{"id":33626,"date":"2005-08-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2005-08-26T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/loving-god-with-all-your-heart\/"},"modified":"2005-08-26T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2005-08-26T00:00:00","slug":"loving-god-with-all-your-heart","status":"publish","type":"sermons","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/loving-god-with-all-your-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"Loving God With All Your Heart"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2005\/08\/18910.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n<p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">I&#8217;d\nlike to read from the Scriptures a very familiar story. Sometimes when we hear\nfamiliar stories, we get a little disappointed. We think the speaker isn&#8217;t\ngoing to tell us anything new. Perhaps you won&#8217;t hear anything new, but it\nnever harms to peek around the corner of a verse to see who is standing in the\nshadows, smell the smells, and see the colors. I hope you&#8217;re going to do that\nwith the story of the Good Samaritan.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Jesus\nhad been challenged by a young lawyer who came to him and said, &#8220;Teacher, you\ntell me what I have to do to inherit eternal life.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">In\nresponse Jesus said, &#8220;You have to love the Lord your God with all your heart\nand all your soul and all your mind and all your strength, and your neighbor as\nyourself.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">The\nyoung man wanted to justify himself, so he said to Jesus Christ, &#8220;So who is my\nneighbor?&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Jesus\ntold him, &#8220;A certain man was going from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among\nthieves. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him, and went away, leaving him\nhalf dead. A priest happened to be going by. When he saw the man, he passed by\non the other side. And a Levite did the same, when he saw the man. But a\nSamaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was. And when he saw him, he took\npity on him. (Or he had compassion on him.) He went to him, bandaged his\nwounds, and poured on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey. He\ntook him to an inn.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">&#8220;The\nnext day the Samaritan took out two silver coins, and said to the innkeeper,\n&#8216;You take care of him. When I return, I&#8217;ll reimburse you for any extra\nexpense.&#8217; &#8220;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">&#8220;Which\nof these three,&#8221; said Jesus, &#8220;do you think was neighbor to the man who fell\ninto the hands of robbers?&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">&#8220;Well,&#8221;\nthe expert in the law replied &#8220;the one who had mercy on him.&#8221; Jesus said to\nhim, &#8220;Go and do thou likewise.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <strong>\n        <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Our sinful hearts keep us\nfrom loving God<\/span>\n      <\/strong>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">I\nwant to talk to you about loving God. Many people want to love God, but they\ndon&#8217;t know how. Many people don&#8217;t know how to love each other or to receive\nlove from other people. If we don&#8217;t know how to give love or receive love, then\nwe cannot experience all that God wants us to have.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">When\nwe talk about loving God, we have a problem. It&#8217;s a very simple problem. We\nhave a problem with our heart, the part of us God made to be able to love. I\nremember my mom used to get very cross with me when I suggested that the Bible\nsaid that man was born with a sinful heart, as if he had a bias within him.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">In\nmy country, England, we play a game called &#8220;bowls.&#8221; When you&#8217;re too old to run\naround the block or play tennis or racquetball, you can still go to these\nlovely green lawns and bowl a little ball called a jack. You send it as far and\nas straight as you can. Then you take a big bowling ball with a spot on it. You\naim the big ball at the little jack. The problem is there&#8217;s a bias inside the\nbig ball. However straight you aim it, it always goes  to the right or\nto the left. So the game isn&#8217;t quite so simple as you think.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Nor\nis the game of life. No matter how hard you aim a child at a targetthe target\nbeing to do right, to think right, to be rightthere is a bias within the human\nheart that takes it . The good things we want to do, we don&#8217;t. And we do\nthe things that we don&#8217;t want to do, as the Anglican prayer book has it. There\nis no health in us.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">So\nthat&#8217;s the problem. God knows it, for he looks on the inside. Man looks on the\noutside, but God looks right down within, and he says the diagnosis of this\nhuman heart is continually evil. It thinks thoughts other than God would have\nit think. It decides to do things other than God would have it do.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">How\nthen can those sinful hearts love God? Is this the heart that&#8217;s going to the\nmission field? Is this the heart that&#8217;s going to care for the neighbor? Is this\nthe heart that&#8217;s going to get out there in the drug alleys and do something\nabout the terrible state of our young people?<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">No.\nSomething has to happen to that heart. In fact, Jesus said &#8220;Out of the hearts\nof men come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, lies,\nslander.&#8221; What we need is a bypass. No, a bypass isn&#8217;t going to do it. The only\nthing that will do something about this human heart, which is trying to love\nGod but can&#8217;t because it&#8217;s so evil, is a transplant.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <strong>\n        <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Through the sacrifice of\nChrist, God gives us a heart transplant<\/span>\n      <\/strong>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">If\nthere were a way I could receive a new heart, a heart that would naturally love\nGod and love my neighbor as much as I love myself, then I would perhaps have a\nchance to do the thing that Jesus told us all to do.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">But\nhow can I have a transplant? Did you know that the Bible actually says that we\ncan have a transplant, that God will be involved in giving us that? In the Book\nof Ezekiel there&#8217;s an interesting verse. It says this: &#8220;I will give you a new\nheart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you your heart of\nstone and give you a heart of flesh. I&#8217;ll put my Spirit in you and move you to\nfollow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.&#8221; There you are. It tells us\nwe can have a transplant. God is going to remove our stony, selfish hearts and\ngive us a heart of flesh, a heart that beats when people are in trouble, a\nheart that cares when a man falls in the ditch.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">But\nif you&#8217;re going to have a transplant, you need a donor. We have a young man in\nour church who is a doctor. He went to Ghana with Chuck Colson. While he was in\nGhana, he went into the prisons and did some medical work there. He found a\nyoung Ghanian doctor who had a kidney problem. The American doctor brought the Ghanian\ndoctor and his brother back to this countryto Milwaukee. Here Christian\ndoctors transplanted the kidney of one brother into the other brother, hoping\nthat this would help. Actually it didn&#8217;t, and the young doctor returned to\nGhana no better, and his healthy brother was minus a kidney.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">I\ntell you that story because I think any of us would do the same for our\nbrother. Or if your child had leukemia, wouldn&#8217;t you say, &#8220;Take my bone\nmarrow.&#8221; If you loved that person, then, surely, you would help. But how many\npeople do you know who would say, &#8220;You need a heart? Take mine.&#8221; Do you know\nanyone like that? I don&#8217;t know any one like that. Or do I?<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">When\nGod looked down at the human race and saw that only a transplant would do,\nJesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity said, &#8220;Take my heart.&#8221; And God\ndid. On an operating table in the shape of a cross, God, the Great Physician,\nlifted out the heart and nature of Jesus Christ and offered them to the world.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">He\noffered his heart because he knew that our heart would never love God. You can\ntake it to church and sit it in the pew and give it a hymnbook and teach it how\nit should be a good little Christian heart. And it&#8217;s still the same old wicked\nheart that you were born with. But when you, as the Bible says, &#8220;become a\npartaker of the divine nature,&#8221; and receive Christ&#8217;s heart, Christ&#8217;s nature,\nChrist himself by his Holy Spirit, then all the valves are Open. You have the\npossibility of loving God with all your heart, all your soul, all your\nstrength, and all your mind.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Oh,\nyes. I remember that transplant taking place in my heart years ago. I remember\nwhen I was a student. I remember being in the hospital when someone explained\nto me that I could receive the nature of God to do in me and through me what I\nhad no intention of doing for myself, for the people I loved, or for my world.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <strong>\n        <span style=\"\" class=\"\">A new heart makes it\npossible to love God with heart, soul, mind, and strength<\/span>\n      <\/strong>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">After\nthat transplant, you experience a desire to love God with all your heart. What\ndoes that mean? Well, it just means you&#8217;re not hardhearted anymore. God&#8217;s\nSpirit moves you to keep his laws. The question of obedience or being morally\nright or doing the right thing becomes a sort of insistent necessity from\ninsideurging you, pushing you, pressuring you. When you want to do wrong,\nthere&#8217;s a little tap on the inside, on your shoulder, saying, &#8220;H; not now.\nDo this instead.&#8221; That sort of experience comes into your life.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">You\nbegin to love God with all your soul. You begin to practice the presence of God\nuntil the spiritual atmosphere in which you live becomes more and more natural\ninstead of put on or stirred up. You don&#8217;t have to go to church to get feeling\nreligious again. God is as real in the busy street as he is in the hushed\natmosphere of your church building. You love him with all your heart, and you\nlove him with all your soul, and you begin to love him with all your mind.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Christianity\nis not for people who have checked their minds in the cloak room as they come\ninto the church. Christianity is for those with bright minds and \nminds, but minds that will mind God. That mind will say, &#8220;I have to look at\nthis Christian faith. I have to give the mind that God has given me back to him\nin such a way that he can instruct it about his nature and his ways.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">And\nthat&#8217;s what it really means to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind. It\ndoes not mean a mindless Christianitybeing told what to think and what to\nbelieve. It means exposing your mind to the mind of God. And he, omniscient God\nthat he is,  God that he is, will share some of the \nof his nature with you and with me. Even though we&#8217;re little dust people with\nlittle dust minds living in little dust bodies eating dust food, he will give\nus the capacity to understand him. When we love him with all our soul, all our\nmind, and all our heart, then we will begin to love him with all our strength.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">And\nthat&#8217;s where the story comes in. To love God with all our strength, as Jesus\nexplained to this young man, means that you will love your neighbor as much as\nyou love your selfish self. And if you do not love your neighbor as much as you\nlove your selfish self, then don&#8217;t say you love God.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <strong>\n        <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Our\nlove for God is shown when we care for the person in the ditch.<\/span>\n      <\/strong>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>Sometimes we think we can measure the love we have for God\nby the feeling we have as we pray or sing a psalm or a hymn in church. Not\nnecessarily. That&#8217;s all part of it. Jesus says, &#8220;I want to know about the man\nin the ditch. I want to know if you&#8217;re involved yet. I want to know if you got\ndown off your evangelical donkey and got alongside the man in the ditch.&#8221; If\nyou&#8217;re still on your high religious horse riding past trouble, or, like the\npriest and the Levite, running to Bible studies or church meetings, too busy\nfor the man in the ditch, then don&#8217;t say you love God.<\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Now\nthose are hard words, and I&#8217;m thinking about them myself as I share them with\nyou, because it&#8217;s quite a challenge to realize that God is measuring my love\nfor him by my actions, my loving actions, toward the man in the ditch.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">&#8220;So\nI&#8217;m to love my neighbor as myself, am I?&#8221; the young expert in the law demanded\nof Jesus. &#8220;So who is my neighbor?&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Maybe\nyou&#8217;re asking that question too. Let me suggest some things to you. The person\nin the ditch is the girl robbed of her husband by another woman. That person is\nthe child robbed of her mother by her mother&#8217;s boss, or the college kid robbed\nof his opportunity by the recession. The teenager robbed of her virginity by\nher high school date is the person in the ditch, and so is the woman robbed of\nher reputation by malicious gossip. So is the old person robbed of health by\ndisease. There are plenty of people in the ditch, but not nearly enough Good\nSamaritans to go around.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>Why don&#8217;t we get off our donkey and get into the ditch?\nLet me suggest to you a few reasons.<\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">The\nfirst reason we Christians don&#8217;t is the risk factor. You know, the Good\nSamaritan didn&#8217;t look around to see if the robbers were still there. He might\nhave done that, because there was a risk attached to getting off his donkey and\ngetting into the ditch. He might be robbed as well. I think one reason we don&#8217;t\nwant to get off our donkey and get into the ditch to help whoever is there is\nwe&#8217;re afraid that perhaps we will get so involved it will cost us something. I\nwant to say from the Scriptures that it will. There are no ifs, ands, or buts.\nlt will cost. It cost the Samaritan a lot. It could have cost him a lot more. I\nthink that&#8217;s the reason we don&#8217;t get involved.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">I\ndon&#8217;t know if you ever ask questions of the Scriptures. You&#8217;ll never really\ndiscover the joy of Bible reading unless you ask the text questions. Who? Why?\nWhere? What? That&#8217;s the way to go. As you do that, the text will answer you.\nThat makes it very exciting.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">As\nI came to this text, I asked some questions. Was the man in the ditch fat? And\nwas the donkey old? Was it on it&#8217;s last donkey legs? And you say, &#8220;Well that&#8217;s\na weird question to ask. Why do you ask that sort of question?&#8221; Because I want\nto know. Because if the man was fat, and if the donkey was old, that might cost\nhim a whole lot more than I mentioned before.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Was\nthe man rich? Could he afford a new donkey? What if it was a fat man sitting on\nthat old donkey, and the donkey collapsed or broke a leg? Now that&#8217;s a little\npicture to bring the story to life.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">But\nyou see, it might be that you will walk while he rides on your donkey, if you\nreally help the man in the ditch. One time not too long ago, my husband and I\ninvited a young man who had lost his job to come and live with us. We thought\nit would be for a week or two. It turned out to be nearly two years. And there\nwas many a time that he rode and we walkedliterallybecause I loaned him a car\nto go find a job, and I hitched a ride. That&#8217;s a little thing. But it&#8217;s an\nillustration of what I&#8217;m talking about.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Years\nand years ago we had teenagers all over our lives and all over our house. The\ndishes got broken, the couch got marked up, and the carpet got wrecked. It will\ncost to get down into the ditch. And that&#8217;s one reason we don&#8217;t do it.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">The\nsecond reason is compassion. Do you notice that the Good Samaritan was moved\nwith compassion? Do you remember about that heart transplant Jesus promised? &#8220;I\nwill move you.&#8221; Because it is a heart of God, that new heart of yours will beat\nfor the person in the ditch.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Now\nyou won&#8217;t have a heartbeat for the person in the ditch unless you get close\nenough to smell the smells and feel the tears and understand. The Samaritan got\ninto the ditch, put his arms around that young man, and lifted him out. I\nsuppose we could apply this by saying, &#8220;What about AIDS and the AIDS patient of\nour era? Are they the lepers of the &#8217;80s and the &#8217;90s for the Christian church?\nWill we put our arms around them?&#8221; Who knows? If God has given you his heart,\nyou can expect it to beat even for people with AIDS. What a challenge!<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">So\nthere is the risk factor and the compassion factor. Finally there&#8217;s the fear\nfactorinadequacy. You say, &#8220;I&#8217;m not a professional Christian.&#8221; Nor am I. I&#8217;m\nnot a professional Christian. I didn&#8217;t go to school to learn how to be a\nChristian. I&#8217;m a wife. I&#8217;m a mother. I&#8217;m a grandmother, and that&#8217;s wonderful.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">&#8220;I&#8217;m\ntoo old,&#8221; some of you might say.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Somebody\nsent me a beautiful poem, and I must share it with you just before I go.\nListen.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">In\nthe dim and distant past<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">When\nlife&#8217;s tempo wasn&#8217;t fast,<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Grandma\nused to rock and knit,<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Crochet,\ntat, and .<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">When\nthe kids were in a jam,<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">They\ncould always count on Gram.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">In\nan age of gracious living,<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Grandma\nwas the gal for giving.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Grandma\nnow is at the gym<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Exercising\nto keep slim.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">She&#8217;s\noff touring with a bunch,<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Taking\nclients out to lunch.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Driving\nnorth to ski or curl,<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">All\nher days are in a whirl.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Nothing\nseems to stop or block her,<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Now\nthat Grandma&#8217;s off her rocker.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>It&#8217;s very tempting, when you get to be a grandma, to say,\n&#8220;Leave it for the young ones.&#8221; How old was the Good Samaritan? Have you ever\nasked that question? We don&#8217;t know. But as long as I&#8217;m alive, I want to say to\nGod, &#8220;Whatever the risk, move my heart with your heart of compassion to get off\nmy donkey, to get down into the ditch, to get my arms around people in need,\nand to lift them into the innto do whatever is necessary to rehabilitate\nthem.&#8221;<\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Then\nI will know that I love God with all my heart, all my soul, and all my\nstrength. The fear factor is thereinadequacy. I don&#8217;t know how to lift him. I\nmight drop him. Nobody has asked me to do anything. But God has. God says,\n&#8220;Love me with all your heart, and all your mind, and all your strength.&#8221; To\nlove God with all your soul and with all your strength means that you get down\ninto the ditch and you do something about the love that you profess to have for\nGod our Fatherfor Jesus Christin the power of the Holy Spirit.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <em>\n        <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Jill Briscoe<\/span>\nis executive editor of the magazine <\/em>Just Between Us<em>. Her most recent\nbook is <\/em>Love that Lasts<em> (Tyndale, 2002).<\/em><\/p>\n    <p>(c) Jill Briscoe<\/p>\n    <h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead2\">Preaching Today Tape\n#84<\/h2>\n    <p>\n      <a href=\"http:\/\/www.preachingtodaysermons.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">www.PreachingTodaySermons.com<\/a>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>A resource of\nChristianity Today International<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[308],"tax_ctp_authors":[1916],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_field_guide_subcategory":[],"tax_ctp_field_guides":[],"tax_ctp_format":[170],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[412],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_sermon_series":[],"tax_ctp_tags":[3548,3579,3648,3696,4082,4095,4133,4230,4396,4541,4849,4931,4952,4953],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-33626","sermons","type-sermons","status-publish","hentry","tax_ctp_authors-jill-briscoe","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-caring","tax_ctp_tags-christ-indwelling","tax_ctp_tags-compassion","tax_ctp_tags-cost","tax_ctp_tags-good-works","tax_ctp_tags-great-commandment","tax_ctp_tags-heart","tax_ctp_tags-imputation-of-righteousness","tax_ctp_tags-love-for-christ","tax_ctp_tags-new-life","tax_ctp_tags-risk","tax_ctp_tags-self-sacrifice","tax_ctp_tags-servanthood","tax_ctp_tags-service"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Loving God With All Your Heart - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/loving-god-with-all-your-heart\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Loving God With All Your Heart - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I&#8217;d like to read from the Scriptures a very familiar story. Sometimes when we hear familiar stories, we get a little disappointed. We think the speaker isn&#8217;t going to tell us anything new. 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