Our Great Commission
The Love of God
Part 1: The Love of God
Pastor Bruce A. Shields
House of Faith – www.PS127.org | www.TruthDigest.org
ANNOUNCEMENTS
6:00PM Evening Service at the church –
“Seminary Students will be preaching”
WHERE WE ARE AT
† Maturing in Christ
† Understanding in Christ
This Series: The Love of God
Previously:
Part 1: The Personality of God
Part 2: Signs of the End
Part 3: Turn, Receive & Be the Light
Part 4: How to Recover Spiritually
TODAY’S SERMON: Our Great Commission
The Love of God
Part 1: The Love of God
OPEN IN PRAYER
I. TO LOVE GOD
† Deuteronomy 6:5-9 (Repeated in Matthew & Mark as well)
5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
Loving God with all your heart…(filling your heart to overflowing with His Word)
Loving God with all your soul…(forgiveness comes from Christ when you confess and repent)
Loving God with all your strength…as long as you breath, love God.
These commands upon your heart (remember them!)
Impress the importance to your children.
Sitting at home, or walking around, talk about it.
When you lie down and get up, be meditating on this Word.
Tie them to your hands…(show God’s love in your deeds, what you “DO”)
Bind them on your forehead…(keep all your thoughts into submission of Love)
Write them on the doorframes of your houses and gates…(make it known to guests and visitors that you love the Lord your God)
God wants you to let the world know that He is loved by you.
And He wants you to show that love to others.
† Proverbs 17:17
17 A friend loves at all times,
There is a song that states, “I am a friend of God”
And another, “What a friend we have in Jesus…”
Love is not a feeling or emotion…although it can cause feelings and emotions.
Love is an action…
And it is these “actions” that make one a friend.
† I John 4:7-12
7Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
When we love one another, God lives in us…
When God lives in us, His love is made complete…in us (through us)
It is OUR loving one another that allows God to dwell within us, and when God is in us (in the form of the Holy Spirit), His love is made complete, BECAUSE He works through us in this world.
If we do not love one another, the Spirit can not dwell within us, and if God can not dwell within His people, we can not “BE” the Body of Christ here on earth.
If there is no Body of Christ on earth, God’s love is not complete, because no one will experience God’s Love.
He loves us as sons and daughters.
† Revelation 3:19
19Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent.
True love is not saying “yes” to everything, regardless of if it is good for us or not…but true love protects.
Rebuke and discipline are evidences of love.
† Mark 12:28-31
28One 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?"
29"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' 31The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself. 'There is no commandment greater than these."
II. TO LOVE JESUS
† John 14:15
15"If you love me, you will obey what I command.
† John 14:21
21Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him."
† John 15:9-11
9"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. 11I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
† John 15:12-13
12My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
† John 15:17
17This is my command: Love each other.
III. SHOWING THAT LOVE TO OTHERS
Jesus said if we are to show love to Him, we do so by obeying His commands.
He said the greatest command is to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength.
The second is to love your neighbor (unsaved) as yourself.
Jesus said there is no command greater than these.
We need to ask ourselves if we truly love God with all of our hearts, souls, minds and strength.
And we need to ask ourselves if we are loving the unsaved as we do ourselves?
They are the reason God wants to dwell within us, so that we may “BE” the Body of Christ and show God’s love to the world.
Over the next few weeks, we will talk about loving your neighbor (unsaved), your brother (other believers), your enemies, and yourself. For the only way to love Jesus is to obey His commands, and He commands us to love.
