Archive for February 3, 2008
Love the Lord
February 3, 2008 by PastorDave.
#301, Love the Lord, Pastor David McIntosh,
Text: Matthew 22:37
INTRODUCTION
- This is the first Sunday of the month of February. The “love” month.
- We are going to take these next four Sunday’s and focus on love.
- Loving God, loving our neighbor, loving the lost and loving our enemies.
- This morning we focus our attention on Loving God.
LOVE
- 10. Like the measles, love is most dangerous when it comes late in life.
- 9. The course of true love never did run smooth. Love is a familiar. Love is a devil.
- 8. Love is a canvas furnished by Nature and embroidered by imagination.
- 7. True love comes quietly, without banners or flashing lights. If you hear bells get your ears checked.
- 6 .Love is a friendship set to music.
- 5. Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.
- 4. If you have love you don’t need to have anything else, and if you don’t have it, it doesn’t matter much what else you have.
- 3. Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired.
- 2. At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet.
- 1. Love doesn’t make the world go round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile.
TRANSITION
- Jesus was walking on the beach talking to Peter, and Jesus asks Peter one question: “Simon son of John, do you love?” (Jn. 21:17)
- Jesus proclaimed to all his followers, “If you love me, you will obey what I command.” (Jn. 14:15)
- When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment in the Law was He replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all our mind.” (Matthew 22:37)
- WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO TRULY LOVE GOD AND HOW CAN WE LOVE GOD IN SPITE OF OUR HUMAN FRAILTIES?
- The answer is found in focusing on the “words” that Jesus spoke. The way to love God is found in the words that His Son spoke.
LOVE GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART
- The first thing Jesus told us was to love God with all our heart.
- The “heart” is the center of life and the seat of all emotions, because of this Jeremiah proclaimed, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”
- Here’s the challenge: “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.”
- Deceitful is trying to cover over those things we know are evil, lustful in God’s sight.
- Our human hearts try to hide from the “eyes of God” secret delights that we know displease him.
- Proverbs 15:3 reveals the only one being deceived is us, “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.”
- TO LOVE GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART IS TO UNCOVER ALL THE SECRET SINS & LUSTS OF OUR HEART BEFORE GOD AND THOSE WHO ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR OUR SPIRITUAL WALK.
- James
- Personal example of magazines in the mail (confess to wife & she gets mail)
- This is one of the hardest things to do, tell on yourself, expose everything, but God will pour on you grace and power like you’ve never experienced.
LOVE GOD WITH ALL YOUR SOUL
- The soul involves the mind, will and emotions.
- In its nature state, the soul of man will not be subject to the will of God. It will not love God. Because it will not obey His teachings. IT MUST BE CONVERTED!
- The soul of man in converted by one thing THE WORD OF GOD.
- Psalm 19:7 – “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.”
- Colossians
- 1 John 5:3 – “This is love for God: to obey his commands.”
- “We confirm our love by our actions, not just our words.”
- The battleground between God & Satan is our souls, and each wants control.
- The way we love God with our human souls is by pursing a daily relationship with what the Word of God says.
LOVE GOD WITH ALL YOUR MIND
- If our mind is part of our soul why did Jesus specifically instructed us to love God with our mind?
- Because removing God from our thoughts is like turning out the lights and letting darkness rule.
- The danger of not being intentional with our thought life is that we will more easily give in to carnal thoughts and habits which keep us chained in old sins.
- Romans 8:6 – “The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God.
- But how can I think about God all day long and get my other work done?
- You can grow in relating every facet of life to the Lord and His Word, takes practice.
- Example: Study of butterflies, chipmunks, snowsuit from unsaved family member.
- Isaiah 26:3 – “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee.”
JESUS OUR PERFECT EXAMPLE OF ACTIVE LOVE
- The greatest example we have of loving God is Jesus when he walked this earth.
- He got up early in the morning to spend time with God (Mark
- He knew the Word of God (Luke 24:32)
- He used Scripture to defeat all of Satan’s temptations (Matt. 4:3-11)
- He worshiped God by singing (Matt. 26:30)
- He taught others about the
PASS THE TESTS
- God so loved the world that He…. desired to send His Son….that He said He would send His Son… no…He gave His only begotten Son.
- Jesus loved us for saying he would lay down his life, no… He gave His life (Cross)
- Love that is not tested is only a commitment to love.
- The disciples claimed that they loved the Lord, but when their love was tested, they all forsook him and fled.
- Through testing our love is perfected!
- Romans 5:3-5 – “We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
- Love is like steel. It is made stronger as it goes through fire and water.
CLOSING SCRIPTURE
1 Corinthians 2:9, 10 – “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither has entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love him.”
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