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

2. 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.”

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.”

6. 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.

7. Element 1: To commit myself to be totally loyal to God and obey Him in everything. Deuteronomy 30:20 That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.

8. Element 1: To commit myself to be totally loyal to God and obey Him in everything. Deuteronomy 5:10: And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments. *Love and keep my commandments = obedience.

9. Element 1: To commit myself to be totally loyal to God and obey Him in everything. Deuteronomy 6:5-7: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. 6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: 7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

10. Element 1: To commit myself to be totally loyal to God and obey Him in everything. Deuteronomy 7:9 Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations; *Love and keep his commands = obedience

11. Element 1: To commit myself to be totally loyal to God and obey Him in everything. Deuteronomy 11:1 Therefore thou shalt love the LORD thy God, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments, alway *Love and keep his charge = obedience

12. Element 1: To commit myself to be totally loyal to God and obey Him in everything. Deuteronomy 19:9 If thou shalt keep all these commandments to do them, which I command thee this day, to love the LORD thy God, and to walk ever in his ways; then shalt thou add three cities more for thee, beside these three: *Love and keep his commandments = obedience

13. 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.

14. 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?

15. 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.

16. 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.

17. 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?

18. 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.”

19. 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!

20. 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.

21. 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