Love God Above All

Thank you for joining me. David was called a “man after God’s own heart.” Today, we will search a number of Scriptures to see how that knowledge can help us be more the person the Lord wants us to be. Praying the Lord will speak to you today through His Word. Eric

Some years ago as I was driving in the car by my self, I was singing a chorus that we sang in church. It goes : “I love You Jesus, You are everything to me. I love you Jesus, You’re the One Who set me free. You are my righteousness, my joy, and liberty, I love You Jesus more and more.”

After I had sung the song numerous times, suddenly, the Spirit of the Lord spoke. He asked me, “How much do you love Me?” I was startled by the question and then taken aback when after some consideration, I had to admit, “Not enough.”

Deuteronomy 10:12 (NLT) reveals that the Lord requires the following from His people: to ‘fear’ (reverence or honor) Him; to ‘walk’ or live (following His counsel and statutes) in a way that pleases Him; to ‘love’ (love actively doing what the Lord prefers) Him; and to ‘serve’ (labor or do work for) Him with all of your heart and soul. “Heart’, lebab in the Hebrew indicates the inner man and his comprehending mind and will!

You see, you must choose to make following these requirements a priority in your life. ‘All’ means: whole and completely.

To fear, to walk, to live, and to serve are all active verbs and denote allegiance to God.

Deuteronomy 10:12 describes a picture of one who is a believer who fears the Lord with honor and reverence, walks in all His ways, loves Him, and serves Him wholeheartedly. God created us to be passionate for Him and promises to empower us to live out that passion.

“The longing we have to be wholehearted is satisfied as the Holy Spirit pours God’s love into our hearts to empower us to be abandoned to Jesus.” (Kingdom Dynamics, NSFLB).

When asked by a teacher of the religious law what the most important commandment is, Jesus replied in Mark 12:29 and 30 (NLT), “The most important commandment is this: 'Listen, O Israel! The LORD our God is the one and only LORD. 30 And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.'“ He had quoted Deuteronomy 10:12 then added “with all your mind and all your strength.” ‘Mind’ means the faculty of understanding, feeling, and desiring. ‘Strength’ means: of one’s strength or to the extent of one’s ability. The word used for ‘love’ is agapao and meaning in this verse is: to prefer, to love, for the believer, preferring to “live through Christ” i.e. embracing God’s will (choosing His choices and obeying them through His power. (Helps Word Studies).

In realizing, that the greatest or most important commandment that exists is that of our loving the Lord with all our heart, understanding, soul, and strength is an amazing revelation! Matthew Henry’s Commentary states that “wherever this is the ruling principle in the soul, there is a disposition to every other duty. Loving God with our whole heart, will engage us to everything to which he will be pleased.”

In Psalm 18:1, David used a word for ‘love’ when referring to his love for God that is not found anywhere else in Scripture. He said, “I love you, O Lord, my strength.” The Hebrew word David used for ‘love’ is racham which means: to love deeply and have tender affections. In the Amplified Bible, that verse reads, “I love You [fervently and devotedly], O Lord, my strength.”

Even though David, being human, made some serious mistakes, he sought and loved God with all his heart. Acts 13:22b (ESV), reads, “'I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will.'“ ‘Will’ means that which is willed, designed or desired and in this verse also means, the divine will. In other words, the Lord here was saying, ‘David conforms to my will and purposes.’

Being a ‘man after God’s heart’ means that for David, and throughout his live, he acknowledged God as being Sovereign. For David, it was always more than just one act of obedience. He recognized and acknowledged that God, as Sovereign, is the Potentate, the One with unlimited power, the Supreme permanent authority! It was because of this that David found favor in the sight of God. (Acts 7:46).

We certainly realize that we have a lot in common with David. We are human and make serious mistakes. However, have we, like David, recognized and acknowledged God as Potentate and chosen to love, reverence, obey, and serve Him wholeheartedly?

Living in this world, we have many distractions to take our time and attention away from our relationship and focus on God. It is not necessarily that everything we do is bad. However, we need to always keep in mind that God wants to be first in our lives. If He isn’t, then we need to check our priorities.

If we truly desire to have an intimate love relationship with God, then we have to make an intentional effort to accomplish that.

Matthew 6:33a (ESV), “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,” “Seek’ (zeteo) means: seek for, aim at, and strive after. It cannot be some half-hearted attempt! ‘First’ (protos) means: before anything else is done or first of all, The New Living Translation states it this way, “above all else’. This should be our top priority! We need to guard against allowing the many distractions to preoccupy our thoughts and actions.

We are encouraged through many scriptures to be intentional about our relationship with God. We are to: sincerely seek, search for or seek Him in prayer and worship, to draw near, approach, and to turn our thoughts toward Him. (Hebrews 11:6; Jeremiah 29:13; James 4:8; Psalm 105:4; Psalm 21:4). There are many others. Then, in Proverbs 8:17 we read that He loves all who love Him, and those who search diligently for Him will surely find Him! Hallelujah!

The following is a wonderful verse. It reveals His desire and what our response should be. Psalm 27:8 (NASB20), “[When You said,] "Seek My face," my heart said to You, "I shall seek Your face, LORD."

Do you see it? He expresses His desire when He said, ‘Seek My face.’ Then the response, ‘my heart’ said to You , ‘I shall seek Your face.’ In order to see His face, we must come into His presence. How wonderful it is to know that He made a way for us to be able to do that, by sending His Son to come in the flesh and die for the forgiveness of our sins!

We must be careful to not allow the pleasures and riches of this world become our goal rather than loving God.

When we consider the last days, which I believe we are living in right now, we need to be aware of what state or condition those who choose to not love God ‘above all,’ will be in. 2 Timothy 3:2-5 describes them. They will be: lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure, and they will act religious , but deny its power. Then, in verse 5 we are told to avoid such people. The interesting thing is that verse 1 of this reference instructs that difficult times will come to believers because of the condition of these people in the last days. Have you seen an increase of these actions and attitudes in the world today? I have.

Setting your heart and mind on the things of the world will not give true satisfaction nor last. Heaven and earth are going to pass away. (Matthew 24:35).

Reading the condition of those who have set their heart and mind on the things of the world lets us realize how serious of an issue loving God with our whole heart is.

Our love relationship with God abides forever.

1 John 2:15-17 (NLT) states it very plainly, “Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. 16 For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. 17 And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever..”

If we love God, we will obey Him and also love the Word of God. God’s Word is the best way we can get to know Him. The more we know Him, the more our love for Him will grow.

Looking at Mark 12 and verse 31, we read that the second most important commandment is to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Agapao, ‘love’ the word used to describe our love for God and for our neighbor, means; to love actively, doing what the Lord prefers (by His power and direction). It’s defined by God as a discriminating affection which involves choice and selection. When we love God and our neighbor with agapao, (a verb form of agape, which describes His love for us), we express the essential nature of God.

Love Him first, above all, with your whole heart, soul, mind, and strength!

NLT New Living Translation

NSFLB New Spirit Filled Life Bible

ESV English Standard Version