3ABN Homecoming 2017

With All My Heart

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Shelley Quinn

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Series Code: 17HC

Program Code: 17HC000007A


00:50 Hello and welcome to 3ABN Fall Homecoming
00:54 Camp Meeting 2017.
00:55 What a blessing we've been having this weekend so far,
00:58 haven't we? We're so glad each one of you are here
01:02 and so glad you have joined us at home.
01:04 I know the Lord has something very special
01:07 prepared for each one of us.
01:09 Our speaker of the hour is Shelley Quinn.
01:12 She is 3ABN's program development manager,
01:15 and what a blessing she and her husband J.D. are.
01:18 She's a woman of the Word... a woman of prayer
01:21 and a woman who walks out, who lives out what she preaches.
01:25 The message she will be bringing for us is
01:27 called With All My Heart.
01:30 Before she comes and ministers to us
01:32 we're also going to hear from another woman of God:
01:35 Sr. Yvonne Lewis. The song she will be bringing
01:38 for us is the same title as Shelley's title:
01:42 With All My Heart. I love to hear Yvonne sing
01:45 because she sings from her heart and her walk with Jesus.
01:49 So as soon as Yvonne shall have sung
01:51 the next voice you will hear is that of Shelley Quinn.
02:11 In this quiet place with You
02:16 I bow before Your throne
02:20 and bare the deepest part of me
02:24 to You and You alone.
02:28 I keep no secrets for there is no thought
02:34 You haven't known...
02:37 I bring my best and all the rest
02:41 to You and lay them down.
02:46 Oh...
02:51 With all my heart
02:56 I will love You, Lord,
03:00 and live my life
03:04 each day to know You more.
03:08 All that is in me
03:12 is Yours completely.
03:16 I'll serve You only
03:21 with all my heart.
03:37 You faithfully supply my needs
03:42 according to Your plan.
03:45 So help me, Lord, to seek Your face
03:49 before I seek Your hand.
03:53 I trust You'll do what's best for me
03:58 when I don't understand.
04:07 I will follow in obedience
04:13 in every circumstance.
04:22 With all my heart
04:27 I want to love You, Lord,
04:31 and live my life
04:35 each day to know You more.
04:38 All that is in me
04:42 is Yours completely.
04:47 I'll serve You only
04:57 with all my heart!
05:17 Thank you, Yvonne. God bless.
05:20 That's one of my favorite songs; it IS my favorite song
05:23 that Yvonne sings.
05:24 And actually we could go home if we just let those words
05:28 sink deep in our heart because there is a message
05:32 in that song.
05:35 Well, we're just so glad that
05:37 all of you are here. And thank you so much
05:39 for coming. I love Fall Camp Meeting
05:42 because Homecoming is so much more intimate
05:45 and it's a lot of fun to be with you all.
05:50 We are going today... If you have your Bibles,
05:53 you might want to open to I John chapter 4.
05:57 I John chapter 4.
05:59 What we will do in the next 45 minutes is
06:01 we will ask and answer five questions
06:07 about the interaction of love
06:11 between God and man.
06:14 And these five questions are very important for all of us
06:19 to know the answer to
06:22 and to be able to explain to others.
06:25 Let's pray.
06:27 Heavenly Father, we pause once again today
06:29 to come before Your throne of grace
06:32 to praise You, Lord, for You are worthy of our praise.
06:35 Lord, we thank you for the gift of Your Son Jesus Christ.
06:40 We thank you for the gift of Your Holy Spirit
06:43 and the gift of Your Word, Father.
06:46 How we praise You and thank you
06:48 that You did not leave us as orphans but Father, that
06:51 we may come to know You by the power of Your Spirit
06:55 through Your Word. And right now I pray in Jesus' name,
06:59 Father, that You'll get me out of the way.
07:02 Help me to be surrendered to You.
07:04 Speak through me by the power of Your Holy Spirit.
07:08 Please send Your Holy Spirit to be our teacher.
07:13 This is a message I need to hear as well, Lord.
07:16 And we ask in the name of Jesus that You will give us
07:20 ears to hear what the Holy Spirit has to say.
07:25 In Jesus' holy name we pray
07:27 thanking You for the answer, Lord, to the prayer of faith.
07:31 Amen... amen.
07:33 All right... I John chapter 4.
07:35 Let's look at verse 16.
07:38 I John 4:16 and John writes:
07:58 Love has its origin from God.
08:02 God is the source of love.
08:05 Do you know His love?
08:09 That word know is intimate.
08:11 Do you KNOW God's love
08:14 by not just observation but by experience?
08:19 Do you BELIEVE His love?
08:21 It is so critical that we know and believe
08:26 the love that God has for us
08:28 because if we don't we will keep God at arms' distance...
08:32 which I did for many years
08:35 because I had been taught erroneously
08:39 that God burned people in an everlasting, never ceasing
08:45 torment and I could not understand how God is love
08:50 and I kept Him at an arms' distance.
08:53 Now when I found the truth
08:55 that helped me embrace God and know that He is love.
09:02 When we think about people
09:05 who keep God at arms' distance
09:08 the first question I want to ask and answer is this,,,
09:11 because I can sit here and talk about the love of God
09:14 but if you haven't known the love of God,
09:18 if you don't believe the love of God,
09:20 then I'm just going to be talking over your head.
09:24 You're not going to pay any attention to me.
09:26 And a question that people often ask
09:30 and maybe you have asked this as well
09:33 is: "If God is love,
09:35 why does He allow us to experience pain? "
09:40 Have you ever wondered about that?
09:42 The answer is really quite simple
09:45 because God loved us so much...
09:48 He wanted us to be His children and He loved us so much
09:53 that He created us in His image.
09:57 He created us with free will.
10:00 He created us with intelligence and the ability to rule...
10:05 to go out and have dominion over the earth.
10:08 Without free will we would not be able
10:13 to achieve and accomplish things on our own.
10:16 Without free will we would not be like God.
10:20 We would not be able to love
10:24 because love by its very definition involves choice.
10:30 Love cannot be forced.
10:32 It cannot be coerced; it cannot be demanded;
10:36 it cannot be purchased.
10:39 Love includes the will.
10:42 And clearly scripture teaches that the will of God
10:46 is that He loves all mankind
10:50 so much that He wants all men to be saved.
10:54 And the greatest event of love
10:58 that ever happened or ever will happen
11:01 happened on the hill of Calvary
11:04 when Christ died for us on the cross.
11:07 As I was considering this question about pain
11:12 I did a little research.
11:14 And something that I learned that's really interesting
11:17 is the area of the brain that gives us free will
11:22 is the prefrontal cortex right here behind your forehead.
11:27 This is the area of the brain that functions with free will
11:33 giving us the power of choice.
11:35 But guess what else?
11:36 This is the area of the brain that identifies and experiences
11:42 pain. How many of you would like to be pain free?
11:45 No physical pain... no emotional pain?
11:48 Every hand is going up. Right?
11:52 Well, there is a remedy for pain.
11:55 In the late 1940's
11:58 doctors noticed that psychotic patients
12:02 who were receiving lobotomies experienced no pain afterward.
12:08 Now they really couldn't tell the effect of the lobotomy
12:12 on the psychotic patient
12:14 as much as they did later on when they began
12:18 doing this procedure on psychologically-normal patients
12:22 who had been suffering from severe pain
12:26 and that just wasn't responsive to any treatment.
12:29 And at first it seemed very successful
12:32 because they didn't experience pain, they didn't have anxiety
12:37 or fears. But it didn't take long
12:40 until the disastrous consequences were discovered.
12:43 What they found is that after a lobotomy
12:47 the patients lost their ability
12:50 to think or react quickly.
12:54 They were dull. They found that these patients
12:58 sometimes totally lacked any kind of emotional
13:03 expression or response.
13:05 They showed a striking reduction in driving energy
13:09 or in interest and they lost their personality.
13:14 So what lobotomies proved...
13:17 it gave us evidence that this area of our brain
13:21 that functions - this is the area where free will functions -
13:25 it gives us the ability to dif- ferentiate between good and bad,
13:30 better and best. It gives us the ability
13:32 to temporarily store and manipulate information
13:36 so that we can understand and reason and learn.
13:39 It gives us the ability to recognize
13:43 that our current activities have future consequences.
13:48 It gives us the ability to plan forward...
13:52 to develop a plan and work toward a defined goal
13:58 and predict the outcomes.
14:00 It gives us the ability to suppress unacceptable urges.
14:05 And yes, it also is the area that gives us the ability
14:10 to experience pain.
14:12 But all of those hands that went up earlier...
14:14 let me ask you this:
14:16 you want to be pain free. How many of you
14:19 would like to receive a lobotomy to be pain free?
14:24 You know, something that we need to remember:
14:28 God is NOT the author of pain and suffering.
14:33 God creates all things perfect.
14:37 God is the origin of love.
14:40 The origin of pain and suffering is rebellion
14:45 against God's authority.
14:48 When Satan rebelled in heaven
14:51 his rebellion raised this question:
14:56 does God have the right
14:59 to rule over His intelligent beings
15:03 and decide for them what's right and what's wrong?
15:08 Now God could have snuffed out the great controversy -
15:14 the controversy between good and evil - immediately.
15:18 He could have snuffed out Satan as soon as he rebelled.
15:21 Or even He could have snuffed out Adam and Eve
15:24 as soon as they rebelled.
15:26 But what would that have proven?
15:29 Only that He was more powerful than they.
15:32 So what God did is He allowed Satan to come to earth
15:37 to test the hearts of Adam and Eve.
15:40 Not for His benefit - not for God's benefit -
15:44 but for their benefit.
15:47 Adam and Eve made a wrong choice.
15:51 You know why? Because they had never learned
15:56 through the experience of hardship
15:59 what God's love really was like.
16:03 But what the devil intended for evil
16:06 God turned it around for their good.
16:09 Through their fall into temptation
16:13 Adam and Eve discovered and had a greater revelation
16:19 of God's goodness and His mercy and His faithfulness
16:23 and His love.
16:25 They learned that only God's purposes
16:29 lead to ultimate happiness.
16:33 Without knowledge of what life is like apart from God
16:38 how can we really come to understand
16:41 that His way is best?
16:44 You know, God's ways are higher than our ways.
16:46 His thoughts are higher than our thoughts.
16:48 We'll never fully understand them.
16:50 But what God ordained was that Satan
16:54 after Adam and Eve passed him the keys to the kingdom
16:58 He ordained that Satan would have a short, pre-determined
17:02 time on earth to try to prove his malicious lie against God:
17:06 that God was unfair and that God was not loving.
17:12 Now you may say: "Short? It's been nearly 6,000 years! "
17:17 But don't forget what Peter says in II Peter 3:8.
17:34 If we were to take the continuum of infinity...
17:40 if I had a line that never ended this way
17:42 and the line kept going and it never ended that way
17:46 and if we were to take 6,000 years
17:49 that the great controversy has been going on
17:51 and we were to mark it on that line
17:54 it would be a little pinprick on the line.
17:58 It doesn't seem short to us
18:01 but to God a thousand years is like a day.
18:05 So Christ is coming!
18:10 He will return soon. He will come as soon as every
18:13 person on earth has made a decision
18:17 either to reject or accept God.
18:19 And as long as there's one person left
18:22 that He knows will make that decision to accept Him
18:26 I believe He's going to hold His coming back.
18:28 But He will usher in an eternal kingdom
18:32 where there's no more sin, no more pain, no more suffering.
18:36 And this will be the Hallelujah time of no more tears.
18:41 The second question that we want to ask and answer:
18:44 how do we know that God loves us with all of His heart?
18:48 Let's look at Jeremiah 32:40-41.
18:52 It will be on the screen. Jeremiah 32:40-41.
18:56 This is the Lord speaking and He says:
19:27 That's God speaking to you today.
19:30 This is covenant love language.
19:33 The Bible describes God's love as being universal,
19:38 as being impartial.
19:41 He doesn't put one above the other.
19:44 It describes God's love as being self-sacrificing,
19:48 unconditional, faithful.
19:51 As being protective and corrective...
19:55 because He is the perfect Father.
19:58 As being patient and tender and merciful.
20:01 Forgiving and enduring.
20:02 God's love unifies... it brings together.
20:06 It edifies... it builds up.
20:09 God's love quells our fears.
20:12 It negates fear.
20:14 And God's love is beyond human understanding.
20:20 It transcends all human understanding.
20:23 But trust me when I say this:
20:26 somebody here needs to hear this.
20:28 God loves you with all of His heart.
20:31 His heart wells over with love for you,
20:34 and from that well of love flows all of the blessings
20:38 of His grace. And there is nothing
20:42 that God loves more than for us to come to receive
20:47 the goodness from Him.
20:49 In Jeremiah chapter 31 and verse 3-
20:53 again, this will be on the screen -
20:55 God says:
21:10 Again, this is covenant love language that expresses
21:14 God's enduring love and faithfulness for His covenant
21:18 people. Hesed is a word...
21:22 Are you familiar with what hesed means?
21:26 You know, we talk about agape all the time
21:28 and that's important.
21:30 But in the Old Testament the Hebrew word
21:34 hesed is the equivalent for grace.
21:38 It was used 240 times in the Old Testament.
21:45 I want us to look now at a definition from the Book
21:48 of the Dictionary of the Old Testament:
21:51 Wisdom, Writings, and Poetry.
21:52 This is the definition of hesed.
22:22 And I absolutely adore the way David
22:28 felt about God's hesed.
22:31 He says in Psalm 63 verse 3:
22:45 See, if we get to be like David...
22:49 David knew... he understood
22:52 that God's love, God's grace
22:56 was better than everything that this world had to offer.
23:02 And that's how God wants us to understand His love.
23:06 Now we are familiar with agape.
23:09 This is the term that is most frequently used
23:12 in the New Testament for love.
23:14 And this signifies a spontaneous, self-giving,
23:19 unconditional, unmerited love.
23:24 There's nothing that you can do to earn that love.
23:28 There's nothing that you can do to deserve that love.
23:31 But this is the way God loves you!
23:34 Jesus said in John 3:16: "For God so loved the world... "
23:38 He so agaped the world...
23:42 "that He gave His only begotten Son
23:46 that whoever would believe in Him would not perish
23:49 but have everlasting life. "
23:51 And then Paul turns around in Romans 5:8
23:54 and he says: "This is how God demonstrates
23:58 His own love for us
24:00 that He sent His Son to die for us
24:04 while we were yet sinners. "
24:07 Can you imagine how much more God will do for us now?
24:12 The God of eternity stepped out of heaven;
24:16 He condescended to become flesh.
24:20 And you know what? Christ - God in the flesh -
24:25 accepted the cruel cross - the cruel death on the cross -
24:31 to die for you and me... even though we were completely
24:36 undeserving. Totally undeserving!
24:41 What is the wages of sin? Death.
24:44 But the gift of God is eternal life
24:48 through Christ Jesus.
24:51 You are worth nothing less
24:54 to God than the price that He paid
24:58 with the precious life blood of His Son.
25:01 Don't ever forget that.
25:03 Don't ever feel that you're not good enough
25:07 because God puts great value on you.
25:11 Paul told the Ephesians in Ephesians 2:4-5
25:15 He said:
25:32 It's a gift!
25:35 God is the source of life but what does sin do?
25:38 Sin cuts us off from God.
25:40 It cuts us off from the source of life.
25:44 So without Christ
25:47 our future would be an eternal death.
25:51 But our loving and merciful God
25:53 provided forgiveness of sin... so the gift of eternal life
25:57 through Christ Jesus.
25:59 And our covenant Christ is with us always...
26:03 just as He was in the old covenant.
26:06 The messenger of the covenant. He went with them as the cloud
26:11 by day. In the heat of the day He was
26:13 their protection. He was the flame of fire...
26:16 the pillar of fire at night.
26:18 And in Hebrews 13:5 He Himself has said
26:22 "I will never leave you; I will never forsake you. "
26:27 You know, we pray: "Lord, be with us through the night. "
26:32 "Lord, be with us today. "
26:34 "Lord. be with us on this trip. "
26:36 You know what we should be praying? "Oh, Lord,
26:38 give us a... just give us a divine revelation
26:44 and an awareness of Your constant presence with us. "
26:49 God never leaves you; He never forsakes you.
26:52 And there should be no doubt in your heart
26:56 about God's love for you.
26:58 No matter who you are, no matter how bad you think you are,
27:03 He longs for you with all of His heart.
27:07 And the question is: will you receive His love?
27:13 Will you allow God to love you?
27:18 So now let's look at our third question.
27:20 What does He desire from us in return?
27:26 Turn to Mark chapter 12 please.
27:29 Mark chapter 12.
27:31 If God loves us so much that He created us in His image
27:36 to be His children, and He threw out the Bible...
27:40 The Old Testament and the New is trying to convince us
27:45 of this great love that He has for us...
27:48 this is His plan... what does He expect from us in return?
27:55 He desires that we would respond to His covenant love.
28:00 As He loves us with all of His heart
28:04 His desire is that we'll love Him with all of our heart.
28:07 Look at Mark 12:29 is where we'll begin.
28:10 Mark 12:29.
28:13 Someone asked Jesus: "What's the greatest commandment? "
28:15 and Jesus answered him saying: "The greatest of all the
28:19 commandments is 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God,
28:21 the Lord is One. And you shall love the Lord your God
28:24 with all of your heart, with all of your soul,
28:27 with all of your mind, and with all of your strength.
28:31 This is the first... this is the greatest
28:35 commandment. ' " Jesus is quoting Deuteronomy 6:4-5.
28:41 This is a foundational truth of the old covenant.
28:45 It is also a foundational truth of the new covenant
28:49 because love for God is central to entering into
28:55 and keeping covenant with Him.
28:58 And what this summarizes... loving Him with all of our
29:01 heart, soul, mind, and strength...
29:03 it summarizes the first four of the Ten Commandments.
29:08 That we will have no other God before Him.
29:10 That we'll not make an idol and bow down to it.
29:13 That we will not take His name in vain.
29:15 And that we'll remember the Sabbath to joyfully celebrate
29:19 that time with Him.
29:21 Now then Jesus goes on in verse 31
29:27 and He says: "This is the second that is like it:
29:30 you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
29:34 There's no greater commandment - NO OTHER COMMANDMENT -
29:38 greater than these. "
29:40 Here He's quoting Leviticus 19:18.
29:43 See, genuine love for God naturally results in love
29:48 for our fellow human beings.
29:50 And what this summarizes
29:53 when He says: "Love your neighbor as yourself"
29:56 He's summarizing the second tablet of the Ten Commandments.
30:00 That you will honor your mother and your father.
30:03 That you'll not commit murder or adultery.
30:06 That you'll not steal.
30:08 That you will not bear false testimony.
30:10 And that you'll not covet!
30:12 So this is why then Jesus in Matthew 22:40 said:
30:15 "On these two commandments
30:18 hang all the law and the prophets. "
30:21 When you see all the law and the prophets together
30:24 that means the entire Old Testament.
30:27 And Jesus is saying: "This is what it's about, folks. "
30:31 Love is the root of God's Ten Commandments
30:36 and it is the fulfillment of the law.
30:39 You know, God's commandments are not
30:43 just about how we behave.
30:46 It's about who we are
30:49 when the love of God is in our hearts.
30:53 Now, how can God know
30:56 or how can we know
30:58 if God's love is being perfected in our hearts?
31:02 Let's look at I John 2:4-5.
31:05 I John 2:4-5.
31:07 John says:
31:30 True religion begins and ends
31:33 with loving God and loving humanity...
31:37 our fellow human beings.
31:38 When you are faced with a decision
31:42 here is what you should ask yourself.
31:46 Just choose whatever best
31:50 will exhibit love for God
31:54 and love for humanity
31:55 following God's Ten Commandments as your rule of thumb
31:59 and you'll never go wrong... ever.
32:01 Now turn to Deuteronomy chapter 4
32:03 because I want to show you some- thing that so many people miss.
32:09 You know, the Old Testament...
32:12 When we think of the old covenant - and Deuteronomy
32:15 is the book of the law -
32:17 this is the covenant that Moses wrote up...
32:22 the book of the law. It got put into the side of the ark
32:25 in the pocket. But most people think that
32:28 there was no grace in the old covenant.
32:31 The old covenant is nothing but grace!
32:35 And that's what the sanctuary was all about
32:39 was... this was theology in physical form to show them
32:43 the grace of God.
32:45 But God has always sought whole-hearted love
32:49 from His people and obedience has always been
32:52 just an expression of loving gratitude for God's love.
32:57 Even in the old covenant faith was essentially a matter
33:02 of the heart. So nine times in the book of the covenant,
33:06 the book of Deuteronomy, nine times the expression
33:10 "with all your heart" appears.
33:13 We're going to look at four of those because
33:14 the other five pretty much repeat.
33:17 So let's look at Deuteronomy chapter 4, look at verse 29.
33:23 Verse 29.
33:24 And here it says:
33:40 When you know how much God loves you
33:42 and the good plan He has for your life
33:44 that's how you will seek Him.
33:46 And then Deuteronomy chapter 6 if you'll turn there
33:50 and we'll look at verse 5.
33:52 This is what we just heard Jesus quote
33:56 when we were looking at Mark chapter 12.
33:58 Deuteronomy 6 and verse 5 says:
34:09 Now flip over to chapter 10 and let's look at verse 12.
34:13 In Deuteronomy 10 and verse 12.
34:18 This describes the evidence of our love.
34:42 So we're to walk in His ways... to love Him.
34:46 To serve Him with all of our heart and soul.
34:50 But here's the best one in Deuteronomy chapter 30
34:53 if you'll turn there.
34:55 Deuteronomy chapter 30 and verse 6.
34:58 Because I have to tell you:
35:00 I can't love the Lord my God with all of my heart,
35:04 my soul, my mind, and my strength...
35:07 not in my human ability.
35:11 But look at Deuteronomy 30:6.
35:14 It is God who enables us to love Him this way.
35:28 All of your heart... whole-hearted love.
35:31 An undivided heart.
35:34 In Ezekiel 11 and verse 19
35:39 God says this:
35:52 God's heart is undivided. He consistently
35:56 is demonstrating and expressing His love,
35:59 His faithfulness, His trustworthiness,
36:03 and His loyalty to His covenant people.
36:06 But our covenant-keeping God expects His people
36:10 to respond to this and to do the same.
36:14 He wants a reciprocal, whole-hearted love
36:18 and devotion to Him. So since we can't do this
36:22 in our own He gives us a new heart and a new spirit
36:27 that we might love Him in this way.
36:30 See, when you have a divided heart
36:33 it undermines your commitment to God.
36:37 So we must ask ourselves
36:40 "Is my heart undivided? "
36:43 "Is it? " How do we recognize a divided heart?
36:47 Paul describes three possible heart conditions
36:51 of man's relationship to God.
36:54 We find this in I Corinthians 2:14-16
36:59 and chapter 3 verses 1-4.
37:02 First Paul talks about the natural man.
37:04 He's hardhearted... no relationship with God.
37:07 He's engaged in earthly pursuits with all of his heart.
37:11 He's looking for fame and fortune and money and pleasure
37:15 and power. Then there is the spiritual man
37:20 who is at the polar opposite of the natural man.
37:25 The spiritual man has a united heart
37:28 whole-hearted love for the Lord.
37:31 He has a real and intimate love connection with God.
37:34 But then there is the flesh...
37:39 the carnal Christian who has a divided heart
37:44 and divided loyalty. One foot in the kingdom
37:47 and one foot in the world.
37:50 Loyalty is divided between God and self.
37:53 And here is what Jesus says about the carnal Christian.
37:57 Let's look at Matthew 15 and verse 8.
38:00 Matthew 15 and verse 8.
38:13 Our words are empty if we don't put things or words
38:19 into action. We can speak of loving God...
38:24 We can come to church and talk about loving God.
38:27 But if we don't have whole-hearted devotion to Him,
38:32 if we are not walking in obedience to Him,
38:37 if we're not loyal to Him we don't love Him.
38:40 When we love God we want to do what is pleasing to Him.
38:44 And obedience is the highest expression
38:48 of love and worship for God.
38:51 The carnal Christian is a hearer of the Word
38:56 not a doer.
38:57 Self is what sits on the throne of his heart.
39:02 With a divided heart, he's double-minded and unstable
39:06 in all of his ways.
39:08 And if we don't love God sufficiently, we won't remain
39:12 true to Him. Did you know
39:14 Paul is talking to Christians in the church
39:18 when he's talking about the carnal... the flesh...
39:23 the carnal Christian? You can be a regular churchgoer.
39:29 You can hold a denominational position.
39:33 You can be a pastor and still be a carnal Christian
39:38 if you don't have whole-hearted love for God.
39:43 That was the trouble with the church of Laodicea.
39:47 They were lukewarm, half-hearted Christians.
39:52 And I want to read this to you from Ellen White.
39:56 This is from letter 44 in 1903.
40:00 Here's what she has to say about that condition.
40:34 Wow! That's a wake-up call!
40:38 That is a wake-up call!
40:40 Whole-hearted love for God is necessary
40:44 to present an authentic and loving witness
40:49 to a skeptical world.
40:52 What do we do if we recognize that we're carnal Christians?
40:57 What if we are lukewarm?
40:59 I had to ask myself this question.
41:02 It is easy to get so busy serving the Lord
41:07 that you start kind of leaving Him on the outside.
41:12 Let me tell you what we need to do.
41:14 If you know that your heart is divided...
41:19 and so many of our hearts are...
41:21 all you have to do is cry out and say:
41:25 "Oh my Jesus... don't let my heart remain divided
41:29 and in darkness. "
41:31 And pray this beautiful promise
41:35 from Psalm 86 verse 11:
41:50 God can circumcise our hearts
41:54 and give us a new heart.
41:55 He can get self out of the way
41:57 and break the bondage of the sin cycle
42:01 and half-hearted service.
42:03 Now the fourth question I want to ask and answer is
42:06 this: how does whole-hearted love behave?
42:10 How do we know if we are loving God with all of our heart?
42:14 Well... our emotions, our thoughts, our decisions,
42:20 our deeds will be God-centered.
42:24 God will be enthroned in our hearts as our sovereign King.
42:30 We will love Him with all of our heart!
42:32 There'll be no other love that competes with our love for Him.
42:36 We'll delight in His love
42:39 and prefer Him before all things.
42:41 We will enjoy spending time speaking to Him in prayer.
42:45 We'll love Him with all of our soul.
42:48 We will be united to Him as one in spirit with Him.
42:51 We'll be surrendered and yielded, walking in submission
42:56 to Him.Crucified to the world and the world to us.
43:01 We will be ready to sacrifice for Him rather than
43:05 to dishonor Him. If we love Him with all of our mind,
43:08 we will apply our mind to knowing Him;
43:11 we'll receive His truth through Bible study;
43:15 we'll delight to obey Him. AND it is love
43:21 that gives us the power to keep His commandments.
43:25 If we love Him with all of our strength,
43:27 we will use all of our will, all of our energies
43:31 in service to Him to bring Him glory.
43:35 This summarizes the essence of scripture...
43:39 the whole duty of mankind.
43:42 You know, God removed Saul as king of Israel
43:49 because he had a divided heart
43:52 and He set up David as king of Israel saying:
43:56 "I have found David, son of Jesse, to be a man
44:01 after My own heart
44:03 who will do all of My will. "
44:07 When I read the Psalms
44:10 I used to say: "The love that David expresses is almost
44:15 sounds romantic when he's writing. "
44:19 Has anybody ever had that thought?
44:21 When he's writing about God there's such emotion!
44:25 I want to do something right now
44:28 and I want you to just - if you will - humor me here.
44:33 The Psalms are David's prayer journal
44:36 and we see how much he loved the Lord.
44:40 I want to read to you a few scriptures...
44:43 actually five verses...
44:45 from Psalm 119. But because this is a prayer
44:49 I'm going to ask you to close your eyes while I'm reading
44:52 this and see if this is your prayer.
44:57 "Oh, with my whole heart I have sought You. " David says.
45:02 "Oh let me not wander from Your commandments.
45:05 Give me understanding and I shall keep Your law.
45:08 Indeed I shall observe it with my whole heart.
45:11 I entreated Your favor with my whole heart.
45:15 Be merciful to me according to Your Word.
45:18 I cry out with my whole heart.
45:21 Hear me, O Lord. I will keep Your statutes.
45:24 I cry out to you.
45:26 Save me and I will keep Your testimonies. "
45:30 Amen! Amen!
45:34 When was the last time you cried out to God with your
45:38 whole heart? You know, something that we see
45:43 is that if we have an undivided heart like David
45:47 what we saw in those scriptures is we will totally depend
45:51 upon God for salvation.
45:53 That's His plan. We'll have a strong desire
45:56 to be in His presence... we will be seeking Him.
45:59 We'll recognize that His Word is the strength of our hope
46:04 and we'll have a strong reliance on His promises.
46:08 And we will understand that keeping His Word
46:12 puts a protective barrier around us.
46:15 Did you notice that David's whole-hearted cry
46:20 always included obedience?
46:23 He was wanting God... He had this desire to obey.
46:28 And you know, David knew that God gave us
46:33 His commandments for our protection.
46:37 I want you to look at this verse: Isaiah 48:18.
46:40 Isaiah 48:18.
46:42 God is lamenting here.
46:44 He's speaking and here's what He says:
47:02 See, God gave us His command- ments as a protective barrier
47:08 so that we would have peace.
47:11 And reverential love will foster a deep commitment
47:15 of obedience that will hold up in times of testing.
47:19 Now, David had failed that test before, had he not?
47:24 when he committed adultery with Bathsheba and then he
47:28 was guilty of murder of Uriah, her husband, the Hittite.
47:33 But after David's death
47:37 we have the most fascinating testimony of God.
47:41 And I want to read that to you.
47:44 This is when King Jeroboam sent his wife in disguise
47:49 to the prophet Ahijah to get word from the old man...
47:54 a word from God through the old prophet.
47:56 Look at I Kings 14:7-8.
48:01 And this is what it says:
48:25 What? This is God speaking!
48:28 David was guilty of murder, guilty of adultery
48:32 and God is saying "He only did what was right
48:36 in My eyes. " Do you know what this scripture proves?
48:39 When David realized his sin
48:42 he was so grieved over his sin he repented.
48:45 He confessed; he repented. And what this tells us
48:49 is that when we sincerely confess and repent
48:54 God forgets what we ask Him to forgive. Hallelujah!
48:58 Hallelujah! So how can we have an undivided heart?
49:02 It begins with Jeremiah 29:11-13.
49:06 Starts with the belief that God has a plan for your life.
49:10 Here's what the Lord says:
49:36 You have to believe what God has to say about you in His Word.
49:42 You've got to lean on God's Word
49:44 and not on your own understanding.
49:46 Hold fast to His promises.
49:49 Now we are helpless to do this
49:54 without the Spirit of God within us.
49:58 And I'm realizing my time is almost up
50:01 so I'm going to skip over a part of this.
50:04 And I want to get you to Romans...
50:09 Well, you don't have to turn there but we'll talk about
50:12 Romans 5:5. See, when God says "Love Me with all your heart,
50:16 soul, mind, and strength" I can't do it.
50:20 Not in my own strength.
50:22 It just makes me want to weep.
50:24 But remember this: that all of God's commandments
50:27 are His promises. So God will empower us.
50:33 He's going to give us a new heart.
50:35 He will empower us to do this.
50:38 And how does He do this?
50:40 Romans 5:5 says that God pours out His love into our hearts
50:46 by the power of the Holy Spirit.
50:50 Wow! Do you realize
50:53 the Holy Spirit is not just the spirit of holiness.
50:57 God is love; the Spirit is God.
51:00 He's the spirit of love, so when God pours His love
51:04 into your hearts He will enable you
51:07 when you have the Holy Spirit in your heart to love Him with all
51:10 of your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
51:12 He will empower you to be able to love others
51:16 as yourself. Now let's look - skip several graphics -
51:21 but we'll go to graphic #25 and look at
51:24 I Thessalonians chapter 3 verses 12 and 13.
51:31 Because when this love is in your heart guess what?
51:34 As you grow in God's divine love you grow in holiness.
51:39 I Thessalonians 3:12-13. Paul writes:
52:09 So as you grow in love you become more like God.
52:13 God IS love,
52:15 and you become more separated from sin... more holy.
52:20 So let's wrap this up and put a neat little bow on it.
52:24 God delights in loving us
52:28 and He wants love and service of our whole heart.
52:34 You know, God says... In Ecclesiastes 3:11
52:38 Solomon writes... Ecclesiastes 3:11:
52:55 The Bible clearly teaches that man is mortal.
52:58 But we've got immortality... this desire for immortality,
53:04 this desire for unending love.
53:06 Blaise Pascal... have you heard of Pascal?
53:09 He's a famous mathematician, physicist, philosopher.
53:13 And he said that men... all men are seeking happiness.
53:19 They try in vain to fill that emptiness in their heart
53:24 with things of this world.
53:26 And now let me quote him.
53:27 He says: "But all these are inadequate
53:32 because the infinite abyss,
53:35 the eternity that is in your heart,
53:37 that God-shaped hole that is in your heart... "
53:40 the infinite abyss, he calls it...
53:42 "can only be filled by an infinite and a beautiful God. "
53:49 Only by God Himself.
53:52 So if you're feeling desperate you are desperate for God.
53:57 He longs for you with all of His heart.
54:00 And many of us started with whole-hearted love
54:05 but what happened is just what happened to the church
54:10 of Ephesus. Jesus says in Revelation 2:4-5
54:30 If you've forgotten your first love, don't spend time
54:34 feeling guilty and under condemnation.
54:37 Don't let that hold you back. You're wasting valuable time.
54:41 What we need is soul-searching repentance.
54:44 Just go to God; trust Him that He'll give you a new heart.
54:48 Trust Him that He will forgive you.
54:50 He is wanting to love you with all of His heart.
54:56 You know, the more that we actually acknowledge
55:01 and understand our sins the greater we will love God.
55:04 Did you know that? Let me read from Luke 7:47.
55:08 Let me set this up.
55:10 Mary was a disciple of God... of Christ...
55:13 and she was a sinner. She was what we would call a bad sinner
55:19 before she met Him.
55:21 But when she came to Jesus she absolutely
55:26 was turned around. Her life was turned around.
55:29 So right at the end - the week before He died -
55:32 she came to Him. He was reclining at a table
55:35 in a Pharisee's house, and she washed His feet
55:39 with her tears, she dried them with her hair.
55:42 She anointed His feet with oil.
55:45 And look what He says in Luke 7:47.
56:00 When we recognize the depth of our sin
56:03 and remember that we'll recognize His love.
56:06 Jesus said in Revelation 3:20
56:22 He desires to come into our hearts
56:25 and have the closest communion.
56:28 How long have we left Him on the outside?
56:32 Is Jesus standing on the outside of your heart knocking?
56:37 Let Him in today.
56:41 He will come in and change your heart.
56:44 And if you don't love Him with all of your heart,
56:48 soul, mind, and strength, faith it until you make it.
56:52 Not fake it... not F-A-K-E
56:54 but faith it... F-A-I-T-H.
56:57 Speak and say: "Oh, Lord, I love You with all of my heart. "
57:01 Because He will bring it into being.
57:04 But I want to leave you with this scripture.
57:07 Zephaniah 3:14 and 17.
57:09 When we love God and recognize His love, says:
57:28 Hallelujah!


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Revised 2018-01-16