All You Need is Love

It was the 1967 #1 hit song by the Beatles. All You Need is Love, ascended to the top of charts and still today the song is widely recognized world wide. It sits in the top 500 hits of all time. Needless to say it stuck and sometimes in an annoying way it sticks in your head. The song has simple lyrics, addictive beat, and one very powerful yet symplistic message. All you need is love, the Beatles got it and yet often times I sit at this time of night and wonder if I do. Sadly I don't think a very high number of evangelicals get it. The Lord's message in Deuteronomy is just as simple, sadly it is not recognized world wide. " Hear, O Isreal: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." ( Deut 6:4-5). Deuteronomy 6:4-9 is known as the Shema, Hebrew for hear and not only are these verses the central theme in Deuteronomy but the central theme of our faith...better yet it is the heart of our faith. I don't know if we can get past verse 4 to get to verse 5 without fumbling the ball. "Hear O Isreal", in other words everyone stop, this is it, if you miss this forget it you're not going to get....do you get the urgency here...Hear O Isreal!!!!!. The Lord our God, the Lord is one. There it is the message of monotheism, which was very rare in the days of Deuteronomy. "Lord our God, the Lord is one." These words alone could be a five week sermon series at many fine churches across the world. "Lord our God, the Lord is one" This is obviously talking about God being one verses other gods that were worshiped in the pagan religions that Isreal came across , but lets look at our day. Is the Lord your God one in your heart? How many other little gods take pieces of our heart. If we can say the Lord is one in our hearts do our hearts reflect verse 5. " Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." Work, personal possesions, loved ones, hobbies, sports, personal looks, maybe even your service at the church, all these things add up to take away our time and resources that the Lord desperatly wants us to give Him. Time we could be studying His word He chose to speak to us, time we could spend talking to Him getting to know Him more falling deeper in love with him. Resources we could spend helping the greatest love story ever told reach the 3.4 billion who never heard the gospel in its entirety. Yes 3.4 billion! It's almost like we print Bibles without the great commission printed in them. Have you ever wondered how many lives go to hell because of evangelicals obsession to live the 'American dream'. Here is an eye opening statistic, the average American protestant gives 2.6% of his/her take home income and 3 out of every 4 Americans are lost, that makes the United States the 4th or 5th most lost nation in the world. So how do our lives and our world around us seem to get so screwed up, our priorties so backwards? I can promise its not a lack of trying or a lack of effort. Can you think of anyone in the Bible who overcame failures because they tried harder, or regrouped put their minds together and figured it out or got more men more muscle and overcame by pure strength? I sure can't, but I can think of alot who overcame failures because those chose to be obedient, love the Lord deeper. They got their heart on course. I heard a pastor in chapel a couple months ago say David wasn't able to defeat Goliath because he fought well, he was able to defeat Goliath because he loved well. How true is that and how important is that for us to realize in our lives. We bring nothing to the table but the ability to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, and mind and even that we can only attain through His grace. "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." (Matt 6:21) Is our treasure of this world or is it the Lord our God and His will for our lives. He can bring our hearts to love Him more and more daily and then that love spills out into the world around us, the world gets to hear that love story. You know the 3.4 billion. Then you have the fulfillment of the second greatest commandment, " Love your neighbor as yourself." (Matt 22:39) Its starts in our own hearts if we're willing and all you need is love for Him, and the best part, the amazing part, the very humbling part its free. He loved us so much he died so we could have it for free. Oh Hear! You only need love for Him from Him and its FREE.