Loving God With All Your Mind

Introduction

• Speaker invited to address an atheist club at a college.
• Expressed that their issue with God's existence may not be intellectual but moral.
• Quoted Romans 1: Knowledge of God's existence is evident and people suppress it due to moral reasons.

The Natural Condition of Mankind Towards God

• People suppress the knowledge of God due to corrupt nature.
• Key passages: Romans 1 - God's revelation is clear; people are without excuse.
• Natural hostility to God: people become futile in thinking and their hearts are darkened.

The Noetic Effect of Sin

• Fallen condition affects our reasoning about God but not our basic intellectual faculties.
• Possible to have intellectual brilliance yet reject God due to moral bias.
• Example: Brilliant philosophers becoming atheists due to foundational biases.

Relationship Between Faith and Reason

• Augustine: Faith and reason are interdependent; faith without reason is not true faith but credulity.
• Scripture encourages leaping from darkness into the light, not a blind leap of faith.
• Importance of rational understanding in faith.

Loving God With Your Mind

• Cannot love God with our minds in an unregenerate state; regeneration by the Holy Spirit is crucial (Romans 1 vs Corinthians comparison).
• Regeneration makes one disposed to love and seek after God.
• Unbelievers seek the benefits of God, not God Himself.
• Sanctification is a process of increasing the love for God with our minds.

Practical Application

• The mind's renewal is key to transformation (Romans 12:2).
• Loving God involves an intellectual pursuit and holding God in high esteem.
• Knowledge of God is essential for true love and worship.
• Understanding and esteeming God ignites genuine worship and obedience.

Conclusion

• Key problem in current worship practices: lack of pursuit of God with the mind.
• Adoration and worship stem from knowing God deeply.
• Prayer: Asking for the Spirit of truth to inflame minds with a love for God and Jesus Christ.