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Loving God with Your Heart · The Rhett Palmer Show

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_02: He is the great I am.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_02: His first friend was Abraham.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_02: Surely said to Abraham, I am that I am.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Well, good morning again, Rhett.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: In Stowe Vermont, and I'm in Vero Beach, Florida.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: We are here for a cup of friendship.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: And we are talking about the greatest commandments.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: And in our last session, we just took a look at when Jesus was asked, What are the greatest commandments?
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: He said, loving God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind, and loving your neighbor as yourself.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: These are the greatest commandments.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: All the prophets and all the law are summed up in these two commandments.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: And by the way, I'm Rhett Palmer.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: I've been on the radio for 32 years.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: Mike Bagby has been a missionary for over 40 years with his wife and four children, spent a lot of time in Israel, actually studied, and is a biblical historian who studied in Europe and uh have been given uh you just celebrated 15 years down in uh as a missionary, and you just flew in yesterday from uh where?
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: From Honduras, yeah.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: We have a uh coffee store uh ministry on the island of Utila, which is uh the Bay Islands off the north coast of Honduras.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: And yes, we did celebrate our uh 15th anniversary just last Saturday there.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: And if you'd like to uh support us, just go to cup of friendship.com and you might want to enjoy some of the three different flavored coffees that we have.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: Well, they're not uh artificially flavored, these are blends of high altitude, specially grade coffee that we roast right here in Vero Beach.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: I would encourage you, we're each enjoying uh some delicious coffee this morning.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm actually drinking a uh peabry coffee from Rwanda.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh go to uh the cup of friendship.com and uh enjoy some coffee with us.
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  SPEAKER_00: So, Rhett, let's just jump right into this.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh loving God with all of your heart.
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  SPEAKER_01: That's quite a commandment.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: How do we do that?
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the Hebrew word in Deuteronomy 6.5 for uh for heart is the Labab, which it translates the inner man, the source of life, the inner person, uh, the very as aspects of uh being a human with a focus on feelings, with thoughts of volition and areas of our inner life.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I think uh when we love God with all of our heart, Red, I think it's that happens oftentimes when we are worshiping and praising Him.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think when we experience the presence of God, it provokes praise and worship.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: There's uh many examples in the Bible of humans responding to God's presence by worship and prayer, uh by praise.
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  SPEAKER_00: Uh Deuteronomy chapter two, uh, when uh Solomon was dedicating the temple, and when all the people of Israel saw the fire coming down and the glorious presence of the Lord filling the temple, they fell face down on the ground and worshiped, and praised the Lord, saying, He's so good, his faithful love endures forever.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: So there's this emotional response that we get.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: And when we read the book of Psalms, Rhett, there's the word praise.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: We see it often in the book of Psalms.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, what does that word mean?
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: Well, there's actually seven Hebrew words that gets translated praise in English, and these Hebrew words, there are three of them that actually have to do with a very strong emotional response that I think we could connect to loving God with all of our heart.
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  SPEAKER_00: Uh, the first one is the word halal.
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  SPEAKER_00: This means to praise the Lord by celebrating, by dancing, by acting clamorously foolish.
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  SPEAKER_00: Uh by uh, as my friend John Hamilton says, by trash talking.
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  SPEAKER_00: Uh David often trash talks.
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  SPEAKER_00: Uh, my Lord is going to do this.
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  SPEAKER_00: You guys watch out.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: And David is very vocal in his celebration and praise.
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  SPEAKER_00: Uh halal is like what happens at a basketball game or a football game, or where your team scores a touchdown or it makes that basket at the goal, and we just get up and we start shouting.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we start acting clamorously foolish, okay?
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_01: I've never heard that before.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: Is that the new standard version?
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: Because I really like that.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's just it's the it's a Hebrew word for praise that it's in Psalm uh 150.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: Halal the Lord.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: Say it again, would you?
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: Halal God in his heavenly dwelling, halal him in his mighty heaven.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh that gets translated praise, but this is a very robust praise.
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  SPEAKER_00: This is a uh we're we're stepping out of our normal rational behavior.
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  SPEAKER_00: We're acting crazy because we're so enthralled with what just happened.
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  SPEAKER_00: There's another word, Shabak, which means to praise the Lord with a shout, with a loud voice.
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  SPEAKER_00: Psalm 63 says, Your unfailing love is better to me than life itself.
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  SPEAKER_00: How I Shabak you.
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  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: And then there's the word Tehilah.
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  SPEAKER_00: This is a praise from our spirit.
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  SPEAKER_00: This is a pouring out of our heart before the Lord.
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  SPEAKER_00: This is letting him know how you feel.
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  SPEAKER_00: David does this uh a lot.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they're after me, Lord.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: These guys are trying to kill me.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, would you make their wives widows?
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  SPEAKER_00: Would you grind them to dust?
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  SPEAKER_00: Would you make their children orphans?
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  SPEAKER_00: Would you just wipe them out, okay?
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: This is Tehilah.
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  SPEAKER_00: This is letting God know how you're feeling.
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  SPEAKER_00: This is expressing your very deep and raw thoughts to Him, your emotions to Him.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: This is considered to be praise, Red.
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  SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, our modern churches, there's this quiet form of worship that is often expressed.
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  SPEAKER_00: And even as a child, when I walked into the sanctuary of my parents' church, I started talking softly because I had the sense that quietness before the Lord is reverent.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's very reverential, though.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: Well, all I'm letting you know is that the the uh book of Psalms says something very different than what our customs are.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: They say we should be acting clamorously foolish.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: We should be talking, praising the Lord with a loud shout, like, yeah.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but I think this place, there's also place for sacred worship.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: Of course there is, but but if we're gonna love God with all of our heart, with our emotions, then it usually uh is going to be in an emotional response that's going to be loud and exciting.
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  SPEAKER_01: Glamorous, I like that.
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  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
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  SPEAKER_00: So this is one area of loving God with our heart.
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  SPEAKER_00: I think he desires us to cut loose in our expressions to him.
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  SPEAKER_00: Now, the failure to release certain emotions can cause damaging effects on the follower of Jesus.
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  SPEAKER_00: And you know, it's very natural in our course of life that people will offend us.
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  SPEAKER_00: We might be wronged in business, we might be mistreated by a friend, there might be verbal or physical abuse or outright aggression.
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  SPEAKER_00: Damaging words spoken behind our back.
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  SPEAKER_00: Loved ones might abandon us in uh times of need.
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  SPEAKER_00: But because of all these situations, we can end up harboring ill feelings toward those who offend us.
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  SPEAKER_00: And offense is something that people very naturally hold on to.
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  SPEAKER_00: But but uh Jesus says something different about that.
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  SPEAKER_00: He says, We don't have the right to revenge, that God will give us uh justice.
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  SPEAKER_00: I will take care of that, he says.
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  SPEAKER_00: And Paul writes to his friends in Ephesus, he says, Don't let sin gain uh excuse me, do not sin by letting anger gain control over you.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: Do not let the sun go down while you're angry, for anger gives a mighty foothold to the devil.
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  SPEAKER_01: And anger does not the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
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  SPEAKER_00: James says that.
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  SPEAKER_00: So the but anger is not the sin, it's what we do with anger.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, Jesus got angry.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: He walks into the temple, the outer court, which is reserved for the Gentiles to come and worship.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's been turned into a marketplace.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: They're changing money at exorbitant rates, they're selling animals only approved by the cartel for sacrifice, and Jesus gets so angry, he turns the table over, tables over, and he takes a cord and turns it into, makes knots in, and starts whipping the people.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: So there is a place for righteous anger.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: Now, if you talk to a counselor, uh, and people need to learn this, I've had to learn this, that usually anger means either hurt or fear talking.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm thinking when Jesus did this, we may look at it as anger and a righteous anger, but I think also it was a love relationship, and he was this it actually hurt the heart of God.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: Well, right, you're you're absolutely right.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: But in this world, Rhett, we will be offended.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: Just in traffic, people cut us off.
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  SPEAKER_00: What do we do?
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  SPEAKER_01: Friends, either hurt, we're hurt or shared.
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  SPEAKER_00: Um but the issue here is what do we do with the anger?
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  SPEAKER_00: Do we hold on to it?
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: Do we hold on to the offense or do we let it go?
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  SPEAKER_00: I mean, uh, you talk to any counselor and they will tell you that holding on to offenses is one of the great causes of uh emotional distress and problems.
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  SPEAKER_01: It also causes ill illness like cancers and things like this.
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  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
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  SPEAKER_00: So uh Paul says uh that holding on to anger gives a mighty foothold to the devil.
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  SPEAKER_00: And the devil wants to really control your life, but he needs an entry, he needs a foothold.
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  SPEAKER_00: And holding on to an offense is an uh a uh manner in which now he gains control of your psyche and your mind, and he's now is making uh inroads.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: Now, my father was a uh tanker in the 2nd Armored Division.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: He made the invasion in North Africa in November of 1942, he made the invasion in Sicily July of 43, and he made Omaha Beach in June of uh 1944.
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  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
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  SPEAKER_00: Remember, the objective was to take the enemy's capital, take Berlin.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: But to do that, they had to take Omaha Beach first, and then they had to take Normandy, and it took them six weeks before they broke out of Normandy.
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  SPEAKER_00: But once they did, they were in Berlin in July of nineteen forty-five.
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  SPEAKER_01: Your father, your father was on Omaha Beach?
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: So I just was watching a World War II movie last night, a documentary.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
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  SPEAKER_00: So the objective for the American Army was to take Berlin, but they needed a foothold at Omaha Beach.
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  SPEAKER_00: Satan wants to take your soul, but he needs a foothold.
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  SPEAKER_00: And holding on to offenses is a manner in which of gaining uh um uh territory in your soul.
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  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_01: We have five minutes, just so you know.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: Holding on to a fence does not give room to for God to move in a situation.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: The offense takes up all the space.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: This is my friend uh Donald Stewart said this a couple uh weeks ago at one of our studies.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: What did he say?
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: Say it again.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: Holding on to a fence does not give God room to move in the situation.
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  SPEAKER_00: The offense takes up all the space.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: You see, uh forgiveness is really important.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: This is why um God told his uh excuse me, Jesus told his disciples in Matthew chapter six, in the Lord's Prayer, that uh we are to ask to for forgiveness of our sins just as we have forgiven those who sinned against us.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: You see, Jesus wants us to take a daily inventory to ensure we're not holding on to any offenses.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: And he goes on to say, if you love those who sin against you, your heavenly father will forgive you, but if you refuse to forgive others, your father will not forgive your sins.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: So unforgiveness is uh something that is deep in our soul and it causes all sorts of problems.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: And the writer of Hebrew says, See to us that no one comes short of the grace of God, no root of bitterness springs up, causing trouble, and by it many are defiled.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this word bitterness is the word pickria, which uh means resentment and incensed or angry attitude of mind to one's neighbor.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: And its bitterness is simply unfulfilled revenge.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: Bitterness is drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: So Jesus is very clear that we don't have the right to revenge and that uh we should forgive our uh people that offend us.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul even writes this to his friends in Colossae Since God chose you to be holy people whom he loves, you must close yourself with tender hearted mercy, kindness and tender hearted mercy, gentleness and patience.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: Hold on, hold on, hold on.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, the Lord forgave you as you must forgive others, and the most important piece of clothing you must wear is love.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: Love is which binds us all together.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_01: Say those again, would you?
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_01: So, Rhett, there is Say those again.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: I I interrupted you on what say those again.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I think the point here is that we cannot hold on to offense.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: We have to be merciful, kind, be humble, and be patient with the people around us.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: We he says, remember you must uh make allowance for each other's fault and forgive the person that offends you.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: So I think aside from praising the Lord and releasing our emotions in this way to him, I think there's these emotions, these negative emotions that we constantly have to release and give these to the Lord as well.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: So let's finish up this session with some suggestions for loving God with our hearts.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the first one is take every opportunity you can to actively praise and worship God, to let these emotions flow.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: Riding in your car, uh in your prayer time, uh, listening to music, okay?
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: Uh actively telling God what you think about it, letting him know how much you uh appreciate his presence in your life.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: Another one for me is to develop the discipline to enter into praise even when I don't feel like it.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: If I'm in a setting where people are singing praise songs and we're worshiping the Lord in a community setting, and sometimes I don't feel I just force myself to sing the words, and guess what happens?
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: Suddenly I feel like uh saying the words.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: I think another thing, Red, is we can take opportunity to have open conversations with God.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: We can tell him how we're feeling.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, I didn't really like it when my brother said that to me.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: It really offended me.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, please help me get over this, okay?
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: And now, taking this daily inventory as we say our prayers to the Lord, you know, uh think of someone who you're not forgiving.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: Suddenly you're done.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'm holding something against that guy.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't really forgiven him.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: So take that emotion before the Lord and ask him, Lord, help me release this emotion.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: I've been holding on to this for a while, please.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: And then I think it's really important, Rhett, that I verbally speak out.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, I forgive him for or I forgive her for what she said or did to me.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: And oftentimes I find uh that down the road it's important to even verbally say that to that friend, uh that person, that brother.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's really important that we pray for people who've wronged us in any way.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know, uh Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, if your enemy's hungry, give him something to eat, if he's thirsty, give him some to drink, because you'll pour heaping coals on his head.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: He'll he'll not know what to do with your kindness, because he's not expecting it.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: It will cause him to burn inside with just distension of what's going on in him, because he's not understanding why you're being kind and forgiving.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: You see?
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that's what Abraham Lincoln said.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: He said, You know how to conquer an enemy?
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_01: Make him a friend.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: Make him a friend, okay?
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: So when we get wronged when we're in traffic, uh, even when we're in our church situations, in our familial and our friends' relationships, uh, that we should be a point of praying for them and be giving to these offenders.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: All right, we got to say goodbye for now.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_01: Listen, Mike Bagby, it's great to see you again.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome back to uh the United States from your missionary trip down south with your wife and um family.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: And um, we'll see you again soon.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_01: By the way, uh get a cup of friendship if you'd like to uh at ww.cupoffriendship.com.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks, Mike.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: All right, Let we'll see you on the next episode loving God with all of our soul.