Hi, I’m Pete Hughes and you’ve clicked on the Rich Australia podcast.We would love to see thousands of healthy evangelistic churches all over our country and we can’t do that unless we have healthy, evangelistically minded pastors.This is another talk from our national conference.

It was held in 2024.Ray Galea is taking us through what it means to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.Enjoy.Let’s pray.

What a joy it is to be here, Lord, together.It is great conference.We’re just so thankful from the bottom of our heart.And and now, Father, we pray, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight.Oh, Lord, oh, our rock and our Redeemer.

Amen.Now, there was always something distressing about that very old, old, old joke that most of you probably don’t know.Good with a wife.Sister’s a husband.Darling, can you please tell me that you love me?And the husband says, you know that I love you.

I told you that when we got married.If anything changes, I’ll let you know.And that’s exactly it’s hard to laugh at it because there’s something tragic about the reticence of someone finding it hard to articulate their love to another.I love you darling.And the even greater reticence and tragedy when we struggle to tell God that we love him.

I was so encouraged by Peter Adams article on the Gospel Coalition a couple of years ago and he wrote this and then we’ll come back to it later.He said I was going out the door the other day to walk the dogs when the words of Psalm 18 verse one came into my mind.I love you, Lord, my strength.

I thought, I don’t think I ever say to God that I love him.Now isn’t that beautifully humble of that dear man who was principal of Ridley College, that lovely confession.Now we’ll get back to what he has to say after that at the end of this talk.

But the task before us is to reflect on how we can nurture our own love and the love of our leaders.So it’s not, it’s not quite an expositional talk in that sense.And whether those leaders are staff members or just high level volunteers that you’re working with, that’s the task before us now.

I crave clarity, partly because I’m really old now.But but when Jesus was tempted for the third time in this passage to prioritise the 600 plus commandments, he quotes one commandment, but interestingly with two parts to it in Mark 12, he says verse 29, the most important one.

And I love the way in which the Bible prioritises answer Jesus the the most important one answer Jesus is this hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one love the Lord sorry, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.

And the 2nd is this love your neighbour as yourself.There is no commandment greater than these.Now he begins with the Shema from Deuteronomy 6 simply means here and and what they to hear is 4 words, Yahweh our God, Yahweh 1.

Our loving God is the one and only unique and unified and he deserves our exclusive loving loyalty to to misquote a popular song or misapply it in the right way, all of me is to love all of God all the time.

Now notice with me and I, I love this that God does not want to keep all the love for himself.He doesn’t say love me with all your heart and stuff.The rest I don’t care how you treat each other.See how it’s just backed up with that next command?Same one single command in two parts.

Love your neighbour as yourself, from family to frenemies and everything in between.And because we know you, God repeatedly says you cannot love God whom you cannot see, unless you love your neighbour whom you can see.There’s a tight logic now between the vertical and the horizontal.

That’s why without love we are nothing.It’s not like a halfway there.You’re nothing.You’re the nothing person.And Moses knew that Israel would fail.That’s why he kept that great plea for a circumcised heart, because without it, it wasn’t going to happen.

And that’s why Jesus, well, Jesus came because he knew he we did fail.And that’s why He’s on his way to the cross when he says it.This great commandment.It is such a burden, way too heavy for us to carry alone.It needs to fall on the shoulders of another, One who would fulfil it, matching God’s love with perfect love, and one who would pay the price for us failing it.

Because in the end, we love.Because why He first loved US1 John 4.The great pivotal verse, this is love.It’s not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Oh, how liberating is that?Just takes the pressure off and we want ourselves and our leaders to do life and ministry as an overflow out of that love.You know the the love of the Father, that who did not withhold his one and only Son, the love of the Son who demonstrated his love in that at the cross, when we were at our absolute worst enemies, He gave us his best, the love of God who poured out into our hearts His Holy Spirit that we may be able to rejoice in suffering.

This is the love that lifts service out of just duty, which is important to desire from compulsion to willing from have to to want to what a miracle is that we still have to deny ourselves, but it becomes a joyful willing denying of oneself our covenant keeping.

Lord has his arms stretched out on the cross and as he issues to you Father forgive them for they know not what they do.I always picture Jesus with tattoos on both arms and on one he says therefore love the Lord your God with all your heart and love your neighbour as yourself.

Why?Because I’ve issued Father forgive them for they know not what they do.And so our leadership culture has to constantly be shaped as a knot by that grace driven gratitude that leads to Christ like transformation where every leader has personally taken hold of the love of God in Christ Jesus.

I know it’s rare when the work of the cross is personally applied.It’s actually quite rare in the Bible.But in Galatians 220 B it’s there.The life I live in this body.I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

It’s why you’ve got to nurture your own love for God and love of God before you seek working with anyone else because you can’t take people to a place that you’ve not been.We’re all you know.It’s a cliche, but it’s true.We’re all sheep needed to be fed before we’re shepherds.

So seven very brief applications when we think about our leadership teams #1 pray every day the Ephesians 3, pray that they may grasp the height with depth and, and with high breath, you know, with high breath depth, you know what I mean?

The full dimensions of God’s love for you in Christ Jesus.That is the best prayer to pray that they may grasp and experience God’s love for them in Christ Jesus.And never assume that.

Never assume God’s the gospel of God’s gracious love.You know, always ask your leaders their faith story.Throw out that great diagnostic question, you know, because in the end, if they don’t know the gospel, then they can’t pass on the gospel of grace.

But when you listen, don’t just look for the right propositions.Listen carefully to see whether they’re personally gripped by grace.I’m always kind of thinking, is this personal?And then demonstrate God’s love by, hey, here’s an idea, meeting up with them.

Now I say that because when I left Australia, I talked to five people, children’s workers, MTSS, whatever, who basically weren’t being met by no one was meeting up with them.And so are they in your Diaries, are you consistent in meeting with them?

And then in when you do, checking to see whether the demands of ministry is starting to choke the joy of their adoption in Christ?I remember as a young plant, a young church planter in the second year, maybe third, I was just kind of so focused on everyone else’s salvation, I stopped enjoying my own salvation.

I needed to.I needed to come back to, hey, I’m a child of God.That’s right.How did this all start?Yeah, God is my dad.The judge of all the earth is my dad.I needed the art.Someone put it this way, to learn the art of wasting time with your Father in heaven and seeks to demonstrate God’s loving grace when they miss the mark.

Wow, that’s a discipleship moment.It’s not about not dropping about dropping expectations.It means that we don’t want a leadership culture that’s basically so afraid of getting in trouble.That’s not a motivation.We want a culture, leadership culture where people are motivated to do the best they can do because they love God and they love the people they’re serving.

And some clues as to kind of whether they’re getting, you know, gospel, grace, identity.Do they welcome feedback or are they defensive?Are they willing to apologise with their qualifications?Are they quarrelsome and quick to temper, quick to anger?And of course, you’ve got to lead by example in all this.

You know, I’ve noticed I’m less cranky in fellowship Dubai than I, when I, when I was in MBM.And I think to myself, it’s either a, I’ve become more godly possible or I’ve got APA full time.

Wow, that’s really good.And and I’m not the founding pastor.And I reckon it’s that last one.My identity is not because I didn’t plant this sucker.I’m just a part of it.And I think to back, you know, if that same thing happened at MBM, I’d be really annoyed right now.

And So what am I saying it all that don’t get your don’t get your identity.We love because He first loved us and with our sails filled with God’s lavish love, let’s go back to that great commandment to love God with all your heart.

Look at verse 30 again.Isn’t it great that God would actually want us to be like this?Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.Now I want to spend the rest of the time looking at what Murray looked at really is loving God with all of our heart.

Now I’m very mindful.Biblical anthropology is itself a minefield, and personally I find it very hard to systematize.But by heart, there’s some things we can clearly say.Now, we’re not talking about that four chamber organ that pumps blood.

We’re talking about simply the centre of your being, your inner self, the heart.There are 8 nearly 800 references in the Old Testament to the heart alone.And sometimes it refers to the mind, sometimes it refers to the will, sometimes it refers to the feelings and, and together, you know, the Puritans had a lovely way of describing it as the, the, the affections of the heart, which is a lovely way of putting it all together holistically.

So let’s ponder each one as it applies to our leadership team.So love God with a heart that thinks we want our leaders to love God with their mind.Our culture, pop culture is basically heart equals my emotions.

I love you with all of my heart is simply a statement about your emotional state.But in the Bible, your heart is your head. 200 references of heart referred to the head thinking.Now, by the way, can I say I didn’t put those emojis on there?

They were put there by reach staff.I just need to disclaim it there.But I appreciate the creativity.Look at Mark 26.You know the story, but but some of the scribes were sitting there and thinking it over in their hearts.

No modern person would say that thinking in their heart.You feel in your heart you don’t think.To love God with your heart is to think God’s thoughts after him.It’s to be a lifelong student of his word.You know, when I started reading the Bible as an adult with an open mind, but not a believer, and I, I still remember I kept thinking God and regalia think very differently.

One of us will need to change.It’s called repentance, a renewing of one’s mind because there’s no other way of worshipping God unless you worship him on his terms.That’s why you know, one of the phrases I, I often use is we refuse to believe the lie that we’re wiser than God.

And that’s what Proverbs 35 is saying.Trust in the Lord with all of your heart.Now notice the parallel.Lean not on your own understanding.Lean on his word, not in your own understanding.That’s why we were proclaimed the whole council of God.It’s why in the Great Commission Jesus has teach them to obey everything I have commanded you and not just those bits you like.

That’s why we that’s that’s why because our Sunday basic diet’s not going to be topical preaching because we don’t trust ourselves.We’re the love all of God as He has revealed himself.What that means is I’m to love the Father who initiated the plan of salvation.

I’m to love the Son who executed the plan of salvation.I’m to love the Spirit who applies the plan of salvation.We’re to love God’s justice and righteousness and purity, not just his mercy and kindness and forgiveness.We’re to love God’s transcendence, not just his imminence, his His, that he’s all powerful, not just his incarnation.

We’re to we’re to love the fact that He has a right to have mercy on whom He has mercy.Otherwise, all we’re doing is creating a God in our own image.And if you love that God, guess what?You’re just loving yourself.

So let’s help our leaders to know that we’re all on a constant journey of lifelong repentance, collective repentance.It’s a good way to actually see that we’re all on this journey.So be curious but not judgmental.As you meet with your leaders, share with each other what you’re learning from God’s Word, not propositionally, but also personally as it’s impacting you.

Do God talk out loud.Let it be the normative culture and don’t put the spotlight on everyone else’s heresy and not sit under the Word yourself.And most importantly, to love God with your mind.

We study the word of God to worship God.No, theology without doxology is a kind of, you know, sophisticated phrase.And I think Murray said in earlier today, you know, that you get that detailed argument in Romans that goes for 11 chapters and then climaxes on that beautiful doxology that ends with that last verse in Romans 11.

For from him, let’s say it together for from him and through him and for him are all things to him.Oh man, no theology without doxology.And you know, whenever Jim Packer, we love Jim Packer, right?

He’s passed away now going to be with the Lord.But whenever, if you’ve ever heard him lecture, he always began with a Psalm, a, a hymn, a song of a song of praise.And, and, and let me tell you, he sang it very, very badly.But you know, he always made the point that we study the things of God so that we can talk to God, so that we can talk to the Saints and sinners about God in prayer and praise and proclamation.

So at leadership meetings and staff retreats and whatever leadership retreats, let’s let them hear from God’s word.Don’t rush that.Praise him in song, thank him in prayer.Come and gather together with broken and contrite hearts to confess.

Because, brothers and sisters, we are not professionals.We are children of the King, of King.Judge of all the earth is our Dad.I love how our welcome team at fellowship they they, they pushed all their admin online so that when they gather together on Sunday morning, they open up with the word and pray beautiful and be jealous for the devotional life of of, of your leaders.

You know, Spurgeon was asked a very stupid question.What is more important prayer or reading the Bible?Now that’s a stupid question, but he gave a brilliant response.What’s more important, breathing in or breathing out?So listen how they’re breathing in the word of God and listen how they’re breathing out God shaped prayers.

Now to this end, I found Paul Miller’s book on prayer very helpful and he he made this point that it kind of resonated with me.He said the great enemy of childlike prayer that wants to love God and sees prayer like breathing.

He says the great enemy of that is cynicism, a distinctly satanic quality if you go to Genesis 3 and Job one, that evil being that slights the character of God whenever he gets a chance.

Cynics claim to be realist, but all they ever do is create a culture of suspicion.They trust nobody expect nothing and all for one reason, you know, because they’re emotionally immature and can’t they’re they’re functionally protecting themselves from disappointment and they use that most majestic of of statements your will be done that bows before the sovereignty of God as code for well, I never did really expect anything and it would have happened anyway.

And so they functionally die a slow death because they’re really dais because they do not pray expectantly.Love God with a heart that thinks and love God with a heart that chooses.

The heart, remember, is the place where we make our choices, determine our motives, listen to our conscience.Simply the inner you. 195 references of the heart referred to the will classic Proverbs 16 nine in his heart a man plans his course.

That’s where it.That’s the source of it.But the Lord determines his steps.That’s why transformation always being begins from the inside with a world that’s so focused on the outside and endless selfies.I mean seriously, after church had fellowship I must be asked about 3 or 4 selfies after every service.

Drives me nuts but I think it’s because I’m 63.But God is so focused on the inner life, it matters more to him than the outer life.But the other life matters.So in summary, the love God with our hearts means right choices from right motives based on right thinking that leads to right behaviour.

Jesus says in Luke six from the mouth springs what the heart is full of.I like what Paul Tripp’s mum once said.She said nothing comes out of the mouth that’s not already in the heart.Just another way of saying what Jesus said so that everything we say and do flows out of our heart.

Jesus was clearing the Great Commission, wasn’t he?He said it wasn’t just about teaching everything I said, teaching them to obey everything I said.He wasn’t just interested in information transfer by transformation that begins from the heart.That’s why Jesus said, you love me, you’ll keep my commands.

And in the heart is the place where motives are forged.In the heart is where we decide whether we want to live for God’s glory or our own glory.And any moment of the day, it’s whether we’re going to please Him or please ourselves, whether we want to live for his approval or the approval of humans, or whether we want to play to an audience of one or not.

So be curious, not judge mental, because it’s always risky.This as you kind of partially oversight others, you know.Can your leaders rejoice in the success of others or do they always want to be the hero of every story?Do they honour those above them, beside them and under them, their prayers and their conversations?

Do they reflect a, a, a delight in God and a love for God?Do they see the beauty of Jesus?You know, sometimes we just need to say I not only love Jesus, I like him.How he handles all those difficulties.

You just kind of like him.And our love for God will be slowly choked if we don’t watch it.It’s kind of this constant thing like a Python that sort of wraps itself around a, a victim.And Jesus picked it up in the parable of the soils in Luke 814.

He says, choked by worries, anxiety.That’s a now that’s a, a, a, something we need a vaccine for because it’s just everywhere.It’s a pandemic.Riches, pleasures of this life that bring no fruit to maturity.

Help your leaders to name their idols.It’s a good activity.Otherwise, we’re kind of shadow boxing.Name your fears.You know, we often say, you know, I fear humans rather than men.I I I long for the approval of people rather than approval of God.Yeah, but it’s kind of, it’s more nuanced than that.

So, for example, when I I wrote my first book on Catholicism, I think I was really anxious.I think, what am I anxious?I’m afraid.Why am I afraid?And then I, you know, it’s obviously what people are going to think, but it was more nuanced than that.It was this that people would be saying this.I really thought Ray would do better than that.

That’s it that captured it.That nails it for me.I really thought Ray would do better.That’s that’s what I fear them thinking.So it’s always good to face your fears.So what I’m going to get you to do now is look at the person next to you and I want you to say to them out loud, I really thought Ray would do better than this.

On the count of three.You ready, 123?You didn’t have to say with that much enthusiasm.But you see, and I want to say, of course, yeah, so did I.But but that’s that’s the stupidity of all this.

We let the fear of man and woman constantly choke our love for God.But why did I over prepare this talk?Because I worried about more what you thought than what my Father in Heaven thinks.

So go back to your leaders and just and and the beauty is you kind of can laugh about it because the moment you name it, you’re so stupid, you know, and we’ve all got them.You know, the imposter syndrome.I was talking to a dear brother today.He just said, I feel like a fraud in my role.I said, yeah, yeah, I know.

The job’s too big for you.You can’t do it.That’s exactly.Don’t ever move from that posture.You know, God’s highest priority is that we guard our hearts.You see that in Proverbs 423.You know, above all else can He’s ranking it.

Guard your hearts, for everything you do flows from it.You know, who are you when no one is looking?And for those of you who are older, you know, that’s the title of a book of a man who’s been disqualified for ministry because who was he when no one was looking?

What are the conversations we’re having in our heads?You know, to is there?Are you telling yourself, is there a sin?You’re telling yourself that you feel justified not to tell anyone else about a sinful pattern that’s developed?It’s a tremendous price we pay when we don’t guard our hearts and we listen to lies.

You know, you get that phone call as I did some time ago and person said, right, can we talk?And they’re in ministry and hey, bro.And just know there was kind of something coming.I’ve been living a double life.How long?20 years.Oh, what area of sexual immorality?

Oh, 20 years now.I’m so glad he’s repented and he wasn’t forced to and he wasn’t busted.But what conversation was going on in his head telling him I’ll just, this will be the last time.No one needs to know I’ll hurt people if I tell them I’ll bring shame on the gospel.

So I’m here today.We can’t have a group this big and some of you not be struggling right now with a double life.So I plead with you as this man now has come clean and is so glad he’s come clean, hard as it’s been.Come clean.Don’t leave here today without you doing that, right.

Above all else, guard your heart.And then finally, we love God with a heart that feels.And again, I take no responsibility for that emoji.I don’t even know how to do emojis on my phone. 166 references of the heart speak to our emotions.

Now, to be more exact, psychology kind of distinguishes emotions and feelings.Emotions are kind of physiological reactions.They just are.And then feelings are kind of our experience of them or lack of as we process it cognitively.And, and so, you know, you can be anxious and not and not be aware that you’re anxious.

I was talking to someone the other day.They they said I’ve been anxious for the last three decades and a lot of my behaviours fly and I didn’t even know I was anxious.So emotions are one thing.Your feelings are actually your experience of that.And I think the Bible is actually speaking to the feelings, how we’re processing because there’s a cognitive element to it anyway.

But you know, just a range of emotions that are connected with the heart, from sorrow to joy, from tears to fears, from hate to love.And so let’s listen to Calvin on this.Now he who merely performs all the duties of love does not fulfil them, even though he overlooks none really, but he rather fulfils them.

Who does this from a sincere feeling of love?Well, Johnny Boy says it’s OK, so I must be on we under disciple in the area of feelings.That’s my recent conviction.Feelings are wonderful gifts given to humanity and of course they’re fallen, they’re tarnished like our thinking, like our choosing.

But so often we’ve kind of done the straight, you know, faith, fact, feeling model, and there’s truth in it.I don’t want to deny that.It’s actually been helpful in many ways.You know, you’ve got the facts of the gospel, then you put your faith in and then the feelings will may or may not trail along and, and you and you kind of, I’m saying, you know, 3 three things that are often said that I’ve said many times that I don’t quite believe in the same way.

Now.One, you can never trust your feelings.I’m not sure that’s true.You can’t command them.I’m not sure I know that’s not true, and you don’t need them to love God.I definitely know that’s not true.And I’ve said all three.You take a look at the Psalms and I’m deferring here to some stuff I read from John Piper.

So I just need to now the Psalms, OK, The songbook of Israel and the church.He says we have constant testimonies about feelings, like Psalm 119.How sweet are your words to my taste.We have promises about one’s feelings.

The humble will be glad.Psalm 69, we have commands about feelings.Rejoice in the Lord.Oh my goodness, you just read Philippians.I’ll say it again, rejoice.And when our experience is lacking, and that’s a lot of the time, pray for those feelings.

Psalm 51.That’s what David did when he was in the grip of guilt more than in the grip of grace.Let me hear joy and gladness.He’s so pained.Let the bones that you have broken rejoice.David Peterson is a very good book on true feelings edited by Michael Jensen.

Read every chapter, every every edit, every article in that.It’s excellent.And he said David Peterson in in one of the chapters says it’s God’s word informs our minds, challenges our emotions, moves our wills.Bang.That’s it.We are born again, brothers and sisters.

We have a new heart.And didn’t you notice that when you were regenerated, all of a sudden you started to love the things God loves and you started to hate the things God.What was once boring is now exciting.I mean, all of a sudden a sermon became exciting.What kind of a miracle is that and that it actually pleases us to please God.

I think that’s the that’s the greatest miracle actually pleases us to please God.So when our feelings are not aligned with God’s word, as they often aren’t, don’t kind of kind of resign yourself to that.Get proactive.They’re a clue that something’s not right because you’re constantly.

We want to bring everything in line with God’s Word, including our feelings, as long as along with our thinking along with our choosing.Now, I know we’re all different and you’re not Maltese, apparently, but don’t overplay that card.

It’s overplayed in my mind because it’s about being human.Emotions are gifts that need to be unwrapped and stewarded.You either own them or they will own you.I put it this way, like under every emotional rock, there’s a diamond of truth to be rediscovered and enjoyed about God.

So I just couple of examples just so I can land this.So think in terms of the misuse of feelings.So in your anger, do not sin.That’s an obvious 1.So for me this is one kind of been a journey I’ve been on and I I came to realise that my anger was birthed in the sin of pride and a spirit of demandingness.

It was so ungodly and de Goded God and I will only truly and fully love God with all my heart when my staff feel safe around me.Remember you can’t separate one from the other, the vertical and the horizontal, the greatest commandment won’t let you do it.

Or the absence of feelings.As a young believer, I mean, I came to Christianity because I knew Jesus was who he claimed to be.And then if he told me I was a Sinner, fair enough, I’ll accept it.But I didn’t feel it.And so, but I knew from the scriptures that God’s Spirit was grieved when I sinned.Well, I certainly wasn’t grieved.

I had too healthy a self esteem.So I regularly asked God for a greater conviction of sin grief.I wanted to feel the sin.I wanted to feel the guilt, not the condemning, but I wanted to feel it.I wanted to feel what he was feeling to some extent.

And you know what the result of that was?We actually had a sermon series on sin and that helped.And God slowly by his Spirit started me to show me the sinfulness of sin.And with it came this greater joy on the beauty of grace and then the inadequate experience of feelings.

I don’t know if that’s the best way of saying it.And I, I mentioned this and I think even Murray might have referred to this passage.Look at Romans 9, two to three, Paul’s anguish for the lost Israel.I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.Why?For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, the people of Israel.

Look at those words.Great sorrow, unceasing anguish because Israel has in the main, rejected the long-awaited Messiah.And I’m, and I heard Phil Colgan here talk about his heart’s desire for the people of Australia.And I remember being on a bus with Matt Pickering, a great evangelist who were in the back of the bus.

I said, Matt, when you see all these people on the bus and you know that they’re facing a crisis eternity, how do you feel?And he says, oh, Ray, it breaks my heart.I said, really, it does nothing for me.I’m not, I’m not proud of that.Actually, it just, I, I don’t, I don’t, I don’t have that.And so I knew there’s something wrong with that.

I want this.I want great sorrow and unceasing anguish for my people because I am called to imitate Ball who imitates Christ.And so to see the loss through the eyes of Jesus and the heart that’s filled with compassion when he saw Israel battered and bruised.

So if you see a lack of joy in your leaders, don’t say, Oh well, that’s just the way they are.Be concerned and I’m not talking about hunting down an emotion, you know, the goal is not to seek joy.The goal is to seek more of Jesus who brings the joy from your salvation.

It’s a very important distinction and and what’s at stake, You know what’s at stake, the words of nature.OK Nietzsche, son of a Lutheran pastor, probably called intellectual Lutheranism is probably what he grew up in.

He said this, I might believe in the Redeemer if his followers looked more redeemed.He’s talking about lack of joy.It’s a stumbling block.Now, I know we’ve got to, you know, we’re all different in our demonstrative nature and how we’re going to display.

But but it needs to be evident at some point.Look how serious God takes the emotional state of Israel, if I could put it that way.I think there’s a better way for Deuteronomy 28 when God is unleashing the curses for breaking the covenant.

He says since you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and tearful heart in gratitude for the abundance of all things, you will serve your enemies from the Lord, whom the Lord will send against you.Wow.

I sent that to Andrew Heard a couple of years ago.I was really shocked by that because you did not serve the Lord with joy and a cheerful heart.That wasn’t the only reason why he unloaded the curses.And this is one of many good reasons why we sing, sing to God and sing to each other too.

It’s given as a gift from God to nurture our affections in our love for God.What a lovely gift.I don’t know about you, but I’ve undervalued singing, I think in my discipleship because I think I’ve undervalued this part of the heart called feelings.

You know, a man who I deeply respect and had a profound impact on me and probably many of you came late to a conference once where he was supposed to be speaking and he said, oh good, I miss the singing.Oh good, I missed the singing.

I said, dear brother, I love him to bits, but he wasn’t right on that one.Even though there are 50 commands to sing and to sing with joy, singing brings all of our heart in line with God’s heart.I feel like the church has taught the world how to sing and now they’ve left us behind when we’re the ones who’ve got something to sing about.

How I lament the amount of wasted time in my life listening to so much rock music and not praising the Rock of Ages.Seriously, I you get to my age.People say I wish I’d prayed enough, prayed more, yeah, but I’m saying I’m adding on to that regret this one.

All the while I’ve denied God his praise.I’ve been a believer for 43 years, and only now nearly 64 next week will do.I now regularly sing in my time with the Lord.

I professionalize my praise of God in song to Sundays.I’m not saying you do that, but I tell you, probably too many of us do it.We only sing in the large gathering when we’re led and it doesn’t seem to overflow.The one good thing about doing Dubai and being with, you know, 120 other nationals, Wow.

Singing is just part of their Christian walk.They’re thinking God’s words as they’re singing God’s words to each other, to God.It’s beautiful.So brothers and sisters, we are not professionals.Our Calling is to love our God with all of our heart.

And to do that we need to love our neighbour as ourselves.But our God is worthy of glory and praise and honour and everything else.You know, one of God’s love languages is words from a sincere heart.So let me go back to our dear brother Peter, Adam, who I love so much and he this is what he said.

I was going out the door the other day to walk the dogs when the words of Psalm 18 one came into my mind.I love you, Lord, my strength.The fact that he was thinking that just love, I thought, I don’t think I ever say to God that I love him.

Bang, repentance.So I decided to spend my walk telling God how much I loved him, why I loved him, what I loved about him, and how deeply I loved him.

It was wonderful.And the thing about telling God you love him, just like think about telling anyone you love them, is that it helps you say it with feeling.Let’s pray, Heavenly Father, we really can’t love unless you first loved us.

So we ask, open our eyes to the love of the Father who did not withhold His one and only Son.Open our eyes to the love of the Son who gave us his best when we were at our worst.Open our eyes to the love of God who poured out that love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, that we may grasp the full extent of Christ’s love for us at the cross.

And empower us to love you more and more, and to love others more and more.To love you with our whole heart, with minds that think your thoughts, with wills that live for your pleasure, with feelings that are marked by joy.

Oh that all of us would love all of you all the time.May your love for us overflow into our life and ministry and into the life of the ministry of our Co workers.And so we say, Lord, we love you, we love you farmer, we love you, Jesus, we love you, Holy Spirit, we love you with all of our heart.

We love you, Lord Jesus, with an undying love.In Jesus name we pray, Amen.Well, I hope, like me, you were challenged by what you heard.

I was particularly challenged by getting my emotional life in order.Please keep an eye out for further resources from our national conference that will be coming out in the next little while.I’m Pete Hughes, chat soon.