With All Your Strength Series

The Greatest Commands #4

Love God With All Your Strength

Introduction

An Amish boy and his parents found themselves in a modern shopping mall. They were amazed at everything but especially the two shiny, silver walls that would move apart and slide back together again. The boy asked, “What is this, Father?” The father, never having seen an elevator, said he had no idea. While the boy and his father were watching with amazement, an older woman in a wheelchair rolled up to the moving walls and pressed the button. When the walls opened she wheeled herself between them into a small room. The walls closed behind her. The boy and his father watched the numbers above the walls light up sequentially and then reverse as they came back down. Finally the walls opened up again and a gorgeous young woman stepped out. The father, never taking his eyes off the young woman, said quietly to his son, “Go get your mother.”

I wish that transformations were that easy! We have been talking about a transformed life this month - one that shapes itself by obeying the greatest commands. Jesus identified the first greatest command by quoting a passage from Deuteronomy: “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O 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.’”

We’ve talked about loving God with all your heart, your soul, and your mind. Today we come to the fourth word — “strength.” What does Jesus mean when he uses the word “strength” and what does it mean to love God with all your strength?

1. Love God With All Your Strength

The word strength here is not a term that means physical strength. It is a word that means “very” or “much”. It’s like saying, “Love God with everything you’ve got.” Ogden: “Our strength is our capacity or ability to serve God with the passion and energy he has given us…” All your energy, all your abilities, all your resources, all your opportunities.

“The majority of us have an ethereal, unpractical, bloodless abstraction that we call love for God; to Jesus love for God meant the most passionate, intense love of which a human being is capable.” — Oswald Chambers

That’s what it means to love God with all your strength — to love Him with your “very,” your “much,” your “everything.”

2. Four Ways to Love God With All Your Strength

-Love God With Your Pursuit. Every day, we choose what to chase — success, comfort, entertainment, control — but the one pursuit that gives life meaning is to seek the Lord. Psalm 105:4 “Seek the LORD and His strength; seek His presence continually.” What are you really seeking in life? Above career, financial success, and status in life - seek to Love God more than anything.

-Love God With Your Abilities. Colossians 3:23 “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord.” Every gift you have — physical, mental, creative, financial — is an opportunity to love God. Loving God with all your strength means using what you can do for what He wants done. If you can cook, comfort, build, listen, teach, encourage, lead, or serve —then do it with all your heart for His glory. I read about a lady in one congregation who said, “I can’t do much, but I can make banana pudding.” So she made one every week for the shut-ins. And in her own sweet way, she was loving God with all her strength. Galatians 5:13 "Serve one another humbly in love"

-Love God With Your Resources. Hebrews 13:16 “Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have.”

Loving God with your strength means being generous with your time, your money, and your energy. Generosity towards others is giving back to the One who gave us everything. Love in action always costs something.

-Love God in Action! 1 John 3:18 says, “Let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.” True love for God shows up in action, in obedience, in service, in faithfulness. John 14:23 “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word.” You can say you love God all day long, but the proof is in what you do with your strength. It’s like saying you love your spouse but never lifting a hand to help. never showing affection, never sacrificing. That’s not love — that’s sentiment. Loving God with all your strength means showing up, standing firm, and serving faithfully.

-Love God Because He First Loved Us. We don’t love God to earn His favor —we love Him because we already have it. The One who gave His strength to create the world used that same strength to carry a cross. 1 John 4:7-8 “Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” He loved us with all His heart, soul, mind, and strength —and He calls us to love Him the same way.