Learning How To Love God His Way Learning God’s Language of Love

Learning How To Love God His Way Matthew 22:34-38 Matthew 22:34: “But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together.”

Learning How To Love God His Way Matthew 22:35-36: “Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law?”

Learning How To Love God His Way Matthew 22:37-38: “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.”

Learning How To Love God His Way 1.The Command is the most important God has ever given. 2.The Confusion about what it means to love God. 3.The Characteristics of loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. [Mat. 22:37-40; Mark 12:28-31; Luke 10:27]

1. The Command to love God Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy 6:5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. Matthew says – heart, soul, mind Luke says – heart, soul, mind, strength Neither is a verbatim quote – they are interpretative statements of what Jesus taught.

1. The Command to love God Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy 6:5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

1. The Command to love God “ all your heart ” –your total inner being – every one of your faculties – the control panel of your inner being. –Proverbs 4:23: Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. –Psalm 66:18: If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. –Proverbs 23:26: My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways.

1. The Command to love God “with all your soul” –your total person – your whole life - inside and outside –Genesis 12:5: And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan....”

1. The Command to love God –Genesis 46:26: All the souls that came with Jacob into Egypt, which came out of his loins, besides Jacob's sons' wives, all the souls were threescore and six;

1. The Command to love God “with all your strength” –The Hebrew word translated strength is the word “very”—as in the phrase, “thank you very much.” –The Hebrew word “very” communicates that we are to love God to the greatest extent of our ability.

1. The Command to love God We are to love God with our total being – inside and outside – (mind, will, emotions, body, spirit) We are to love God to the utmost extent of our capacity (all our strength). The is the first and greatest of all God’s commands!

2. The Confusion about what it means to love God. Most of us associate “love” with feelings of affection or emotion. We talk about loving a lot of things: food, pets, things, people, places. What we mean by “love” and how strongly we feel love for any particular thing or person is largely dependent upon our frame of mind and emotions at any given moment.

2. The Confusion about what it means to love God. Most Christians do not sustain a continual strong emotional feeling of “love” for God. We need to learn what God means when He tells us to love Him with all our heart, soul, and strength.

3. The Characteristics of true love for God. To love God with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength is to commit myself to: –be totally loyal to God and obey Him in everything –to delight in Him –to desire continually to please Him –rejoice in serving Him –to seek my happiness in Him –to thirst day and night for a fuller enjoyment of Him.

Element 1: To commit myself to be totally loyal to God and obey Him in everything. Deuteronomy 13:1-4: “the LORD your God proves [tests] you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 4 Ye shall walk after the LORD your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him.”

Element 1: To commit myself to be totally loyal to God and obey Him in everything. Love for God is first and foremost a commitment to undivided loyalty and faithfulness to God and His Word. There must be no rivals for our affection, no reservations in our commitment to loyalty to God and His Word.

Element 1: To commit myself to be totally loyal to God and obey Him in everything. Matthew 10:37: He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Love for God requires sacrifice. It means loving everything and everyone less than we love God.

Element 1: To commit myself to be totally loyal to God and obey Him in everything. People in Muslim countries have to make the choice whether they will love God more than their mother, father, sister, brother, friends, loved ones! Are we willing to sacrifice our career plans, our friends, our cherished pleasures, our dreams, for God?

Element 1: To commit myself to be totally loyal to God and obey Him in everything. There are two ways to look at the sacrifice that total loyalty to God and obedience in everything demands. We can look with longing and regret on the things we are sacrificing for the Lord. We can willingly give up whatever the Lord asks of us.

Element 1: To commit myself to be totally loyal to God and obey Him in everything. Wedding vows: “forsaking all others, cleave only unto her / him” What kind of response should we give? True love gladly, willingly, forsakes all others! True love daily practices total loyalty to spouse.

Element 1: To commit myself to be totally loyal to God and obey Him in everything. What kinds of things can be rivals for our loyalty to God? What tests your loyalty to God? Is there anything you love more than you love God? Do you truly surrender all to God? What is God asking you to sacrifice because it diminishes your loyalty to Him?

Element 1: To commit myself to be totally loyal to God and obey Him in everything. Paul tells us how he views the sacrifices He made for God. Philippians 3:8: “I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ.”

Element 1: To commit myself to be totally loyal to God and obey Him in everything. Paul is saying, “I love Jesus so much that there is nothing that comes close to the joy I receive in knowing Him in a personal relationship. Everything God asks me to give up as a test of my loyalty and obedience is all rubbish compared to Jesus!

Learning How To Love God His Way Deuteronomy 6:5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. Thou

Learning How To Love God His Way Element 1: To commit myself to be totally loyal to God and obey Him in everything. Next Time: Element 2: To commit myself to delight in Him