Peter Tan-Chi - Love God With All Your Heart
If you have one opportunity to ask Jesus one question, what will that question be? Think about it. One opportunity to ask Jesus any question you want, what will that be? Well, one day, there was a lawyer, a scribe, who is expert in the law of the old Testament. He asked Jesus, "What is the greatest commandment"? Guess how Jesus answered. Jesus said, "'The greatest commandment is you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength.' The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than this".
According to Jesus, the greatest commandment is simply love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And then you are able to love your neighbor. In other words, Jesus is saying we've got to love God with everything we have. It starts from the heart, all your heart. It has to do with your will, with your soul, your entire being, with your mind, you need to know the truth about God, so we can love Him, and with your strength. Give him your best. The context of this verse is in Deuteronomy.
Deuteronomy 6:3 and 5: "O Israel, you should listen and be careful to do it, that it may be well with you so that you may multiply greatly, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you in the land flowing with milk and honey. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might". Notice the context. When God gives us a command, you must know the context. It is always for our good. The Bible is very clear. Notice what it says. "You should listen and be careful to do it, that it may be well with you".
God's commandment is always for our good, and once you understand the heart of God, you begin to understand why He gave us this commandment. Why is this the greatest commandment, to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength? The answer is for your good. It is foundational. The topic today is "Love God with All Your Heart". Can you turn to your neighbor? Tell your neighbor: love God with all, all of your heart. Not half. Not three-fourth. All. I want you to look at the life of Solomon. If ever there was a man who was so blessed, that man was Solomon. What do I mean? I want you to look at the amazing heritage, legacy, and blessing of Solomon. Before his father died, King David, the father was given the privilege to tell Solomon what to do.
In 1 Kings 2, the Bible tells us his father told him, "I'm about to die, and this is what you must do. Keep the charge of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, to keep His commandments, His ordinances, according to what is written in the law of Moses, so that you may succeed in all that you do and wherever you turn". In other words, if you keep reading, Solomon had the privilege of receiving final instruction from the wisdom of his father David, and David told him, "You must obey the Lord with all your heart". David told him, "If you follow God with all your heart, God will bless you". And then he gave Solomon the warning: "If you don't obey Him, you have problems, and God will reject you".
So the warning was very clear. Not only that, Solomon had a personal encounter with God. Not many of us can say we have a real personal encounter with God like Solomon. The Bible tells us in 1 Kings 3:5, in Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream; and God asked, "What do you wish Me to give you"? How many of us can say we have that experience, where God is telling you, "What do you want me to do for you"? Solomon had that amazing blessing. Solomon asked God for wisdom. Solomon prayed properly. His prayer was so good that God said, "I'm very happy with your prayer".
And because he prayed so well, God said, "I'm going to answer your prayer, plus give you so much more". God says, "I'll give you bonuses, the bonus of not just wisdom, which you asked for, I will give you power, riches, honor". And the Bible tells us Solomon was the recipient of God's amazing gift. God gave Solomon wisdom, very great discernment. There is nobody like Solomon who had an amazing beginning, amazing heritage. The Bible tells us Solomon loved the Lord. The Bible tells us Solomon experienced God. He knew God. What's the lesson? You have to know what happened at the end of Solomon's life. Someone that has a great beginning, he started so well. There is nobody else.
If you look at the Bible he had this amazing beginning. But notice how he ended his life. In 1 Kings 11:4,, the Bible tells us, "when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been". When Solomon was old, meaning at the latter part of his life, his wives turned his heart away. Notice, it has to do with the heart. And the contrast is very clear. "His heart was turned away after other gods, and his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord". You see, for David, he loved God with a whole heart. For Solomon, it was not the whole heart.
I want to share with you the acronym, GROW. To love God with all your heart, you think of the word GROW, G-R-O-W. G: stands for God. To love God with all your heart, you've got to go to God. It begins with God, G. R: you've got to recognize idols in your hearts, in your lives. O: you need to obey moment by moment. That's how you grow your love for God. W: you've got to live a life of worship. Let's see. Let's begin. To love God with all your heart, you begin with God. You think of His love. You meditate. You focus on God. To love God with all our heart begins with God, His love for us. The Bible tells us, "we love Him because He first loved us".
You and I cannot love God the way He wants us to love Him unless we first experience His love for us. 1 John 4 tells us, "In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us". In other words, to really love God, to love people, it begins with God. This is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us. Notice the grammar: "In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His son to be the propitiation for our sins". God is telling us what is true love. True love is not selfish. True love is like what God did. It's sacrificial. It's for our good. That is true love. And God demonstrated this true love for us, the Bible tells us, He loved us and sent His Son to pay for our sins.
So what do I mean by meditate on His love for us? I focus on the heart of God. Why is that crucial? Because for your love to grow, you must begin with God. To show you how important love is, I want you to look at Revelation 2:4 and 5. The Bible tells us in Revelation 2:4 and 5, this is addressed to the believers at the church in Ephesus, and the Bible tells us the church in Ephesus is known for its purity. It is doctrinally sound. The church at Ephesus deals with sinful people. They don't allow wrong doctrines. So doctrinally, they are sound; they are very persevering in doing good, in serving God.
So this church, humanly speaking, is doing everything right: they serve God, doctrinally their sound, Jesus tells the church, "But I have this against you," notice "but". In spite of all the good things, the perseverance, the faithfulness, God says, "I have this against you: you have left your first love". That word, "left your first love", is the same word used to describe a divorce, "aphiēmi". You have rejected. You have let go of your first love. "Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I'm coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place, unless you repent".
You can see how serious Jesus is. Jesus is telling His church, "I have one thing against you: you have left your first love". What is the meaning of first love? First love is our love for the Lord when we first come to know Him. Do you all recall when you first came to know Jesus? You were on fire. You loved the Lord. You cannot wait to worship. You love to study the Bible. But many times busyness, activities, have a way of crowding our heart away from the Lord. You see, God wants us to remember. He said, "Therefore remember where you have fallen".
You are to remember. "Repent and do the deeds". God is always telling us to go back to our first love. What does it mean to remember? Everytime I have a problem with loving God, I don't focus on my love. I focus on His love for me. I think of the cross. I think of what He did, how He sacrificed for me, how He forgave my sins. And you know what? As I meditate on His love for me, my love for Him will grow. That's how you love God with a whole heart.
G stands for begin, it begins with God. His love for us. The next thing you need to learn to love God with all your heart: you must recognize idols in your lives, in your heart. The Bible is very emphatic. It tells us, "watch over your heart with all diligence," you've got to guard your heart. Solomon did not guard his heart. Why is loving God with all your heart so important? The Bible says, "watch over your heart with all diligence; from it flows the springs of life", from your heart flows the spring of life. Why? Because the heart, your love, the direction of your life is directed by the love of your heart.
Solomon, the Bible tells us, "loved many foreign women along with the daughters of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, Hittite; from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the sons of Israel, 'You shall not associate with them, nor shall they associate with you, they shall surely turn your heart away after other gods.' Solomon held fast to these in love". What do you notice about the heart of Solomon? The Bible tells us Solomon did not guard his heart. Solomon loved many foreign women. These are the women surrounding the nation of Israel: the Moabites, the Ammonites, the Edomites.
The Lord warns Solomon, "You should not do that. Why? Because it will impact your love for Me". And this is how you will know if you have idols in your heart: the moment you're willing to compromise God's truth, God's word, in order to justify your action, you already know whatever you are doing is you're idol. You must understand: the root sin, the sin behind every sin, is when you love something more than you love God. That is the root sin. That's why this is so important. Love God with all your heart. If you love something else more than you love God, that is idolatry, and that is the root sin that would beget other sin.
As early as 1 Kings 3, the Bible tells us Solomon loved the Lord, walking in His statutes. How I wish the Bible verse stopped there, except it did not. Notice: "Solomon loved the Lord". He loved the Lord, the Bible tells us he loved the Lord. "He was walking in his statutes". He was obeying the Lord, except, notice the word "except". That's the problem, "except", "he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places". And that my friend, "except", is the meaning of not loving God with your whole heart: there is an exception. The Bible says Solomon went after the goddess of Sidonians, "after Milcom, detestable idols of the Ammonites; Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not follow the Lord fully, as David his father had done".
Notice the contrast again: Solomon did not follow the Lord fully. He did not love God with a whole heart like his father. "Solomon built a high place for the detestable idol of Moab, on the mountain which is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech the detestable idol of the sons of Ammon. Thus he did for all of his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods". What was Solomon doing? Solomon, because of his weakness for women, he loved pleasure, he loved women, he began to compromise. By compromising, slowly but surely his heart was turned away.
If Solomon, the wisest man, the man who had amazing spiritual heritage, the man who had a real encounter with God, if this man can fall away, what's the lesson for us? We must guard our heart. You must love God with all your heart. Make sure you recognize idols, and make sure you remove idols. Martin Luther once said this: "Whatever thy heart clings to and relies upon, that is properly thy God". In other words, if that is the object of your happiness, if that is the object of your security, my friend, that is your idol, because an idol is anything, anyone that takes the place of God in your life.
People ask me, how will I know? Here are some suggestions. The test of love. What are you willing to compromise in order to have what you want? For some people it's marriage. They are willing to compromise in order to get married. Be careful. The test of love. What about the test of happiness? What is it that you believe you've got to have in order to really be happy? Have you heard of people who say that? "If only I had this, I will surely be happy". So until they have it, they're not happy. You know what has happened? They've made that their idol.
What about the test of emotion? What makes you very angry? What makes you go to depression? For some people, it's their reputation. They feel like, "This guy has destroyed my reputation and I'm totally destroyed," so they go through depression. Why? They have made their reputation their God, their idol. What about the test of security? What makes you anxious? What makes you afraid? Many people are fearful of death today. This COVID-19 has exposed to us our source of security. Can I ask you a question? Where is your security? Is it in your health? Is it in your job? Is it in your money? May I suggest: our real security must be in God and God alone.
Are you aware that idols are not necessarily bad things? The good things of life can be idols: family, relationship, even ministry! Anything that takes the place of God in your life, that becomes your idol. I ask you: do you love God with all your heart, or are these competing with your love for God: money? Possession? Comfort, pleasure becomes more important than pleasing God. What about the approval of men? The worst idol is always about yourself. When people tell me, "I cannot do it. I forgive the person, but I'm not ready. I don't feel like it," that statement, "I forgive the person, but I cannot see that person", why? Because your heart is about yourself. You want to please yourself. It's not about God. It's not about obeying Him.
How do you love God with all your heart? Number three: obey. The greatest motivation should be love. What can we learn about David? Notice: "I found David the son of Jesse, a man after my heart, who will do all My will". To love God with all your heart is obedience. It does not mean perfection, but it means deep in your heart, you have decided you will want to do all of God's will. Notice: to do all my will. Not selective. Not 90%. Not 95%. All. Does it mean you will never make a mistake? Of course not! David made mistakes. But notice the heart of David: David wrote in Psalm 40:8: "I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your Law is within my heart".
This is amazing. For David, he said, "I delight". Notice: it's not a duty. It's a delight "to do Your will". I realize if you love somebody, you delight to do his will. "O my God; Your Law is within my heart". For David, obeying the law of God. He doesn't look at it as an obligation, it's a delight. It's a privilege. Jesus explained this clearly in John 14:15. It's so simple. According to Jesus, "if you love Me," what will you do? "You will keep My commandments".
So simple! Why is this the greatest commandment? If you love God, if you love Jesus, "if you love Me, you will keep My commandments". So how do you know you love God? Are you obeying him 100%? Not 90! Not 95%, not 99%, 100%. The power of loving God is so amazing. Many psychologists describe this as the expulsive power of love. What does it mean? Your passion for something will overtake, will override, the passion for something else. It's one passion over another passion. Your passion for God must be so great that it will override your passion for sin, your passion for self-will. It's your passion for God.
I'm reminded of the true story of a girl by the name of Aleida Hussein. Aleida Hussein was from the Netherlands. She lived in Rotterdam. She was 78 years old when she fell in love. She said, "For 50 years, I tried to quit smoking. I could not quit smoking until I met", guess who? Leo Jensen. Leo Jensen was 79 years old. And when these two met, they fell in love. But Leo Jensen told Aleida, "I will not marry you until you quit smoking".
Would you believe it? Aleida Hussein, at the age of 78, quit smoking. And this is what she said: "What willpower cannot do, love wins, love conquers". And my friend, this is what God wants you to know: love God with all your heart, soul, and mind. And how do you know you love God? Obey him. There are certain things you will never experience until you obey God. There are certain realities, certain truth about God you will never know until you obey Him. That's why the more you obey Him, the more you will know Him; and the more you know Him, the more you will love Him.
Love for God with the whole heart means what? It's a life of worship. You know, when you worship God, it does not mean you will never make a mistake. When you love God, it does not mean you will never fail, because you all know the sin of David. David did something, if you ask me, worse than Solomon. He committed adultery. He murdered the husband of Bathsheba. But what's the difference? If your heart is devoted to the Lord and God brings to your mind, to your attention what you have done is wrong, like David, David repented, David humbled himself. When Nathan confronted David, "David, you are the guilty person," you know what David said? "I have sinned".
You see, confessing your sin, repentance and worship, they go together. What do I mean? Notice how David repented, how he confessed his sin. "Be gracious to me, O my God, according to Your lovingkindness; according to the greatness of Your compassion, blot out my transgressions". The basis of repentance, the basis of confession, is the grace of God. It is not his own goodness. This is what David said: be gracious to me. "Lord, be gracious. I need Your grace," according to Your lovingkindness, that's the word for "chesed", that's the Hebrew word for grace, the lovingkindness of God. "Lord, forgive me, not because of me, but because of your grace," according to the greatness of Your compassion. My friend, if you love God, if you know who God is, even if you fail, if you fall into sin, you will rebound. You respond in repentance.
Notice the confession of David. If I read his confession to you in those four verses, the pronoun: wash me from my iniquity, cleanse me from my sin. I know my transgressions, my sin is before me. The pronoun, "my sin", "my iniquity", I have sinned against You only, I have sinned and done what is evil in Your sight. Do you know how many times? In four verses the personal pronouns appeared 11 times. You see, when you repent, when you confess your sin, you don't blame others. You assume personal responsibility. That's how you love God. And that's how you worship God. Why do I connect confession, repentance, with worship? On the same chapter, chapter 51, if you read a few verses down, you will notice after confessing his sin, David said, "Lord, open my lips, that my mouth may declare Your praise".
You see David loved God with a whole heart, but he knew he committed sin. So he repented, he confessed. For what purpose? After confession, after repentance, he experienced forgiveness, for what purpose? Worship. That is exactly what he said. "O Lord, open my lips". Same chapter. "That I may declare Your praise". Notice what he said. "You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I will give it; You are not pleased with burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise". That's the meaning of the word "repentance". Repentance is an act of worship. When you offer to God the brokenness of your spirit, the brokenness of your heart, the brokenness of a sinful heart, you say, "Lord, here I am. No excuses. I have sinned against You".
And my friend, this is so encouraging for me, that to love God with our whole heart does not mean you have to be perfect, but you have to be humble before God and you live a life of worship. Worship should never stop just because you sin. The solution is repentance and worship. The proof of what I'm saying is you will see the first act that David did after he confessed his sin to God. After Nathan rebuked David, after David experienced the judgment of God, guess what he did the first thing. Notice, David prayed, in 2 Samuel 12. Nathan said, "David, your son is going to die because of your sin". David inquired. The word "inquired", David pleaded with God for the child. David fasted. David spent the whole night on the ground, not just one day, for seven days, David fasted and prayed. Eventually the child died.
And David arose from the ground, notice what David did. After the child died, what did he do? He washed, anointed himself, changed his clothes, notice this, and "came into the house of the Lord and worshiped. Then he came to his own house, and when he requested they set food before him and he ate". He fasted for seven days without eating. But then after fasting and praying, in his heart, when he discovered that the child is dead, what did he do? He went and worshiped the Lord. Do you know how hard it is to worship God when you are disappointed that God didn't answer your prayer? But such is the heart of David, a heart devoted to God. And you can only devote your heart for God if you trust Him, if you know He cares for you. My friend, do you love God? Do you know He loves you? God loves you so much that He is saying, "Do you love Me with all your heart"?
To love God with all your heart means you worship Him. You see worship is the overflow of our love for God. Worship is our response. I always say worship is a thermometer and a thermostat. Thermometer: it measures your love relationship with God. The more you love God, the more you want to worship Him. At the same time, it's a thermostat. Why? Every time I focus on God, I worship Him, my love for Him grows. So make worship a habit. I pray that this message will speak to your heart, that you and I love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. The only way you will finish well is to have this motivation in your life: love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Remember, the Christian life is like a marathon. It's not a hundred-yard dash. It's long distance running. I want you and I to finish well. At the end of our life, we can hear God say well done.
Perhaps some of you are saying, "Peter, I don't really love God with all my heart. I don't love Him". I'd like to pray for you. I'd like to pray that God will help you experience His love. Have you received the love of God? If you have not, I want you to know the first step to loving God is to experience His love. Be honest with Him. Perhaps you are like Solomon. You have a lot of head knowledge, but your heart is not wholly devoted to God. I'd like you to pray a prayer today, dedicating your heart completely to God. Honestly, if you do that, you'll experience real salvation. If your heart is fully devoted to God, you'll experience the amazing love and presence of God in your heart, because God is after our heart. Pray this prayer with me.
Lord Jesus, I realized I don't love You with all my heart. I want to love You with all my heart. Jesus, help me to realize You want me to love You with all my heart. So today, I come before You. I accept Your forgiveness. I accept Your love. But today, I now declare Lord, help me to love You. I choose to love You today. I'm giving You my all and I pray that my capacity to love You will grow day by day. I love You, Jesus. Help me to love You even more. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.