Introduction:     In His reply to the Scribe, Jesus pulls together two well-known passages of Old Testament Scripture. One concerns itself with love for God; the other with love for your neighbor. We have dubbed them the Great Commandments. All the law and the prophets boiled down to these great commandments, and the key is found in verse 30: “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.”

·        Loving God is the catalyst for dynamic spiritual life. A lack of genuine love for God is probably why so many churches are dead and dry and so many believers are listless and apathetic. We find such a group in the book of Revelation. There, Jesus speaks to the church in Ephesus and says, (Rev 2:4-5) {4} Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. {5} Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent."

·        A church can be large and powerful. A church can be doctrinally pure and hard working. But when a church loses its first love, all is for nothing. Without a love affair with God, all that we do becomes meaningless. Without a love affair with God, we lack the motivation and the passion to do His work. There is a desperate need today for a passionate, hot-hearted, intense, consuming love affair with God.

But how is that love relationship to be worked out? Jesus gives us four ways. He tells us first that you must love the Lord your God with all your heart. To love the Lord with all your heart means to love Him with...

I.          WITH PURE DEVOTION

It’s not enough to give Christ a place in our hearts. We are called to love Him with all of our heart. When you love someone with all of your heart, you think about them almost all of the time. You long to be with them. They are the priority in your life.

            A.        True Love’s Priority

Being in love is a genuinely thrilling experience. It is so exciting that many people are overwhelmed by it. And to love God with all your heart is much like that. It means that your heart is devoted to Him. It means that you are faithful to Him. He becomes the most important thing in your life. We experience that kind of pure devotion when we first become Christians. The Scripture calls it our "first love."

            B,         True Love’s Passion

Do you remember it—the thrill of meeting Jesus for the first time? (expound) Oh, what a wonderful Savior! How could you help but love Him? Do you remember that time when you gave Jesus your heart? That love can be fresh every day. We never have to forfeit that first love. With all our heart we are to continually love Him.

To love the Lord with all your soul means to Love Him…

II.         WITH FULL FERVOR

You are not only to love God with all your heart you are to love Him with all your soul. To love God with all our soul means that our love for God ought to be full of passion. The soul speaks of our emotions.

A.        Real Love Is Emotional

We are all people of passion. While we may try to deny our emotions, our emotions have a way of rising to the surface in spite of all our efforts to hide them.

·        Emotions are good. God created them. Rightly channeled, our emotions can be very positive indeed. We ought to be emotional about our love for God. I’m not talking about a sloppy sentimentalism. But I am talking about a hot-hearted, passionate, consuming love.

·        Unfortunately, our culture is growing more cynical every day. People are disillusioned and have become apathetic. The word apathetic literally means "without passion." (Illus: Peanuts cartoon in which Charlie Brown was talking to Lucy. He remarked about the tragedy of so much apathy in the world today. Lucy responded, "Yeah, it’s terrible. But who cares?")

We cannot afford to be apathetic about our love for God. We must be passionate 

            B.         Real Love Is Exciting

We also must be excited about our relationship with Jesus. In the Song of Solomon, we hear about the exciting kind of love we ought to have for God.

·        It is likened to the love between a man and a woman. (Song 1:2) "Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine."

·        Again, we hear: (Song 2:14) "…let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely."

·        Real love is passionate love. To love God with all our soul means that we must be involved with all our emotions in our relationship to Him. And when you’ve really given Jesus all of your heart, then it’s easy to become excited about following Him.

Our love for Christ begins with a pure devotion and expresses itself by being full of passion. But there is yet another element. To love the Lord your God with all your mind. This is a love that...

III.       IS THOROUGHLY CONSIDERED

Loving Jesus doesn’t simply mean turning cartwheels in the aisle. While we ought to be excited about Him and express our emotions I’m not talking about an emotional expression which bypasses the mind. It is true that when people rely on their own intellectual capacity they always come up short. We’ll never figure God out in this lifr. And if you wait until you’ve figured it out, you may left behind. Our minds can be a hindrance. But our minds can also be a help if it is…

            A.        A Fully Consecrated Mind

God fully intends for our minds to be involved in our love for Him. In Romans 12, we are told that our minds need to be renewed. In 1 Peter we are told to prepare our minds for work. And here, we are told to love God with all our mind. A mind committed to Christ and being transformed by His renewing power can be used by God tremendously. Christianity makes sense and anyone who thoughtfully considers the plan of God will soon discover just how reasonable Christianity really is.

            B.         A Fully Committed Mind

I believe that a mind committed to God will become a mind into which God will pour His wisdom and His knowledge.

·        He has all wisdom and all knowledge. And as we commit our ways to Him, even our thought processes, He will begin to impart His wisdom and His knowledge to us. All of our mental ability ought to be dedicated to God. When it is He will show us how to really think. It is said we only use about 10% of our brain. Perhaps God is the one who must activate the other 90%.

Not only are you to love God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind, you are to love Him with all your strength. To love God with all our strength means to love God in all that we do.

IV.       FULLY LIVED OUT

Christianity is not just a heart dedicated to God, a soul full of passionate love for Jesus, and a mind committed to thoroughly consider the whole Word of God. Christianity must be fully lived out. In Colossians 3:17 it says, “And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.” Again in that same chapter, verses 23 and 24 say, "And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; {24} Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ." Christianity that is just in the head is intellectualism. Christianity that is just in the heart may be just sentimentalism. For Christianity to be alive, it must be lived out. This is what makes the Christian faith the most powerful force in the world. For the Christian faith to be a life-changing, world-altering force, it must be lived out in the lives of those who say they believe. Otherwise, it doesn’t make any difference at all. To truly love God, you must love Him in all you do. Fully lived out in…

            A.        A Life Lived Distinctively

A distinctive Christian lifestyle must be evident in the way you live your life, conduct your business, function on the job, and deal with your wife or husband or children. James tells us that we ought to be "doers of the word." Christianity becomes powerful as it’s lived out in this world.

            B.         A Life Lived Decisively

When the Scribe came to Jesus, Jesus told him what the top priority in life was.

·        It all begins with loving God. Jesus makes an interesting reply; you are not far from the Kingdom of God. The Scribe was not far, but not in. It’s not enough merely to intellectually believe in the truth of God’s Word. We must be willing to act on it, to commit ourselves to follow it. The Scribe was not far, but not in.

·        Most of what passes for modern, mainstream Christianity is symbolized in this Scribe. He had given mental assent to the facts of God’s word, yet he had never given himself to God. We see it all too often in our churches. Pews are populated every Sunday by people who have only an intellectual faith, but not a faith lived out in daily life. They come to church, throw a few dollars in the offering plate, go through the motions, and go home. There is no passionate love for the Lord, no real desire to spend time serving the Lord and no power in their lives. The powerlessness in churches today is because so many whose names are on their rolls are not far from the Kingdom, but not in it.

This is characteristic of religious philosophy and religion in general. Hanging around a church doesn’t make you a Christian. It is the commitment of your life to Christ that makes the difference. Having your name on a church roll doesn’t put it on the roll that will be called up yonder. Not far, but not in. What a tragedy it would be to be so close, and yet, on that great day of judgment have God say to you, "Depart from Me; for I never knew you."

Conclusion:       What is the top priority in your life? To simply believe Jesus is important may bring us close to the Kingdom, but will leave us outside its gates. We must surrender all that we are to all He is, and dedicate ourselves to live for Him. We must live a life that reflects a love for God that is genuinely devoted, full of passion, thoroughly considered, and fully lived. That is the top priority. To fall short of experiencing a full love for our Lord is to fall short of the Kingdom.