It was the beginning of my senior year, the beginning of my wife's junior year. She tried to set me up with some girls in the college and none of them seemed to work out. They were always ugly. No, that's not true. She was trying to help me find a life's mate. And we began talking and eating lunch together with some of our other friends. At times, it would break off to where we were just there alone. And our college had what they called a Sadie Hawkins Banquet in the fall, and so it was the one time of year the girls got to invite the guys out to some kind of social gathering. And there was a girl that worked in the offices there that had invited me, and East Tennessee had named Earl, invited Marie, and she always preferred men that didn't dip snuff and wore shoes, and so I knew that wouldn't last very long. By the end of the Sadie Hawkins Earl had to leave Marie and go play softball. And by the end of the Sadie Hawkins night, I'd said goodbye to Rachel and it was me and Marie. And how we talked to one another and I remember standing there in the hallway of the college when that very night I just thought, man, I am smitten. To quote the classic movie Bambi, I was Twitterpated. Can I get an amen right there? I mean, I was in love. I was in love. I was just an idiot in love. Oh, how we remember that euphoric experience. I remember we'd sit there across the table from each other because if you're really in love, you don't sit beside each other at the restaurant. You sit across from each other so you can peer through each other. And she'd say to me, stop looking at me like that. You're scaring me. And no doubt I was. We all remember that in love stage. I think our culture craves, not love, but we crave to be in love. There's movies not about love and the hardships of life that truly reveal love. We're just in love with the idea of being in love. I was reading a book this week. You've probably read it already and God bless you for being ahead of the times. I'm from Tennessee, so every cultural fad was about ten years later to where I grew up. So I just learned about the book, The Five Love Languages. You might have read it. And the author's premise is this, that at its peak, the in-love experience is euphoric. We're emotionally obsessed with each other. We go to sleep thinking about each other. When we rise, we think only of that person. I remember when my sister-in-law and brother-in-law were dating and in that euphoric love stage, had unlimited minutes on their phones, and so they were obviously sleeping in different beds, but they had the phones on. I'd apparently just hear each other breathe while they were sleeping. I remember when my sister-in-law, Erin, got that first texting bill in after she had met Erin, and $1,500 of texting that they had done between each other. They didn't care about the $1,500 bill because they were in love and they didn't care who knew about it. We remember those days. And we're led to believe that we're really in love and that that feeling will last forever. That we'll always have those wonderful feelings that we had at that very moment, that nothing would ever come between us. I remember we were getting married and the wedding ceremony and Pastor Sexton was officiating the ceremony and he looked at us and with that grin and that twinkle in his eye only a seasoned husband could have, he said, I wish I could tell you that you all would never have an argument. We looked at each other like, oh baby, we're never going to fight. She said, oh no sugar, we're never going to fight. And then we started having a fight about the fact we weren't going to have a fight. We were in love. And I have kept my end of that bargain, but she has not. And we would bottle that up if we could sell that euphoria. If we could sell that feeling, oh, what a wealthy person we would have. And so that euphoria, that in love stage, gives us the illusion that we have an intimate relationship. We feel that we belong to each other. We feel that we can conquer all problems. That we could never conceive of doing any damage to the one that we indeed love. In a textbook, a case study of that in love euphoric experience, it was suggested that that euphoric period lasts no longer than two years or two and a half years. I today do not come to destroy the notions that someone can truly be in love. But I am suggesting this. What happens when the feeling is over? What happens when life hits us in the face? For after all, life will sucker punch all of us right in the face. And so we make decisions. Shall we end the relationship? Shall we decide to live in misery? Or shall we dig deeper underneath this facade of euphoria and dig something up that would be real and lasting? And so in the book, Dr. Chapman suggests the five love languages of human beings that if I would but understand Marie's love language, I could Fill up that empty love tank that is deep in her bosom that I could know how to show her that I love her. Well, you say, I'm not a man for words. She knows I love her. I told her once about 15 years ago. Well, maybe she's running on just a little love empty today. And so he signified that they are these languages. There's words of affirmation. Quality time. There's receiving gifts. By the way, that is my love language. And my birthday's coming up in just a matter of weeks. Number four, there are acts of service. And number five, there's a physical touch. And I was thinking about Marie. I told her the book I was reading and she said, what language do I speak? And I said, I don't know. You're multilingual. But as I thought about relationships and how they turn upon emotions and tragedies in life, I've heard of couples that have maybe the premature death of a child that the death of that child doesn't bring them together, but it pulls them apart. I thought about the challenges that each of us must navigate in these relationships and the thought that, you know what? We may one day, just maybe one day, we may have four kids and not have that euphoric feeling we used to have that just the birds just wrote our names in the clouds and fireflies wrote of our love in the darkness of our nights. That love at that day would not be a feeling, would not be a euphoria, but rather would be a choice. That love would be a decision. That love would be a commitment. Praise God, He's given us health and given our children health, but we've been in some dark places in life. We've dealt with challenges in our lives. Thank God that she made the decision, although the feeling may not be here right now, and I want to rip his head off. But I'm going to decide that I love him. And I'm going to decide that I love her. That's not the message today. But an illustration of this. I was saved when I was a teenager. I was 14 years old and I was going to a teen camp and God got a hold of my heart. I gave my life to Christ. I've given this illustration before. I think it's appropriate here again. The night of the evening that I accepted Christ, our youth group had gone to a McDonald's that night. There was a lady sitting there in the restaurant and she looked at me and she said, son, you got saved tonight, didn't you? I said, yes, ma'am. I said, were you at the meeting? She said, no. She said, you just have that look on your face. May I just submit to you that there was that euphoric relationship of knowing I was saved. That euphoric relationship that I had dealt with the issue of my sin. That God had given me assurance that if I had died at that moment, that I would see the Lord Jesus in my next breath. That I was going to heaven. Man, back in those days, it wasn't anything just to memorize large portions of Scripture. But even back in that time in my life, I was digging the well that I draw from even this morning. But it was an exciting thing to put gospel tracts in your pocket and go out and tell people about Christ. Man, it was awesome to go to church and hear preaching. It was as if I came to church looking for something to respond to. Looking for something in the sermon that I could say, boy, that was for me. I remember those days. There was this euphoric, almost out-of-body experience. Man, if somebody came into the average church and had that feeling, we'd just give them six months and hope they backslide. That euphoric feeling, that awesome feeling, that new love that God loves me and God saved me and God is working in my life. What a great feeling it is to know that we're on our way to heaven and God thought enough of us to send His Son to die for our sins and then He thought enough of us to speak to our hearts and allow us to be saved. Then life. punches us right in the gut. Disappointments come and trials come into our lives. And we get tried to the point where we actually say with our mouth, you know, if God really loved me, why would He allow this into my life? By the way, I remind you why-sayers that Jesus said why on the cross. My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me? And I have to admit, it's not wrong to say why, just as long as you allow God to answer it and you're pleased with the answer He gives. We suffer difficulties and setbacks and maybe even in our life, declension, backsliding from the things of God that the iron of our spiritual level is not so hot anymore and church is a chore and soul winning is by the wayside. We just get used to the things of God. That which used to excite us no longer cranks the engine. That which used to get us going in the motor revving doesn't move us anymore. It is at that time that we ask ourselves, am I willing to make the choice to love God with all my heart, with all my soul, and with all my strength? I've asked myself the question in preparation for this morning, do I really love God? Now, I know what you'd say. Pastor, you spend X amount of time in the Bible every week, and I do. And you visit folks that aren't doing well, and I do. And you tell people about Christ, and I do. And you pray for our needs, and I do. And you travel the country and sing, and I do. But that wasn't the question I asked myself. Do I really love God? I've been burdened with the question. I love Marie, and I think she'd know that. If I asked her right now, she'd say yes, because she knows what would happen if she didn't. But it's a lot harder to look yourself in the face and say, what is tangible in relation to answering the question, do I really love God? Most Sundays we come together, we anticipate the question, does God love me? I'm happy to report to you that the overwhelming and unbiased evidence in the Bible, the unanimous evidence in the Bible is God loves you. The great theologian was questioned about what great hymn expressed the essence of Christianity. What hymn had the greatest theological basis for it? And he said, well, that's simple. Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to Him belong, and they are weak, but He is strong. Yes, Jesus loves me. You don't know that God loves you. I report to you this morning that God loved you so much. He was willing to bankrupt heaven to send His Son to live a sinless life that He may die for your sins. that He was buried, that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He offers as a gift to you today, salvation free and full and forever without merit, without basis, without religion, without baptism, without good works. God is willing to accept you as you are and give you the gift of salvation. But our question is not, does God love me? But do I love Him? Loving God, and loving each other. Quickly, I want you to go with me this morning to the Gospel according to Luke in chapter 10. Luke in chapter number 10. As we explore just for a moment the question, do we truly love the Lord? Luke chapter 10. Jesus gives an answer to a rich young ruler's question. The man was seeking to gain salvation through his good works, and it's not of works lest any man should boast. And an answer in such a way that would prove to that young man that he indeed was a sinner, Christ gave this exact answer. Notice with me in Luke chapter 10 and verse 25. And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And he said unto him, What is written in the law? How readest thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself. Now, for sake of time, I don't want us to give the exposition of this text, but notice in verse 27, his answer was right. It's the answer of the Old Testament. It is the first four commandments. Summarized, the abridged version of thou shalt have no other gods before me, thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, and thou shalt honor the Sabbath day. The abridged version of the first four commandments written in stone is thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. Now notice first that Christ's answer for us in the Bible is love is ascribed to our whole being, united to Christ. How do I know that I love God? Are we in love with Christ in our whole being, everything we are? He said, first of all, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all of thy Now, of course, he's not speaking of a heart-shaped organ underneath the cavity of your chest. He's speaking of the seat of our emotion, the seat of who we are. Who you are is what is in your heart. Do you love God with all of your heart? In other words, do you love Him so that there's nothing in comparison of Him? Do you love Christ so much that there are no rivals to your feelings for Him? The Bible says that Christ is to have preeminence in our life. That means He's not to be one of, but the one and only. He will not compete for our affection. He deserves our full affection. Now, to illustrate that, will you hold your place quickly here and go to chapter 14 of Luke? Very quickly, Luke chapter 14, and notice what your Bible says. Luke chapter 14. Notice with me, if you will, in verse 26. If any man come to me, Luke 14, 26, if any man come to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." He uses the figure of hate to express the depth of our love to Him. Loving Christ is to love Him with all of our hearts. He said, if any man come to me and he hate not his father and he hate not his mother and hate not his wife and hate his children and hate his brothers and sisters, if he can't be my disciple. That seems rather odd. I'm to hate my family and hate my wife and hate those closest of relationship. But he said to us, we are to love God beyond rivalry. We are to love God with a feeling of such affection that our love for Him rises to such a great level that it makes our feelings for our father and mother and wife and children, it makes those feelings seem as hatred in comparison with our great love for Him. My wife said to me, as we were speaking of this love language, by the way, she didn't ask me what language I speak yet. I like gifts. Somebody say amen right there. She said, I didn't have to choose to love the kids. She said the moment they were delivered, I loved them. You ladies understand that. That's what is so evil against natural affections. Women not loving their children. That is the natural gift of God to a mother's heart. The abuses we see in the news about mothers, the mistreatment of children, it's against nature. That love is put in the heart of a mother for those kids. But there are some things we have to choose to love. We are not born with a natural love and affection for God. We're born with affection for ourselves. We're born with an affection for the things of this world. But would a man, would a man fall in love with the Lord Jesus of Calvary, that the love that he has for Christ transcends the relationship he has with anyone else in the world, including women, those children, including men, those relationships we have, that we love God with all of our heart. God. Someone said this love is to vehemently and intensely seek after God because love is action. It will act in every possible way to prove to God just how much we love Him. Let me ask you a question. Do you love God with all of your heart, with all of your being, everything you are? Does it crave to know God and love Him? He said we're to love Him with all of our soul. Now in our soul, that inanimate yet eternal part of us, the Bible says God created man, spirit, soul and body. The body is an earthly vehicle. We spend all of our time on the body and it's the least enduring part of who we are. The body corrupts. That's why we put makeup on it. The body breaks. That's why we go to the doctor. It gets sick. We nourish and cherish that part of us that endures the least. But God said, I want you to think about that which endures forever in the soul, our intellect, our emotions and our will. If we don't throughout the day and the entire day think about God, then we truly are not in love with Him. Is God in your thoughts? He said in the Old Testament, He's not in all of their thoughts. Do you think about God? Do you think of Him before you go to bed? Now, I'm not saying that we could perfectly love God. Clearly, we cannot. But while the TV's on, does the thought ever enter your mind, I ought to turn this off and open the Word and spend time with God because I love Him? I do not perfectly love God, and I want you to know that. But have we gotten so far away from that love relationship with Him that it doesn't even enter our mind that we are in relationship with the King of Kings and Lord of Lords through faith in the blood He shed for us on Calvary? With all of our soul, the intellect and the emotions, I'm not suggesting that religion is a purely emotional thing and it cannot be the basis of our religion, but there is some thought and feeling when it comes to this relationship with God. You know, it's emotion that moves us. You know why you get mad? Because you have emotion that drives the train. It's the emotion that drives the action. That's why you men ran around the house when your team scored a touchdown yesterday, and you shed a tear when they fumbled the ball in the end zone like Tennessee did and lost the game. And you try not to care, but you do care, and it affects how you feel about things. Does our emotion suggest that we love Him? When the song is sung about the Lord Jesus and the song is sung about Calvary, is there not one emotion that springs up and says that man or that woman is singing about someone that I love? Those girls were singing, Jesus paid it all. I tried not to sit up here looking like some proud daddy that's going to walk like some proud peacock to the pulpit, but man, I was thinking those girls are singing about Calvary. There's emotion. You cannot be governed by emotion, but are you moved emotionally when you think about He that gave it all that you may have it all? Do you love God with all your soul? And that third part of your soul is your will, your volition. Do you choose Him? Do you choose Him? Lady Spears said to her husband, well, I'm just hurt. I'm just affected. You did not choose me. You chose to go with your friends. You chose to go to the bowling alley. You chose to go fishing. And you said, I haven't been fishing in three and a half hours. Did you choose me? It's the will that proves that we love one another and that we choose. We could choose something else, but we choose Him. My pastor used to look at us training for the ministry and he would say to us, you know, the miracle of the ministry is not that you are in it, although that is a miracle. If you met some of my kin, you'd agree it's a miracle. We've met your kin. We're just glad you're alive. She's not a gypsy. He'd say, the miracle is not that you are in it. The miracle is that you want to be in it. My heart is so stirred every Sunday morning. I see folks coming in. Before I see them, I hear them coming in. And the miracle is not that you're here. The miracle is that you chose to be here. And I believe when God looks down and He sees His people meeting together on Sunday, it's not that they're assembled, but He is so pleased. It is that they chose against other things to show Him how much we love Him. They're simple choices. Do we choose that we love Him? Our culture, I must be honest, our culture has gotten swept out to sea so quickly. Our culture has been swept out to sea with technology and busyness and scurry. First iPhone came out in 2007. That gave us the portability to have the World Wide Web at our fingertips and information and that spirit, that feeling of instant gratification that overwhelms us. We cannot turn it off, but someone needs to call a time out and say, wait a minute, we're so distracted by silly things. Silly things. That we don't understand and give ourselves to that which is lasting. And we prove to God through our choice. Lord, I love you. Lord, do I love you with all of my heart? Do I love you with all of my soul? And then he said thirdly, it's to love God with all of your strength. To love Him with all of your power. To exert all the power of body and soul. To give God everything within our power, yea, and beyond our power. To love God with all of our time, the strength of our days. To love God with all of our talent and the strength of our abilities. To love God with all of our treasure and the strength of our income. To love God with all of our health and to love God even with our leisure. Do we prove to God through our strength that we will use our might to love Him? Are you holding back on God? You see, you can't say well to Him, I love you on Sunday. But I will not think of you or choose you on Monday. Fellas, I have been married twelve years in December. And I would like us to try on for size for a week with our spouse the feelings we have for God. Hey, babe, I love you. I'll see you again next Sunday. I'll bring your love letter with me, okay? I'll see you again next Sunday." Will that work out very well for you? Jennifer back there in that upstate New York, she just did one of these. Translated, uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh. Ain't going to work. Sweetheart, I want you to know, I love you so much. Of all the things in my life, you're my favorite woman. You're my favorite wife. I mean, of all the women that have a portion of my affection, you're A+. You're number one. I'm going to walk away because she's giving me that look. Now, why do we expect it not to work in that monogamous, loving, physical, spiritual relationship? And we try it on with God. Have you ever met a woman and you say, boy, he's got her fooled? Or she's got him fooled? We were in the store yesterday where Dave and I I bought an audio voice recorder. And I said, men have to buy these because God installs them in the factory in a woman's brain. Does your wife have one? You didn't say that. You said, and then she tells you what you said. She plays it back. I didn't get one of those. I have to buy one. And when I need it, I don't have it on my person. I said to the salesman, I said, I bet your wife has one, too. He said, no. He said, actually, I have one. Have them send me back to the factory to have it installed. I said, well, does your wife have one? He said, no. I said, she doesn't remember what you say. He said, no. And he said to his friend, what do we call my wife? He referenced a movie I wasn't familiar with. He said, well, we call her 10 Second Jen. 10 seconds in, I said, really? I said, what's that mean? He said, well, if you told her something 10 seconds later, you're going to have to tell her again. She could be easily fooled. But not God. Luke 6, 46, why call you me, Lord, Lord? And do not the things that I say. Lord, I love you. He says, oh, come on. We all know that's not true. Do you love God with all your strength? And then he said, it's to love God with all of your mind. Have I filled my mind with His wonderful love letter to me? It's a box in our closet. It ought to have a lock upon it. Now, two and a half of my kids can read those love letters. God's written you a love letter. Do you love God with all of your mind? Are you putting into your mind the things of God? You see, long after you came down to the altar and had that euphoric relationship, that euphoric feeling of salvation and freedom in Christ, That's going to wear off. That commitment that you have to the Lord Jesus now in the local church, you know what? Something's going to happen, and I wish it wouldn't, but Jesus said it is impossible, but that offenses will come. It's impossible, but that they will come. You will be offended. You will be hurt. You will be misunderstood. You might even be maligned. It will happen. What happens when the feeling is gone? What happens when Your love is tested. It is at that time that you choose to love God. That you choose. You decide. You commit. God, whatever comes my way, I'm going to love You with all of my heart. I'm going to love You with all of my soul. I'm going to love You with all of my strength. I'm going to love You with all of my mind. Do you love God?