THE GREATEST COMMANDMENT - All Your Strength // One Church Podcast, 1st December 2025

We are one church. We love God, love people, love

His mission, and love His church.

Welcome to the One Church podcast.

Today we're carrying on our teaching series looking at the

Greatest Commandment. So just to recap what we've

looked at so far, we have looked at loving God with all your

heart so that we can only love God because we are first loved

by God. That love doesn't originate in

us, but love originates in Him, and we can love because He loved

us. Loving God with all your soul.

We looked at some principles that keep our souls strong.

His word, the Sabbath, fasting, praying in the Spirit, good

things like that. And then last week we looked at

loving God with all our mind, setting our minds on things

above, renewing our minds, putting to death the things that

lead to death, and putting on the Spirit that leads to life

and peace. And today we're looking at

loving God with all our strength.

Now today maybe you look at me and physical strength maybe

wouldn't be the first thing that you thought of as you look at me

standing here. Well, I'll have you know that I

have become a gym girl. I've been going to the gym since

winning a competition for a three months membership and just

to say I have never won anything in my life.

And the first time I win something it turned out to be a

membership for regular torture. So I think that was brilliant.

But my strength has increased little by little through

exercise and pushing myself a little bit at a time.

And then the day came to put my strength to the test.

I had a message from one of my friends who no longer lives in

Leicester, and she needed a suitcase picking up from her

aunt's house. Her aunt was moving out and it

needed to go before she could get back to Leicester to get it.

So I said, yeah, that's fine, I'll head over.

So I arrived, say hello to Auntie, and she takes me

upstairs to the suitcase. Now suitcase on wheels, no big

deal, right? So I pull it and it doesn't

move. So I think, oh, the wheels must

be broken. The wheels are not broken.

This is the heaviest suitcase I have ever known in my life, Josh

can vouch. He had to move it the second

time. But I put a little bit more

effort in and I managed to drag it down the corridor.

But then the reality hit me. I was upstairs.

I was going to have to get this suitcase down the Victorian

Terrace House stairs now, I said to the auntie.

I said I don't know how I'm going to get this down the

stairs. It's so heavy, she said, I've

got a good idea. What if you go down before it

and let gravity help it? I thought, yeah, that's a great

idea until I'm squashed at the bottom of the stairs for years

to come under this very heavy suitcase.

But I did it and I let it come down and it was very slow and

steady, but I let it happen and it was good.

I said goodbye and I wheeled it out to the car.

Second reality hits me. I've got to get it in the boot

on my own alone, but I'm a gym girl now and so I'm strong and

so I muster every muscle in my body and I use all of my limbs,

limbs I didn't realise I had, and I hoist it into the car with

everything that I've got, never to be moved again by me.

Hallelujah that Josh And then my friend's boyfriend was able to

move it and get it to where it needed to be.

But the gym membership was worth it, everybody.

Our key passage is Mark 1228 to 31, and this is what it says.

One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating.

Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him

of all the commandments, which is the most important?

The most important one, Jesus answered, is this.

Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is 1 Love the Lord

your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with

all your mind, and with all your strength.

And the second is this love your neighbour as yourself.

There is no commandment greater than these.

Now, for context, this passage was referencing a passage in

Deuteronomy in the Old Testament.

It was called the Shema. It was a prayer that Jewish

people prayed every day, every morning and every night.

And it's so it would have been very familiar to people.

Jesus was bringing together hundreds of Old Testament laws

and commands and he was collating them into just two

instructions in simple to love God, which is what we've talked

about the last three weeks and today, and to love people, which

is what we'll talk about next week.

That is a huge part of our church's vision to love God and

to love people. And this is something that is at

the heart of Jesus for us today. Now quite clearly Jesus isn't

saying love God with all your strengths.

So go on get a gym membership. Although physical training is

good as it says in one Timothy, but what is he saying?

The word strength in the Hebrew is the word met owed.

Now met owed was more commonly translated as very.

So it's a an adverb, a word that describes the word that follows

it. So it would say when God made

humanity, it was met owed good. It was very good.

The flood were waters were met owed powerful.

In the story of Noah, it was very powerful.

So why does a word that means very or much get translated to

strength? Well, if me ode is a word that

intensifies something's meaning to its full capacity, then the

thing that we use to love God isn't actually a thing at all.

It's everything. So what it means is that we're

devoting every possibility and opportunity that we have to God.

Some often interpreted me owed to mean power or strength.

Others would interpret it to mean wealth, meaning that we

have opportunities to love God by giving our resources to show

him that we love him. But the word me owed is not

supposed to limit the ways that we are to love God.

In fact, it's the opposite. It's to say that everything in a

person's life, every moment, every opportunity, every

ability, all of our capacity, offers a chance to love and

honour the one that made you, to love God with all your muchness,

so to speak. So if our strength is basically

everything that we do, then loving God with all our strength

is every practical thing that we do.

It's saying that our love for God is a love that acts on a

feeling or acts upon our words. I tell my children every day

that I love them, but unless I show them by helping them with

things that they can't do, by playing with them, by taking

them to clubs, by meeting their needs, and even more than just

meeting their needs, then my love for them is just words.

Love is meant to be action. I'm so grateful to God for our

three children. They are amazing.

And there are some moments where it's a little bit overwhelming

and very loud. Now, I share this story in the

hopes it reminds you of my humanity, that I am just a

human. But we were driving home from

school this week. Josh was away for a couple of

days, and one of the kids had got very upset, was crying very

loudly for something that you and I wouldn't see as a big

deal, but obviously to him was a big deal in that moment.

And the volume in the car in that moment was something that

even now remembering it makes my skin crawl.

And in that moment, I just exploded at the kids.

And I shouted. I hate shouting at the kids.

And two things after I had shouted in that silence fills

the car because everyone's like, oh, dear, we did something bad.

Two things came out of one of the boy's mouth.

The first was this. Mama, I'm sorry.

It sounds like you're feeling a bit angry.

Thanks for that. And then secondly, this really

moved my heart. We got in and I'd hugged the

child that I'd shouted at. And then the other child said,

Mama, would you like me to make you a cup of tea?

And I said, yes, I would like that, thank you very much.

And he successfully did it. I did help with the water.

But you know, even at such a young age though, his love for

me is more than his words is actions.

To do something that he knows I will value.

Not because I deserve it, because to be honest with you,

in that moment, I didn't really deserve it, but because I'm

loved now. Our love for God must be shown

through our actions. For me, when someone takes an

interest in something that I'm passionate about, then it shows

me that they love me. For example, as when I was a

teenager, I remember driving with a friend.

She'd asked what I'd been up to for the weekend.

We'd run a an event in youth and that was an invite night.

I'd been singing. I invited none of my friends and

she said, why didn't you tell me?

Why didn't you invite me to come?

I said, oh, I, you know, I didn't really think that it

would be your thing. I didn't think you'd want to

come. And she said this phrase which

should stick with me forever. She said of course I want to

come. If it matters to you, it matters

to me. Now let that be an encouragement

for you, firstly for the 14th, that if something matters to

you, then it matters to the people in your life.

So you can invite somebody to come and let's believe that

they're going to take an interest.

But also let's consider what is on God's heart.

What's something that God is passionate about that we should

take an interest on His behalf? God has a passion for justice.

He has a desire to show grace. He has a heart of compassion.

He loves the unlovely. He longs for people to find

freedom and healing. He longs for the gospel to be

shared with people that have not yet heard it.

How can we take an interest in the things that are at the heart

of God and act upon it to show Him that we love Him?

Let's look at Amos. Amos is one of the prophets in

the Old Testament and he's known as someone that used his voice

to speak out in moments of injustice.

God showed Amos that he loves righteousness and justice.

And so Amos was also to love righteousness and justice and he

was to do whatever was in his power to bring those things to

earth. Amos 524 says, But let justice

roll on like a river, righteousness like a never

failing stream. Now the king of his day was a

man who was not a man of God. He had no concern for justice or

integrity. He allowed the wealthy to ignore

the poor, He allowed the poor to be sold into slavery to pay

their debts and he denied them of any legal representation.

Now the Bible is very clear, the poor, the marginalised and the

outcast are very important to God.

Now Amos was adamant that this had to be dealt with because he

had God's heart and he was passionate about things that

were on God's heart. And so he took his complaint to

God and then he prophesied to the people of Israel what would

happen to the king and what would happen to the people if

they continued in this way. He called out their sin, He

called out their hypocrisy, He called out their sham worship.

Their worship was totally disconnected from how they were

treating people. How many of you know that if

worship is the adoration of God, we can't adore God and mistreat

His people? Amos love for God turned to

action so that God's people were called back to a life that

honoured justice and righteousness that God had

called them to. If you want to know a bit more

about this, the Bible Project which is a great resource on

YouTube, it has a fantastic 7 minute video on the book of Amos

that will further explain things a bit for you.

But in short, Amos was a man whose love for God and the

things on God's heart turned him to action.

What about practically for us? What are some ways that we can

love God with all our strength? The entirety of who we are?

If you're Matt odd is the strength, the full passion of

your heart, your gifts, your talent, your power, your

influence. What are you doing to show God

that you love him beyond telling him and beyond simply feeling

him? Well, what about your power?

The word dunamis is where we get the English word dynamite.

What about your dynamism or the energy that we have?

Mental capacity, our physical capacity?

What about our influence? So if injustice breaks God's

heart, then it's got to break our hearts too.

And we must be moved to bring influence and to bring justice

in our spheres. Maybe your circle of influence

feels small, or maybe your influence reaches to hundreds of

people, whether it's the ones and twos in your immediate

family or it's hundreds of people through your job every

day. Your influence is important that

we use it to show God we love Him.

What about our wealth, our treasure?

If God has blessed you with a resource, whether that's big or

small, which He has for all of us, then how are we using our

wealth or our resources to give away to those in need?

To give to God through the body of Christ and to through the

church to give to people that He places on your heart.

The Bible says that where your treasure is, there your heart

will also be. You know, if you value something

that you'll pay for it. My gym membership, I value it so

I pay for it. If you love watching football,

you might pay for a season ticket.

Even if it's going bad, you still go because you value it

and you've paid for it and you leave at half time like a lot of

people did yesterday. You know, the love of money is

the root of all evil. Money is not evil, but the love

of it is. So we need to learn to love the

one that gives more than the gift He gives.

What about our opportunities? You know, God gives us

opportunities every day to show Him that we love Him through

obedience. If you love me, you'll obey my

commands. We show God that we love Him by

having the courage to share Him with others.

This week we celebrated courage in our eldest son Levi, who took

30 invitations to school for RISE, which is our monthly kids

group for Key Stage One children.

And he invited as many kids as he could get the Flyers into

their hands of after school. And on Tuesday night two kids

from his class came and was so excited to be in church and

absolutely loved it. He prays everyday as he walks

into school and prays many different things.

But one thing he prays I think everyday is that God would give

him courage. And when the opportunity

presented itself, he was obedient and he was courageous.

What opportunities are in front of you?

How about being people of great faith?

When somebody tells me something that I could offer to pray for

them about, should I pray there and then I think I should.

Would I see more people healed if I prayed right there in the

moment when they told me they were unwell or injured?

I'm sure I would. When opportunities arise to

share Jesus, let's be people of great faith and show him that we

love him by obeying His voice. Would everything I do show my

love for you? And then what about Jesus?

If we look at a life that epitomised the word strength and

met owed, it's got to be Jesus, right?

If we think about the life that he lived, loving the unlovely,

think about how he reached out and he touched lepers, people

that were completely outcast from society, people that nobody

wanted to be near or talk to, let alone touch.

How he spoke out against injustice, the religious leaders

when they failed to show mercy and love towards people in

preference for just keeping rules, Jesus spoke out against

that. He challenged religious

hypocrisy. If you think about when he

flipped the tables in the temple because people were selling,

buying and selling in the temple rather than using it for a House

of prayer. But he loved everyone he came

into contact with. He loved them by meeting their

needs, by challenging them in love, by healing them, by crying

with them, by eating with them, welcoming them, comforting them.

Jesus's love could never have just been contained into a

feeling or to words. Think of the Garden of

Gethsemane before he was seized and unfairly arrested, tried and

sentenced to death. It says that he cried out to the

Father in agony in Matthew 26. My father, if it is possible,

may this cup be taken from me yet?

Not as I will, but as you will. The strength it took to

acknowledge the pain that lay ahead of him, but the strength

to accept the will of the Father, whatever it looked like.

And then think of the strength it took to carry the cross in

its physical weight, but even heavier than that, the weight of

humanity's faults, humanity's sin and all wrongdoing on his

shoulders. To die in our place, to pay a

price for our sin. Because Jesus loved the Father,

he wanted to obey the Father. And because he loves you and me,

He put love into action in the most iconic event in all

history, when he died for you and He died for me.

But maybe you need to come to know this love that laid down

his life for you. I want to say that a

relationship with Jesus can transform every aspect of your

life, some in simple ways, some in a dramatic way.

But all who have come to know Jesus have had their lives

changed. Jesus, 100% God, totally divine,

humbled Himself to be born on earth as a human baby with all

the needs of a very normal baby. If you've ever had a baby,

you'll know they have a lot of needs.

He didn't come down as a 30 year old ready to fight the systems

and show everybody that he was God and he was in charge.

He humbled himself. He lived a perfect life, but a

hidden life for many years. And then at the right time, he

began to minister to people and see people find freedom and

healing and restoration and then eventually to die in our place.

But he didn't stay dead because he wouldn't be a God worth

giving your life for if he was still dead.

No, death is not the end. We can know right relationship

with God while we're here on earth and we can know eternal

life with Him in heaven when we go to be with Him if we choose

to accept Him because the alternative and eternity

separated from God in eternal suffering is our alternative if

we choose not to accept him. But today you can choose to

accept Jesus. There is nobody too far that His

love doesn't reach you. And then for the rest of us,

maybe there's something that, you know God wants you to do for

Him, and we're going to worship in a moment.

But why don't you just allow God to speak that to you?

If there's something of a gift in you or a resource that you

have that you know God wants you to love him with all your

strength, with everything that you are, with all that you have,

maybe he's going to highlight that to you in just a moment.

Or maybe there's something in you that doesn't reflect to God

that you love him, a way of living or an action or something

that you do that doesn't reflect that you love him well, as we

sing, allow the conviction of the Holy Spirit to come and just

prompt you, nudge you and say is that and then lay it down and

let our hearts cry. Be today, God, we love you.

Let everything that I am declare that I love you.

The Lord bless you. And keep you.

The Lord make his face shine upon you.

And be. Gracious to you.

The Lord turn his face towards you and give you peace.