The Greatest Commandment in Deuteronomy: Love God Fully

And I hope that you have noticed, but we have a lot of children being born around here, in this church and around, but mainly in this church. And that's good. That's a praise. You know, we had a child dedication a couple months ago, and I think it was eight or nine children that were dedicated. And that's good news, because without children, we just get old and fade away. Anyway, we need the children in this church. [00:33:41] (30 seconds)  #ChildrenAreHope

We have had a lot of baptisms, and that's a praise. Prayer, care, and share was introduced. The tree behind us. Now, next week, it's going to look a little different, but the tree for this year went well. We had that one snowy night, and another day that the weather was a little iffy, but many, many people heard God's word as a result of that ministry. [00:35:23] (26 seconds)  #FaithInActionMinistry

So we're told in Leviticus, if we obey, the good things God would do for us. We're told if we don't obey, the bad things that would happen to us. But again, God doesn't give up. He doesn't say that's the end. He gives everybody a chance to come back to him. And that's what we just read. And remember, in verse 46, it starts with, but if. But if they come back, what he would do. And these words are repeated again in Deuteronomy 28 through 30. [00:43:16] (32 seconds)  #ObedienceAndRestoration

So why did Moses repeat these things several different times in these different passages? There must be something very important about these verses. I found out that in the 11th or 12th century, somebody came up with, counted the commandments in the Old Testament, and they came up with 613. When we think about 10 commandments, we think about 10. But 613 commandments just in the Old Testament alone. And 248 of them are positive commandments. But, and this is interesting, 365 of them are negative. That's one for each day of the year. So God was trying to make a point, Moses was trying to make a point about following these commands. [00:44:01] (47 seconds)  #613CommandsReminder

You know, sometimes God speaks openly, out loud to people, and throughout the Bible he did that. But he also speaks to children in many different ways. It reminded me of a story in 1 Samuel chapter 3. If you remember, it's Samuel. Samuel was in bed, and he heard his name being called. [00:54:02] (25 seconds)  #GodSpeaksToChildren

So what do we do with all this? First of all, we teach. And to teach, you have to learn first. So you have to learn the commandments. Again, I told you there's 613 of them in the Old Testament. I don't know if you can remember all of them, or if you can even find all of them, but we have the Ten Commandments as a guide, but there's many other commandments in the Bible. So we need to learn them before we can teach them. But once we learn them, we remember to teach them to the children. [00:58:10] (29 seconds)  #TeachTheCommandments

So my question today to you is, do you love him with all your heart, soul, and mind? If not, again, you need to pray about that. You need to pray to God to help you to love him with all your heart, soul, and mind. And if you have never asked Jesus to come into your heart, you have the opportunity to do that right now. It's very easy. Ask for forgiveness of your sins. Believe that he died on the cross for your sins. And believe that he rose again from the tomb. The tomb is empty and he's alive today and he's waiting for us. [01:00:17] (42 seconds)  #LoveGodWholeheartedly

But you need to be ready for that so that you can be in heaven with Jesus forever. You need to do this now. Don't wait. Again, we do not know what 2026 will bring. We just need to ask for God's help, direction, and just continually pray for him, to him, and ask for him to forgive us and take care of us the best that he can and help us to listen to him in everything we do. And again, we need help. [01:01:23] (34 seconds)  #PrepareNowForHeaven