about it in John chapter 15 already. He's not saying, you know, can't be my friend if you don't keep my commandments. He's saying, we demonstrate that we love him by keeping the commandments. Notice he didn't say, if you keep my commandments, then you will love me. He doesn't say that. He says, if you love me, keep my commandments.

You know, obedience does not always lead to love, but love will eventually lead to obedience.

The more we know God, the more we love him, the more we love him, the more it becomes a delight to live the way that he lives. If we love God, we begin to delight in the things that he delights in. The Sabbath isn't a burden. It's not a burden. The commandments are not grievous because we know that God has given us these laws for our benefit, and we trust him enough that we're going to obey them. And then we eventually, because we love God, we don't question that they're not for our good. We trust him, our Father, that he has our best interest in mind. Verse number 21, he who has my commandments and keeps them is he who loves me, and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and I will manifest myself to him. Let's drop down to verse 23. Jesus answered and said, if a man love me, he will keep my words, because we have a relationship, and we trust each other, and we trust the fact that the Son of God knows what he's doing, and that the Father knows what he's doing when they give us commands, when they give us directives, when they give us instructions, that they love us and they have our best interest at heart.

If a man love me, verse 23, and he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him. You know, I'll just refer to 1 John, chapter 5 and verse 3. You can turn there if you'd like. But 1 John, chapter 5 and verse 3, for this is the love of God that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous.

The reality is obedience does not always produce love, but a hob love will always eventually be expressed by obedience if we really love God. You know, if we think we're loving God, we're not coming to church, I think we're missing the point. Because God tells us to come here.

If we're breaking the commandment to steal from others, I think we're missing the point. How can we really love God and take from somebody else? How can we really love God and commit adultery? Which, of course, is not only going to harm ourselves, but it's going to harm somebody else.

How can we really say we love God and then we break some of these commandments? Well, we need to repent, of course. That happens because we all sin. Don't get me wrong. We're all going to break a command. But I think if we love God, we're going to stop ourselves in the tracks as we know we rehearse the Days of Eleven Bread. We examine ourselves at Passover and the Days of Eleven Bread. We start to make choices where we come out of that lifestyle. It's all part of the plan of God. All one of His commands and part of His commands that He gives us through the Holy Days to observe these holy convocations because of things that they teach us.

Jesus said, You are my friends if you do whatever I command you.

You demonstrate that you're my friends when you trust me enough to do what I command you to do. So trusting God is a part of this love. It's part of the trust that David and Jonathan had, Abraham and God had, Moses and God had. It's a trust in each other, a relationship that no matter what God puts you and I through, that we'll trust Him.

Even though it may seem difficult, even though it may seem hard, that all things can work together for good, that this can change us for the better. Let's review a few stories.

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Remember the story? You know what? Here you've got Nebuchadnezzar, the leader of a world-ruling empire, and he's created this golden image and he says, You know what? When you hear the sound of the music, everyone has to bow down and they have to worship this image that I have created. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, obviously they didn't bow down and you're going to really stand out, aren't you? When everyone is bowing, when this music starts playing, all the masses, all these people are bowing down and you've got these three figures that are standing up.

They had a relationship with God. They were going to be that first commandment. You shall love the Lord your God. He is God. And they had a confrontation with Nebuchadnezzar.

They trusted God enough. They said, You know what? Even, you know what? Our God can deliver us. He can deliver us. But you know what? Even if He chooses not to. We're still going to trust Him instead of you. And we're not bowing down to this golden image. You know, they were willing to trust God enough to put their life on the line.

And that's pretty, I mean, that takes a lot, doesn't it? To have that type of relationship with your God. That's the relationship that they had. They were going to obey that first and great commandment. You know, if you want to look at a relationship that was built on trust and faith, look at the relationship in the book of Psalms between David and God. How many times was David on the run for his life? But he says, you know what? He's still my shield. He's still my buckler. No matter what happens, you know, I'm putting all my eggs in that basket. Because He's God. And He's my God. And that's where I'm turning to when I have trouble or I find myself in trouble, no matter what is happening in my life. David certainly exhibited what Jesus Christ talked about when He said, you are my friends if you do whatever I command you. What about Job? You remember the story of Job? He lost his sons, his daughters. He lost most of his wealth.

He lost his health. And remember what he said in the midst of that trial? He said, though He slay me, yet I will trust in Him. Wow! That's a trust. That's a love. That's part of this love that we're talking about. This relationship that we trust each other. It's an intimate relationship and mutual trust between the two parties. It's part of the meaning of this word, aha. Jolynn, his father, he's dead, died of cancer. He, we noticed it at the feast in 2002. He died in February of 2003. He had this little growth on the side of his face.

And it expanded. It grew. And it was a fast-growing skin cancer. And I may have told this story. Some of you may have heard this, but maybe not all of you. If you could cut a grapefruit in half and put it on his face, that's what it looked like. And then the weight was drawing the corner of his mouth down and it was affecting his eye. And he couldn't eat. And he could slurp from a straw for a while. But then it got to the point where the straw had to be in exactly the right position. You could only get the couple of top inches of the liquid off of the top of the glass. And they'd have to fill it up again. And he said to Jolynn when she was down to visit him, she said this, he said, God must really love me.

Because he's teaching me lessons that I don't even understand, that are going to benefit me for eternity. That's a remarkable statement to me.

I would only hope that if I find myself in that type of a trial, that I would think the same thing. He trusted God so much that he just knew that what he was going through was going to benefit him no matter what happened. But other than that, is an incredible example. We've got some really good examples, don't we? We've got Job. What about Abraham? What about Abraham? Remember God made the promises to him and said, you know what, this other person is not going to be your heir. It's going to be Isaac. Well, Isaac wasn't even born yet. You're going to have your own heir and all these promises that I have promised to your descendants, you know, nations, multitude of nations, what have you, we're going to come through that seed. Which later, of course, Isaac came on the scene. They're all going to come through Isaac. And then God said one day to Abraham, he said, I want you to go and sacrifice your son. Well, Abraham knew what that meant. He performed several animal sacrifices. He knew what that meant. That meant you cut the throat of the animal, you bleed it out, and you burn it. A sacrifice. I don't know about you, but I would have thought, okay, now wait a minute. All my promises of my descendants are going to come through the son. How can that happen if he dies? That's not possible if he dies. But you know, the book of Hebrews says that Abraham believed that even if God had him slay his son, that God had the ability to resurrect him. And God later, after the whole trial takes place, God says, of course, he didn't have him slay his son. He takes him right up to the moment, about ready to slash his throat with a sharp knife. But he says, stop. He provides an animal in the thicket, if you remember the story. But he says, now I know. He didn't apparently know before. So sometimes God has to take us to the edge of the relationship, and now he knew he could trust Abraham no matter what.

But wow, that's taking it right to the edge, isn't it? It's taking it right to the edge. But God needs to know for you and me too. It's no different. How can he give eternal life to a son and daughter for eternity unless he knows? So there's going to be some things that maybe we're going to have to go through that are still yet ahead of us.

But God, if we believe in him, if we trust him, if we a-hob him and believe that everything that he does is ultimately, in life or death, is ultimately for the good of our eternal existence. Because that's what he's telling us. I'm never going to leave you. I am never going to forsake you. I a-hob you, and I want you to a-hob me. It's a relationship.

Father, son, bride, bridegroom. Talking about an intimate relationship.

That's what God is looking for. A loyal affection.

You know, the more we begin to understand this, I think, and begin to really follow it, the more we really want to obey. We want to. We believe God. We trust him. We love him. He wouldn't have us do anything unless it was for our good. Now, we don't do this perfectly.

We don't do this perfectly. I still disobey at times. Don't ask my wife. But we all do.

And when I find that happening, I think, this is stupid. This is stupid. I've been around for nearly 59 years, and I should know better. All I'm doing is I'm gonna. It's not going to be good for me, and I'm grieving my spiritual father. He grieves. Every parent grieves. Why is he any different?

Every parent grieves for what their child does or does not do.

So then I need to change, and I need to respond to my father. Acts 13, verse 21. God said this of David, Acts 13, verse 21. I found David a man after my own heart. That's a memory scripture. Acts 13, verse 21. I have found David a man after my own heart who will do all of my will.

Wow! God could count on David. Has David loved God? So God knew that he could count on David.

And of course, God loved David. I have found David a man after my own heart who will do all of my will. You know, Moses' relationship with God began really with awe, you know, and it ended, you know, in intimacy. It began at the burning bush. At the time, Moses knew very little about God. He didn't know much about God. He'd heard about him, and that relationship started with awe, a burning bush, a voice, take off your shoes, you know, for where you are standing is holy ground. He's scared to death.

But he obeyed the commandment to aha the Lord is God, and his relationship with God changed to the point where it came to the point where he spoke with God face to face as a man speaks to his friend. True story. Something that happened about 20 years ago.

A father was giving a seminar. His son was in the audience, and the son drew a picture, very, very simple picture. You can imagine you've got two stick figures on this picture. One is the shorter one, which he's drawing himself, and the taller one he's drawing his father. His father has his arm around the son in this picture, and there's a simple caption. I love you.

The son is telling the father, I love you. The father's got his arm around the son.

The father has had this picture for 20 years.

I don't think God the father is much different than a human father in this regard. He knew his son loved him. And it was so moving to know that, and to see the picture was the manifestation of the feeling of his son. He's holding on to this picture for 20 years. That's how strong he felt, and understanding that his son loved him.

You know, God gives us the family so we can understand the dynamics of how all this works.

God's no different than a human parent that wants to hear their child sincerely say from the heart, I love you, dad. I love you, mom. You know what it does to us. We melt. We melt.

That's the relationship. That's the oneness that Christ is and the father trying to build in this family here. There's this love here, this oneness, this commonality that must be an incredible thing.

That God is building.

I think it's sometimes we can understand a little bit more about God because of human family. God created the human family, maybe for that very reason. He designed it.

Interestingly, or maybe not surprisingly, God loved us first. He loved us first. 1 John 4 and verse 19. 1 John 4 and verse 19.

We love Him because He first loved us. So, He has this love already. 1 John 4 and verse 19. God reached out to us with love and then we returned it to Him. So, what God is asking for here, really, is the development of a relationship that's very personal. So, the question is, how do we go about loving God in this way? How do we go about loving God in this way? Well, let's go back to where we started Matthew 22. Matthew 22. We'll pick it up here in verse number 37. Matthew 22 and verse number 37. Brethren, if this is the greatest commandment, how do we go about obeying it? How do we do it? How do we love God in this way? How do we a-hob God? How do we agapeo Him?

Matthew 22 and verse 37. Jesus said to Him, You shall agapeo the Lord your God with. Okay, that's an important word, the word with. Notice it says, You shall love the Lord your God with. The word with is important because it takes it out of the abstract and it puts it more into the concrete. It takes it out of phraseology and begins to put into real life. So we can have this intimate relationship. We love God with all of our heart. The Greek word is cardia. It means the thoughts, the feelings, the deep-seated emotions. Jesus is being concrete and yet, on the other hand, sometimes these are hard concepts for us to understand. But He's talking about Scripture, He's talking about God inspired, breathe, talks about with our heart, what these deep-seated emotions, the inner desires, the control center of our being, not the physical organ of the heart, but what's inside of us, our being, our thoughts, it's who we are, it's our inner being.

God says to love Him with all of our heart. And then He goes on to say, and to love Him with all of our soul. All of our soul. What are we talking about when we talk about the word soul here? It comes from the Greek or Hebrew to breathe. It's our physical life. We're physical beings here. We talk about our physical life. We talk about already the example of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. That they loved God with all of their physical being. They were willing to take it all the way with their physical life. So we love Him with our physical life, our physical being, our life as a human being, our life as a Son of God, our conscious thoughts, the realm of feeling or choosing. It's all part of who we are. It's the soul, our physical life. And then it goes on with all of your might or all of your strength. That's how it's phrased in Deuteronomy chapter 6 here in Matthew 22. I think He says mind, and we'll look at mind here in a moment. But in Deuteronomy chapter 6 and in the parallel account in Mark chapter 12 and verse 30, it says, Love the Lord your God with all of your strength.

The Greek word for strength is iskus. It means with your ability, with your might, with your power, with your strength. You know, it's the ability that we have to act with our, boy, that would be our bodily power. It's the sense, not just physical, but our self-determination, our ability to set the course and the direction of our life, the strength that we have, the strength of our mind, to make choices, to choose directions we're going to go. Our strength, our bodily power, the strength of a person. If you have a bank account with X number of dollars, that's part of your strength. If you own a home, that's part of your strength. If you have a family, that's part of your strength. If you're strong physically, that's part of your strength.

God says to love Him with all of that. And then in Matthew chapter 22 here, He says to love the Lord with all of your mind. The Greek word dionoia, the deep thoughts, the mind, the understanding. You know, your mind is your ability to sort out how you're going to make a choice, which direction you're going to go. It's your ability to see right from wrong and make a choice between the two. It's the concept of the mind. By the way, what area of life is Satan like to attack more or has attacked more than anything? You know, we've talked about the fact that our mind is often under attack and we're to bring every thought into captivity.

There's a wrestling match that happens within our, between our ears, in a sense, in our mind. And what has to be renewed when we become a believer? The mind. We have to have a renewing of the mind of how we think. The mind controls how we think. As a man thinketh, so is he. We don't realize the power of the mind, either for good or for evil. Determines which direction we'll go. It determines how our week will go. It determines how our day will go, often. The choices that we think about or make, things that we think about in our mind. We may have more power in our minds than we realize. And so Jesus Christ says to love God with all of your mind. All of your heart, all of your soul, all of your strength, all of your mind. And some of you note-takers are probably trying to write all this down and get all the definitions right. But I think what it comes down to is this. It's pretty simple. He's stacking word upon word upon word upon word. He says, I want you to love God with everything that you have, everything that you are, everything that you think about, all the strength that you have. Love God with everything that you and I have. And holding nothing back. We don't have these compartments, you know, where we love Him in this way. But you know, I'm not sure God's got it figured out quite right there. Holding nothing back. Physical, spiritual, emotional, intellectual, my will, my dreams, my desires, my goals, my affections, my friends, my habits, how I use my time, how I use my money, how I use all of my resources, everything that I have, my money, everything, how I use it. There are no compartments that I'm holding back. Most of us, if not all of us, have a long ways to go to obey this command. I certainly do. I've not arrived. But when we have a map, when we have a map which Scripture gives us, then we have the ability to arrive at our destination, don't we? Almost 2,000 years ago, Jesus was asked to question, teacher, what is the great commandment in the law? Jesus did not hesitate. He quoted Deuteronomy 6 in verse 5, You shall love the Lord your God, shall ahab the Lord your God, with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind, and with all of your strength. This is the first and the greatest commandment.