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Dec 08, 2024

Loving God with all your Heart, Soul, and Strength | Missions Sunday

Loving God with all your Heart, Soul, and Strength | Missions Sunday

Passage: Mark 12:30-34

Speaker: Peter Abungu

Series: Missions Sunday

Category: Sunday Sermons

Keywords: church, faith, jesus, god, sermon, christian, bible, gospel, hope, sermons, holy spirit, christian community, jesus christ, lord, christianity, spiritual growth, bible study, son of god, loving god, missions sunday, study the bible, mission field, bible teaching, living on mission, burnt hickory worship, burnt hickory baptist church live stream, burnt hickory church, burnt hickory sermons, global faith, global love, christioan faith, peter abungu

What does it truly mean to love God with everything you are? Beyond surface-level emotions and routine actions, there's a profound invitation to a love that transforms everything. Join us as we hear from our dear mission partner, Peter Abungu, as he explores the depths of loving God completely—with our heart, soul, and strength. This sermon isn't just a talk—it's a heartfelt exploration of what it means to be fully alive, fully connected, and fully devoted. In a world that often confuses love with temporary feelings or religious routine, we'll dive into the radical understanding that love is a choice. It's about relationship, not just going through the motions. It's about staying connected, not just momentary passion. You'll discover: The transformative power of loving God completely How total devotion changes everything in your life Why your heart determines your spiritual journey The difference between serving with and without love Whether you're wrestling with faith, seeking deeper meaning, or simply curious about spiritual growth, this message offers something profound for everyone. Ready to take the next step in your faith journey? Visit burnthickory.com/next to learn more.

Matt:

Good morning church. We are excited about you being here today. We're also excited about our second week we are focusing on missions and what we as a church can do to live out the great commission. Our challenge this week, for all of us is… what does it look like for us as a family to serve, whether it's here locally, regionally, or across the globe? I want to put one thought in your mind before I welcome a special guest. What would it look like for all of us to give up one break this year, one vacation this year, or one school break this year? And instead of heading to the beach, instead of heading to whatever place that is next on our list… what would it look like for us to serve together, to go ahead and begin to budget, and to stamp a week next year for the glory of God?

I can tell you what it would look like: from this church alone, hundreds of families and hundreds of individuals going to be the light and the love of Jesus across this world. And then next year when we have our missions emphasis Sundays, we would not be able to contain the stories and the amount of people that have given their lives to Jesus as a result.

So this week would you join us in prayer? What could it look like for your family to serve with one of our partners across the globe or here in the US?

With that in mind, I want to bring back a friend of Burnt Hickory for over 12 years. Now, this guy speaking and bringing the word today, has become, in his words, a brother from another mother. He is one of us. He is almost a Burnt Hickory staff person at this point, but we absolutely love the Abungu family. We absolutely love Peter and the ministry that he's doing across the world, and how we've been able to lock arms with him. So would you guys welcome one of my favorite people on this entire planet to bring the word today, Mr. Peter Abungu.

Peter:

Good morning church. In Africa, we like to say, praise the Lord. And when someone says, praise the Lord in Africa, you respond by saying amen in a loud voice. Okay? So if I say, praise the Lord, you respond by saying, amen. Okay, shall we try? Let's do it. Praise the Lord. Wow. That's awesome. 

With me today is my amazing family. I'm not going to talk too much about them today because my kids are in the room and I don't want their head to get too big. But my beautiful wife, Miss Julie, is like fine wine. She gets better by each day. I can't wait for tomorrow. My youngest Abigail, she's 10 on 22nd of October. Also on the 22nd of October, Joy was born, and they're not twins. Joy's 16. And our eldest is Baraka. He's 18. His birthday is the 22nd of November. We missed it by one month. We almost had all the kids’ birthdays on the same day. They would have been cheap birthdays, one cake for all the three kids. It's called good planning.

It's such a blessing to be here this morning. I want to thank this church. I want to thank you particularly for partnering with us over the last 15 years and enabling us to do great things for a big God. Last year because of your faithful, generous giving, we launched a building, which moved us from a 1300 square foot space to 34,000 square footage. And that is not even the best part. The best part is that before we had the building, we would host about four teams to come serve with us on missions. Since we now have the building, this past month, we've hosted eight teams. We have 12 teams signed up to come serve with us next year, including many of you from this church. This past summer, this church sent us 73 students and 18 adults. We ministered in all possible places. We went into plazas, to schools, to the malls, to universities, on the street, churches. And we documented over 3,700 lives surrendered to Jesus.

So let me say this, if you've given, please continue to give. Your resources, what you're giving in this church, are being used to impact the kingdom of God. And if you're praying, go on your knees and stay there longer for us, that greater things can continue to happen. And if you are desiring to come serve with us, please pack your bags. We have a team coming in February to serve with us and many other opportunities in the next couple of months.

I'm excited to be here today to break the bread of life. If you have your Bible, turn with me in the book of Mark, chapter 12. We're going read from verse 28 to 34. In Africa we say, you Americans have the watches, but we Africans have the time. So I'm just going preach until the last person walks out of this building. Then I will stop. The Bible says, one of the scribes approached. And when he heard them debating and saw that Jesus answered them well, he asked him, which command is the most important of all. Jesus answered, the most important is, listen, Israel, the Lord our God. The Lord is one, love the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is, love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other command greater than this. Then the scribes say to him, you are right, teacher. You have correctly said that he's one. And there is no one else except him. And to love him with all your heart, all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself, is far more important than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices. When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, you're not far from the kingdom of God. And no one dared to question him any longer.

So Jesus is being tricked by this group of people who constantly came to him trying to either trick him so that he could contradict the law, or he could get into trouble with the people that were around him. And so Jesus became very wary. But because he could read their motive and the intent of their heart, he was always careful. In most cases, Jesus did not answer them.

Jesus deals with it when they ask him about the greatest commandment. So Jesus then raises those two. And then he says very clearly that you love your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. And then he goes on and says, the second is this, love your neighbor as yourself. It would've been very different if Jesus would've said, love God, love your neighbor, and then love yourself. But instead of saying that, he said, love your neighbor as yourself. And that's a very high standard Jesus has set for us if you think about it. What does that really mean for us?

This morning, I took a long shower at Matt's house. I'm sure his power bill is going to go up. Then after the shower, I spent time using all manner of things to smell nice. And then I ironed my shirt and then got ready for church and had a nice cup of coffee with creamer. Gosh, you guys have nice food here, a lot of choices. And then I dressed up warmly. Because for us, this is like being in a freezer. And I came to church. So how I take care of me is exactly how I should take care of my neighbor. It's a very high standard when we read this. It's exceptionally a high standard that Jesus is calling us to. The greatest question that gives life meaning is this: do you love me? This question matters to many of us who have been in love. I remember when I first set my eyes on Miss Julie. My knees lost strength and my brain stopped working and my heart was pounding like a regiment of drummers. And it has never stopped.

The question we all want to ask is this: do you love me? So in John chapter 21, Jesus has shown up by the sea, because Peter his servant has gone back fishing. They had already seen this Messiah that they were expecting to save them from Roman oppression, be flogged, be beaten, be ashamed, and then be killed on the cross. They've already witnessed that. And so they fall into a state of despair. And a lot of the time when that happens to us, we go back to a default setting. So they abandon the ship and go back fishing.

So early in the morning, after Peter and his friends who are experts at fishing have toiled the whole night and have caught nothing, Jesus shows up. Jesus knows that they have caught nothing. But then he goes on to ask him, do you have some fish? In fact, he calls them children. Do you have some fish? Then of course, they're quite embarrassed. They have no fish. Then he tells them, cast the net on the right side of the boat and scripture records that they caught so many fish that they could not be contained.

Then Jesus tells them bring some of the fish. Let's us have a barbecue in the morning and have some breakfast. Jesus already had fire. It's amazing, very interesting that when Jesus invited them for this breakfast, he did not condemn Peter. Instead, he waited. There is a lesson we can learn from that. He waited until he was well fed. Then he asked him the question, Simon Peter, son of Jonah, do you love me? When Jesus asked the question the first time, he said, yes, I love you. Because if someone asks you that once, it's okay. If they ask you a second time, it's sort of okay. But it plants a certain sense of doubt and anxiety. The only reason they would a second time is because the first time they quite don't quite have confidence with your answer.

So Jesus asks him a third time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me? And the Bible records that when Jesus asked him a third time, he was grieved in his heart. Because you know that if someone asks you about love three times, they probably know that your love bank is pretty low, pretty depleted. So Peter responds, Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you. Every time Jesus asked that question and Peter said yes, he gave him an assignment. He said, feed my sheep.

Many times we'll be asked or ask our question ourselves this question, do we really love God? Or do we only love what we can get from him? Until we can answer that question, we do have a long way to go. Can you imagine if Miss Julie told me that she didn't love me when I asked that a question?

The first Christian youth camp we held was in 2003. And I had asked our church to come lead worship. And Miss Julie was part of the team leading worship. She has an amazing voice. And I chose not to talk to her because I didn't want to interfere with her ministry. I waited until the very last moment when people were getting into the buses to go home. And I asked if I could talk to her, that I had some things in my heart that I wanted to express. Well, I didn't ask her if she loved me then, because she didn't know me! But she told me, don't call me for two weeks. It was the longest two weeks of my life. We all want an answer to that question. Do you love me?

So when Jesus was asking Peter this question, it was a very serious moment. My prayer is that the Lord will ask all of us today, do you love me? And that you will be able to answer it in the affirmative, yes, we love you, Lord. And it may even grieve our heart the way it grieved the heart of Peter. But sometimes when our focus is drawn to other things, it's easy for us to find ourselves in the status of Peter where we don't need to be asked once, maybe twice, but possibly three times. The big question is, do I love God or just love what he does? I think one of the greatest undoing for us in the body of Christ is the way we have made the gospel a place of come and this will happen to you. You'll be blessed.

Of course, you'll be blessed. But really, what does Jesus say? Jesus says if you want to follow me take up your cross and do it. If you ask me, the cross is not a symbol of comfort. The cross is a symbol of sacrifice. So when Jesus said to count the cost, pick up your cross, and follow me, it means we must be open to suffering. But he promised that he would be with us. Over the last 22 years, there have been many times I've wanted to quit. But the Lord reminded me, he asked me that question, do you love me? And I said, yes, Lord. You know I do.

Love fulfills all that the law demands. And in fact, Galatians 5:22 says, but the fruit of the Spirit produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. It'll be okay to stop there, but we shouldn't because the next sentence is even more amazing. Against this, there is no law.

So the standard that the fruit of the spirit sets for us is higher than the law. And the first one of the fruit is love. Brothers and sisters, if we are motivated by the love of God, we'll do things for the kingdom that are beyond our comprehension. First Corinthians 2:9 says this, however, it is written, what no eyes have seen, what no ears have heard, and what no human mind has conceived, the things God has prepared for those who love him.

We want to see those things that no ears of heart, no eyes have seen, or the hearts of men have conceived. I want to see those things. But we have to love him first. And our love cannot outdo his love. But if we draw in to him, he has promised that he will draw in to us. I am serving him, not only because of who he is or what he does, but more so because of my affection for him. The thing about loving someone, genuinely loving someone, is that you tend to find yourself doing things for them. You just do it. You cannot explain it, but you just do it because love is compelling you to do it.

So what is the love of God compelling you to do this week? I want you to contemplate that. Whether you are a nurse, a doctor, a teacher, a policeman, a pastor, or whatever capacity God has given you to serve… the love of God should motivate you and compel you to share the gospel with the lost. Many times the spirit of God compels us to speak to someone. Maybe you are standing in line at the supermarket. And God speaks to you and says, you need to pray with that person. But then the enemy plants fear in your heart because you begin to think, oh, they will reject me. They will see me as someone who is weird. Then suddenly fear begins to be more the faith. And then you walk away without walking in obedience.

Many times that has happened to me. When I had a chance to live in England, I would ride in the bus from where I was staying to school. And the weather in England is what everybody talks about. If you want to start a conversation, you talk about the weather. So I would sit in the bus and it would be a terrible, rainy day, cold and freezing. And I would start by saying to the person next to me, oh, wow, the weather is terrible today. And then I would say, you know what, where I come from, it's warm, nice and sunny from January to December. And then they would look at me and say, what are you doing here? Then I would say something like, I'm here to learn to tell young people about Jesus and to tell them that they have no hope without him. And that conversation would either die at that point or it would proceed into a gospel conversation. I had many chances. But even so many times, fear gripped my heart because there were many times that I was rejected. But this is the thing. We forget that Jesus was rejected by his own.

If Jesus was rejected by his own, it's okay for us to be rejected by strangers. It's the power of God. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. It's not us, as we are just vessels that God uses. The thing that we must be careful to do is, every time the spirit of God speaks to us, walk in obedience. I know the thing that does happen to us the majority of the time, because it happens to me too, is that fear usually grips our hearts. I want to challenge us today to let the love of God compel us to walk in faith this week so that when we hear the voice of God, we will walk in obedience.

It's not easy. It's just like exercising a muscle in that when you start, it's quite painful. But the more you do it, the easier it gets. The first conversation you will have with someone will terrify you, but it'll be the one God will use the most because there's nothing that God loves as a man who walks in faith and in obedience. It will bring the most glory to God.

So does the love of God compel us? And what does the love of God compel us to do? Romans 8:37 says, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. About three months ago, I was on the train in England, visiting some friends, and I took a four-hour train, from London to the south. And by the way, the UK is lost. So when you pray, please pray for the UK and Europe. If you think America is lost, America is not yet lost. Europe is absolutely lost. So a gentleman sat next to me, and the spirit began to talk to me. He said, you need to tell him about Jesus. And for 30 minutes, the debate was going on in my heart. You need to tell him about Jesus. You need to tell him about Jesus. And I tried to distract myself, read my Bible, or do something else. But eventually, I started with the weather, to break the ice. And I told him where I come from, the weather is not like this. It was a terrible day. So that helps a lot. Rainy and gloomy and cold. And then I began to tell him my testimony. And at first, he looked at me as if I was a bit weird. And then God started doing something in his heart. But fear still gripped me and I should have asked him, can I pray for you to receive Christ? I simply say, can I pray with you? I should have gone a step further. He said, yes. I could not believe it! Imagine, I'm a believer. I've worked with Jesus for many years. But even so, when he said yes, I still was surprised.

You know, Paul says the things I don't want to do are the things I find myself doing. So I want to challenge all of us that let the love of God motivate us to do great things for the kingdom of God. It starts small with just simple obedience. Love is a choice. It's not a gift or a calling. It's a choice. And so we love these people and we tell them about Jesus. Faith will not deliver you beyond your love for God.

I want to read 1 Kings 3:3. So Solomon loved the Lord by walking in the statutes of his father, David, but he also sacrificed and banned incense at high prices. Jump to 1 Kings 11:1-3, and see what happens when he makes a totally different choice to love something else. The Bible says, and Solomon loved many foreign women in addition to Pharaoh's daughter, the Moabite, the ammonite, and Hittite women from the nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites, you must not intermarry with them and they must not intermarry with you because they will turn your hearts away to follow their gods to these women. Solomon was deeply attached and in love. He had 700 wives who were princesses and 300 who were concubines, and they turned his heart away. If that's not the sad story of a man who had worked with God, I don't know what is. Solomon's heart was away from God because of the choices he made. What choices are you making today that could easily turn your heart away from God?

When Solomon turned his heart from God, abundance became luck, peace became trouble. And many of us saw, I was on fire for Jesus. That's a wonderful history. But where are you now? What are you doing for the kingdom? It is not enough to be in love. It's equally important to stay in love. Serving the interest of the one you love comes naturally. So when we love God, it compels us. The reason why Jesus came and died on that cross is because he was compelled by that love. In fact, when Jesus is dying on that cross, a painful, shameful, lonely death separated from the Father, he said, my Lord and my God, why have thou forsaken me?

The thing that held Jesus on that cross was love because he could have simply walked away from that cross. He had the power to do so. What motivates you today? You can serve him without loving him, but you cannot love him without serving him. The return on our investment for loving and serving God is his divine presence. When Peter was encountered by the teenager who said, you talk like him. You were one of his servants or disciples, but he rejected Christ. When Moses was coming from the mountain, after spending time with God, the Bible says that there was such a presence on him, that the people ran away from him.

So I encourage us today to love him. It's your heart that determines your work. So where is your heart? What's your heart trained on? A friend of mine says that if you look at your calendar and at your checkbook, those two things will clearly reflect where your heart is and show the things that are important to you. God's process is slow because his interest isn't in the outcome. God is personal. You do not prove God. You experience God through his love.

Romans 5:8 says, but God demonstrated his love to us in that while we were still sins, Christ died for us. If God would've waited for us to rise to his standard, who would qualify? Who among us here would qualify? So I plead with us this morning, seek to love him because his love is so steady and his love is unchanging.

 

Follow Along with the Message

Loving God with all your Heart, Soul and Strength.

 December 8, 2024
Mark 12:30—34
30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” 32 “Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33 To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34 When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions. ”
1 LOVE GOD
2 LOVE NEIGHBOR
3 LOVE YOURSELF

The greatest question that gives life meaning is, "Do you me?"

John 21:17
Jesus asked Peter three times, "Peter son of Jonah, do you love me?

THE BIG QUESTION: Do I really love God or just love what He ?

Love is the fulfilling of the law. Your love fulfills all that the law demands.

Galatians 5:22
But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. God.”
1 Corinthians 2:9
However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived the things God has prepared for those who love Him.’’

I am not serving Him not only because of who He is or what He does, but more so because of my affection for Him.

You cannot really and truly be in love with God and be lost, you will be found.

Romans 8:37
We are, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

Love is a . It’s not a or even a .

Faith will not deliver beyond your for God.

1 Kings 3:3
And Solomon loved the Lord.
1 Kings 11:1
But King Solomon loved many strange women...

When Solomon turned his heart from God, became and became .

It’s not to be in love; It’s equally important to in love. Serving the of the one you love is natural.

You can serve Him without loving Him, but you can’t love Him without serving Him.

The return on investment for loving and serving God is his divine presence.

It’s your that determines your walk.

process is because his interest isn’t in the (what you achieve), it is in the (who you become).

God is ; you do not God, you experience God through His .

Romans 5:8
But God demonstrated His love to us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
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