Heartfelt Faith: Loving God with All We Are

"And one of the easiest ways to figure out how to get connected is to go through our grow classes. There was one happening actually during the next service, I believe. And the reason that's so important is it tells you how to connect. And we give you tools on how to grow in your faith and what we believe and the direction we're going. We'd love for you to go through that and be a part." [00:22:11]

"It takes heart to make a comeback after such a setback, right? It takes heart to speak the truth when no one else agrees. It takes heart to build a business from ground up. It takes heart to work with people in need, right? It takes heart is an idiom, all right? It's not an idiot, an idiom, which is, it is a phrase or expression that carries a different meaning than the literal meaning of the word." [00:24:48]

"make it they're bigger stronger faster yes but they also do consistently what others do occasionally right they don't just play the game they're students of the game they understand that it takes more than just physical ability to get there and stay there it takes heart and the truth is in this life that we live it takes heart to do anything that is difficult uncomfortable or uncommon I think about our mission statement our mission statement as a church many of you've heard this I say it often because I want to keep it in front of us our mission statement as a church is to inspire and equip people to know and say it with me follow Jesus." [00:26:30]

"See, I believe that God has given all of us opportunities to manage. If he's given us life, if he's given us breath, we have an opportunity to manage that responsibility, to manage the life he's given us. So what's the goal? I think the goal is this, be faithful and not be perfect. That's, that's really hard. But here's what I found is if I learn to be faithful, he does the perfecting in the process. Our goal, our aim is that when we get there one day, he says, well done, my good and faithful servant." [00:31:12]

"And here's what I've found is that when my strategy for this is do more, or, or just do better, here's what I've found is it can become overwhelming and I can become very discouraged because I look up and go, man, I didn't mean to do that. Why am I here again? I've done this before. I swore I'd never do this again. How am I in the same situation again? Right? The do better is so discouraging and overwhelming at times." [00:32:16]

"Jesus replied the most important commandment is this listen oh israel the lord our god is the one and only lord and you must love the lord your god with all your heart all your soul all your mind and all your strength now this is very common to them they know what he's talking about because this is a quote from deuteronomy chapter 6 and and the jewish people would quote this every morning and every evening and it actually was called the shema and actually the word shema is the first word there listen but it's not just listen with your ears the word shema meant listen and you're going to love the lord your god and you're going to love the listen and obey listen with the intention of following through and doing what it says." [00:33:15]

"guard your heart above all else for it determines the course of your life guard your heart from what from the schemes of the enemy who's going to roll up out false desires to try to win the war against the enemy who's going to roll up out false desires to try to deceive you guard your heart against desires that will lead you away from god and ultimately towards destruction because guard your heart you want to know where your desires are just look at your decisions because you can see what you desire most in the decisions you make just do a decision audit in your life how did you decide what to do with your time and what to do with your resources what to do with your energy where do you get worked up emotional and frustrated and passionate about you can see what you desire most in the decisions you make day in and day out." [00:42:06]

"To love God with your soul you must allow what is true to govern your emotions let me explain it this way I want to be healthy so that I can do what God created me to do and be my family as long as possible like like I I want to be healthy for a lot of reasons but I don't always feel like being healthy because I don't always feel like getting up and going out early in the morning I don't always feel like eating healthy especially on Super Bowl Sunday I don't always feel like making healthy decisions but here's what I found if I allow the way I feel to determine what I do I will never be healthy but if I allow what is true about eating healthy and about working out and talking about drive what I do it will change the way I feel because I always feel better when I'm healthy and here's what is also true is that if we allow what is God says is true to determine what we do he will change the way we feel in the process to love God with all our soul our heart our emotions is to trust God and his truth about above what we feel." [00:47:35]

"Every crash starts with an uncorrected thought. Every crash in our life starts. With an uncorrected thought. Every failure begins with a false belief because thoughts lead to beliefs that lead to behaviors that lead to habits that lead to our future. When I look at my life, the greatest mistakes in my life, far greater than falling in a creek, began as a thought that I allowed to linger. What we think about matters." [00:48:50]

"To love God with our mind. It's to fill our mind with thoughts about him. To allow those thoughts to be the things that we meditate and we think about throughout the day. One of the verses my parents had us memorize was in Psalms when we were growing up. It's Psalm 1. And it says this. Bless is the one who does. Do not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or take. Stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers." [00:50:29]

"That we love God with all our strength. That we go to work not for a paycheck. Not for the applause of people. But to honor God in such a way. That he looks and says well done. That we honor God with the opportunity. That we're not wanting to be known for our success. But that others would come to know God through the way that we work. That your ultimate goal. Is that others would see God in you and through you." [00:52:54]

"starts with loving god with all we are jesus said that loving others as well is a big deal too but if if we don't get this right but we'll never be able to do the other part jesus said if you love me you'll do what i say if we struggle to follow god and be faithful and obey god it is not an obedience problem it is a love problem there's something that we love more and if we as followers love god in this way think about how it would change things if we desired god more than anything else than anything this world has to offer think about how it would change and impact the way we spend our time our energy our resources right if we focused our feelings and our mind on what god says is true and allowed him to change the way we think uh imagine the the different uh the way different way we walk through life and we'd see people and and the narratives that we would allow play in our minds if we did everything out of a heart to honor god with our attitude and effort i believe it would change our schools our our businesses and our our industries and here's why because i think employers would want to hire a follower of jesus not because of their faith but because they couldn't find a better worker on the planet." [00:54:18]