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

The part of the chapter I want to look at was there in verse 35 where the Bible read, Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him and saying, Master, which is the great commandment and the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, this is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. The title of my sermon this evening is love with all thy heart. Love with all thy heart because the Bible says very clearly this is the greatest commandment. Now in this context we see one of the lawyers, they're trying to trick Jesus. They're trying to trip him up, they're trying to, you know, trap him with his words. And they're saying, hey, of all the law, what is the most important commandment? What should we be doing the most? What should have the greatest emphasis? And Jesus makes it clear, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. But the question is, what does that mean? Do you really love the Lord with all of your heart? How can I love the Lord with all of my heart? Go if you would to Mark chapter 12. We're going to see a parallel passage there. I'll read for you in Luke chapter 10 the Bible says, And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And he said unto him, What is written in the law? How readest thou? And he answered and said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor's thyself. And he said unto them, Thou hast answered right, this do, and thou shalt live. So another time another man's trying to tempt him, but Jesus, instead of answering himself, asked the other man to answer. And the lawyer gives the right answer. He gives the same answer that Jesus did. And Jesus Christ says, Thou hast answered right. Look at Mark chapter 12, verse number 29. Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor's thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. And the scribe said unto them, Well, master, thou hast said the truth. For there is one God, and there is none other but he. And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, with all the soul, with all the strength, and to love his neighbor as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. So according to the Bible, if you really want to follow all God's commandments, it really comes down to love. It comes down to loving God and loving man. If you love God and you love man, you will keep all of the commandments. And you say, well, how am I supposed to love the Lord, and how am I supposed to love my man? How do I know? You know by the commandments. The commandments teach you what it actually means to love. Some people like to throw out all the Old Testament. They like to throw out all of, you know, God's commandments in the Bible. But that's what teaches you how to actually love the Lord and how to love your neighbor as yourself. Go to 1 Thessalonians chapter number 2. 1 Thessalonians chapter number 2. Now the Bible says in John chapter 14, this is Jesus speaking. He said, if you love me, keep my commandments. So according to Jesus Christ, the way we show our love towards the Father is by actually keeping the commandments. They go one with the other. By keeping God's commandments, you show your love to the Father. And vice versa, if you love the Father, you'll keep his commandments. We see these things are connected. In 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 in verse 1, the Bible says, For yourselves, brethren, know our entrance in unto you, that it was not in vain. But even after that we had suffered before and were shamefully entreated. As you know at Philippi, we were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention. For exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile. But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak. Not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts. For neither at any time used we flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak of covetousness, God is witness. Nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others, when we might have been burdensome as the apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherished with her children. So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because you were dear unto us. We see what it's talking about love here. When it's talking about the Father, our loving the Lord, it's talking about loving others. We see it's not fake. He says it's really coming from a place of genuineness. He's saying I'm not using deceit. I'm not using flattering words. I'm not just trying to tell you things that you like so that you'll love me back. No, I actually have a sincere desire in my heart to help you, to love you, to love the Lord. And those that love the Lord and they want to please Him, they don't do it for vainglory. They don't get to be seen of men. They don't see it do it with deceit. They do it out of genuine heart. They do it not for to see glory of men, but to see glory from the Father, which He sees all your good works done in secret. Go to 2 Samuel chapter 24. So if you really want to love the Lord God with all your heart, it has to be genuine. It has to be real. It has to be something that's coming from a place of sincerity. The Bible says without faith, it's impossible to please Him. So following the commandments is not just a rote exercise. No, it's coming out of a place of sincerity. It's coming out of a place of genuine feeling, genuine desire. But my first point, I have three points this evening, of how we can love the Lord God with all our heart, is to be able to do this, you must first count the cost. If you really want to love somebody or love something or love the Lord, you must first count the cost of what that's going to take. In Luke chapter 14, the Bible says, so likewise whosoever be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. God created you for you to give him all your heart. God created you in your heart to just love Him. When you open your Bible, when you have your Bibles open this evening and you're sitting here, God wants your heart. He wants His words to touch your heart and He wants you to give Him all of your heart this evening. He wants you to give Him all of your heart every day. That's why He puts you on this earth is to, you know, follow His commandments, is to love Him with all your heart. He wants your heart. God is a very relational God. God wants you to love Him with all of your heart back. But He's not going to force you. He's not going to make you do it. And, you know, He tells a lot of His disciples, He says, look, you better count the cost of what it really means to love me. You can say it. I mean, people say that they love all kinds of things. They say that they love people all the time and then they desert them the next day. They say, oh, I love you. Let's get married. Two weeks later, they're getting divorced. Oh, I love my husband. I love my wife. I love my son. I love my daughter. But do they really love them or are they just saying it? It's just lip service. Is it just something, oh, I love pizza. It's just like some, you know, careless, you know, statement that they make. It doesn't actually come from a place of sincerity. They haven't really counted the cost of what it means to love someone. To love someone means I'm going to choose to do good unto this person no matter the circumstance, no matter how I'm feeling, no matter what's going on in my life, I'm going to always try to do good for this person. I'm always going to sacrifice for this person. No matter what's going on, I'm going to choose to love this person. That's where true love comes in place. Look at 2 Samuel chapter 24 verse 23. All these things that Arana as a king give unto the king. And Arana said unto the king, the Lord thy God accept thee. And the king said unto Arana, nay, but I will surely buy it at a price. Neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the Lord my God of that which doth cost me nothing. So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for 50 shekels of silver. And David built there an altar unto the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the Lord is entreated for the land and the plague was stayed from Israel. Now what happened in this story, I just kind of read through the conclusion, but David wants to number Israel according to the Bible, which is, he was moved by Satan to number Israel. And the Bible says when the children of Israel would be numbered, they were supposed to pay a half shekel as a ransom for their souls. And if they did not, there would be a plague that comes upon. And we see even God gives David three choices of how it would be punished for this sin. And he chooses to go into the hand of the Lord and the hand of the Lord has a plague on many people and many people are slain. But we see what remedies the situation is David then makes offerings unto the Lord. Now what was supposed to take place is they were supposed to take the shekels and give it unto the house of the Lord to be given unto the Lord for the worship of the Lord. And when David's gonna rectify the situation, he goes and he buys this place and makes offerings unto the Lord. But the guy, Arana, he wants to just give it to him for free. He says, hey, you can just have this stuff. And he says, look at verse 24. He says, neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the Lord my God of that which does cost me nothing. He says, look, I'm not gonna offer this that cost me nothing. I gotta pay. It's gotta cost me something. He wants to worship the Lord out of sincerity, out of his own heart. Hey, I know this is gonna cost me something. Hey, I know I need to offer a true sacrifice in the Lord. That was costing nothing. Is it really a sacrifice? I mean, people that grow up filthy rich, you know, and they just give money to buy things and it's really costing them something. I mean, no. We see David out of sincerity of his heart, it actually costs him something. Go to 1 Kings chapter 15. What I wanna say with this point is when counting the cost, what's really happening is it's changing your perspective. What is your perspective on life? Because people will say, I wanna serve the Lord. But they haven't really put in perspective what that means. That's what it means to count the cost is to really figure out, do I really want that? And you know, our perspectives a lot of times can change in our life. And that's a good thing. Sometimes you may have an idea, I would never do that. But then later in life or circumstances change and you realize, hey, I actually would do that. You know, I remember growing up, I grew up in a college town and there was this college's division two school. It's called West Texas A&M University. We all kind of like made fun of it because it wasn't like a big university. It wasn't really cool. And I was like, oh, I'm never gonna go there. I would never go to that school. But you know, when I graduated high school, I wanted to play golf and I wanted to play for a college. There's only one place I could go. It was West Texas A&M University. And I really wanted to go there so I could play golf. And my perspective had changed. You know, I said at one point, I'll never marry a Canyon girl. I grew up in this city, this little town called Canyon. I was like, I'm never gonna marry a Canyon girl. I don't like the people here. I'll just have to find somebody when I go to college or something. Lo and behold, the end of my senior year, I started dating a Canyon girl. And guess what? I wanted to get married to a Canyon girl. It changed my perspective. Even then growing up in that town, there was a bank there. It was called Happy State Bank. I would make fun of it. I called it Crappy State Bank. I was like, who would work for this place? You know, it's not like Bank of America or Wells Fargo. And now I don't think you should ever work for a bank. But back then I was, you know, I was naive and ignorant of a lot of things. But lo and behold, I graduated from college and I couldn't find a job. And they were hiring senior or they're hiring credit analysts. And I was like, man, I really want to work for a Happy State Bank. And you know, I didn't at the time get that job. And then later I got to work for them. And then after a few years, I didn't want to work for Happy State Bank ever again. I left that place. So it's kind of like full circle. But the point is, is that our perspectives can often change. And when you're a young man, I think a lot of times you struggle with realizing that your perspective can change. That things and circumstances can change 100%. You may think I never want to do that. But then later in life you grow up and you're like, oh, hey, I do want to do that. Or vice versa. Things can change with your perspective. And when it comes to serving the Lord, you might say, yeah, I really want to love the Lord God with all my heart. I just really want to do that. But then when you're faced with the reality of what that means, oh, you mean I have to go to church every time of the week? Oh, you mean if I really love him, I'm going to read my Bible every morning? Oh, you mean I'm going to get on my knees and pray in secret when nobody sees me? Oh, you mean I got to follow all of his commitments? You know, then it starts to get real. They're like, I don't know. You know, I kind of like watching TV and just hanging out and just doing what I want. Church is kind of a drag. They haven't really counted the cost. So they might say with their mouth, oh, I just want to love the Lord God with all my heart. They don't really know what that means yet. They need to get their perspective right of what that even means so they can actually fulfill what they're saying. Look at 1 Kings chapter number 15 verse 11. It says, and Asa did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, as David his father. And he took away the Sodomites out of the land and removed all the idols that his father had made. And also Maacah, his mother, even her he removed from being queen because she had made an idol in a grove. And Asa destroyed her idol and burnt it by the book Kidron. But the high places are not removed. Nevertheless, Asa's heart was perfect with the Lord all his days. So we see an example of a person who does have his heart right, who does want to serve the Lord. But you know what? He does a lot of hard things in these few verses. It may be, oh, we just skip over. We just read it. It sounds really, you know, oh, it's not that big a deal. But to really just take your mother who's the queen who's sitting on the throne and be like, nope, mom, get down. You're done. You made an idol. And guess what? Not only are you done, I'm going to take your stupid idol, your grave and image, and I'm going to burn it because it's wicked, because it's against God. You know, a lot of people today, they would say, oh, I would have loved the Lord God with all my heart. But, you know, I'm never going to really confront anybody in my life that's doing wrong. I don't want to ever upset anybody. I don't want to ever really offend anybody. You know, I still want to have a relationship with my parents that I've always had. I don't want that to change. So I'm not going to bring up Jesus. I'm not going to bring up things that are godly. You know, I'll just still go to the Catholic church with them and worship Mary because I don't want to offend them. Is that really loving the Lord God with all your heart? According to the Bible, you know, we shouldn't have, we have no respective persons. Even when it comes to a family member. Jesus said in Matthew 10, he that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. According to the Bible, God wants all of our heart. That even means all of our relationships. Relationships that would get in the way of you serving God. God wants you to choose him over them. He wants you to choose God over your mom. God over your dad. God over your children. God over anybody in your life that would get in the way of you serving God. He's saying, hey, I want all your heart no matter what it takes. Now to make this clear, this isn't saying that you should just abandon your family and just that's how you serve God more than, it's just saying if you have a relationship that's hindering you from serving God, you should put your first priority on the relationship with God. What does that mean? Look, who do you spend the most time with? You spend the most time with other people or with the Lord? You say, oh, I don't want to lose that relationship with my mother. Because I always call her every day. We talk for hours. We always go out shopping. We always do all these things. You know what? I never read my Bible. I never pray. I'm never seeking the Lord. I'm skipping church. This is what the Bible is saying. Look, are you really loving the Lord more or are you loving your family member? The person who loves the Lord more will put down that relationship and say, hey, I need to go to church. That's my first priority. I need to read my Bible in the morning. That's my first priority. I need to pray and to seek the Lord and to go soul winning. That's my first priority. And then when I have other time, now I can allow other people to get that time. And we have certain relationships. You know, a husband is supposed to provide for his family. A wife is supposed to be obedient to serve her husband. So if you're going to follow God's commandments, you're still going to be serving and having a good relationship with people. But at the end of the day, you're not going to let that relationship stop you from serving the Lord, from stop you from reading your Bible, stop you from praying, stop you from going to church, stop serving the Lord. No, we're supposed to love the Lord God with all our heart. And we're supposed to give him everything. And even if a family member were to get in the way, we're supposed to choose the Lord. And you know, I think this manifests itself. There's a certain person that I grew up with that I think of that I truly believe his family gets in the way of them serving the Lord better. You know, he lives in an area where there isn't a good church and he's not really concerned about it because he's got his whole family that lives next door to him. I mean, he's got a close family member that lives a couple houses down. Both the parents on both sides of his family live super close. They're always hanging out. They're always doing things together. And the thought of him leaving that area or going to a different, you know, place just for, you know, have a good church or actually serve the Lord. It's too heavy of a cost. It's like, well, I can't leave. I got my whole family here. I got all my friends here. I got all these relationships. I can't throw them away for the Lord. But does that person really love the Lord with all their heart? They haven't counted the cost. They don't know what it means. God puts you on this earth to serve him first and others second. We see that others is important, but he's got to be the priority. He's got to be the emphasis. And if you truly want to love others, you got to get him first. You got to get his, you know, make him the priority first. Go to John chapter 2, if you would. Now, Deuteronomy 16, the Bible says, Thou shalt not rest judgment. Thou shalt not respect persons. Neither take a gift or a gift of blind eyes of the wise. The Bible says in Proverbs 28 verse 21, So to have respect of persons is not good for a piece of bread that man will transgress. Look, when serving Christ, we shouldn't make exceptions for certain relationships in our life. We should have the same rules. If a person is causing you to not serve Christ, no matter who they are, you should consider getting rid of that relationship or changing that relationship. He said, this person's always dragging me to the bar. This person's always dragging me to the Catholic Church. This person's always dragging me to do sin. This person's always can, you know, saying filthy things and blasting the Lord Jesus Christ and hates God. Doesn't ever want me to touch my Bible. And they're telling me that going to church is stupid. Hey, you need to change those relationships. You need to love the Lord God and say, hey, I don't care who you are. It's my mother. It's my father. It's my child. God's more important. You know, some parents may be afraid that they would lose their children's relationships. They say my kids won't hang out with me if I serve the Lord. My kids will think I'm, you know, silly if I think going to church is important. You know, I might lose that relationship. And so, you know, but that's not what we should have. We should not have respective persons. We should not desire that relationship over the Lord. Look at John chapter 2 verse 15. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. So now that it comes to relationships, there's a lot of pieces just the world. There's a lot of things that people will hang on to that they don't want to give up. And if you really want to serve the Lord God with all your heart, if you say mentally, I do want to do that, you have to get your relationships in check. But not only that, you have to get your lifestyle in check. The Bible says if you are of the world, the world will love his own because you're not of the world. But I have chosen you out of the world. Therefore, the world hated you. If you do that, which is godly, if you do that, which the Lord God commands, the world will hate you. The world's culture today is an entity with God. You say, well that sounds different than what most Americans are doing. Yeah, it's because it's godly. And this world today, America Day, is ungodly. What are we talking about? How about television? People today, they spend all of their time just watching TV for hours and hours and hours. You look at studies online, it says the average person will spend six or seven hours watching TV every day. Every day! And you know what? I brought that statistic up when I was growing up. I was watching TV even more than that many times. I was playing video games, getting a sermon on the computer, just spending all this time and energy and effort just watching TV, watching shows. And you know what? When you do that, you know what you're going to learn? You're going to learn to love TV. You're going to love watching TV. You're going to love watching shows. You're going to love watching all the smut and the filth and the perversion that the TV puts on there. You're going to learn to love it. And the Bible says love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in you. If you want to love God, you can't be replacing with all this TV and all this time. I mean, I don't even have six or seven hours to give up right now. I can't even imagine if I went back to that type of a lifestyle, I would have to cut out a lot of other things that are important to me, like my family, like spending time with my wife, like going to church, like maybe even just doing a good job at work. We see that TV sometimes will replace an important part of our life. And you know, the thing that's interesting about television is if you just turn it off, if you just stop watching it, about 30 days later, you realize you don't even miss it. You realize, hey, I have all this time back. I have my life back. I remember I was watching all these shows and I just loved it. And it was so hard at first, but you know, after 30 days, it gets a lot easier. And then 60 days, even easier. And then six months, it's a lot easier. I don't even really miss it. Now, here's the thing, though. If I were to put TV back in my house and I would have all the TV shows and I were to flip it back on and start watching again, I would get hooked really quick. I would enjoy it again. And as you start spending more time and time and time with it, you begin to love it and desire it more and more and more. That's why people get to six and seven and eight. I mean, they just want to watch TV all the time. I've been at family members' houses where the TV is on all the time. Just every second. You just watch, nobody's watching it. I mean, they have TVs in every room. I mean, you go in the kitchen, the TV is on. You go in the living room, the TV is on. You go in the bedroom, the TV is on. They're not even watching it. It's got power over them. It's controlling them. You know what? And they have a strong desire towards it. Well, the same thing can be true with serving the Lord. You say, I don't know if I have enough love for the Lord. I don't know if I really love Him with all my heart. Well, if you just replace all this ungodly filth and wickedness with reading your Bible, with going to church, with singing praises, with praying, the same phenomenon that you experience with TV, you can experience with the Lord. The more you seek the Lord, the easier it becomes to love Him. The more you desire to know Him. The more you desire to serve Him. It works with everything. The more you spend time with it, the more you can desire it and the more your heart can grow towards it. The Bible says in Psalms 101, I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes. I hate the work of them that turn aside. It shall not cleave to me. So why are parents against TV? Well, what on the world, what TV show can you watch that's just not wicked filth? It's always about fornication. It's always about adultery. It's always about drinking. It's always, you know, blasting the Lord Jesus Christ. It's lifting up the sodomites. I mean, what TV show now doesn't have a homosexual character? Or that's not the main star? Or they're just, the whole TV show series is about it. I mean, they're just constantly trying to flood your mind. I mean, there's TV shows like Lucifer where they try and make Satan a good guy and try to make him this, you know, hero of the TV show. I mean, I haven't watched TV in a few years, but it was just the most ungodly, wicked filth back then. I don't think it's gotten any better in the last few years. I think it's only getting worse and worse and worse. That's if you were to, you know, skip the commercials. The commercials are probably the worst part about watching TV. All the filth and the subliminal messening they're trying to program and to get in your mind and affect you and desire you, it's like a drug. They're trying to get you addicted and, you know, an addict to their filth. And, you know, the more filth that they show you, the more desensitized you come to it. The more you want to see it, the more that it doesn't excite you as much and you have to get the, you have to get more filth just to even feel that same pleasure you did when you watched that junk. Go to Deuteronomy 22. Not only that, the Bible says the thought of foolishness is sin. Now, how could you not say the TV is not just a bunch of foolishness? I mean, at best it's vanity. I mean, maybe if you're just watching like, I don't know, some basketball or you're just watching like, you know, somebody paint a picture or something. I mean, maybe that's not just completely wicked sin, but it's still a waste of time. And what do you, did God really create you to sit on this earth to just watch a stationary box just for hours? No, God wants you to seek Him with all your heart. And if you're going to seek Him with all your heart, you're going to be opening up your Bible. You're going to be reading your Bible. You're going to be having a relationship with other people. What was the second commandment? To love thy neighbor. You know, it's not, you're not building relationships by watching TV. You're not building relationships with other people. You're not doing anything beneficial to yourself. It's just a waste of time. Deuteronomy chapter 22. Here's another thing that goes against culture. Look at verse 5. The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment. For all that do so are an abomination unto the Lord thy God. Now I'm going to take a really long time to explain this. What the Bible's making clear is that there's a garment upon which are for women and there's a garment which is for a man. Now to just make this obvious, just look at a bathroom sign. It makes it real clear which one's for which. Pair of pants for a man and a dress for a lady. It doesn't matter what part of the country you go in. It doesn't even matter what country you go in for the most part. They all have the same sign. Look, a dress on a lady is a woman's garment. And pants on a man is a man's garment. And the Bible says that it's an abomination to wear the opposite. For a man to wear a dress or a skirt or for a woman to wear a pair of pants. That would be an abomination unto the Lord. Now that's against culture. You know, the world will hate you for dressing godly. The world will look down upon you for dressing godly. But here's the thing. Who are you trying to please, man? Are you trying to please God? Do you want God to be pleased with you? Or do you want man to be pleased with you? Go if you would to Psalms 119. We're talking about counting the cost. Because look, if you want to serve God with all your heart, you've got to follow all of his commandments. You've got to have respect unto all of his commandments. That's how you prove your love. But you have to count the cost. You know, when you first start dating somebody, and you start hanging out, there's this interesting phenomenon where you're ready and willing to do about anything for that person. I mean, when you first get enamored with somebody and you're just really excited to see them, I mean, it doesn't matter what they told you to do. You'd probably do it. I mean, they say, hey, jump on your head. Go jump in a lake. You know, dress it all green. You know, wear a funny hat. If it was for somebody you love, for somebody you just met that you have a great infatuation for, you'll do all kinds of silly stuff against culture, you wouldn't care. But how come? Because what the Bible says, people get all offended. Do you not really love the Lord? Do you not really want Him to be pleased with you? Are you not willing to do anything for the Lord? That's the kind of heart that somebody says, hey, you know what? I love the Lord, but not that much. That you say, hey, I don't want to dress how He wants you to dress. I don't want to do what He wants you to do. You know, unfortunately, in today's culture, this is a lot harder on women than it is men. But I would love to think that if it was opposite, where it was difficult for men to dress against culture, that I would still want to do that. You know, I have a lot of respect for women that decide, hey, I want to dress godly. I want to dress how God wants me to dress. In 1 Peter chapter number 3, it talks about women being subject to their own husbands. It says, who's adorning, let it not be that outward adorning of the plating of the hair, of the wearing of gold, or of the putting on of apparel, but let it be the hidden man of the heart, and that which is not corruptible. So not only should women, you know, dress physically according to how God wants them to dress, but even spiritually. And in 1 Peter chapter number 3, it's talking about adorning yourself with good works. And the good works for a woman is to be subject to their own husband, is to be obedient to their own husband. But this also goes against culture. This goes against what so many feminists and so many, you know, commercials and TV shows and celebrities are trying to push. They're trying to push, oh, I'm a woman, I get to make all my own decisions, and I can tell my husband what to do, and we'll have a, you know, marriage where he's not really, you know, the one making decisions, I'm not going to be subject unto him. It's against culture for a woman to just say, I'm just going to obey whatever my husband says. Women would be offended. They'd be like, what'd you just say? You're going to do what your husband asked you to do? What, don't you make your own decisions? Aren't you your own woman? Can't you do what you want? You know, it's against culture, but who are you trying to please again? Who do you really love? Do you love the Lord or do you love yourself? Or do you love, you know, to be praised of men? Not only that, even going against culture would be raising a family. Are you going to punish your children with a rod? Are you going to be fruitful and multiply like the Bible says? Is your wife going to be a keeper at home? There's so many things that we could look at today that go against the culture, that go against what most Americans are doing. I don't have time to go through all of them, but we have to count the cost. If you really want to love the Lord God with all your heart, you have to realize it's not easy sometimes. It's not simple to make that decision. There's a cost associated. It's not free. Now, to be saved is free. To be saved, just believe in the Lord Jesus Christ with all thine heart. But hey, if you want to love the Lord, there's a cost that's associated with following his commandments. There's a cost that's going to come if you want to be Jesus Christ's disciple, if you want to be called his friend. We see Abraham was justified to be called his friend. Why? He was willing to give up his own son. That's a tall order. That's a lot of love that we see Abraham had for the Lord. But you know, it's kind of a boogeyman because people have this great fear. They think that serving the Lord is actually harder than living for the world. But the Bible does not teach that. Jesus Christ said, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. He said, for this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not grievous. It's a boogeyman when you think that the cost of serving God is greater than serving sin, than serving the world. You say, oh, it's easier to just, you know, watch all the filth on TV, to just go to the bar, to just have all my relationships and be nice to everybody and never, you know, have anybody get offended with me for any reason. It's easier not to go to church. It's easier not to serve the Lord. It's easier not to pray. It's easier not to read the Bible. It's wrong. It's a boogeyman and it's a false, it's a fear that Satan wants to put on people, that the devil wants to trick you in thinking that it's worse. You know what's worse is having sin in your life. It's committing fornication. It's committing adultery. It's getting drunk. For the wages of sin is death. That's not something I want to experience. Living godly, following God's commandments, it's a light burden. It's a light yoke. His commandments are not grievous. In hindsight, when your perspective changes, when you start deciding to get all the filth out of your life, you realize this is way better. I don't even want to do all those things. Why did I do all those stupid things my whole life? Why was I wasting so much time? Why did I commit so many grievous sins? I don't ever want to do that. We see your perspective can change. We need to realize, hey, there is a cost but the cost is greater not to serve the Lord. There is a bigger cost to not serve the Lord than to serve Him and the person that dies and does no good works, the Bible says he's going to suffer loss at the end of his life when all his wood, hay, and stub was burned up. We need to strive for the things that the moth and rust will not destroy. These will not break through and steal. I have to turn to Psalms 119. My second point is once you realize, hey, I know what the cost is. I see that there's things that this is going to cost me. We need to have a correctable spirit about what that cost is. Look at Psalms 119 verse 57. Thou art my portion, O Lord. I have said that I would keep thy words. I entreated thy favor with my whole heart. Be merciful unto me according to thy word. I thought of my ways and turned my feet on thy testimonies. I made haste and delayed not to heed thy commandments. We see that in this Psalm, we see the person responds well to correction. They say, hey, whenever I see something I need to be doing, when I see one of your commandments, I'm going to make haste. I'm not going to delay. I'm not going to say, well, I'll serve God later. I know what I'm doing right now is wrong, but you know, I'll fix that in a couple of years. You know, I know I'm committing fornication, but we'll get married someday. Oh, I know I got to get drunk every weekend, but you know, when I'm like 30 or 40 or 50 or 60 or 90, I'll give that up. You know, I know I spend so much time watching TV. I've never even opened my Bible one time. I'll open my Bible eventually. I'll read it eventually. No, according to the Bible, hey, I made haste. I delayed not to keep that commandments, the Bible teaches. And that's the type of spirit we need to have. We have a correctable spirit. We need to say, hey, whenever I'm shown something that I'm doing wrong, I'm going to correct it immediately. Go to 2 Samuel chapter 12. The Bible says, for whom the Lord loveth, he correcteth. It says in 2 Timothy 3, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for a proof, for correction, for instruction and righteousness. We should use the Bible to correct our lives. And if you're not willing to be corrected, your heart's not right with the Lord. We should always open our Bible. We should go into every sermon. We should go into every, you know, opportunity to correct ourselves to get closer to the Lord, to get our hearts more perfect towards the Lord. To say, hey, I want to serve you. Look at 2 Samuel 12 verse 7, I'm sorry. And Nathan said to David, thou art the man. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul. Give down to verse 13. So in this story we have David, he commits adultery with Uriah's wife and then he even kills Uriah. And we see that Nathan gives this parable to basically, you know, convict David and say, hey, you did what this guy did in this parable. You, you did wrong. And look at verse 13, this is how David responds. And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, the Lord also hath put away thy sin, thou shalt not die. Now this is pretty strict because David immediately, you know, upon hearing the parable, he says, let's kill the guy. I mean, he's done such a wicked sin, let's kill him. And then what does he say? Thou art the man. That's pretty tough words to eat. He just said you should kill the guy that's guilty of this sin. And he's like, you're the guy that's guilty of this sin. But you know what he says? He's like, hey, I've sinned against the Lord. He's immediately ready to be corrected. And God gives mercy on them. God, you know, has forbearance in them. He says the Lord also has put away thy sin. And look at what he says, thou shall not die. Why? Because for adultery and for murder is the death penalty, according to the Bible. But God had mercy on David. You know, he spared him. We see that, you know, some people have this weird idea about the woman caught in adultery. They're like, yeah, but Jesus spared her. You know what? Jesus said, cast a stone at her. He actually told them to kill her, first of all. But we see not only in the New Testament does God spare people from the death penalty, even in the Old Testament. He spared David from the death penalty. So he's the same merciful God in the Old Testament and the New Testament. We see he has a corrected heart. He wants to serve the Lord. He's admitting his sin. And in Acts chapter 13, you have to turn there. But it says, and when he removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king, to whom also he gave testimony and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfill all my will. Now, the interesting thing about David is he's described as a man after God's heart. That's a pretty, you know, good recognition that you're getting from the Bible. You say, but yeah, but he killed a guy. Yeah, but he committed adultery. I've never committed adultery. I've never killed anybody. You know, when I think about this, David responded well when he was confronted with his sin, though. That's why I think he's the man after God's own heart. He's truly seeking the Lord in every opportunity. And when he's confronted with his sin, he immediately wants to respond. He immediately wants to get it right. You know, I can say that I love my spouse with all my heart, but that doesn't mean that I'm never going to sin against her. That doesn't mean I'm never going to do wrong. That doesn't mean I'm not going to offend her. That doesn't mean I'm not going to let her down. But if I love my wife with all my heart, what will I do when I offend her? I'll immediately try to get it right. I'll immediately try to remedy the situation. I'll immediately say, how can I fix it? How can I make this better? I'm so sorry. Please let me make it up to you. That's what it means to love with all your heart. We see David, he sinned against the Lord. No, he's perfect. There's not a dust man upon the earth that doeth good and sin is not. He wasn't called the man after God's own heart because he never sinned, because he was perfect. What? He was trying to seek the Lord. And the opportunity where he has an opportunity to be corrected, he's ready to be corrected. You say, oh, I want to love the Lord God with all my heart. Well, are you ready to be corrected? Are you ready as soon as the Bible shows you something that you're in error and sin? Are you ready to just get that right? Are you going to make haste? Are you going to delay not to keep his commandments? You know, there's an area, you know, it comes to marriage. I always need all kinds of corrections. You know, I'm always trying to get better at marriage. I'm always trying to improve. And you know, one area that I really needed correction in was taking action. As a man, the man needs to take action in a marriage. And one area specifically would be that of picking a restaurant to go out to dinner. Oh man, this thing has been like one of the biggest conflicts I've ever had. And it's just, it's really, there's nothing, you know, that's not common to man. Look, men and women, they have a hard time picking restaurants. You know what the solution is? The man needs to take action. He needs to say, this is where we're going. This is what we're going to eat. This is what we're going to do. Because you know what women like? They like a man with a plan. They like a man that's decided what's going to happen and to take the lead. And you say, yeah, but you know, what if she doesn't like it? Well, what does the guy do that loves his wife with all his heart? He studies his wife. He listens to his wife. He pays a pension to his wife. He knows what his wife likes. And then he makes plans based on what his wife likes. He says, I know what she likes. I've heard what she said. I've been studying my wife. I love her with all my heart. I'm going to make a plan according to what she likes. You know what? This is the same way with God. God likes people to take action. You say, well, how do I know what action to take? Well, are you reading his Bible? Are you searching what he wants you to do? He's already told you what he wants you to do. He's already laid it out very clear for you. But he wants you to take action according to his word. He doesn't want you to have a dead faith. He wants you to have an active faith. He wants you to actually go out and do big works for him. Go out and preach the gospel to every creature. To fear God and keep all his commandments. To constantly praise the Lord. To pray. To read his word. He's told you what he wants you to do. And if you love him with all your heart, are you going to search for it? Are you going to seek for it? And then are you going to take action? The Bible says in 2 Chronicles 16, for the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein thou is done foolishly, therefore from henceforth thou shalt have worse. We see God, he's ready to show himself strong on those that have their heart perfect toward him. The guy that's just truly just seeking the Lord. That's opening his Bible. He's constantly seeking what the Lord wants him to do with his life. God's going to show himself strong in the behalf of that guy. He's going to help that guy. He's going to deliver that guy. We see in this case, you know, man was seeking deliverance from man and not from God. And then his enemies destroyed him. But God was ready to help him. God was ready to be on his behalf. He just wanted him to seek him first and to trust in him first. You know, the disciples, they're just constantly tearing in Jerusalem. And God wants them to go out and preach the gospel. So he has to punish them. He has to afflict them. He has to bring all kinds of persecution upon them just to spread them out away from Jerusalem. They knew what he wanted him to do. He already told them, God, you know, all the world preaches the gospel with every creature to teach all nations. But they're just sitting around doing nothing. He's like, what are you doing? Do you really love me with all your heart? What did you tell to Peter? He's like, you know, love is thou me? Feed my lambs. Feed my sheep. Go do something. Go do what I've commanded you to do. It's not, you know, people sit around all day praying for revival. Do you really love them? No, go do the revival. Go out and do some works. Serve the Lord. We need to be corrected when we hear what the Bible says. When the Bible is saying, hey, you need to go out and preach in the gospel of your creature. Hey, we haven't been doing that. Guess what? You need to be corrected if you love the Lord with all your heart. Don't be prideful. Don't be arrogant. Don't be puffed up. Hey, hey, I did wrong. I'm going to go out and serve the Lord. Like David, be a man after God's own heart. Be corrected. And God likes it when you take actions. Go to Numbers chapter 15. So you see, if you want to love the Lord God with all your heart, you got to count the cost. It's going to cost you something to serve the Lord. But guess what? It's going to cost you more not to serve. Number two, we need to have a heart of correction. We need to be willing to be taught by God's precepts. We need to have our minds renewed by his word. Because the filth of this world, the carnal mind is an entity with God. We need to be renewed in our spiritual mind of the laws of God. To see how do I love God? How do I love my neighbor? What is the sins of my life that I need to get out? Look at Numbers chapter 15 verse 37. It was my third point. And the Lord spake unto Moses saying, Speak unto the children of Israel and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations. And they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribbon of blue. And it shall be unto you for a fringe that you may look upon it. And remember all the commandments of the Lord and do them. And that you seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which you used to go a-whoring, that you may remember and do all my commandments and be holy unto your God. I am the Lord your God which brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God. I am the Lord your God. So you say, well, you know what? I've already counted the costs and I want to serve the Lord. It doesn't matter what's in my life. It doesn't matter what relationships. I'm going to give it all up. I just want to seek the Lord first and then I'll let the chips fall where they may. I'll let all the relationships come, you know, second. I'll let all of my desires come second. But first I'm going to put the Lord. Not only that, you say, and whatever I see from now on, I'm going to correct it immediately. But the last point is you need to be consistent if you really love the Lord God with your heart. It's not just a one-time decision. You know what? Serving the Lord is not you just hear a great sermon one time and now all of a sudden you just love the Lord God with all your heart. No, it comes with patience. It comes with diligence. It comes with seeking Him every day. Reading your Bible every day from month after month after month. Going out soul-wanting from month after month after month. Getting on your knees and praying month after month after month. And it'll increase your love. It'll increase your desires for the Lord. And we need to be consistent if we love the Lord God with all our heart. And we see in verse 39 it says, And ye shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it and remember all the commandments of the Lord. You know, I was thinking about this. He's sending a reminder for himself to serve the Lord. He's saying, hey, I have something that I can set as a reminder to say, look, I need to remember I need to go back and pay attention to the Lord. Hey, how about sending an alarm clock for you to wake up early in the morning to read your Bible? Sending a reminder to pray for certain people. Sending reminders and putting certain provisions in your life to make sure and ensure that you're serving God. You say, you know, I don't really put an alarm. I just wake up whenever and then, you know, the day gets busy and then I call my mom and I call my friend and then the day gets late and I get tired and I just go to bed. I never seem to find any time to read my Bible. It's because you're not loving the Lord God with all your heart. You're going to make time for the things that you love. You know, sometimes we even need to put things in our life to remind us. To put provision in our life to say, hey, I need to schedule certain things in my life to make sure I'm always serving the Lord. Because like I said with the TV, look, if you just sit there and watch TV, you're going to, that's where your desires are going to go. If you're just on the phone talking to your mom for three or four hours a day but you're never opening your Bible, you're not going to really desire to open your Bible. You're going to desire to call your mom. We see you need to put your desires on the Word of God. You need to emphasize the Word of God. Then you can start to love them even more, even greater. I want to love the Lord God with all my heart and make provision for the Bible. Make provision for praying. Make provision for going to church. Make provision for the things of God. Don't make provision for the flesh. Don't make provision for the things of this world. Make provision for God. And we need to be consistent. Go if you would to Job chapter number one. The Bible says in Deuteronomy chapter 8 verse 2, And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord by God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee and to prove thee, to know what was in mine heart, whether thou wouldst keep his commandments or not. The Bible says that the times of the wilderness were the times of being tempted. To see, are you really going to serve the Lord? You know, God may be bringing persecution in your life. Maybe, you know, strife. Maybe bringing hard times in your job. Maybe you show up at church, you know, and nobody else wants to go to school with you. Maybe, you know, you're the only person that sells for the Lord. It may be a tough time for the Lord to say, Will you stop for serving me? Will you stop following me? What's in your heart? I don't care what they've done. What are you going to do? What are you going to do when times get tough? What are you going to do when you have loss? What are you going to do when you have persecution? God wants to see, how much does this guy really love me? Does he love me enough, not only in the good times to serve me, how about the bad times? How about when it's tough? How about when it feels like you're alone? You know, there's a lot of people in the Bible that felt alone. They worked, but they felt it. They felt like Jeremiah sure felt alone a lot of times. When he's seeking in the mire, you know, and they're like, He's going to perish, he doesn't have any bread. You know, Elijah, you know, probably the most famous one, saying, you know, he's the only prophet left to the Lord. He says, no, there's seven thousand that haven't dealt in need of help. The Bible also says, I'll read for you. It says in Psalms 26, examine me, O Lord, and prove me. Try my reins in my heart. Psalms 139, search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. You see, the Psalmist, he desires for God to test them and to try them so they can love them even more. They say, find some area that I'm not serving you. I want to serve you in that area, too. Prove me, Lord. Try me, Lord. Find all the secret, you know, iniquity in my heart and purge it from me. Let me desire you with all my heart. Let me seek you with everything I've got. I just want to give it all to you. I'm going to go home and just flip on the television. Just watch some smut and some filth. Drink a beer. Go to bed. Wake up the next day. Do it again. No! Why don't we put away those things, those fleshy things that don't profit any? Serve the Lord with all your heart. Give him all your heart. The Bible says the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart. I try the means, even to give every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings. God's always, you know, searching men's hearts. But let's make sure we understand what that means. The Bible says in James chapter one, Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted with evil. Neither tempted thee in men. Now the guy, God is tempting or trying, man, it's not with sin. He's not enticing you to go to the bar. God's not saying, let's see if this guy really loves me. I'm going to tempt him with going to the bar. I'm going to tempt him with a hooker. I'm going to tempt him with sin. No! He's going to tempt you with hard times, with persecution, with affliction. He's not going to tempt you with evil. He's not going to tempt you with sin. There will be trials. There will be temptations. Let's look at Job. Look at verse 14. And there came a messenger unto Job, and said, The oxen were plowing, and the acid speeding beside them, and the Sabeans fell upon them, and took them away. Yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword, and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The fire of God has fallen from heaven, and hath burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them, and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The Chaldeans made out three bands, and fell upon the camels, and carried them away. Yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword, and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house. And behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four quarters of the house, and fell upon the young men, and they are dead. And I only am escaped alone to tell thee. Then Job arose, and read his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, and said, Naked came out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly. We see when Job was tempted, and tried, and probably the greatest affliction. I mean, he just lost everything. He lost his stocks, he lost his flocks, he lost it all. He lost his kiddos. I mean, the only thing he didn't take was his wife, but his wife was nagging him. That sounds worse. I mean, his wife's, you know, getting on to him. I mean, he lost it all. He's saying, you know what? I'm going to still bless the name of the Lord. I'm still going to praise the Lord. It says, he fell down on the ground, and he worshipped. That's a perfect heart towards the Lord. I mean, to lose everything in just a moment, and say, I'm still going to praise the Lord. That's a guy that has his heart perfect towards the Lord. How are we going to have our heart perfect towards the Lord? We got to count the cost. We got to realize, hey, there's a cost associated with serving the Lord. But guess what? The cost is less than not serving the Lord. We need to be correctable in our spirit. We need to be ready to make haste to serve God's commandments. But not only that, we need to be consistent. Not just in the good times, but even in the worst of times, we would still say, I just want to serve the Lord above my heart. And not only that, I'm going to make revisions in my life to serve God, not the flesh. Can I just, can you even just go to church for one hour in an air conditioned building? I mean, sometimes I forget to turn it on, but I mean, come on. I mean, can you say, oh, I love the Lord God with all my heart, but I can't go to church. I can't just make it to church three times a week. I can't just pray, you know, every day. I can't just open my Bible, but I can look at Facebook for like four hours. I mean, that thing's really easy, you know, but I can't even just open my Bible for five minutes. Do you really love the Lord? You know, when you love someone with all your heart, you'll go anywhere. You'll drop anything. You'll give up anything for your son, for your daughter, for your wife. You say, man, I would go to all kinds of links, you know, to help them, to save them. That's the type of love that God wants you to have for him first, then your family's second, then mankind's second. The Bible says, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. How are you going to fear God and keep all of his commandments? You got to increase your love. If you increase your love, it won't be hard to want to follow all his commandments. You'll desire to follow all of his commandments. You say, I really want to do that, Lord. Increase your love. This is the last thing I'll read for you. In 1 Thessalonians 3, it says, And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another and toward all men, even as we do toward you. To the end you may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God. You know, there's a way to increase and abound in your love. And you know how to do that? You got to seek him more. The more you seek God, the more your love can grow towards God. So let's seek him with all of our heart. Let's love the Lord God with all by heart. Closing prayer. Thank you, Father, so much for your word. Thank you so much for all that you've given us. And we love you because you first loved us. Thank you so much that salvation is just a free gift that we just received by faith. But not only that, we have an opportunity to just serve you and to love you back after you've loved us. And we know that your love will never diminish from us. And if we truly have love in our hearts when you correct us, then we'll be ready to be corrected. And not only that, we can be consistent in our love towards you, our whole lives until the very end. It will just abound in love all the way until we're changed in the moment of the twinkling of an eye. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.