With all your heart… July 11, 2010 Mark 12:28-34
Coach Wooden-Coach for UCLA basketball, most highly decorated and successful coach still in history, who died just last month. 10 NCAA championships, 7 being consecutive from 1967-1973. 16 Final Four appearances, and on and on. Got to coach the best college players in the country, and started off each season with going over the fundamentals. He even went down to the fundamentals of properly putting on their socks and shoes.
Here we are in the start of a new Annual Conference year, and God has put it on my heart, that we go back to the fundamentals. We are going to embark on a series that covers the whole of Christianity. We are going to embark on exploring the words of Jesus, and the commands of God in Scripture, to which Jesus says that all the Law and Prophets hang on. We are going to dive into the 1st and 2nd Greatest Commandment. If Jesus said that these two commandments were of greatest importance, then I think it is due our utmost attention. The first is to Love God. The second is to love others. The first commandment has to be in operation in our lives, for us to be able to really do the second commandment. And the second commandment has to be in operation in our lives, for us to know if we are really doing the first.
The writer of I John sums up this point quite well when he says, 1 John 4:20-21 20 If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.
1 John 4:11 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
This issue is of the utmost importance, and needs to be the core of our beliefs, and the core of our practice.
The passage that we are going to work from is Mark 12:28-34, specifically verses 29-31. This passage is also found in Matthew and Luke, but we are going to work from the passage in Mark.
In this passage, Jesus is not bringing up something new to be discovered, but is uncovering the core and essence of what God has already said to us through the Scripture of the Old Testament. The First Commandment, of loving God, comes from Deuteronomy 6:4-5, which is known as the Shema’, and the Second Commandment comes from Leviticus 19:18, to love our neighbor as our self.
Let’s now hear the reading of God’s word found in Mark 12:28-34….
Mark 12:28-34 28 And one of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, "What commandment is the foremost of all?" 29 Jesus answered, "The foremost is, 'Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; 30 and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.' 31 "The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." 32 And the scribe said to Him, "Right, Teacher, You have truly stated that He is One; and there is no one else besides Him; 33 and to love Him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as himself, is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices." 34 And when Jesus saw that he had answered intelligently, He said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And after that, no one would venture to ask Him any more questions.
Jesus has been in the midst of a very heated and long debate with the Sadducees, who are Sad You See, because they do not believe in the resurrection. Jesus has been getting grilled with questions, with a crowd looking on trying to catch him up in his words. And then, up comes this Scribe, a Teacher of the Religious Law, who had been over hearing all the fuss, and all of the interrogation going on with Jesus. The passage also tells us that this Scribe was impressed with how Jesus was able to answer them so well.
And I, being one who just came out Seminary, where I sat in class after class, and studied the Scriptures, understand where this man must have been coming from. When this man, this Scribe realized that he had a true expert in his midst, being so impressed with the wisdom with which Jesus answered his accusers, he decided that we would seize the moment, and ask him his best thought out question he had ever come up with. Think about it, this guy has been surrounded by religious leaders probably all of his life, and is a religious leader himself. And yet he asks, “What commandment is the foremost of all?” “Which commandment is the most important one of all”?
He basically was asking, “Jesus, I’ve been hearing these religious leaders go round and round and round for all of my life, arguing with each other about this point and that point, never seeming to be on the same side….so what’s it all about? What is really important in the midst of all of this debate?
You know, isn’t that sadly the way things still seem to be? But I think that that is only true in our day, and even back in their day, due to the hardness of our own hearts. I think it may be due to the fact that we are always wanting to add our piece to the puzzle, instead of taking God for His Word.
You see, the answer is simple, but it requires everything you’ve got to make it work. It doesn’t cost you anything, because you couldn’t pay for it anyways, and besides that, it’s already been paid for by God’s free Grace to you, through His great love for the world that he demonstrated for all of us, by sending His only begotten Son into the world to die for our sins. It’s free, you can’t pay for it, but it will require all of your life…everything you’ve got.
But God is not interested in what you have…no, He’s interested in who you are. He wants you, and He wants all of you!
Jesus’ answer to the big question, the question that has the ring to it, “What is the purpose of life?” Was this.
29 Jesus answered, "The foremost is, 'Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; 30 and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.' 31 "The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."
Wow! An affirmation of who God is with a command to love Him, and love our neighbor as our self.
But to love God with all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our mind, and all of our strength! That sure is asking a lot.
But listen to the reply that came…
Mark 12:32-33 32 The teacher of religious law replied, "Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth by saying that there is only one God and no other. 33 And I know it is important to love him with all my heart and all my understanding and all my strength, and to love my neighbor as myself. This is more important than to offer all of the burnt offerings and sacrifices required in the law."
What a reply…It seems that he knew it deep down all along.
But this Teacher of religious law was also able to deduce something that is amazingly profound…It is the realization that God is not interested in us just carrying out our religious duties, which for them at that time was offering sacrifices and burnt offerings, which today is for us to spend countless hours serving on committees, and volunteering for this function and that function, and tithing, and attending worship on Sundays….He realized that God was all about having a relationship with us, and not just a superficial one, but a relationship of the deepest level.
A relationship of the deepest level, where God has all of our love, where we love Him with all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our mind, and all of our strength, and loving our neighbor as our very self.
Again, a lot to ask of us… But remember, God doesn’t ask of us anything that we cannot give…. Otherwise, God would be a monster. If God asks this of us, then that means that He has made a way.
Listen to the reply Jesus gave the Scribe, and let it encourage your heart.
And when Jesus saw that he had answered intelligently, He said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And after that, no one would venture to ask Him any more questions.
Not far from the kingdom of God! Hey, that’s not a bad place to be, especially for just giving the right answer in an intelligible way.
Hey, maybe we are already half way there, just by mentally assenting to this righteous claim that Jesus made!... But halfway there isn’t going to cut it. Halfway there isn’t at all what God is after. God wants us to love him in reality, not just believe that this is a correct assertion.
God wants us to love Him with all of our Heart, all of our soul, all of our mind, and all of our strength!
He wants it all. Full, no holds bar, loving devotion to Him, and to Him alone, the One True God, the Lord our God.
But let’s note this first, that Jesus starts out with the passage found in Deuteronomy 6:4-5.
Mark 12:29 Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord;
This isn’t just some God in the sky. This isn’t just some transcendent being that we will never know. This isn’t just some unmoved mover, or first cause. No, this is the Lord our God. This is the God that we can know and do know. This is the God, for whom Israel witnessed His marvelous deeds. This is the God who for us, demonstrated His love for us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. This God is God, and there is no other. But this is the God who wants to be OUR God. This is the God who wants to be in relationship with us, and who has made the first move to us, for us to be in relationship with Him, as the Scripture says, “We love Him, because He first loved us!
This is the God whom we are to love with all of our heart! With all of our Heart!
Why with all of our Heart? Why does God start out with all of our Heart? Couldn’t God have made it easier and asked for something lesser? All of our Heart? Couldn’t this just be a gradual thing, where we can start out with just loving Him with some of our strength?
NO! He wants it all, and He deserves it all, because He is worthy! God is worthy of all of our love! Because He spared no expense in giving you all of His love, by sending His Son Jesus to die for you and me! He didn’t hold back His love, and now He is wanting us to do the same! No holding back. He wants you to love Him with all of your heart!
And admittedly so, this is indeed a hard thing. Indeed this is an impossible thing. But that is what this God, the Lord Our God, is in the business of doing…making impossible things possible by His Grace, Love, Mercy, and Power. For God, nothing is impossible. And since He has asked this of us, He must have made the way.
You know, the heart is the hardest thing to win. And sometimes, the heart is simply just the hardest thing, period. Our hearts can grow cold, and become calloused and hardened against love, and especially against the love of God. I know this, because I have experienced this. It is a constant struggle to keep my heart pure, and to keep my heart soft and pliable to God, so that my heart is soft and moldable like fresh clay, able to be molded by the potter’s hands.
I remember a time when my heart had grown the coldest and hardest it ever has in my life. My heart had grown so cold to God. Now I was always at least half way there, I mean that I believed and could give an intelligible answer like the Scribe in the story, to acknowledge that there was only one God, and that God wanted us to love Him, and love our neighbor as our self. But my heart was not loving God back, at least not all of it was. I had let sin creep in and remain, and had all but stopped seeking after God in the way that I used to do. I had experienced the worst heart ache and tragedy of my life up to that time, and I was deeply depressed and down. My eyes were focused on the things of this world, and the worries of life, and I like Jonah was running from the presence of God.
But praise be to God, as I was running from God, God wasn’t standing still. As I was running from God, God was running faster. As I was trying to hide, He was trying to find me. And find me He did!
I remember all of those months leading up into this one moment, where I was standing in a field all alone, staring up into the stars, considering all of my life, and considering all of His life. I remembering considering my sorrows, and considering His Joy. I remember considering my burdens, and considering His eternal power. I remembered all of my pain, and I remembered all of His healing.
And in an instant, I cried out to God, right then and there, and said, “ GOD! If you really are who you say you are, and the Bible is really true…then I give my whole life to you!!!!”
Immediately like a mighty rushing wind, Immediately like a million gallon bath from heaven, immediately like the warmest flame, My heart was set free to Love God AGAIN! My Heart was set free and I was healed to be back in relationship with Him. My heart was set free to love Him with all that was in me. And now, what was in me, was His love. No longer was my heart full of shame, sin, and pain. My heart was now full of His Love, Joy, and Peace! And that can be yours too today! You too can be filled with the Love of God and His Grace so that You are able to do the very thing He commands of us.
Your heart can be full of His love, so that You can love the Lord Your God with all of Your Heart. It’s totally free, but it will cost you a full surrender! Will you give Him your heart today!???
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