What is the greatest commandment? Do you know it? And the second commandment? What is the second greatest commandment? If you know the answer to those questions, it's because of what Jesus said. And I want to invite everybody to open your Bible with me to Mark chapter 12, verse 28, and we're going to look at one of the most famous things that has ever been said. Jesus said it in the temple on the last week of his life. And hopefully you're awake here on Mother's Day 2026. What is the greatest commandment, everybody? Oh, you could do much better than that, you guys. Are we giving this our whole heart here today, foreshadowing, that's foreshadowing right there. Now, the problem with this sermon that you're about to hear is you think you already know what you're about to hear, when even if you do know what you're about to hear, you need to hear what you're about to hear. It's amazing how when you study the Bible, some of the most profound, awe-inspiring things become cliche that everybody's familiar with, oh, yeah, we love God. We love people. I mean, I've even seen church slogans that are like, Love God, love People. Have fun like, yeah, we got that down. Really? We got that down. I want you to hear what Jesus says, and I want you to look at it afresh. And out of respect for God's Word, I invite everybody to stand for the public reading of Scripture, and I'm going to read Mark 12:28-34. Please follow along with me and hear the words of the Lord Jesus.
And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him. And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions.
That's the reading of God's Word. Please go ahead and grab your seat. And I'd love for you to open up your bulletin. There's a handout in there with those verses on it, where you could take some notes. And the way I want to go through this with you today, it's like we were witnesses in the temple, and we just heard that for the first time. Because Jesus has been holding court here in the temple in Mark 12, even going back to the end of Mark 11, they've been questioning his authority. They've been trying to trap him with these insincere questions. They're not trying to find out the answers. They're just trying to get Jesus in trouble with the crowd. They want the popularity of the people to turn away from Jesus and back to them as the religious leaders in the Sanhedrin of the Jews. And so, they've come. The Pharisees have tested him. The Sadducees have questioned him. And then this one scribe, presumably he's one of the Jewish Sanhedrin, the 70 of them. This is a man who studies the writings of the Hebrew Scriptures. That's what a scribe is. When he hears Jesus giving these answers, the wisdom, he kind of goes off script. It would seem like, okay, so we had a huddle, and we had a plan, and they were going to stump him with this, and these guys, they were going to get him with that. But Jesus, his answers are just blowing them away. And so, he's coming now, and he's like, hey, can I ask you a question? And we finally get to our first sincere question with Jesus in the temple. Out of all the commandments, and see, in the mind of the Pharisees, there were 613 different commandments that they had labeled and quantified. And I'm sure this was a common question in the day, like, hey, what do you think the greatest command is? And this rabbi, he would have his take on the greatest command. And this Rabbi over here, he would say it like this. And this rabbi, he went on so and so's podcast, and he said it like this. So, there would have been a lot of thought about, hey, out of all the laws that we study, what... Yes. Now, do you notice, though, he didn't say the greatest one here in the Gospel of Mark? Can everybody look where it says most important there in verse 28, which commandment is most important of all? Jesus answered the most important is. Can you even, above “most important,” write “first”? Because in the Greek, that's really what it is. It's this word, Protos. What's first above all.
Now you may not be a scribe, and commandments may not be your love language, right? I mean, when you think of the Law of Moses, it's most famous for its 10 Commandments. So as a scribe, he's like, what's the first commandment out of all the commandments? That's his question. And by first, he doesn't mean first in order of position. He means first in priority, first in preeminence. What is the command of all commands? Now, if we were asking the question, I don't think we would use the exact question. We would say, like, what's the most important thing in my life? What's my purpose? What should be the first priority that I would have? That's really what the question is. And so, Jesus answers the question. He follows up with the second thing that's important. And then the man gives an answer back to Jesus. And it's so powerful, what Jesus says and how this man responds is such a profound moment there in the temple that after that, all the haters are quiet. Nobody dares to question Jesus like Jesus, it's like he just answered the common question like the GOAT debate that they were having at their time, which commandment is the greatest of all time, right? Jesus answers that question in such a profound way that it answers questions period. Nobody else wants to challenge Jesus after this. So, this is not cliche. This is not just a couple of things to take on your priority list on life. What Jesus says here it was paradigm shifting for the religious people in the temple, and it needs to change the way that you think as well.
So, I want to actually start with what Jesus says in verse 34, our last verse. Jesus answered this guy when he saw that he answered wisely. Jesus says to him, you are not far from the what everybody? The kingdom, which has been a major theme in the Gospel of Mark. So next to kingdom, there go back and write chapter 1, verse 15, when Jesus came teaching, he came teaching about the kingdom, and he said, “The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.” The reason that you should turn your life around, the reason that you should trust in the good news of God, is because the Kingdom is coming. The Kingdom is drawing near, and Jesus, he's taught us a lot about the kingdom, how to enter the kingdom. In chapter 9, verse 47 he said, “If your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into.” You can't continue in your sins and enter the kingdom. Cut off your sins. Tear it out. Throw it from you. Get rid of it because you want to enter the kingdom.
How about chapter 10, verse 15, where he said, “Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child, shall not enter it.” You have to come into the kingdom with humility, understanding your dependence on God. You have to come in with faith, trusting in the Lord to save you. Later on, in chapter 10, verses 23 to 26 Jesus said, how hard, or even how impossible it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. And then remember the question was, who can even be saved? So, to say to this man that he's not far from the kingdom is to, on the one hand, compliment him that he has a sincere question and he's learning to think the right way. He has some right answers. It's on the second way to say that he's still not entering that kingdom yet. So, it's both an acknowledgement that this scribe, he's coming with a sincere heart, but something still needs to happen in his heart to get to this real love that Jesus is saying should come first.
And so, we've got some points there on your handout. Point number one, let's get it down like this; “Love is more than knowing the right answers.” Love is more than knowing the right answers. Just the fact that you can tell me what the greatest commandment is does not mean that you really have love in your heart. This man, he affirmed Jesus's answer to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves. He said, yeah, he's talked about it in a real way. But just because you know what is right does not mean that you have love in your heart. In fact, look at verse 33, look at what this man, he says. He affirms the answer to love him with all your heart, understanding, with all the strength to love one's neighbor as oneself. And then notice underline this at the end of verse 33 because this is what this scribe adds to what Jesus said. He said it's much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. Okay, so only the gospel of Mark has this little part at the end of the story where you get the man's feedback. The scribes feedback on what Jesus said. And he said, yeah, that kind of love you're talking about. That's more than all the offerings and all the sacrifices. And where is the scribe saying this? He's saying it in the temple, where every morning there are offerings, every evening there are sacrifices. This is the Feast of the Passover. There's going to be all kinds of offerings and sacrifices going on. And he's saying, yeah, more than all those religious activities, more than all those motions that we do, God wants our love. God wants our heart. What he's referring to here is maybe some of the Scriptures that he studied, and there are many of them that refer to offerings and sacrifices.
Let's just put down 1 Samuel 15:22, where Samuel said, “Has the Lord” or Yahweh, as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord. See, this is the problem with religious people, and this is why people often think that we are hypocrites. Is what they think it is, is you do something wrong, then you just go say you're sorry, and then you just go keep doing the same wrong things. But you think, because you keep saying you're sorry, you're somehow better than other people, and the way that they used to do this was with the sacrifices. You sin. Well, you go, lay your hand on an animal. The animal dies in your place, and then you think your sins are atoned for. And then you go and just keep doing the same sins. That's not what God's looking for. God's not looking for the sacrifices or these, I'm sorrys. God's looking for a change in your heart where you actually obey him and move in a new direction. And so, this guy, this scribe, he's like, yeah, the love that you're talking about. That's better than just going through the religious motions.
Let's get that down for number two: “Love is more than going through religious motions.” How many people think, well, I'll just pray a couple Our Fathers or Hail Marys, and that'll take care of my sin. How many people they feel bad when they sin? Oh, God, I'm so sorry. And then they just keep living the same way. See, he understands, yeah, it's not about just doing the sacrifices. No, it's not about going through the religious motions that supposedly make it okay. Let's put 1 Samuel 15:22 back up here on the screen, and you can see it says, “Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to listen to” who? “God is, and what he says is better than the fat of rams.” God is looking not for what you do on the outside, but God is looking for a change on the inside of your life. How many people have said to me over the last decade of being here in Huntington Beach, will I go to church? Will I read the Bible? Will I serve the kids? Will I give this amount of money? Is that what God wants from you primarily? Is that the greatest thing, the first thing that God is looking for in your life, if you think that God is satisfied just by offerings and sacrifices when he doesn't have your heart, see you got to think again. And that's what this guy is agreeing with Jesus about, and that's why Jesus says, “You're not far from the kingdom.” You're starting to get it. You're starting to see that real love is more than right answers and religious motions. You can't say you love God because you go to church on a Sunday. I mean, you may go to church on Sunday out of a heart of love for God, but just doing something externally does not prove what's really going on on the inside. And there were many people who did offerings and sacrifices, but their heart was not right with God, and so even the scribe, he's seeing some things here, and Jesus is like, you're not far.
But now let's get to what Jesus actually said. And he said in verse 31 that there's a second first commandment. There's a first. First, and then there's a second of priority and preeminence. And it's this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And what Jesus is quoting there is Leviticus 19:17-18. And so out of respect for the quote of Jesus, I want everybody to grab your Bible and turn to the Book of Leviticus. Can we get a round of applause for Leviticus that might be hard to do. Wow. That's impressive. Some of you can turn and applaud at the same time. I am so tired of Christians slandering the Book of Leviticus and acting like what a boring book. And why do I have to read it and all the sacrifices. Leviticus is the original book of love. Next time you hear somebody mention the Book of Leviticus, which unfortunately, may not ever happen, but next time you hear somebody mention the Book of Leviticus, you should just say, oh, you mean the Book of Love. Right? In the Book of Leviticus, there's a lot about burnt offerings and sacrifices. There's a lot about priests interceding for the people at the tabernacle. There's even the Day of Atonement, which is the day that the high priest goes into the Holy of Holies and offers a sacrifice for the sins of the entire nation of Israel. But then, after we get through all of how is your sin going to get atoned for, we get to some commands of God is holy. And if you're going to be his people, you should be holy as he is holy. And in the midst of all these commands of how God wants his people to live, in Leviticus 19, it says this in verse 18. And notice there towards the end of the verse it says, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord,” or I am Yahweh. Now that's the part that Jesus quotes. So, we know that part you've probably heard that you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Let's get the full context, or at least a little more of the context. Go back to verse 17, “You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him, You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am Yahweh.”
Now notice, if we go back and read the original passage, which I would always encourage you to do, one thing we've learned is when Jesus is answering questions, he's always quoting previous scriptures, and we should go make ourselves familiar with the Scriptures that Jesus is quoting. And you can see when you actually read this passage, it's a con. It's a contrast. There are two options, one is you could hate, or one is you could love. And here it's talking about your brothers, your neighbors, your fellow Israelites. Okay, so let's just talk for a second about your neighbors. Can we honest here at church this morning? Does everybody here have neighbors? Do you have people who live near you next to you? Do they ever give you a reason to hate them? Am I speaking to anyone right now? Your neighbor has never done anything that has bothered you. Are you telling me that? Because if so, you have amazing neighbors. Never move. You know what I mean? Because if you move, you'll get neighbors like the rest of us have, right? And they do things, and you just think to yourself, sometimes you even talk to members of your own family, I wonder why they do this, which would be a nice way to say it, right?
I remember when I used to live in South Orange County. That's kind of where I grew up. That's where Compass Bible Church is, before they sent us up here to North Orange County. South Orange County has kind of been built more recently than North Orange County. So, they figured it out down there, you just drive into your garage. You never interact with your neighbors. Then I moved to Huntington Beach. And have you noticed that the original building plan here in Huntington Beach was very short walls between houses and houses very close together. If you drive around the neighborhoods of Huntington Beach, you will notice that over the years, many people have added more layers of concrete on the top of their walls to get their walls higher. Am I speaking to anybody right now? Because when I moved to Huntington Beach, I all of a sudden found myself in the midst of five different houses where they knew everything I was doing in my backyard, and I knew everything they were doing in their backyard, and it was all very open, all very honest, although none of us had ever really met each other or agreed to this. But I began to experience the Huntington Beach breeze. Have you ever experienced this? I'm not talking about the ocean breeze. That's pleasant, that's nice. The air moves, feels gentle. I'm talking about what is that smell in the air? Hey, kid, one of my kids, what are you smelling right now? What? I'm pretty sure you can you get the Huntington Beach breeze in Garden Grove. I'm pretty sure you can smell it in Stanton. Oh, yeah, I see what the neighbors out there are doing in their backyard. And there it is. Now, when you smell the Huntington Beach breeze, when it comes wafting through your nostrils. Do you ever maybe have a disparaging thought about your neighbor? Do you ever think, ah, my neighbor, do you ever call for righteous indignation to come down upon your neighbor? Do you see what I'm saying? It's not neutral. We act like, oh, this is how we act, well, love is kind of one extreme, and hate is kind of another extreme. I'm somewhere in between. That's not what Leviticus 19:17-18 said. It said there's going to be a reason at some point that you would want to hate your neighbor in your heart. Do you do that? Do you actually get all the way to sin in response to your neighbor? Do you think like, well, because they don't respect the local noise ordinances, it's okay if I do and take revenge on your neighbor? I mean, I wonder how many of us, even here at church on a Mother's Day weekend, we have a grudge against our neighbor right now in our heart, and it's saying no to love your neighbor as yourself, to treat your neighbor the way you would want to be treated even if they don't treat you that way. That's what the command is calling for.
See, that what the command teaches you, if you really pay attention, is not this level of extremes that we like to think, where love would be a really good relationship with your neighbor and hate would be a really bad. No. See, the command actually puts it like it's one option or the other option. You're either storing up some kind of bitter feeling of hatred in your heart towards your neighbor, or you're getting past that and you're treating them in a way that God has treated you, a way of love.
So, let's get this down for point number three: “Love is the opposite of the other option, hate.” Love is the opposite of the other option, hate. And we are all not as neutral as we would like to think that we are. There's a danger that you start to feel in your heart, an anger, a frustration toward your neighbor, and watch out, because that could become sin, that could become bearing a grudge or revenge. Instead, you got to love your neighbor as you would love yourself. Can everybody turn with me into 1 John 2, 7 to 11. 1 John 2:7-11. John, kind of takes this from Leviticus, and he brings it to us in the church today. John is the disciple whom Jesus loved. John thought it was very important that we, as the people of Jesus, would be known for our love for one another. In fact, John, when he wrote his gospel in John 13, he tells a whole story about the last meal that he had with Jesus, where Jesus and for Judas the betrayer, for Peter, who was going to deny him, for all the disciples who were going to abandon him on the most important night of Jesus' life. What did Jesus do for all of his disciples on the night before he died? He washed their feet, and that became an example of how you love one another. And so, John, he said, hey, it's an old commandment to love your neighbor as yourself. It's a new commandment because now we've seen Jesus do it, and now we should love one another in the same way Jesus has loved us. So, John thought that proof that somebody really knows God is when they can love other people, and he is more bringing it to the context of your brothers and your sisters in Christ, your fellow believers in the church. Look at what he says in 1 John 2, verse 7, “Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment.” That means, Leviticus 19 “that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard,” which would have been a way they would have referred to the law of Moses. At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.”
Notice how John speaks. John uses antithesis. You are either this or you are that you are either in the light with God, or you are still in the darkness and you don't even know how dark it really is. And what does John use to help you determine if you're in the light or if you're in the darkness? Well, love is in the light and hate is in the darkness, and do not be deceived. There is no middle ground. Everybody is either light or darkness. There's no neutral in between. So, you might think, well, I don't love people, but I may not love my neighbors, but I don't hate them either. Well, let's just hear what the Scriptures say. The Scripture’s putting it out there like those are the two options, because love implies action. Love implies treating people a certain way. And I think a lot of us, if we just withdraw from our neighbors, if we're just bothered by our neighbors, if we're just, oh, these other people at church. I don't know about some of these people, and we don't really actively move towards them. We just kind of keep to ourselves away from them. How can you describe moving away from people as love? Is it possible that in your heart, you are already starting to hate? See, that's what it's getting to, it's getting to inside of you. What is going on with other people? Are you seeing the way Jesus loved you and moving towards loving them? Or are you, perhaps responding to how they're treating you? See, all of us, we're either going to respond to other people based on how they treat us, or we're going to respond to other people based on how Jesus treated us. Which one are you doing? Is it love or is it hate? Now that's the second.
Okay, go back to Mark 12, and we've tried to build our way up to the firs, hey, this is the first commandment. It's translated here most important because it's first in priority, first in preeminence. Hey, if there's one thing that you need to do in your life, it's to love God. And it gives it here, Jesus says it, “Love God with all your heart,” if you can see it there in verse 29, the most important. Now notice, before he even gets to what we think of as the greatest commandment here in Mark, it includes Deuteronomy 64 before it gets to Deuteronomy 65. Only Mark says this, where Jesus answered the first is, Hear O Israel, the LORD our God. The LORD is one, and you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart.” Now, along with him saying, first, that's very important for you to understand how it's written here in Mark. Another thing that is very important, I think, is the word “all,” okay? Notice how it says all heart, soul, mind, and strength. But then later on, the man, he says heart, understanding, and strength. And when we turn back to Deuteronomy, where it's originally quoted, it says it a little bit differently there. So, I don't think the focus is on the heart, the mind, the soul, the strength. I think the focus is on the all, all, all. And when we hear “all,” I think a big way that we think about this command is we think like 100% and so, yeah, how much a percent we might give ourselves a grade? What kind of percentage am I loving God with? How would I get up all the way to 100? I think a better way to translate it might actually be love God with your whole heart. Could you write that down, if you're taking notes, put “whole” next to “all,” okay? And then when you write that down, turn with me, let's go back and study this in the original context of the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 6, verses 4 and 5. This is the famous Shema. This is where it calls to hear the Shema.
So, if you've never heard this before, it's very important you understand that Deuteronomy means second telling of the law. The first telling of the law is in Exodus, chapter 20, the 10 Commandments in the following chapters. Well, Deuteronomy is now the second telling of the law and Deuteronomy 5, we go over the 10 Commandments again, but then we have more to say. In fact, Deuteronomy 6, coming after the review of the 10 Commandments, really became the most famous part of Deuteronomy, this idea that you need to hear calling the whole nation of Israel. You got to hear this. And go back to chapter 6, verse 3. Notice how that verse begins. “Hear, therefore, oh, Israel.” So really, when we get here in Deuteronomy 6:4, it's a double here, back to back. Now we said here at the beginning of chapter 5, verse 1, when Moses started speaking to all of Israel, we said, “Hear” or listen. In chapter 4, verse 1, when he was talking to Israel, so he's been calling Israel, you’ve got to hear this. You’ve got to listen to this. This is so important. But now he says, “Hear.” And then he says again, “Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the Lord is…” And what does he say about God there, everybody? He is one. Now, Mark, he doesn't just say, love God with all your heart. He connects verse 4 to the great command to love God with all your heart. So, in Mark's mind, quoting Jesus, and in Jesus' mind, there's a connection. Verse 4 says something about YHWH, our God, and then verse 5 is the response to love God with all your heart. So, what does verse 4 mean? Why does all of Israel need to hear, not just that YHWH is our God, but YHWH is one.
Now there's some things I've heard about this throughout the years of being a Christian. One is you need to understand that most nations in the world at this time are polytheistic. So, you might want to write that down if you're taking notes. Polytheism means that you worship many gods, “poly,” “many” theism God, right? So many gods. And so at this time on planet Earth, as these nations are breaking out all over the world, most of the nations don't just have a god they worship. They have multiple gods they worship. People knew they needed help. People knew somebody else was making those crops grow, and someone else was blessing them with the lives of their animals. They knew that life came from a source greater than themselves, and so they would make up all these different gods that were doing different things to help them. And this nation over here, they had these gods. And this nation over here, they would make idols of these gods, graven images of these gods, and they would have different gods that would require different things from them to worship them, often temples for their gods. That's how nations were. Like atheism, where you don't believe in God, now that's not how the world was back then. Everybody believed in gods, plural, like multiple gods. And so, Israel is distinct Israel, they are monotheistic, or monotheism, ”mono,” meaning “one”; they had one God.
So, I've heard this taught like, oh, there's a contrast between all the other nations that have multiple gods and Israel that has only one God. And that's definitely true in the context. Another thing maybe that you might think when you hear YHWH is our God. YHWH is one. You might think of the Trinity. That might be the first thing that would come to your mind as a Christian in the church. Oh yeah, I remember when Jesus said, I and the Father are one. In fact, we're supposed to make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, one name, yet three persons. So yeah, our God is amazing. Our God has a relationship among himself. Our God, he's hard for us to even comprehend, because there's a father and a son and the spirit, and yet they are all one.
And so maybe that's what comes to your mind when you read this verse. But I read this way that you could translate this verse that I found to be really helpful. It's by this guy named Dr. Abner Chow, and he translated this verse, “YHWH, our God is one.” YHWH, could you write that down if you're taking notes? YHWH, our God, there's one YHWH, as in, there's one God as in, maybe it's not just a contrast with the polytheism, and maybe it's not just about the Trinity. Maybe the whole point of YHWH is our God, and there's only one God. There's no one else like him. There's no one else besides him. What that is calling for in that verse is there's one and so your relationship with the One God needs to be an exclusive relationship. You're not loving God and somebody else. There's only one God, so you're not seeing other people. You're not kind of casual with him and also open to other things. No, there's one who's YHWH, therefore there's only one that you should love with your whole heart. You give all that you are to your one God. Why would you give your heart to anyone else when there's only one YHWH, there's nobody else like him. He's unique. He is singular, and because he is singular, he should be the focus of your whole being. Your whole self should respond exclusively to God. See, what I think Jesus is saying. And if you pay attention in our text, the scribe even says you've said, “Truly, there is one God. There is no one besides him.” So that's the way the scribe heard it, yeah, he's our only option. He's our only one.
But do you see how we have changed, that we've gone to where it's like, love God, love people, have fun. We've made like, yeah, God's the top. But there are other things to do as well. Fun being on the list and what the passage originally was actually saying in Deuteronomy is there's only one, and you should be exclusive to him. It wasn't to make a list of priorities. It was to establish the priority. This is first at the end of your life, the one thing that will matter is, did you give your whole heart and love to God? That will define you. He made you. He formed you when you were in your mother's womb. And you will meet him. You will stand before him, you will give an account for what you did with the life that he gave you, and will he think that you gave your heart, who you really are on the inside, that you gave your heart back to him? That's what will matter about life. That's why this is first. You have to respond to the one.
Let's get that down for number four: “Love is your response to ‘The One’”. That's why this comes first, because there's only one Yahweh. There's only one God. And when you wake up in the morning, when you have a free minute in the middle of the day, when you're calling it a day in the evening, and you're ready to go to sleep, there's one thing that rises above all other things. It's to love God with your whole being, with your whole who you really are on the inside. Go with me to 1 John, chapter 4. Again, the disciple whom Jesus loved talks about this in a very helpful way. 1 John, chapter 4, verse 16. I need everybody to turn there with me. Loving God with all our heart is a response to the fact that he is the one, and John here is going to explain what God has done for us here in 1 John 4:16, he says, “So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” And then he talks about how God has loved us. He's already said it earlier in the chapter, God loved us so much he sent his one and only Son. This is love, right? That he sent Christ, and Christ died for our sins. And so, it says here in verse 17, “By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the Day of Judgment.” I know when I meet God that he's loved me, “because as he is so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because” what everybody” “He first loved us.” Because God loved me first, I now love him first with my whole heart. See, this is a response.
This is if you leave here today and you think I'm going to go try harder to love God, you will have completely missed the point of this sermon. You will be like saying, I'm at some percent, and I got to get up to 100 that's not the point of what Jesus is teaching. The point of what Jesus is teaching is that there's only one God, and that God decided that he wanted to make you, and in your mother's womb, he formed you to be his creation. And God ordained all the days of your life that have led you to this very day. And not only is God the one who made you, but there is something that happened between God and you that should be mind-blowing to you. It should be awe-inspiring. It should be something that never becomes cliche, that God decided that he was going to love you. And why did God decide to love you? You'll hear people at church say things like, well, I'm so glad I'm worthy of God's love. That's not why God loved you, because you're worthy of it. No. God loved you because that's who he is. God is love, and before you were born, in fact, before he even created the heavens and the earth, God, the One God, YHWH, he decided that he wanted to set his love upon you, that he wanted to choose you to be one of his people, that he wanted to adopt you so that he would be your father and you would be one of his kids. And how would he prove this love to you? How would he seal you in his love? Well, God the Father, he sent his one and only Son that he had a perfect fellowship with for all of eternity, and he sent his Beloved Son, and that son paid for your sin. He died in your place. God the Father, put the judgment that you deserve for your sin on his Son, Jesus. Why would God the Father do that to his Son? Because he decided to love you, to pay for all of your sin and death and judgment on his own son so that he could welcome you into his family.
He loved you first, and this is all while you're sinning against him for us. This is before we're even born. And when we're born, what does God know about every single one of us? He knows our hearts. And according to Jesus, is teaching in Mark, chapter 7, what do we naturally have in our hearts? What comes out of our mouths? What are the actions that come out in our lives. We have evil in our hearts. We do things against God. We don't naturally want to give our whole heart to God first. No, naturally, we want to live this life for ourselves. We want to get what we want. We want to follow our own feelings, emotions, and desires, and God knows that we are corrupt like that, and yet he still chose to set his love upon us, to have his good hand upon us our entire lives, to protect us from evil, to save us from danger, and to bring us to a place where we could hear this good news that God loves the world so much, he sent his one and only Son, Jesus. God has loved you, and he proved it with the blood of his Son. And the response now is we love him because he first loved us. And what kind of a love should we give to God based on how he's loved us? We should give him our whole heart. We should love him as if it's our first priority. That's what it's saying here, God, there's one God who loved you, who made you. Give your whole heart to him. Now this is not something you can just naturally try to do.
Let's go back to Deuteronomy, and let's keep reading a little bit more here in Deuteronomy. Everybody, go back and let's keep getting back into the original context of this first commandment, where we need to give our whole heart to God. So if you can go back to Deuteronomy, chapter 6, if you've ever read through the book of Deuteronomy before, a major theme is not just all these commandments, but that God cares about your heart and how you're responding to him. It'll use words like fearing him, loving him, serving him, walking in his ways. But the key is, is all of that coming out of your heart? Look at how it even says it in verse 5 of Deuteronomy 6. Notice it says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” So, notice how Jesus, he added “mind” to that, just to make it clear. But that kind of helps us see it's not necessarily about the list of all the “alls” here. The point of saying “heart and soul and might” is that you would get the impression this is your whole self being given to love God. But then look at what it says in verse 5, sorry, verse 6, the verse after verse 5, it says “These words that I command you today shall be on your” what, everybody” Your “heart.” See, that's important here. You realize there's one God. You hear that you should love God. Well, it's not about knowing the right answers, and it's not about doing the religious motions there, and it's not like trying to be closer to love than hate. No, the response then is, you really get this on your own heart. What matters is what's happening in you. And, yes, that will affect your actions and your words.
But what's going on inside of you? Does the love that God has for you and the love that you should have for God, does that get on your heart? Go over to chapter 10, chapter 10, verse 12, and there are so many verses I could take you all throughout Deuteronomy that emphasize the importance of your heart, your inner person, who you are on the inside. But Deuteronomy 10:12, says, “And now Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you but to fear Yahweh your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve Yahweh, your God with all your” what, everybody? Your “heart, with all your” what? Your “soul.” So, do you see here? It's an all-in response. It's your whole-self response. That's what God wants. That's what God requires. God doesn't want you to just go to church on Sundays or read the Bible or help this person over here. God wants your whole heart. And then look at what it goes on to say here, verse 13, “and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I'm commanding to you today for your good.” The reason God gives these commandments is for human flourishing, for the best possible experience based on how he created us. The reason God gives commands is because he knows, in his wisdom, if you do what he says, you will be blessed. And if you don't do what he says, there will be consequences of sin in your life. He's the maker. He designed it. He knows how it works. So do it like this, and that will be best. It's for your good. “Behold, to the Lord, your God, belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. Yet the LORD set his heart,” Yahweh set his heart “and love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them.” You, God chose you above all peoples, as you are this day. Now look at what it says. Verse 16, “Circumcise, therefore, the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn.” Something needs to happen in your heart. Now for us, the word circumcised might be an awkward word to talk about on Mother's Day 2026. For the Jews, oh, that made sense. That's like the symbol of the covenant. That's like, you're one of the Jews. Oh, yeah. So yeah, it's not about this external circumcision. It's about something happening inside of you that changes your response to God.
Go to chapter 30, and you'll see it again in chapter 30 verse 6. The theme of the heart continues throughout Deuteronomy, and I think it really climaxes here in chapter 30, verse 6, where it says “The Lord Yahweh, your God, he will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring,” your children, “so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, that you may what everybody? So, you could really live loving God with all your heart is real living. And so, God has to do something to your heart. God has to do something to the heart of your children. You don't just naturally come ready as a human being to give your life and love to God. No, you come naturally as a human being, desiring for self, mine, my own, my precious. And so, God needs to do, there's some assembly required in the human heart. God has to do something in your heart.
So, under point number four, there are two dashes, and the first one is: “You need a new heart.” You need this circumcision of the heart, this change in your heart. If something hasn't happened in your heart, you will not be able to love God with your whole heart. So, you need to think about how God loves you. You need to know how God sent his Son Jesus to pay for your sin, you need to start with his love first. And as you believe in the gospel of Jesus, you receive a new heart. This theme of Deuteronomy and the Law of Moses gets picked up by the prophets, most famously in Ezekiel 36:26. God promises in a New Covenant “I will give you a new heart and a new spirit. I will put within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” We need a surgery to take place. Yes, we need some kind of like comparing it to a medical procedure. We're out with the old heart, and here's a new heart. And if you haven't ever gotten a new heart from God, you will not keep the first and most important commandment, because you need a new heart to love God with your whole heart. And so, this is very important. Okay? We need to understand the difference between a natural love and a spiritual love. Mother's Day is a great day for us to understand this. Moms naturally love their children. In fact, the things that moms in this room have done for their kids is above and beyond the call of duty in many cases. In fact, when you see and unfortunately, we do see this in our culture, when you see a mom not loving her kids, you're always like, oh, that doesn't seem right. That doesn't seem normal for a mom to not care about her child like that. No, you expect this natural, familial kind of love. It's built into the heart of a mother. Don't get between the mother bear and her kids. The Mother bear, she's going to have a problem, and we've seen some other bears here. Oh, don't get between a mom and her kids. She's going to protect those children. She loves them. So, you come naturally ready as a mom to care for your kids, but you don't come like that with God. You're not already assembled like that. No, your heart naturally puts yourself first, not God first. And so, you have to come to God and say, hey, I'm not even able to love you. I'm not even capable of really putting you or other people as more important than myself, and so I need you to love me first. I need you to do your work in my heart.
You know, last night, we were preaching the same message here at the service, and one of our tech team, Israel. He's on the camera right back there. Can we give a round of applause for the tech team, everybody? Israel's here last night. I'm looking right at his camera right now. Israel was here last night. He is a cardiovascular technologist. These are the kind of people who do tech at this church, right? And so, he's on call last night; he gets the call. He bounces out of here to Long Beach Memorial Hospital, and he has a patient, and we have a picture of their heart, thanks to technology, notice how there's nothing going on there. There is supposed to be an artery right there. And so, they get in and they do some work. Look at this is the before. There's the after, everybody. Can you see the difference that they made now where the blood is flowing there in that heart? Let's go back to the first picture. Okay. This is some of us here today. We need something to happen in your heart. If you leave here today and say, I'm going to try harder this week, nothing will change. You cannot change yourself from the inside. You cannot make yourself new. You have to go back to the one who made you, to the one who loves you, and you have to say to him, I am incapable of this kind of love with my whole heart, I will choose myself. I will end up putting myself first, over my neighbors and even over you, God. Will you please save me? Will you please do this work of regeneration where you make me new, you wash my old life away, you take out my heart of stone. You put in a heart of flesh. You give me your spirit, your power, your ability, God, I see your love for me, and I want to love you, but I need a new heart, and I'm sure there are some moms who have been praying for their kids to have a heart like this. Today could be the day for you to say to your maker, thank you for giving me life, but I need something new in my heart now.
I'm also talking to many of my brothers and sisters in Christ who have been adopted by our Father, and God has given you a new heart. Turn with me to Psalm 86 and here's a prayer I want everybody to pray who has a new heart, if you're like, no, God has already saved me, and I want to love God first. I want to give God my whole heart. There's no one else besides him. Well, Psalm 86 has a great way for you to express that in prayer, something for you to meditate on. Because when I talk to a lot of people at our church and I say, how are you doing? I don't often hear I'm loving God with all my heart. I'm putting God first. I'm giving God everything I've got, what I often hear is how busy we are, how distracted we are, how divided we are, how we are overwhelmed, juggling so many things. Brothers and sisters, this ought not to be the case for Christian people. We should not be okay with perpetual I'm all over the place when there is one thing that should be first above all things. And so, look what it says here in Psalm 86. Start in verse 8. This is like similar to Deuteronomy 64, “There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours. Who compares to God?” Answer, no one, nothing. So why would I let my heart be divided between the one God and other things and other people when there's no one like him. All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name, for you are great and you do wondrous things. You alone are God. So, Teach me your way. O Yahweh, that I may walk in your truth. Unite my heart to fear your name.” Another way it's translated, “Give me an undivided heart.”
Let's get that down for our second dash: “He commands your whole heart.” See, one of the most powerful phrases, but then also one that becomes the most cliche, is when you say to someone, I love you. And I remember the first time I said I love you to the young lady who would become my wife. And that was such a big deal that I said that because I understood a little bit about the commitment that came along with those words. But we can now say I love you to somebody quick, fast, moving on. It's kind of like a goodbye. It's kind of like a see-you-later, and over time, if we're not careful, I love you doesn't mean what it should mean. Can you say I love you, Lord, today? Can you say I love you? Lord, with my whole heart, I love you. Lord, you're the first in my life. There's no one else that compares with you. There's nothing that comes close to you. I love you. Can you say it to God? And I guess even a better question for me to ask is not just, can you say it does God hear that from you today, when God looks at your heart, is that what God thinks is that he's first in your life, that all you are is for all for him, that's what we're here to do. That's who we're here to be, not a whole bunch of things. This one thing. And when your life is over, when you live out the number of days that God gave you, what are the people that you know and love going to say about you? He was good at this, or he was funny with that, or he was over. Or are they going to say, hey, one thing I'll say about him is he loved God. Would people know that about you? Would that be the first thing that they would think of when it comes to you? Because I don't know about you. I don't want to be known for a whole bunch of things, but I would like to be known for this, that what Jesus said was most important is actually how I lived my life. And so, can you say, I love you, Lord today, and can you mean it as much as when you ever said it the first time? Can you say, I have an undivided heart? It's united. It's wholly yours. So let me pray for us, and then we'll sing that to the Lord.
Father in heaven. Search our hearts right now, Father. Oh, you teach us your ways, YHWH. Let us walk in your truth. Unite our hearts. God, I pray for those who need a new heart that they would talk to somebody after this service that they would talk to you and ask you to save them, to make them new on the inside. And I pray for all my brothers and sisters at this church. Let us not just know the right answers and let us not try to do many of the right things. Let us not just try to be closer to love than hate, but let us be people who can honestly say, I love you, Lord, you're first in my life, and I give you my whole self. It's yours and yours alone. Yours alone, because you are God and you are God alone, you are one, and I'm here to live for you. Let's sing that to the Lord right now.