True Love Will Change Your Life

Well, good morning, church, welcome back, happy new year. So good to be back in church. Well, my wife and I, we met while we were students at Baylor and people ask me, you know, when did you know that you wanted to marry her? And the honest answer is immediately. Like before we even went on any dates, I'm like, it would be the miracle of all miracles if I could get her to like me. And eventually I mustered up enough courage, asked her out on a date, she said yes. The whole time I'm thinking this is wildly illogical. And if you know her and you know me, you understand I'm not even exaggerating this point. It's just simply true. So we went on a date. She said yes to another date and another date. And we got to a point where I had to have a DTR. Like we had been hanging out for a while. I gotta define the relationship. What are we? Do I like you? And I had decided that I liked her and I needed to make that known. So I decided, okay, this is going to be the day where I'm going to tell her that I like her. On that day, she had a sorority meeting. So I told her, hey, after the sorority meeting, I'm gonna pick you up from the Panhellenic building and I'm gonna take you out on a date.

And all day I'm thinking about this. I just need to tell her that I like her. So I pick her up and I'm trying to wow her on this date. So what I do is I take her to the drive-thru at Wendy's and we get a couple of Frosties because I just want to show her, you could marry into this money. Like this could be your future. And so we grab a couple of small chunk of Frosties and we drive over to McLean Stadium. Then we walk over, find a spot by the Brazos and we just start talking. But the problem was I was just like so nervous at this point because I'm thinking, I gotta tell her that I like her. I gotta put myself out there. And I'm just thinking, I gotta be first. I gotta be first. Like as the guy, I gotta be first in this. I gotta tell her. Just tell her that you like her. So we're having this conversation. I'm not really hearing a word of what she's saying because the whole time I'm just thinking, you gotta be first. Just tell her that you like her. Just tell her that you like her. Eventually she gets done with this long paragraph and eventually I do hear what she says at the end because she looks at me and she says, and you know what, I like you.

And at that point it's just like fireworks burst off in my heart and I'm like simultaneously like this is crazy. And like of course you like me. There's a lot to like. No wonder. So I just kind of sit in this moment. I just look her deep in the eyes and I go, Adelie, I like you too. And she like jerks back and it gets rather confused. There's this confused look on her face. And now I'm confused. There's a cute confused look on my face. I just look at her and I go, hey, hey, what's going on? And she goes, I didn't say I like you. I said my roommates like you. They like being around you. So I was so uncomfortable I just jumped in the brass and swam away and didn't see her for a couple weeks. No, we like sat in this uncomfortability for a while and she said, but you know what, I do like you too. And you know, that moment really changed the trajectory of my life in a lot of ways because we went from saying I like you to a little bit later saying that we loved each other and as I fell in love with her, much of my life shifted because when you fall in love with someone, your life inevitably changes. Like who I spent time with changed, how I spent my money changed,

the things that I did changed because when you fall in love, your life will inevitably change. And you know that if you've ever been in a relationship where you have fallen in love, you know that love will change your life. And I start with that story this morning because we're gonna be in a brand new sermon series here at Harris Creek called For the Love of God. Over these next few weeks, we're gonna talk about why we should love God, how to love God because we believe this is vitally important in your life. As we come upon this new year, it's January 4th, so I know there's many of you in this room, you've already got your word for the year, you've already got like a journal filled with resolutions for this upcoming year. Maybe some of you are like me and you were caught off guard by the new year, like you got little kids at home and you barely know what day it is and you don't really have a bunch of resolutions to this upcoming year. The good news is for either one of you this morning, you're going to walk out with the new year's resolution. And I would argue that it's gonna be the most important resolution that you have. It's gonna be more important than the resolution to drop 10 pounds. It's gonna be more important than the resolution to save up more money.

It's gonna be more important than the resolution to get off your phone a little bit more because the most important resolution that you could possibly have is making a commitment to loving God more on January. first 2027 than you do today. The most important resolution that you can have this year is I wanna make sure that I love God more tomorrow and the next day and the next day and the next day and the next day because loving God is the most important thing in your life. Now, don't take my word for it. We're gonna take Jesus's word for it because we're gonna be in scripture this morning looking at Mark chapter 12, Mark chapter 12. So if you have your Bibles, open them up or turn them on to Mark chapter 12. We're gonna be looking at verses 28 through 34. We're gonna look at the greatest commandment. In the gospels, there's the great commission and the greatest commandment. The great commission is go and make disciples of all nations, but we're gonna look at the greatest commandment today. And in Mark chapter 12, we find ourselves in the middle of Holy Week. Holy Week is the most important week in the history of the world. On Sunday, it's Palm Sunday, Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey.

The crowds shout, Hosanna, Hosanna. We're gonna read what happens on Wednesday. Thursday, he has the last supper, is arrested. Friday, he's crucified and killed. Sunday, he raises to life. Now, in the middle of this week, the religious leaders find themselves in a really difficult spot because the crowds are just caught up in this frenzy believing that this man was God himself. So they were trying to prove to this crowd that was shouting, Hosanna, believing that he was the son of God, the Messiah. They're trying to prove this is not God in flesh. So these religious leaders were going to Jesus and asking him questions to try to prove that he was not God. Right before this text, we see the Sadducees, one of the religious leaders of the day, asks Jesus a question about marriage and the resurrection, which is interesting because the Sadducees don't even believe in the resurrection. They're just trying to prove Jesus to be a fraud, but Jesus answers them wisely, proving that he's God. But then another religious leader comes and asks him another question, trying to stump him. We read that here, Mark chapter 12, verse 28. It says this. One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer,

he asked him, of all the commandments, which is the most important? Now, I want to stop there. The NIV, if you're reading the NIV, it just says one of the teachers of the law. The Greek here, actually, though, specifically says that this was one of the scribes. Now, a scribe was a religious leader who would copy the text, but they weren't just copiers of the text. They were actually teachers and interpreters of the text. Like, they loved the law. They knew the Torah backwards and forwards. So it's not a one-for-one correlation, but in many ways, they were like the seminary professors of the day. And they loved the law so much that they had found all the different commands in the Bible, in the Old Testament, and they realized that there were 613 of them. 248 of the commands were positive commands, God saying, do this. 365 were negative commands, one for each day, God saying, don't do this. And many of them, in their study of the law, they actually went on to rank them in importance from one to 613. And then they'd get together over a cup of coffee, and then they'd argue, who's got the better list? Who believes that their command list is, right,

who's got the most important command first? And it would be like you getting with your buddies and just asking that question, you know, who's the GOAT? Who's the greatest of all time? Is it MJ or LeBron? Scotty Scheffler or Tiger? Or maybe it's Mexican restaurants here in town. What's the GOAT? What's the greatest Mexican restaurant in town? Is it Jorge's? Is it Chewy's? Like, what is it for you? Now, they would get together, and they wouldn't say, hey, what's the GOAT? They'd say, what's the GLOAT? What's the greatest law of all time? That was their argument. Now, not necessarily my cup of tea. I'd rather do something else, but this is what they would do. And so this man approaches Jesus, and he says, hey, what's the greatest commandment? What's the GLOAT? Jesus says this, verse 29. The most important one, answered Jesus, is this. Hear, O 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, with all your strength.

The second is this. Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these. Well said, teacher, the man replied. You are right in saying that God is one. There is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices. When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, you're not far off from the kingdom of God. And from then on, no one dared ask him any more questions. You see, he had shut these. religious leaders down. They've been trying to prove that he was not God only for these questions to prove that he is God. So they made a decision, we can't ask him any more questions, so we must crucify him to put him behind us. And that is what would happen two days later. They realized through asking him these questions, he had a wisdom that they couldn't possibly comprehend. Now I find that last part in this text really interesting where he says, you are not far off from the kingdom of God. How could that be? This man's a scribe, he's a religious leader, of all people he's in. But what Jesus had just taught them was to love the Lord your God with all your heart,

soul, mind, and strength. And this man likely loved God with his mind, but the Lord didn't have his heart yet. And the message for that man and the message for us today is that Jesus doesn't want some of you. He wants all of you. In fact, he commands that you would give him all of your love. And this is point number one, the first thing we need to understand is that this command is the benchmark. This command is the benchmark. Look in all 613 commands of the Old Testament, Jesus says that the most important one comes from Deuteronomy chapter six, where he's quoting in Mark chapter 12. Deuteronomy six says, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength. And God's, Jesus is really saying, when you follow that command, all the other commands will start to fall into place. You know, some of you, you came in this morning, you've got some resolutions for the upcoming year. You want to be less angry around your kids. You want to be more self-controlled around food. You wanna break that addiction in your life. And you've made it your focus to just focus in on those things. You need to be better in all of those things.

But I think Jesus' message to you is, no, don't start there. Like, if you want those things to change, don't just focus on those things. Focus on your love for me. That's the most important thing you could do. Grow your love for me. And the greater you love me, the easier it will be to obey the rest of my commands. Because victory in those areas starts with love for God. In summarizing a teaching from Saint Augustine, he says this, love God and do whatever you please. Which is a rather shocking statement. Is that a license for sin, just love God and do whatever you please? No, love God and do whatever you please. For the soul trained in love to God will do nothing to offend the one who is beloved. You see, if you can just get this right, like if you can just get love for God right, if you can love him more and more, the rest of his commands will be easier and easier. Because we won't want to do that which offends our beloved. But oftentimes we get it so flipped and we think, okay, I need to make sure I'm not greedy this year. I need to make sure I'm not gossiping this year. I need to make sure I don't lust this year so that God may love me.

That's the opposite of what the gospel teaches. Scripture doesn't say do this so you are loved. It says love him and then you will do those things. Because his love will inevitably change your life. So let me ask you. How are you doing? How are you doing with this? Do you love God? Now notice, that's a different question from do you believe in God? Scripture even says that the demons believe in God. I'm not asking do you believe in God. No, I'm asking about your relationship with him. If you were to ask me, how's your relationship with your wife? And I said, I believe in her. I believe that she exists. I believe in her. That would be odd. That's not what you're asking me. You're asking about my relationship. You're asking do you love her? And in the same way, this question is not do you believe in God? It's also not even do you follow God? It's do you love him? Do you enjoy God? Do you love his presence? And we all know what that looks like and feels like in our life.

When you love someone, everything changes. And just illustrate that for you. To help you think, let me take you back to when I was dating my wife Adelie. At that time, we were saying that we were in love with each other and we had just gone on a date at a restaurant somewhere down Valley Mills. We were driving back towards Baylor's campus on Valley Mills. There's all sorts of red lights, stoplights. And we had pulled up on one of those stoplights and I'm driving, I'm just talking with her and thralled with her. And then all of a sudden, the car pulls up next to us. I told this story a couple of years ago, so you remember it. I think it's worth repeating. This car comes up and then she's just looking me very frustrated. She's waving at me like this through her window. I'm seeing her, I'm trying to ignore her. I'm assuming that I cut her off on accident, assuming I ran a red light or something on accident. I just keep talking with Adelie. But this woman in the car next to us, she keeps waving even more frantically. And then she gets out of her car. She opens up her car door, is outside of her car at this point. So I'm assuming we're about to get in a fight.

So being the man in this relationship, I decided to roll down Adelie's window so she could just take the first punch for me. And I rolled down her window. And this, true story, this lady next to us, she goes, sir, I have never seen a man look at a woman the way that you're looking at that woman. If you do not put a ring on her finger, you've lost your ever-loving mind. That could only happen in Waco and it could only happen on Valley Mills. And then she got in her car, light turned green. She drove off. I love that story because I just, I remember what that felt like. Like being with Adelie in those days, it was like, my goodness, where else would I wanna be? Who else would I wanna be with? Nowhere else mattered. No one else mattered. No thing else mattered because I was with the one whom I loved and everyone else could see it on me. My question is, is that what it's like in your relationship with God? Are you just so enthralled with Him? Are you eager to be with Him? Do you wake up in the morning going, I cannot wait to get in the Word of God because I love the presence of God.

When you get in your car to drive to work, are you spending time in prayer talking to God because you love your relationship with Him? Or this morning, did you wake up excited to be here on a Sunday morning because you love God, you wanna worship God? Or do you get here and you're just like, ♪ Jesus, we love you ♪ ♪ Oh, how we love you ♪ ♪ You are the one our hearts adore ♪ I think he's looking at you going, you had me fooled. I mean, you're singing that you adore me. You're singing that you love me just barely. Like those words don't match up with what I see in your heart. I think you're just saying those things because you feel like you're supposed to. So my question is, do you love God? And the convicting thing for me in telling that story is that happened then when we were dating. No one's stopped me since. Seven years into marriage, I think if you pulled up to us in the car, I probably wouldn't be looking at my wife that way. But I want to. So if that's you and you're like, man, I wanna go back to those days when I loved God, go back to the things you did at first. What do you need to do to stir your affections for Jesus and then do it, a lot of it,

because this is the most important thing in your life. Do you love God? And the most important thing you could resolve to do this year is to love him more next year than you do today. Every single day. Our mission is to love God more because this is the greatest commandment. This is point number one. This command is the benchmark. Now to move along to point two, I wanna ask you a different question. Not, do you love God? But why does God ask us to love him? It's kind of an interesting thing. Like I don't know of another king or queen that looks at their people and says, I command that you love me. Like if Trump, President Trump, if he did that today and said, I command that everyone in America would love me, that would be an interesting day. There'd be some interesting responses. I think people would say, man, what a narcissist to command that love. You can't even command loving it. This is what our king does. This is what God does. He looks at us and says, I command that you love me. It's really interesting.

Now think about why does he do that? Well, think about the one who's making the command. God is all sovereign, all knowing, all sufficient, ever sustaining. Is he in need of our love? No. No, he certainly wants our love. He's a relational God. He wants our love. He doesn't need our love. This command isn't primarily for him. It's primarily for us, because think about the people who he's making that command to. While he is all powerful, we are so powerless. Like for me in my life, if my two-year-old gets a sniffle, cough, and a fever, You know what's coming my way? A sniffle, cough, and a fever. Like there's nothing I can do to stop it. I can't prevent it because I'm just a broken human. That's all of us, we're broken and needy. So listen, God does not make this command for him. He doesn't need us. He wants us, he doesn't need us. He makes this command for us. And here's the good news, he makes it for our good. And we see this in Deuteronomy chapter six when this command is actually introduced in scripture before the people of God are entering into the promised land.

Moses goes before the people of God and he gives them this command, but listen to the setup of the command. He says this, Deuteronomy chapter six, verse three. Hear Israel and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in the land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors promised you. Hear, O 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 strength. Did you notice what he says? He says, listen to this, obey this command so that it may go well with you, so that you may increase greatly. This command is to be a blessing to you. And this right here, this portion of scripture became known as the Shema. The word Shema means to hear. That's the first word in verse four. And Jewish people would recite the Shema every single day, at least three times a day, in the morning, in the evening, and then right before they would go to bed. Over and over again, they'd repeat, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength, why? Because they knew that if they obeyed that command, it would change the rest of their life.

They knew that if they could get their love in the right place, they'd get their life in the right place. And this is point number two. Second thing we need to understand is that this command is a blessing. This command is a blessing. Again, our God doesn't need our love. He wants it. We can see from the beginning of Genesis. He's a relational God. He wants relationship with us. He does not need it, though. He is not in need of this command. We are, it's for our good. You see, he's a good God who wants us to flourish, and our flourishing comes from loving him. Elsewhere in Deuteronomy chapter 30, verse six, says this, moreover, the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the hearts of your descendants to love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul. Why? So that you may live. You see, your God wants you to experience life and life to the full. He would later say that in John chapter 10, verse 10, I've come so that you may have life and life to the full. That's been his desire from you from page one in Scripture. So if his goal is our good,

and if he really is all-knowing and all-powerful, why does he command this for us? Like, why doesn't he come to us and say, I command that you would love money with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength? Like, if you got more of it, you could buy a bigger house, have a newer car, go on a cooler vacation. Why doesn't he command that for us? Because money will never fix the ache in your soul. All the bigger, newer, cooler things will eventually become old news, and you will never have enough money to be content. If God's all-knowing and all-powerful, and he wants our good, why doesn't he say, love status with your heart, soul, mind, and strength? Like, chase after that title in your career. Make sure all the right people approve of you. Make sure you join that country club. Chase status with all you've got. Why doesn't he say to love status? Why? Because the approval of people will crush you. Nobody is batting 1,000 in the approval of people. If you're living for people, it will crush you. If God is all-knowing and all-powerful and wants our good, why doesn't he say, love the Dallas Cowboys with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength? That's an easy one. It will lead to a tremendous disappointment every Sunday and every December, every January.

He loves you too much to do that. You see, if God loves you and he wants your good, he could have pointed you in a lot of different directions. He could say, hey, I want you to flourish. I want things to go well with you, so love money or love stuff or love your career or love how your kids do in school or in sports. Love what other people think about you. Love your phone. Love entertainment. Love romance novels. Love Baylor sports. And yet, he doesn't direct us in any of those places. Why? Those things are horribly empty in and of themselves. If your love is poured into all of those things or any of those things, they will all leave you with this idea of what else is there? There's gotta be something else because those things will never sustain. Those things will never satisfy you because there is only one love that will satisfy. There is only one love that will never disappoint. So your God loves you too much to send you any other place. He loves you so much. So what does he do? He sends you to himself, the only one who will not disappoint, the only one who will always satisfy,

the only one who your heart was made for. And to, again, quote St. Augustine, he said this, you have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts is restless until it rests in you. I know many of you came in here this morning. You sense it in you. Your heart is restless, and it's because you were made for a different love. You're made to love God, and it would be unkind of him to direct us anywhere but himself. So my question to you is, what are some lesser loves in you that you need to repent of? You know that you haven't been able to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength because there are other things that are in the way. So what is that for you? And if you're trying to identify those loves, if you're wondering, man, your screen time will probably tell you. Your bank account will probably tell you. If you're a parent and you really wanna know what lesser loves have taken the place of God today, go to your kids and say, hey, what does dad love? What does mom love? And they're gonna tell you. They're gonna say, dad, you love your career. Mom, you love your phone.

Dad, you love football. They will tell you what you love first and foremost. And if you're not a parent, if you don't have kids around, hopefully you're here and in a life group, go to your life group and say, hey, what do I love? What do you catch me talking about all the time? What has my heart? And then repent of it and go back to God. Seek him out. Now, I also wanna be clear. It is not wrong to love the Dallas Cowboys. It won't be enjoyable. It's not wrong. It's not wrong to love good Mexican food. It's not wrong to love watching your kids play sports. It's not wrong to love your career, but it is wrong when those lesser loves take the place of the greatest love. And you'll sense it in you. You'll be more anxious, more stressed, more angry, and it's because you're not experiencing the blessing that is this command. So to start the year is a great time to recenter yourself around love for God. Just get with him and say, Lord, I'm not experiencing life to the full because I have not given you my full love. Lord, I'm not experiencing life to the full because I've not given you my full love.

So I repent of those loves, and would you replace those loves with love for you, and it will bless you. Because point number two, this command is a blessing. Now, going back to Mark chapter 12, after Jesus says that this is the greatest command is to love the Lord your God, he follows it up by saying this, verse 31. He said, the second is this. Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these. You see, he pairs these two commands together because how do you know if you're doing the greatest command well? You're doing the second command well. If you're trying to figure out, am I loving God? How am I doing loving God? You will know this by how you love others. This is point number three. Second thing we need to understand is this command comes with a barometer. This command comes with a barometer. A barometer is really a measuring stick, and this is what Jesus is saying here. He's saying, when you love others, it will be a sign to you that you're doing the first command well because this is how you will measure it. The second will always follow the first. First John 4.20 says this.

Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister whom they have seen cannot love God whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command. Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister because when you love God, you will love your brother and sister. This week I had an opportunity to go to what I believe is the greatest mall in the country, and we got to go to the Richland Mall. And yeah, what a gift we have in here. And if you ever want to time travel, go to the Richland Mall. They still sell CDs there. It's fascinating. So we were at the Richland Mall, and I had to exchange something. And my wife was sick at the time, so I took all three girls on my own because I'm super dad. And I have an eight-month-old, and I've got a four-year-old and a two-year-old. And going anywhere with them is a process. It takes a lot of time. And we had already spent a lot of time in the mall. and I needed to make sure that we got out of the mall and got back home so that they didn't miss nap time so I didn't get in trouble.

So I'm trying to get us through the mall, to try to get out of the mall so we could make it home. And I'm pushing my eight-month-old in the stroller and then behind me is my four-year-old and then the caboose is my two-year-old and she's just taking her time. She's just enjoying the mall. And over and over again, I'm telling her, Kali, you gotta speed up, you gotta speed up. Hey, Kali, we gotta go, we gotta go, we gotta get out of the mall, we gotta speed up. And she's just going incredibly slow. So eventually, after I tell her, hey, Kali, you gotta speed up, we gotta keep going, my four-year-old, Jaycee, just looks at her and she goes, hey, Kali, let me help you. And she grabs her hand and just kind of pulls her along towards the exit, right? I took a picture of it as it was happening. Here we are in Dillard's, yeah. And we got to the car, got the mall buckled in. I just looked at Jaycee and I told her, Jaycee, I felt so loved by that. Like, as your dad, I just felt my heart grow because you were not just doing what I asked, you were helping your sister do what I asked of her. And your love for her came out of your love for me. And I just want you to know, I'm so proud of you. I'm so grateful for that. I feel so loved by that.

What you gotta know is that's what your heavenly father feels. When you love and serve your brother and sister, he's just looking at you going, yes, way to go. I'm so proud of you. And you're showing your love for me by loving them. And the reality is I see that every single time we meet here at Harris Creek. Every single Sunday, I walk the halls and I see so many people loving on the people around them, whether it's the Remsons or the Lemleys or Aaron Musgrove serving in kids ministry, whether it's Jeff Armstrong helping seat people or he and his wife Molly serving with our marriage ministry or John and Dana White greeting over at those doors with a smile every week. Maybe it's Jason Radden who served with us for 1,000 years back in tech. Or maybe it's Kenny Boyd and his team in the parking lot who get here before I do so that they can greet you with love. And here's what you need to know about Harris Creek. Maybe you're new, maybe your New Year's resolution is to get back in church more. Here's what I want you to know about our church. Every single time you show up here on a Sunday, you are going to be met with an army of people who can't wait to love you and who can't wait to love your kids. Why?

It's not because they're a bunch of nice people, although they are. It's because we've got a lot of lovers of God here. Like I know these people and they love Jesus. They love God and as an overflow of their love for God, they can't just stay there. They can't help but love you as well because when you love God well, you'll inevitably love other people well. So my question to you is how are you doing? Are you loving people in your life well? Are you loving your aging parents well? Are you loving that aggravating coworker well? Are you loving that couple that's hard to love in your life group? And if the answer is no, it's a sign to you. It's a barometer to you. And the message is not okay. I need to just make sure I love them more. I need to make sure I love them better. No, no. If the answer is no, what you need to do is you don't need to make yourself love them more. You need to get with God and love him more. Ask that he would grow your love and affection for him because as he grows your love and affection for him, he will inevitably grow your love and affection for them because when you love him, you'll start to love them. So in summary, three things we need to understand is that this command is the benchmark.

Point number two, this command is a blessing. And point number three, this command comes with a barometer. Well, to close, think back to my opening story. When I'm with Adalie that day when we were dating, I'm just trying to tell her that I like her. And the whole time I'm just thinking I gotta go first. I gotta go first. I gotta be the first one to tell her that I like her. I gotta go first. I wanna tell her that I like her. I think sometimes in our relationship with God, we just feel all this pressure. Maybe you already feel that this morning. Like, ah, I gotta love God more. I need to love God more. I wanna be first to tell him that I love him. Here's the good news of the gospel. You can't be first. You couldn't possibly be first in this relationship to tell him that you love him. Why, because he loves you so much. That 2,000 years ago, he chose to send his son to leave heaven, to enter into earth, to be born as a baby, to live a perfect life. And 2,000 years ago, before you were born, before your parents. Parents were born before your parents' parents were born. Before you even existed, he had you in mind. And he had you in mind, and in love, he went to the cross.

In love, he bled out. And on that day, 2,000 years ago, he hung on the cross, said, it is finished, and he died. Why? Because he loves you. But then three days later, he rose from the grave, walked out of that tomb. Why? Because he loves you. And then he ascended into heaven, and is now preparing a place for you, for you to be for all of eternity. Why? Because he loves you. And what you need to understand is every single day of your life, he's telling you, I love you, I love you, I love you. Son, I love you in spite of what you've done. Daughter, I love you, even though that happened to you. I love you, for all of you. No matter what you've done, or where you've been, or what you've said, I love you. Every single page of scripture is your God saying, I love you, so what you have to understand is in this relationship, you couldn't possibly go first. Because he already did. First John 4, 19 says, we love, why? Because he first loved us. So this morning, you don't have to go home and think, okay, I just gotta love God more,

I just gotta love God more, I gotta pull myself up from my bootstraps, I've gotta change my heart, I need to love God more. That's not gonna work. The way you love God more is not through self-will, but through sitting in his love for you. Through gazing at his love for you, through living in his love for you, and as you receive his love for you, you won't be able to help but give love back to him. That's how you'll succeed in this New Year's resolution. Let me pray that we would. Heavenly Father, thank you that we don't have to question if you love us. We don't have to question if you care about us because you made it so clear on every page of scripture, and you made it clear because you sent Jesus for us to live for us, die for us, and to rise again for us. Father, I just pray that we gaze into that truth, that you loved us first, and may we love you in response. And God, I pray for every single person in this room today, I pray that we would leave more in love with you than when we came in, and I pray that we'd love you more tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, and the next day, and I pray that as we get to January 1, 2027, we look back and say, I love God more. So God, would you do that in our life? Because we just believe that if we can get our love in the right place, we'll get our life in the right place.

So Father, forgive us of any area of our life that has our love more than you, any area of our life that has more of our mind, soul, heart, or strength, and God, we just repent of that, and we turn to you and ask that you'd replace that love with a better love, a love for you, and would your love change our life? And God, you're deserving of this love, because Jesus is alive and with us and for us. It's in his name we pray, amen.