Mark 12:28

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 and with all your soul and 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." (Mark 12:28–31)

A spiritual pit stop: four questions to test whether you are truly loving God with all your strength, mind, heart, and soul.

A Youth Takeover and a Different Way to Teach

The youth have taken over a bit today, so this is not a normal service. My name is Nick, and I'm the junior high pastor here. If this is your first time, this should still be a great service — but please come back next week to hear Pastor Miles, who is a fantastic teacher currently going through First Timothy.

In the youth room we teach every week, twice a week. Jason, our high school pastor, is teaching through the book of John on Sundays using a word-by-word dramatized video, followed by small group discussion. The high schoolers just finished the Discipleship II course alongside the rest of the body on Wednesdays. On Sundays I'm teaching through Philippians, and on Wednesdays through 1 Samuel, taking the junior highers through the life of David — the things he did great and the things he messed up on.

Teaching with Questions

I used to teach in a 45-minute sermon format, like we do in here. But on Wednesdays especially, the kids come in at seven at night, exhausted from school and homework, and one week I noticed every set of eyes was glazed over. So I changed how I teach. Instead of talking straight at them for 45 minutes, I started teaching with questions.

I'll read the text, briefly explain it, then leave a lot to be desired and ask them things like, "Who is Timothy?" They're allowed to cheat — they can use their Bibles, their phones, Blue Letter Bible, whatever — and I encourage it. With the life of David, I ask, "You're a man of war. The man who has hunted you for years is asleep, and there's a spear right beside his head. What would you do? And what did David do?" Because what you would have done might be different from what David did — and might have been wrong. David said, "No, I won't take the Lord's anointed."

This puts the responsibility back on them. They have to be invested, look up answers, and consider what they would do. When they finish, I take them through the answers and teach the same content I normally would — but now they're engaged because they want to know if they got it right. Seeing junior highers actively working, writing, and asking, "What does this mean? Can you help me?" — I love it.

We Need a Spiritual Pit Stop

Today I'm going to give you a hybrid of what we normally do. You'll notice your flyer just says strength, mind, and heart, with space for you to respond to questions I'll put up so you can think and consider.

As I prayed about what to share, the thing that kept coming to my heart is that we need spiritual maintenance — a spiritual pit stop. In college, my first car was a 1985 Toyota Camry, a silver beauty that got me here all the way from Missouri. One day the back brakes started making a grinding noise — and my parents are here, so I can't lie. They cautioned me that a normal vehicle does not make that noise. But in my 19-year-old wisdom I thought, "It's fine, it'll last another day. I don't have any money for it." You know the excuses.

Driving to work one day on Mission, a busy road, I came up to a red light and a long line of traffic. I hit the brake pedal and nothing happened. I pumped them — nothing. The brakes were so worn and neglected that when I pushed, the hydraulics overextended and all the brake fluid drained out immediately. I was bearing down at 45 miles an hour. By the grace of God there were fewer cars in the left-turn lane, so I shifted down, swerved over, pinned my front tire into the curb, and stopped without hitting anyone. When the mechanic saw it, he had one thing to say to my dad: "Man, kids are dumb." He was absolutely right.

I assumed my car would last forever, that I didn't have to maintain it. We cannot make the same mistake with our walk with the Lord. Our walks need maintenance — we need to check the oil and the tire pressure regularly. So I'm going to ask you questions and then stop talking, giving you a chance to consider your own life.

Loving God with All Your Strength

Jesus made it plain: love God with everything, and love your neighbor as yourself. Today I want to focus on loving God, which Jesus breaks into four parts. I'll start with the last — strength. And for each of these there are two sides of the coin: one side where you put in the effort and hard work, and another side where you have to trust the Lord.

My role here is multifaceted. I'm the maintenance guy you might see running around with a worried look when an AC unit breaks. I do photo and video, toting equipment and getting interviews. And I'm the junior high pastor — which takes a whole different level of strength. We play games, chase kids, run, jump, duck, do broom ball, and run camp from 6:30 a.m. until after midnight all week. I just turned 30, and things are starting to hurt. After broom ball the 12-year-olds say, "I got a bruise," and the leaders say, "I don't think I'll ever walk again."

So as the gap between me and the junior highers grows, I have to take better care of myself. Nachos are not an acceptable lunch anymore. I have to think about cholesterol — which I had to Google. I've got to take care of the body God gave me so I can do what He's called me to do.

But not all of us are called to the same thing. I'm five foot nine and not very muscular; security ministry is not my calling, and I'm no Michael Phelps. The point is not that you do what I'm called to do. Whatever strength He's given you, you're called to love the Lord with it.

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. (1 Timothy 4:7–8)

Yes, there is some emphasis on physical exercise, but the body should never become an object of worship or idolatry. We exercise enough that it leads to godliness.

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. (1 Corinthians 6:19–20)

We must be cautious not to pollute our bodies from the inside out — through overeating, intoxication, sexual sin, or any other means. But there's the other side: we also need to trust the Lord to provide for our physical needs.

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink... Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?... Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (Matthew 6:25, 31–33)

Question one: Is there an area where you lack trust in the Lord's provision, or where you haven't cared for the body He's given you, that has hindered you from loving God with all your strength? If so, what do you need to do to change that now? I don't want a fruity spiritual answer — I want practical application. Take a minute to write down an answer.

Loving God with All Your Mind

If you want to love God with your mind, the first thing is to make sure you're not filling it with filth and sin. Whatever you put in front of you — media platforms, your phone, your tablet, your TV, the people you surround yourself with — seeps in and saturates your heart.

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. (Psalm 101)

But there's another side to loving God with your mind that we don't always treat as sin. It comes out of the story of Mary and Martha — one of the first stories I ever taught, and one that keeps poking at me because I get over-busy.

Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving... "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." (Luke 10)

Martha welcomed Jesus — good. She served Jesus — good. But she got so busy serving Him that she didn't take time to hear Him — bad. It's easy to get caught up in work, soccer practice, overtime, emails on your laptop at night, then sleep, wake up, and do it all again. The issue is we get so busy we never stop to listen to what Jesus has to say. We place all these things in front of Him and say, "I have to take care of these before I spend time with You" — and the day ends without us spending time with Him.

We have to set time aside to hear from Jesus — not just from other pastors or what He's telling our friends, but what He's trying to minister to us. That takes effort: stop what you're doing, open your Bible, get a highlighter and pen, and be ready to study. Even five minutes is tough, because the first ten or fifteen are spent getting your mind off the grocery list. And the trust side is that we have to trust the Lord will actually meet us, speak to us, refresh our minds, remove the stress, and fill us by His Spirit.

Question two: What was the last thing you heard or learned from the Lord — not something Pastor Miles said, but something the Lord spoke to you in your own time with Him? If it's nothing, what needs to change? If it's something, great — what's your next step to keep growing? Like weight training, you always add a little more weight so you keep growing in strength. Take a minute to consider.

Loving God with All Your Heart

Let me drop an analogy. If the body (strength) and the mind are the tree, the heart is the soil they're planted upon. What goes into the soil is important because it directly affects the heart, and the heart directly affects the soul, which is eternal. If the heart is bad, the rest of you is affected — your words, your thoughts, your actions. But if the heart is filled with the fullness of God, it produces the fruit that comes from His Spirit.

No good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit... The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. (Luke 6:43–45)

Whatever you absorb into your heart is what overflows out of you. It's a cycle: take in evil and it absorbs into the heart and comes back out; take in goodness from the Lord and that comes back out. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these... those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:19–23)

Question three: Which of these two lists better describes your life — the works of the flesh, or the fruit of the Spirit? Is it a heavy mixture of both? If you're seeing things you don't want to see, what steps do you need to take to change that? Take a minute to write down your response.

Loving God with All Your Soul

It should be no mystery to us that we are sinners. Whether you've gone to church one day or a thousand, it's no surprise that our souls are beaten down by sin.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. (Romans 3:23–25)

The verse doesn't end at our sin. When our soul was lost, Jesus stepped in. He took our punishment and offered us His righteousness. To love God with all your soul, you have to offer it to Him completely — it belongs to Him, it has to be His. We can no longer live the way our flesh wants, but in the holiness found only in Him.

Of all four aspects, our strength, our mind, and our heart all perish with us — our bodies will fail and we will die. But the soul is eternal. I want mine rested in the most secure place there is, and that's with the Lord. When we offer our souls completely to Him, He keeps them secure. There is no safer place.

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

For this final part I don't have a question for you. As we take communion and sing, I want you to take the time to consider what the Lord has done, to remember the grace He offered us freely, and to be thankful for the sacrifice He made for us. Be humble 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 He has given us.