WEBVTT 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:03.620 Well, do you keep that passage open? We are not 00:00:03.620 --> 00:00:05.940 looking at that whole tremendously long passage. 00:00:06.660 --> 00:00:09.679 Over the summer, we had a sermon series where 00:00:09.679 --> 00:00:13.419 we took six weeks to look at that passage. And 00:00:13.419 --> 00:00:16.379 so I thought the week that would be most appropriate 00:00:16.379 --> 00:00:20.140 for a theological college is for us to think 00:00:20.140 --> 00:00:23.280 what it means to love the Lord our God with all 00:00:23.280 --> 00:00:29.739 our mind. It was Shakespeare who first said, 00:00:29.879 --> 00:00:32.579 love is blind. I think he was the first to say 00:00:32.579 --> 00:00:37.159 it. And when he said it, he meant love can look 00:00:37.159 --> 00:00:39.960 beyond externals, like the clothes that Jessica 00:00:39.960 --> 00:00:43.259 was wearing in The Merchant of Venice, to see 00:00:43.259 --> 00:00:48.179 the real person. Love is able to see more than 00:00:48.179 --> 00:00:51.380 what is visible. But as a culture, we've taken 00:00:51.380 --> 00:00:54.630 that quote and run with it, haven't we? Dickens 00:00:54.630 --> 00:00:57.270 used it like this, but love is blind and Nathaniel 00:00:57.270 --> 00:01:00.090 had a cast in his eye and perhaps these two circumstances 00:01:00.090 --> 00:01:02.909 taken together prevented his seeing the matter 00:01:02.909 --> 00:01:06.049 in its proper light. Love is blind doesn't mean 00:01:06.049 --> 00:01:11.349 we can see more, it means we can see less. So 00:01:11.349 --> 00:01:15.750 that Abhijit Naskar, a neuroscientist, writes, 00:01:15.849 --> 00:01:20.370 love that doesn't turn you stupid is no love. 00:01:22.760 --> 00:01:25.680 It shows that to a large degree, our culture 00:01:25.680 --> 00:01:34.099 separates love and thought. Love and the mind. 00:01:36.599 --> 00:01:39.700 Elvis Presley probably put it most famously. 00:01:40.459 --> 00:01:45.299 Wise men say only fools rush in, but I can't 00:01:45.299 --> 00:01:47.719 help falling in love with you. I know it's stupid. 00:01:47.939 --> 00:01:52.140 I know it's foolish, but I can't help it. That's 00:01:52.140 --> 00:01:56.540 how we tend to think of love. And so our culture 00:01:56.540 --> 00:02:01.579 is surprised by at least two things in the commandment 00:02:01.579 --> 00:02:03.480 that Jesus says is the greatest. And if it's 00:02:03.480 --> 00:02:06.780 the greatest commandment, it means that it defines 00:02:06.780 --> 00:02:10.740 who we are. This is what it means for us to be 00:02:10.740 --> 00:02:14.719 made human, is that we are to love the Lord. 00:02:15.419 --> 00:02:19.979 Firstly, our culture... Thinks we cannot be commanded 00:02:19.979 --> 00:02:27.259 to love. Doesn't love just happen to you. I can't 00:02:27.259 --> 00:02:33.979 help falling in love. And in particular. The 00:02:33.979 --> 00:02:36.879 very idea that we could love with our minds. 00:02:37.280 --> 00:02:40.360 Is bad enough but that we must love with our 00:02:40.360 --> 00:02:44.099 minds. Well it's tremendously counter cultural 00:02:44.099 --> 00:02:50.120 isn't it. And yet this. When asked what the greatest 00:02:50.120 --> 00:02:53.699 commandment is, Jesus doesn't begin by saying 00:02:53.699 --> 00:02:56.560 love. No, he starts earlier in Deuteronomy chapter 00:02:56.560 --> 00:03:04.500 6 with the word hear. Hear, O Israel, the Lord 00:03:04.500 --> 00:03:08.419 our God, the Lord is one. Love is a response 00:03:08.419 --> 00:03:13.080 to truth. It's why we've been singing about the 00:03:13.080 --> 00:03:17.460 gospel on which we stand. It is when we discover 00:03:17.460 --> 00:03:22.259 who God is in our minds as we hear and believe 00:03:22.259 --> 00:03:26.180 the gospel that we are able to respond with our 00:03:26.180 --> 00:03:31.060 hearts and our soul and our strength to love 00:03:31.060 --> 00:03:40.699 him. So very briefly, four ways in which we must 00:03:40.699 --> 00:03:44.759 love the Lord our God with all our minds. Number 00:03:44.759 --> 00:03:50.719 one. We need a posture of worshipping the Lord. 00:03:51.000 --> 00:03:54.900 A posture of worshipping the Lord. We're not 00:03:54.900 --> 00:04:01.340 told love the Lord. We're told to love the Lord 00:04:01.340 --> 00:04:09.560 your God with all your mind. Different loves 00:04:09.560 --> 00:04:12.520 in relationship are shaped differently. I have 00:04:12.520 --> 00:04:14.599 the blessing of having a wonderful wife and six 00:04:14.599 --> 00:04:18.180 children. And it's wonderful to observe the way 00:04:18.180 --> 00:04:22.660 in which my wife loves my children and my children 00:04:22.660 --> 00:04:25.879 love my wife. And that develops over time. But 00:04:25.879 --> 00:04:29.980 think about a newborn baby. If you can't think 00:04:29.980 --> 00:04:32.060 without singing, turn around. See a fairly newborn 00:04:32.060 --> 00:04:35.819 baby at the back of the hall. Imagine if you 00:04:35.819 --> 00:04:38.699 confuse the way in which a mother is to love 00:04:38.699 --> 00:04:43.060 the baby and a baby is to love the mother. A 00:04:43.060 --> 00:04:46.959 mother loves the baby by, yes, looking at a baby 00:04:46.959 --> 00:04:49.759 thinking, aren't you cute? But also providing 00:04:49.759 --> 00:04:55.019 for that baby, sustaining its life through food 00:04:55.019 --> 00:05:00.459 and care and affection. Imagine if the mother 00:05:00.459 --> 00:05:02.459 thought that they should love the baby in the 00:05:02.459 --> 00:05:05.120 way that the baby should love the mother, by 00:05:05.120 --> 00:05:11.100 depending upon the baby for everything. Now it 00:05:11.100 --> 00:05:16.319 is true that the Lord is declared our friend. 00:05:16.740 --> 00:05:19.199 And that friendship is a symmetrical relationship, 00:05:19.300 --> 00:05:23.560 isn't it? I've got a friend called Freddie. He's 00:05:23.560 --> 00:05:26.079 my friend. I'm his friend. It's the same both 00:05:26.079 --> 00:05:30.040 ways. But almost all the ways in which our relationship 00:05:30.040 --> 00:05:32.779 with the Lord is defined are asymmetrical. Yes, 00:05:32.779 --> 00:05:35.579 he is our friend. We are his friend. But it is 00:05:35.579 --> 00:05:40.519 not a friendship of equals. He is our friend. 00:05:40.279 --> 00:05:45.379 We are his subjects. He is our savior. We are 00:05:45.379 --> 00:05:52.579 those he has saved. He is our God. We are those 00:05:52.579 --> 00:05:58.079 who are to worship him. And so in a theological 00:05:58.079 --> 00:06:02.519 college where much of our time is spent with 00:06:02.519 --> 00:06:09.350 God as an object of our study, We cannot have 00:06:09.350 --> 00:06:12.449 him an object of our study until we first have 00:06:12.449 --> 00:06:16.810 him as an object of our worship. And everything 00:06:16.810 --> 00:06:19.470 we learn about God and what it means to be God's 00:06:19.470 --> 00:06:22.810 people should lead us to worship. It's why it's 00:06:22.810 --> 00:06:24.850 a great way to finish a lecture with a prayer 00:06:24.850 --> 00:06:27.930 of praise or even a hymn. Because we've learned 00:06:27.930 --> 00:06:33.470 more about our God. The Lord, our God, the one 00:06:33.470 --> 00:06:38.839 with whom we are in covenant relationship. And 00:06:38.839 --> 00:06:45.360 we should not do so without praising him. A posture 00:06:45.360 --> 00:06:48.699 of worship. Secondly, a pursuit of his word. 00:06:51.439 --> 00:06:54.620 Jesus says, quoting Deuteronomy, Hear, O Israel, 00:06:54.699 --> 00:07:00.800 the Lord our God, the Lord is one. There is a... 00:07:04.639 --> 00:07:07.579 A tradition in Hinduism where Krishna says to 00:07:07.579 --> 00:07:11.779 his disciples, I am whomever my lover wishes 00:07:11.779 --> 00:07:15.939 me to be. So if you want me to be this, I'll 00:07:15.939 --> 00:07:17.680 be this. If you want me to be that, I'll be that. 00:07:19.699 --> 00:07:25.480 That is not how the Lord presents himself. He 00:07:25.480 --> 00:07:31.480 says, I am who I am. He declares, the Lord your 00:07:31.480 --> 00:07:35.560 God, the Lord is one. He is one Lord who in his 00:07:35.560 --> 00:07:39.660 amazing mercy has revealed himself to us in his 00:07:39.660 --> 00:07:47.279 word. And principally in his son. Where we learn 00:07:47.279 --> 00:07:49.319 that the one is three and the three are one. 00:07:51.720 --> 00:07:59.500 And so we must study God's word in order to love 00:07:59.500 --> 00:08:04.040 the Lord with all our mind. I used to be a pastor 00:08:04.040 --> 00:08:06.040 on Capitol Hill in Washington, D .C., and we 00:08:06.040 --> 00:08:09.000 had weekly evangelistic lunchtime talks, and 00:08:09.000 --> 00:08:12.279 I gave a talk from God's Word to which one of 00:08:12.279 --> 00:08:14.540 the staffers, which basically means young people 00:08:14.540 --> 00:08:17.360 who are very bright who do photocopying for senators, 00:08:17.699 --> 00:08:21.620 said to me, that was very interesting what you 00:08:21.620 --> 00:08:23.620 shared for the Bible, but I like to think of 00:08:23.620 --> 00:08:27.160 God as being like this, and then described how 00:08:27.160 --> 00:08:29.720 he liked to think of God, to which I said, well, 00:08:30.959 --> 00:08:33.919 I hope you understand that what you like to think 00:08:33.919 --> 00:08:36.100 of God tells us an enormous amount about you, 00:08:36.240 --> 00:08:38.460 and it tells us absolutely nothing about God. 00:08:39.080 --> 00:08:44.320 Because God is who he is, and we need to listen 00:08:44.320 --> 00:08:49.860 to his revelation to find out who he is. And 00:08:49.860 --> 00:08:52.980 it's not enough to make God the object of our 00:08:52.980 --> 00:08:56.379 study so that we can worship him by using the 00:08:56.379 --> 00:09:01.440 minds of others. Perhaps you have a favourite 00:09:01.440 --> 00:09:05.159 theologian and you like to love the Lord your 00:09:05.159 --> 00:09:07.879 God with all Bavinck's mind or Turretin's mind, 00:09:08.039 --> 00:09:12.320 or insert favourite theologian, or a favourite 00:09:12.320 --> 00:09:14.940 pastor and you love to love the Lord your God 00:09:14.940 --> 00:09:18.740 with John Piper's mind or whoever it might be 00:09:18.740 --> 00:09:23.750 for you. Or instead... Yeah, the essay comes 00:09:23.750 --> 00:09:26.110 and, you know, you've got that AI policy, but 00:09:26.110 --> 00:09:29.470 you just have a little look at what AI says about 00:09:29.470 --> 00:09:33.990 the question. Because, let's be honest, it can 00:09:33.990 --> 00:09:36.090 probably answer it better than you. Certainly 00:09:36.090 --> 00:09:40.830 it can answer it better than me. But the Lord 00:09:40.830 --> 00:09:43.009 says, love the Lord your God with all your mind. 00:09:43.250 --> 00:09:45.389 I think one of the great blessings of AI is it 00:09:45.389 --> 00:09:50.019 tells us how thick we are. It can do things that 00:09:50.019 --> 00:09:52.919 we could never do in 100 years in 12 seconds. 00:09:54.200 --> 00:09:57.860 And that is a blessing. Because the Lord didn't 00:09:57.860 --> 00:10:00.080 tell us to love him with all our minds because 00:10:00.080 --> 00:10:04.440 he's in awe of our intelligence. No, from the 00:10:04.440 --> 00:10:07.799 very beginning, he created beings with intelligences 00:10:07.799 --> 00:10:13.820 far beyond us. And one of the great things about 00:10:13.820 --> 00:10:16.740 AI is it's challenging our very idea of what 00:10:16.740 --> 00:10:20.850 it means to be human. I've really enjoyed Christopher 00:10:20.850 --> 00:10:26.549 Watkins' podcast on AI, on the Gospel Coalition. 00:10:26.590 --> 00:10:28.350 It's called Silicon Spiritualities. This is one 00:10:28.350 --> 00:10:29.870 of the things he said from a recent episode. 00:10:30.389 --> 00:10:32.429 There are two worlds in which you can live in 00:10:32.429 --> 00:10:34.350 the world of AI. There's the world in which you 00:10:34.350 --> 00:10:36.990 are your performance, you are your metrics, you 00:10:36.990 --> 00:10:40.970 are your intelligence. Good luck living in that 00:10:40.970 --> 00:10:45.309 world today because AI is coming for you. It's 00:10:45.309 --> 00:10:49.529 going to outthink you, outcreate you. If that's 00:10:49.529 --> 00:10:51.850 what you build your identity on, it's not looking 00:10:51.850 --> 00:10:56.210 good for you. But let me invite you into another 00:10:56.210 --> 00:10:58.549 world where you aren't what you think or what 00:10:58.549 --> 00:11:01.429 you create or what even you produce relationally, 00:11:01.429 --> 00:11:04.710 but your identity is a wonderful gift bestowed 00:11:04.710 --> 00:11:08.230 on you, not because you are the greatest, but 00:11:08.230 --> 00:11:13.250 because the greatest God has loved you. And we, 00:11:13.350 --> 00:11:17.960 in response to his love, are to love the Lord 00:11:17.960 --> 00:11:23.399 our God with all our minds. Number three, a practice 00:11:23.399 --> 00:11:27.159 of remembering. We are constantly to remember 00:11:27.159 --> 00:11:31.820 how he is lovely and to be loved. How do you 00:11:31.820 --> 00:11:34.519 think about exams when they're coming up? I hope 00:11:34.519 --> 00:11:37.820 you think about exams at Theology College not 00:11:37.820 --> 00:11:41.000 in the way maybe you thought about GCSE physics. 00:11:41.909 --> 00:11:43.769 Where you think, I've got to cram the knowledge 00:11:43.769 --> 00:11:46.289 and praise God, when I get to the end of the 00:11:46.289 --> 00:11:48.289 exam, I never have to do physics ever again, 00:11:48.409 --> 00:11:53.330 or insert least favourite subject. No, think 00:11:53.330 --> 00:11:57.230 of it much more like the driving test. You are 00:11:57.230 --> 00:11:59.590 learning these things about the Lord so that 00:11:59.590 --> 00:12:01.450 you can put them into practice in the rest of 00:12:01.450 --> 00:12:05.250 your life. Imagine thinking, thank the Lord I've 00:12:05.250 --> 00:12:07.330 got through my driving test, I never have to 00:12:07.330 --> 00:12:09.690 remember what to do behind the wheel again every 00:12:09.690 --> 00:12:14.960 time I drive. No, we are to learn about the Lord 00:12:14.960 --> 00:12:18.039 so that we can remember who he is and live in 00:12:18.039 --> 00:12:26.120 love towards him. Number four, a patience in 00:12:26.120 --> 00:12:30.820 maturing in love. Love of the Lord with our minds 00:12:30.820 --> 00:12:36.700 is to be a lifelong pursuit. We are to love the 00:12:36.700 --> 00:12:38.759 Lord with the mind we have today, though not 00:12:38.759 --> 00:12:40.639 the mind we hope we will have by the time we 00:12:40.639 --> 00:12:43.539 graduate. Not the mind we wish we still had, 00:12:43.720 --> 00:12:46.799 now that some of us are beyond 50 and the mind 00:12:46.799 --> 00:12:51.399 is getting worse. No, the mind you have today, 00:12:51.580 --> 00:12:55.460 love the Lord with that mind, looking forward 00:12:55.460 --> 00:12:58.220 to the day where your mind will be fully renewed. 00:12:59.039 --> 00:13:03.559 That great chapter of love, on love, in 1 Corinthians 00:13:03.559 --> 00:13:09.299 13, the Apostle Paul writes, for now we see only... 00:13:10.000 --> 00:13:12.379 a reflection as in a mirror, then we shall see 00:13:12.379 --> 00:13:18.220 face to face. Now I know in part, then I shall 00:13:18.220 --> 00:13:24.019 know fully, even as I am fully known. And now 00:13:24.019 --> 00:13:26.659 these three remain, faith, hope, and love, but 00:13:26.659 --> 00:13:30.700 the greatest of these is love. Faith will give 00:13:30.700 --> 00:13:33.759 way to sight, hope will give way to reality, 00:13:33.860 --> 00:13:39.350 and love will remain forever. And one day the 00:13:39.350 --> 00:13:41.389 object of our love we will know fully, not I 00:13:41.389 --> 00:13:42.690 think because we'll suddenly become infinite 00:13:42.690 --> 00:13:44.909 and omniscient, but because there will be no 00:13:44.909 --> 00:13:50.429 barriers to us exploring more deeply how he is 00:13:50.429 --> 00:13:55.769 worthy of our love as our minds know who he truly 00:13:55.769 --> 00:14:01.669 is and express that love in worship forever. 00:14:03.809 --> 00:14:07.529 Will we not love the Lord with all our minds? 00:14:09.970 --> 00:14:15.950 Let's go to the hymn in prayer now. Father, we 00:14:15.950 --> 00:14:18.549 praise you that you have given us minds and we 00:14:18.549 --> 00:14:20.990 confess that they are not infinite like your 00:14:20.990 --> 00:14:24.409 mind. They are not unconfused like your mind. 00:14:27.509 --> 00:14:32.059 But we pray that with growing clarity. We will 00:14:32.059 --> 00:14:35.200 read your word so we will know who you are, so 00:14:35.200 --> 00:14:38.620 that we will love you with our minds, and that 00:14:38.620 --> 00:14:43.639 love from our minds will flow into our hearts 00:14:43.639 --> 00:14:46.879 and our soul and our strength, that you might 00:14:46.879 --> 00:14:51.740 be the sole object of our worship. Father, we 00:14:51.740 --> 00:14:54.299 thank you that when we find it hard to love you 00:14:54.299 --> 00:14:56.440 with our minds, you hold up to us your Son, the 00:14:56.440 --> 00:15:04.090 Lord Jesus Christ. We come and see him, the king 00:15:04.090 --> 00:15:09.750 of love who died for his subjects, the God who 00:15:09.750 --> 00:15:17.470 became human because of his love, that he might 00:15:17.470 --> 00:15:20.049 be an atoning sacrifice not only for our sins 00:15:20.049 --> 00:15:24.289 but for the sins of the whole world. Cause us, 00:15:24.289 --> 00:15:31.490 Lord, to meditate upon his cross. that our response 00:15:31.490 --> 00:15:36.029 to you would always be love. And we pray this 00:15:36.029 --> 00:15:37.710 in Jesus' name. Amen.