Mark 12:28

The youth have taken over a little bit, so we are doing a youth takeover Sunday. We had our youth worship team up here first off, and it was really cool because we have one adult, a high schooler, a junior higher, another junior higher, and a high schooler who just got back from Texas, serving with one of the relief teams last night at about midnight. Praise the Lord! I was super blessed, as the junior high pastor, to see our team up here, blessing you and worshiping with you.

If you are new here, let me give you a little disclaimer right off the bat: this is not a normal service. This is our youth worship team. My name is Nick, and I am the junior high pastor. If this is your first time coming here and you want to see what the church is about, this should still be a great service. However, it is not Miles. Please come back and see Miles next week; he is a fantastic teacher. He is currently going through First Timothy, and you will be thoroughly blessed.

I wanted to let you know some of what we've been doing in the youth room next door. We have two walls filled with a whole group of youth that we teach every single week, twice a week, and they will be the ones in here shortly. I want to give you an idea of what we are doing to preach and teach to them.

Jason is our high school pastor, and he is currently teaching on Sundays through the book of John. They are watching a video that is a word-by-word reenactment of the book. It is really cool; it is dramatized but still holds exactly to the scripture. After they finish watching that video, they go through small group discussions to explore the passage.

On Wednesdays, they just finished the Discipleship II course with Pastor Miles and the rest of the body. The high schoolers were in the youth room learning alongside everyone else. That was really cool, and they just wrapped up that course this last Wednesday.

On Sundays, I'm currently teaching through the book of Philippians, and then I'm teaching on Wednesdays. Did I say Sunday? Yes, on Sunday, I'm teaching through Philippians. On Wednesday, I'm teaching through 1 Samuel, which I'm just about finished with. That's been pretty fun because we're taking the junior highers through the life of David, exploring the things he did great and the things he messed up on. It's a good time.

I started teaching a little differently. What I used to do was teach in a 45-minute sermon format, kind of like we do here. As much as I put a lot of effort into making sure that it was good for the kids and that they understood it, I noticed on Wednesdays, especially, that they were tired from school. They would arrive at class at seven at night, going through homework, and just exhausted from the middle of the week.

One week, as I was teaching, I realized that every one of their eyes was glazed over. This wasn't because I wasn't trying to teach them directly; the message was pointed at them. However, their eyes were glazed over because they were just exhausted. I looked over and saw one of the kids struggling to stay awake. It was a bummer because I really want the junior hires to hear what the Word has to say. There is so much important information in the Bible that is relevant to them living lives that glorify God, and I knew I needed to make a change.

Instead of teaching for 45 minutes straight, I started teaching them with questions. I have a number of questions that we go through. As I mentioned, we're going through Philippians on Sundays. For example, in Philippians chapter one, verses one through eleven, I read through the text and briefly explain what it means, giving them an idea of what's going on. However, I leave a lot to be desired and ask them questions like, "Who is Timothy?" Paul mentions that he is sending Timothy to them. If you're reading this text, it's very important to know who Timothy is.

So, the first question is, "Who is Timothy?" Most of the time, they can answer that. When they respond to the questions, they're allowed to cheat. They can use their Bibles, their smartphones, or go on Blue Letter Bible to look up anything. In fact, I encourage it and have taught them how to do that. I continue to help them look into and find out who that is.

I show them how simple it is to find the answers they are looking for, but I put the questions back on them. I ask them the questions. The reason I began doing this is that, as they are tired and exhausted, and maybe just coming in with a lot of things on their mind, it causes them to be invested in what they are teaching and what I am teaching. They are responsible for looking up the answers and considering what they would do if they were put in the same position.

Take the life of David, for example. He is in a situation where he is standing over his enemy, Saul, and he has a choice to make. He is standing over the head of Saul, who has been chasing him for years and is a constant pain, trying to kill him. There is a spear stuck in the ground next to Saul's head. Now we are talking about a man of war. The question to them is, what would you do? You are a man of war, looking at the face of the man who has been challenging you and trying to kill you for years. He is asleep, and there is a spear right there. What do you do?

Then I ask, what did David do? What you might have done could be different from what David did, and what David did might have been the wrong thing. So, would you have done the right thing? Which would you have done? Of course, David does not stick him with a spear. He says, "No, I am not going to take the Lord's anointed." We walk through scenarios like that. Who is Timothy? What would you do in that situation?

When they finish answering the questions in their discussion groups, I take them through the answers. I then teach them in the same kind of fashion that I would normally. These are just bullet points from a message that you would typically find in notes, but I teach them through those points. The difference is that they are engaged because they want to know if they got the answers right or if they would have done the right thing. They are actively engaging in the gospel.

For my own heart, seeing junior high students actively working, writing down their thoughts, and striving to find the answers is rewarding. They say, "Hey, I have a question. What does this mean over here?"

Can you help me with this? I love it. It's good. It's so cool to see junior hires actively engaging in the gospel. Sorry, my clicker is going a little slow here. I want to take you guys today through a little bit of a hybrid of this. This is youth takeover, and so we're going to do things a little bit differently. We're not going to have the same kind of discussion group like we normally do because this is a much larger crowd. I couldn't discuss with you guys the same way that I normally would.

I think I'm scraping a beard hair or something like that. Sorry, it's the microphones and whatnot. I'm in a much smaller room normally. I want to take you guys through a little bit of a hybrid of what we normally do. Of course, we can't do the small groups like we would normally do, but I'm going to take you guys through some questions and ask you things directly. You'll have a chance to respond.

You'll notice that on your flyer this week, there's not point number one with missing words. It just says "strength and mind and heart." That's it. All that space is there for you to respond to questions that I'm going to throw up here so that you guys will be able to have a minute just to think and consider.

Now, the reason I'm doing this is twofold. First of all, I want to give you a little bit of an idea of what we do in the junior high room. It's just to let you guys experience a little bit of that. But at the same time, and more importantly, as I've been praying about what to share with you guys, the thing that kept coming to my mind and heart is that we need spiritual maintenance, or in other words, we need a spiritual pit stop.

Now, I want to explain something. In college, my first car was a 1985 Toyota Camry. This puppy right here, in all its glory, had AC. Remember, envy is a sin, so contain yourselves. But that's it. This isn't actually mine. Unfortunately, I don't know if I have a picture of mine or not, but I found one that is basically exactly the same thing. It was silver. It was a beauty. It got me tuned from Missouri.

But one day, I heard the brakes in the back squeaking. I think I have in my notes that it's squeaking, and my parents are in here, so I can't lie because it was more of a grinding noise. At the time, they cautioned me, and I, you know,

I heard it, and they cautioned me. "Hey, that noise, that grinding noise that your vehicle is making is not a noise that a normally functioning vehicle makes. It should not be making that grinding noise." But in my 19-year-old wisdom, I thought, "It's okay. It'll last another day. I'm going to be fine. I can make it. It's not that bad. It still brakes just fine. I don't have any money for it." You guys know the excuses. So I thought, "Ah, it's fine. It's okay."

Well, I'm driving to work one day after one of my college classes. As I'm driving to work, I'm on Mission, which you guys know is a pretty busy road, coming up to a red light with a long line of traffic. As I go to hit the brake pedal, nothing happens. I pump the brakes, and nothing is happening. I'm stomping on the brake pedal, and I can tell you that's not quite as hard as I'm stomping. My car is going, and it's not stopping.

What happened was the brakes were so worn down and neglected that when I went to push on the brake, the hydraulic overextended to the drum, and the little plungers came out. I'm not going to pretend to be a mechanic, but the plungers came out, and all the brake fluid leaked out. By "leaked out," I mean it drained out immediately. It was one too many presses, and I no longer had brakes.

So I'm bearing down on the cars in front of me at 45 miles an hour. I squealed and then quickly shifted down, swerved over into the left-hand turn lane, which, by the grace of God, had a smaller amount of cars. I was able to shift down until I finally got it slow enough to where I could pin my car's front tire into the curb and come to a complete stop. Again, by the grace of God, I did not hit anybody. I was not killed that day because, as much as that '85 beauty is a looker, it's not going to hold up real well against a suburban.

But I was given grace that day, and I made my way over to a parking spot. My stepdad came the next day and got it over to the mechanic and explained what took place. The mechanic took a look at what was going on, and he only had one thing to say to my dad when he saw it: "Man, kids are dumb." He was right. He was absolutely correct. In that situation, I made a poor choice thinking that my car was going to last forever.

I didn't have to do anything to it, that I didn't have to take care of it, and that I didn't have to maintain it. But I was wrong. You see, we cannot allow ourselves to fall into the same mistake with our walks with the Lord either. Our walks need maintenance.

What I'm doing here is I want to take you through some questions, and we're going to go through that hybrid approach I mentioned. I'm going to stop talking and give you a chance to sit there and think about the questions, reflect on your own lives, and consider how to respond. We need to check the oil, take the tire pressure, and check those things regularly because it's important.

If you wouldn't mind flipping over to Mark chapter 12, and if you need a Bible, our ushers are in the back. Go ahead and raise your hand, and they can get you a Bible. As you are turning there, I'm going to pray for our time.

Father, we thank you for the time that we have here. We ask that you minister to us, that you speak to us, and that you press into us to find if there are any problems going on. Help us to get introspective and consider what might need to change and what you want to do in our lives. So, Father, would you open our hearts and minds right now? Help us to give this time to you. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Now, in Mark chapter 12, we are in verse 28. It says, "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, with all your soul, 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.'"

You see, Jesus made it clear here that there are two commandments that are the most important for our lives. He wasn't trying to hide it or put any pictures to it. He said it plainly: we are called to love God with everything that we are and to love our neighbor as we would love ourselves.

But today, I want to focus specifically on loving God and what that means. Jesus breaks that into four parts, and I want to break it down into each one of those four parts, beginning with the first.

Sorry, I didn't put the text up there. I want to break this down into four parts, beginning with the last part: the strength that you're called to love God with all of your strength. There are two sides to each of these coins as we go through strength, mind, and all of those aspects. One side is that you are called to put the effort in and to put the hard work in, but there's another side where we have to trust the Lord. Each of these things comes with different sides.

As far as strength goes, my role here is multifaceted. I am the maintenance guy, so you might see me running around here with a worried look on my face on Sundays because an AC unit is broken or something else goes wrong. That's me running around taking care of facility issues. That takes a certain level of physical strength. At the same time, I'm also responsible for a portion of the photo and video work, which requires toting things around, getting interviews, and doing different tasks. That also requires a certain level of strength, which is not a big issue.

However, I am also the junior high pastor, and that requires a whole different level of strength and effort. Let me tell you, before and after service, we typically play games or run around doing goofy stuff. I'm chasing kids before and after service, and sometimes even during service, I have to chase kids and tackle them. It's just part of the growth and learning process. We frequently have game nights, either in the summertime, where we do "Fun in the Sun" every single week, or we come up with different activities to find new and creative ways to engage the kids.

It's all fun, but it involves running around, playing games, jumping, ducking, and sometimes even bouncing, which is getting more painful. Then we have things like camp, which is a full week of exertion. You get out there on Monday and you're there until Friday or Saturday, from 6:30 AM until sometimes after midnight, chasing around junior hires. You're responsible for them the whole time, so there's not a lot of rest that comes along with that.

Now, I just turned 30 this year, which I know is still pretty young, but it's not 12.

Things are starting to hurt, and I feel aches when I wake up. After activities like broom ball, I notice the difference. Twelve-year-olds might say, "Oh man, I got a bruise on my leg," but the pastors and leaders are thinking, "I don't think I'll ever walk again. My back is killing me." It really takes a toll on you.

As I get older, the gap between me and the junior hires is getting bigger. I realize I need to start taking better care of myself. Nachos are no longer an acceptable lunch. I have to think about cholesterol, which I had to Google to understand. I need to take care of the body that God has given me in order to fulfill the things He has called me to do, like going for walks and eating better. The Lord has called me to a pretty physical role, and I am required to take care of my body.

However, not everyone is called to do the same thing. I have my own capabilities, and you all have different abilities. I am five foot nine and not very muscular, so the security ministry is not my calling. I’m not going to tackle a big guy trying to cause trouble, nor can I swim like Michael Phelps. I’m a pretty slow swimmer and more of a dog paddler. Those things are beyond my capabilities.

Understand that I’m not saying you have to do whatever the Lord has called me to do. The Lord has called me to be a junior high pastor, and I need to ensure I take care of myself so I can fulfill that calling. The Lord has called you to love Him with all of your strength. Whatever abilities and strength He has given you, you are called to love the Lord with that strength and with everything you have.

You need to consider how best to take care of your body in order to love God with all of your strength. In 1 Timothy chapter 4, verse 7, it says, "Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather, train yourself for godliness. For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come

To come, I added this in there as far as talking about exercise and taking care of your body to kind of calibrate that. Yes, there is some emphasis that we should put on physical exercise. It should not become an object of worship. Our body should not become an object of worship or idolatry, but we should exercise and take care of ourselves, taking care of the resource that God gave us, so much as it leads to godliness. It should lead us to further godliness and doing what the Lord has called us to do.

First Corinthians chapter six, verses 19 through 20 states, "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body." In this, we must be cautious not to pollute our bodies from the inside out. This could be with food, overeating, or whatever, but it also comes with intoxication from alcohol or drugs. It could come from sexual sin or any other means. Any one of these things can pollute us from the inside out. Again, the Lord has given us a resource, which is our body, and we should use that for His glory.

However, there is the other side of the coin. Yes, we need to put the effort in; we need to take care of what He has given us, but we also need to trust the Lord in providing for our physical needs. There are things that are outside of our capability, and so we need to trust the Lord that He is going to provide for all of our physical needs. Matthew chapter six, verse 25 says, "Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?"

Verse 31 continues, "Therefore, do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the Gentiles seek after these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all of these things will be added unto you."

So, you are called to trust the Lord both to take care of your physical needs and to provide. You go out to work, you do what you need to do, and you trust Him to provide for your physical needs. At the same time, we are called to put the effort into taking care of the physical body that He has given us.

So, question number one: Is there an area where you lack trust in the Lord or provision, where you haven't cared?

For the body that God has given you, is there an area in your life that is lacking or that you are neglecting, which has hindered you from loving Him with all your strength? If so, what do you need to do to change that now? I always tell the junior hires that I don't want to hear a very fruity spiritual response, like "Oh, the Lord spoke to me." I want practical application here. I'm asking you, what do you need to change in your own life? What needs to change in what’s going on with you?

I’m going to stop talking here in just a minute so that you can think about that question, write down an answer, and consider it. Go ahead and take a minute to do that. I’m sorry I can’t give you more time; we are running on certain time restraints.

The next thing we’ve been called to do is love God with all of our minds. The first thing to consider about this is that if you’ve been going to church for any amount of time, I’m sure you’ve heard this. If you want to love God with your mind, the first thing you have to do is make sure that you’re not filling it with filth and sin. The things you put in front of you—whether it’s media platforms, your phone, your tablet, your TV, or the people you surround yourself with—are all important.

Whatever you put in front of you is what's going to seep in, saturate, and filter into your heart. The very first thing is to not fill your mind with sin. Psalm 101 establishes this: "I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless. I hate the work of those who fall away; it shall not cling to me. A perverse heart shall be far from me; I will know nothing of evil." So, the first point is to not intentionally fill your mind with sin, perversion, and similar things.

However, there is another side to loving God with all of your mind that we don't necessarily consider as a problem in our lives or as sin. This comes from a story in Luke about Mary and Martha. This is one of the first stories I ever taught from the Bible, and it continues to resonate with me because I often get overbusy.

In Luke chapter 10, it says, "Now, as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village, and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. She went up to him and said, 'Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her to help me.' But the Lord answered her, 'Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things. But one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.'"

You see, Martha welcomed Jesus into her home, which was a good thing. Martha served Jesus, also a good thing. However, Martha became so busy serving Jesus and preoccupied with chores and other tasks that she didn't take the time to hear him. That was a bad thing.

It is very easy to get caught up in work, taking your kids to soccer practice, baseball practice, or any number of activities. You have things going on after work, and you may even work overtime. By the time you finish everything at the end of the night, you sit down with your laptop to finish up emails that require your attention for work or other matters. Then, by the time you're done with all of that, you go to bed, wake up the next morning, and do the exact same thing.

The issue is that we often don't take any time, as we get so busy, to listen to what Jesus has to say. We don't take time to stop and consider what His word is trying to tell us.

We get caught up in a rat race, a hustle, a drive—whatever you want to call it. We put each one of those things before Jesus. We place those things in front of Him and say, "I'm sorry, I have to take a break." By the end of the day, we often find that we're not spending time with Him.

We have to set time aside to listen to and hear from Jesus in order to grow in His Word. This isn't just about what other pastors say or what the Lord is telling our friends; it's about what He is trying to tell us, what He is trying to minister to us, and what He is trying to teach us. This requires a certain drive on our part. It takes effort to stop what we're doing, sit down, open our Bibles, and have a highlighter and a pen ready to study, learn, and hear.

Just taking five minutes can be tough. It often takes the first five, ten, or even fifteen minutes just to get our minds to stop thinking about the grocery list or whatever else we're focused on. However, taking time to actually sit down and listen to the Lord requires effort on our part. We often resist doing things that don't seem valuable to us.

The trust that comes in is that we have to believe the Lord will meet us, that He will speak to us, and that He will refresh our minds and take care of us. He will remove the stress and overwork that we place on our hearts. He will minister to us and fill us by His Spirit.

In thinking about loving God with all your mind, consider this question: What was the last thing you heard or learned from the Lord? Not something that Pastor Miles said or what the Lord is telling him, but something that the Lord spoke to you during your time with Him. If you can't recall anything, what needs to change?

Let's think practically here. What needs to change? If you do have something, that's great! What steps will you take to continue hearing from the Lord and ensure that you remain in that spot?

With weight training, anytime you're pushing weights, you want to add a little bit of weight. You never want to just leave it; you want to add a little bit of weight so you can continue to grow in strength.

What do you do to add to that strength? Again, I'm going to stop talking and give you a couple of minutes, well, about a minute, to think about it and consider.

Loving God with all of your heart is the next thing he brings up. I want to think about it like this. I'm going to drop an analogy on you, and I hope it makes sense. As we consider the difference between the mind, the heart, and the soul, think of the mind and the body, or strength, as the tree. They are the soil, the ground in which the heart is planted. The body and the strength of the mind are both rooted in the heart; they are intertwined with it.

If the soil is good, it will produce good things for that tree. It will yield a healthy tree. Conversely, if the soil is bad, it will have ill effects on that tree. What goes into the soil is important because it directly affects the heart and, consequently, what happens to your soul. If the soil, which represents the heart, is bad, it affects what takes place in your life.

Place with your soul, which is eternal. If the heart is bad, the rest of you will be affected. The things that you say, the things that you think, and the things that you do will reflect the condition of your heart. If the heart is filled with the fullness of God, it will produce the same thing, which is the fruit that comes from the Spirit of the Lord.

Luke chapter six, verse 43 says, "For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit. For each tree is known by its fruit. For figs are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor are grapes picked from bramble bushes. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of the evil treasure produces evil. For out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks."

The things that you do with your mind and body are absorbed into the heart. What the heart absorbs will overflow out of us. It's a vicious cycle. If you're taking in evil and wickedness, it will absorb into the heart. Conversely, if you're taking in goodness from the Lord, that will also absorb into the heart. Whatever you absorb is what will ultimately come back out. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

An easy metric to evaluate ourselves can be found in the New Testament, which contains many lists distinguishing wickedness from goodness. I chose one from Galatians chapter five to test against our own lives. Galatians chapter five, verse 19 states, "Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger

The works of the flesh and the works of the Spirit— which of these better describes your life? Which of these do you see more evidence of in your life? Do you see more works of the fruit of the Spirit? Amen, praise the Lord. Is it more that you see a lot of the works of the flesh happening? Is it a heavy mixture of both?

If you're seeing things that you don't want to see, then what needs to happen in order to change that? If you're seeing the works of the flesh, what steps do you need to take to change that? This is another question that I want to offer to you, and I encourage you to take a minute to consider it, think about it, and write down your response.

The final thing that God calls us to do is love Him with all of our soul. It should be no mystery to us that we are sinners. If you've gone to church one day or a thousand days, it should be no surprise that we are a people burdened with sin, that our souls are beaten down by sin. Romans 3:23 says, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." We are in desperate need of something. We are lacking; we have a need. But you'll notice that the verse doesn't end there. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

We are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation, or the appeasement and satisfaction of God's wrath, by His blood to be received by faith. When our soul was lost, Jesus stepped in. He took our punishment and offered us righteousness.

To love God with all of your soul, you have to offer it to Him completely. You have to give it to Him. It belongs to Him; it has to be His. We can no longer live the ways that our flesh wants us to live, but we have to live in the way that He has called us to live, which gives us a life of holiness that's only found in Him.

Of all four aspects that we are called to love God with—our strength, our mind, and our heart—those things perish with us. Our bodies are going to fail at some point, and we are going to die. Those three things will fail. Our soul, however, is eternal. I don't know about you, but I want to rest it in a place that is secure, and that's with the Lord. By offering our souls completely to the Lord, He keeps them secure with Him. There is no safer place for it.

I am actually going to invite the ushers to come up and the worship team because we are taking communion this morning. In 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 21, it says, "For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin." As we take communion today, I don't have a question for you for this last part. I want to take the time, as we are singing and praising the Lord, to consider what the Lord has done and to remember what He has done.

Remember the grace that He has offered to us freely, and be thankful for the sacrifice that He has made for us. I want to ask you to do the same: be thankful for the sacrifice that He has made for us. Be humble, knowing that even though we fail continually, His grace is sufficient and His mercies are new every day. We praise the Lord because it is a good gift that He has given us.